Europe's Marriage Mill

Couples from around the European Union—and even American servicemen and women stationed abroad—are flocking to Denmark to get hitched.

"It's not as easy as in Vegas," said a spokesperson for the Danish Ministry of Interior and Health. "But it is easier than other places in Europe."

While nations like France and Germany put up hurdles designed to weed out fake marriages, Denmark requires little more than proof of European residency, a birth certificate and a passport copy, plus 70 euros ($95) for a marriage license. [Link]

Look for the Gretna Green

Arlene H. Eakle blogged last night about "Gretna Greens"—out-of-town spots that welcomed eloping couples.

Military posts on the frontier, like Crown Point NY, Southwest Point TN, could be gretnas. People from border states along international boundaries for Canada and Mexico often slipped over the boundary to marry. River Towns along the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Missouri Rivers. Keokuk, Lee County, IA was a gretna green along the Mississippi; it was also a favored place of marriage for Irish ancestors coming both from the Eastern states and up the River. [Link]

Jimmy Hoffa Turns Up in Courthouse Basement

Wood County, Ohio, Records Manager Brenda Ransom ran across a reference to the 1937 marriage of Teamster boss James Hoffa and Josephine Poszywak in a black binder "tucked away in the basement of the courthouse."

Ms. Ransom said she came across the tidbit of local trivia quite by accident. The binder, apparently kept by a probate clerk in the 1940s, was filled with neatly typed but odd facts about marriage license applicants in Wood County, including people who had famous names like George Washington, those who were remarrying a former spouse, and even "divorced couples married by ministers who object to divorce."

"It's by no means a record of the court. It's just something they did for fun, I assume," Ms. Ransom said. [Link]

A call to the Probate Court confirmed that the Hoffa's license was on file. The couple apparently came to Wood County because it was known as a "marriage mill town" where requirements were lax.