Chap. 88.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 5074, as heretofore amended,
and 5096 of the Code of Virginia, relating to marriage licenses and cer-
tificates of marriage. [fH B 128]

Approved March 10, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions five thousand and seventy-four, as heretofore amended, and five
thousand and ninety-six of the Code of Virginia, be amended and re-
enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5074. The certificate to be issued by the clerk with license ;
the return to be made by persons celebrating the marriage; the clerk
to furnish to the attorney for the Commonwealth list of those failing
to make return; the record of certificate of marriage to be prima facie
evidence.—The clerk issuing any marriage license shall before issuing
the license require the parties contemplating marriage to state, under
oath, or by affidavit or affidavits filed with him, made by the parties
for whom the application is made, before a person qualified to take
acknowledgments or administer oaths, the date and place of the pro-
posed marriage, the full names of both parties, their ages and condi-
tion before marriage (whether single, widowed or divorced), their race
(whether white, colored, or otherwise), the places of their birth and
residence, the names of their parents and the occupation of the
husband, and make two certificates thereof and deliver them, together
with the license, to the person entitled thereto. For the purposes of
this section any statement made by such applicant, under oath, with
reference to the age, condition before marriage (whether single,
widowed or divorced), the race of either party (whether white, colored
or otherwise), is hereby declared to be a material matter or thing in
any prosecution for perjury for any violation of this section.

It shall be the duty of every minister or other person celebrating
such marriage, within five days after the same has been celebrated, to
return such license and certificates of the clerk, together with his own
certificates of the time and place at which the said marriage was
celebrated, to the clerk who issued the said license. One certificate
with the license is to be retained by the clerk, the other certificate to
be forwarded to the Bureau of Vital Statistics on or before the tenth
day of the following month. Any minister or other person celebrating
such marriage violating the provisions of this section shall be liable
to a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than twenty dollars for
each offense.

It shall be the duty of every clerk issuing marriage licenses on the
first day of February of each year to furnish to the Commonwealth’s
attorney of his county or city a list of all marriage licenses issued for
the year just preceding the first day of January last past that have
not been returned by the minister or other person celebrating the mar-
riage, and for failure to perform the duty required by this section the
clerk shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine of twenty dollars.

It shall be the duty of the Commonwealth’s attorney for each county
and city, upon the receipt of such list from the clerk, to have such
person or persons as he may think proper summoned before the next
regular grand jury of his county or city to ascertain the name of the
munister or other person celebrating such marriage and failing to
return such license and certificates to the clerk, together with the cer-
tificates of such minister or other person celebrating such marriage.

When the said certificates of such minister or other person celebrat-
ing such marriage are returned to the clerk, and recorded as provided
in section five thousand and seventy-six, the record thereof shall be
prima facie evidence in all courts of this Commonwealth of the facts
stated therein.

Section 5096. Certificates of marriage to be sent to the Bureau
of Vital Statistics—On or before the tenth day of each month, the
clerk of every circuit court of a county and of every corporation court
of a city shall transmit to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, upon forms
furnished by it, a duplicate copy of each certificate of marriage issued
by him during the previous month, including the certificate and signa-
ture of the minister or other person celebrating the marriage, if it has
been returned by him. When the return of the certificate by the cele-
brant has been delayed, it shall be included in the next monthly report
following its receipt to replace the notice of the issuing of the license,
unsigned by the celebrant, which shall be sent in place of a certificate
not returned by the celebrant in time to be included in the monthly
report. No further annual report of marriages to the Bureau of Vital
Statistics shall be required.