Note 1508 — Chapter XVI · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF MARRIAGE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 (continued 2)

The judge of probate must issue a license without publicity to a "female making application to him, under oath, containing a statement that she is with child, which if born alive before her marriage will become a bastard, or has lived with a man," etc. With consent of parent or guardian, such judge is empowered to marry persons under marriageable age, making such a statement, whenever he believes the marriage "would be a benefit to public morals." He is required to "file a complete set of all papers in each case in a private file, and shall within ten days after the marriage forward the duplicate thereof to the secretary of state, who shall file such duplicate in a private file and record the same in a private register." These private files of the probate judge and secretary of state "shall be open to inspection only upon the written order of the judge of any circuit or the supreme court of this state, and only for such use as is designated in such order. Such order shall be made only upon the written request of the person or persons who were so married, or when necessary to the protection of property rights arising from or affected by such marriage."—Pub. Acts of Mich. (1897), 230, 231; ibid. (1899), 363, 364.