Westmoreland Co. Marriage License Bureau Fixing Paperwork Problem
GREENSBURG (KDKA) -- The Marriage License Bureau in Westmoreland County is always a busy place this time of year, but it's even more hectic this year.
Couples who were married between 1975 and 1989 by the late Raymond Tubbs are calling and stopping by to see if their marriage license was legally recorded.
The importance of this is, if the time every comes that you lose a spouse and you want to get the pension or veterans benefits or whatnot, you need a certified copy of your license," said Michael Ginsburg, of the Register of Wills Office.
Tubbs was booted as the North Huntingdon magistrate in 1989 in a ticket-fixing scandal.
Ginsburg says Tubbs could have married hundreds or even thousands of couples over the years and there is no way to track those people down.
Right now, the Register of Wills Office is finding a problem with the license of about one in seven people who calls in.
"So in the next 20 years, a lot of people are going to find out a week after they bury their spouse, they're going to have some red tape - bureaucratic hassling. That is not a good thing to happen when you just buried your spouse," Ginsburg said.
If you were married by Tubbs between 1975 and 1989, you could be affected. The good news, it's an easy problem to fix.
"You don't need an attorney," added Ginsburg. "All we need is an affidavit, we will send you that. You get it notarized, you and your spouse. Our solicitor will attach a petition to it, we'll petition the courts and within a couple weeks, we'll be able to send you a certified copy of your marriage license. Normally, that is a $10 charge, but we're going to forego that because of the hassle of having to do this again."
You can check your license by contacting the Register of Wills Office at the courthouse or by going on the county website under the eServices section.
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