http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/common-law+marriage
"However, the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires all states that prohibit it to nonetheless recognize a common-law marriage created in a jurisdiction that allows it. U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1. Laws in all states require a common-law spouse to obtain a Divorce before remarrying.
Common-law marriage is allowed in fourteen jurisdictions: Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and the District of Columbia. The manner in which a state authorizes common-law marriage varies. Pennsylvania maintains a statute that declares that the statutory chapter covering licensed marriage does not affect the recognition of common-law marriage (23 Pa. Const. Stat. Ann. § 1103). In Georgia, the operative marriage statute simply states, "To constitute a valid marriage in this State there must be—1. Parties able to contract; 2. An actual contract; 3. Consummation according to law" (Ga. Code Ann. § 19-3-1).
Several reasons have been offered for recognizing common-law marriage. In some states, including Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, common-law marriage was originally permitted to allow for religious and social freedom. Some state legislatures have noted the private importance of marriage and assailed the insensitivity of governments purporting to regulate such a personal matter"
http://texaslawhelp.org/files/685E9...5BA6E78F/407091LHT 32_1 Comm Law Marriage.pdf
"To have a common law marriage in Texas, the couple must:
Agree to be married,
Live together in Texas as husband and wife, and
Tell other people that they are married"
Common law marriage, where the couple stays together for life, is quite different from the type of cohabitation seen during the counterculture of the sixties and seventies, a practice which spread to the larger culture to some extent. While some couples who lived together without being married later got married or became so bonded together that they were like a married couple, many others cohabited for a few months with one partner and then went on to cohabit with another partner, and on and on.
There was an early influence on the Hippies from the art bohemian movement, which had been into cohabitation, both long term and short term.
"However, the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires all states that prohibit it to nonetheless recognize a common-law marriage created in a jurisdiction that allows it. U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1. Laws in all states require a common-law spouse to obtain a Divorce before remarrying.
Common-law marriage is allowed in fourteen jurisdictions: Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and the District of Columbia. The manner in which a state authorizes common-law marriage varies. Pennsylvania maintains a statute that declares that the statutory chapter covering licensed marriage does not affect the recognition of common-law marriage (23 Pa. Const. Stat. Ann. § 1103). In Georgia, the operative marriage statute simply states, "To constitute a valid marriage in this State there must be—1. Parties able to contract; 2. An actual contract; 3. Consummation according to law" (Ga. Code Ann. § 19-3-1).
Several reasons have been offered for recognizing common-law marriage. In some states, including Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, common-law marriage was originally permitted to allow for religious and social freedom. Some state legislatures have noted the private importance of marriage and assailed the insensitivity of governments purporting to regulate such a personal matter"
http://texaslawhelp.org/files/685E9...5BA6E78F/407091LHT 32_1 Comm Law Marriage.pdf
"To have a common law marriage in Texas, the couple must:
Agree to be married,
Live together in Texas as husband and wife, and
Tell other people that they are married"
Common law marriage, where the couple stays together for life, is quite different from the type of cohabitation seen during the counterculture of the sixties and seventies, a practice which spread to the larger culture to some extent. While some couples who lived together without being married later got married or became so bonded together that they were like a married couple, many others cohabited for a few months with one partner and then went on to cohabit with another partner, and on and on.
There was an early influence on the Hippies from the art bohemian movement, which had been into cohabitation, both long term and short term.