ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 37

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted. That this Act is hereby

declared to be an emergency law and necessary for the imme-
diate preservation of the public safety, and being passed upon
a yea and nay vote supported by three-fourths of all of the
members elected to each of the two Houses of the General As-
sembly, the same shall take effect from the date of its passage.

Approved March 5, 1924.

CHAPTER 22.

AN ACT to purchase from Mrs. George W. Hodges ten thou-
sand marriage references prior to the year 1777, and to de-
posit same in the Land Office of Maryland in card form.

WHEREAS, Mrs. George W. Hodges has accumulated a large
number of marriage references, which have been extracted from
the early records of the Land Office and of various counties;
and

WHEREAS, The State of Maryland lias never compiled such
records nor subscribed in any way for such compilation; and

WHEREAS, The value to the State of Maryland of such a
compilation would be inestimable in saving the original records
from the effects of constant handling and in prolonging their
usefulness to the public; and

WHEREAS, Greater facilities would be afforded thereby in
the study of Maryland history on genealogical lines, not only
to resident Marylanders, but to residents of every State in the
Union, inasmuch as Maryland lineage exists throughout the
United States either directly or collaterally; therefore:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland^ That the Commissioner of the Land Office of Mary-
land be and he is hereby authorized and directed to purchase
in the name of the State ten thousand marriage references
prior to the year 1777, collected by and now in possession of
Mrs. George W. Hodges. And it shall be the duty of the said
Commissioner of the Land Office to receive said marriage ref-
erences, when the same shall have been indexed in card form,
arranged in alphabetical order to the second letter, and writ-
ten in black letter ink with their proper references, and each
marriage reference shall be cross-indexed; and the Commis-
sioner of the Land Office shall cause the said cards to be