J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                        529

[b]  (2) Rules and regulations. The State Board of Health and
Mental Hygiene is authorized to make, adopt and promulgate such
rules and regulations as it may deem necessary from time to time
to govern the registration of births, [stillbirths] deaths, fetal
deaths, marriages and divorces.

[c]  (3) Delegation of duties to Commissioner of Health of Balti-
more City. The State Board of Health and Mental Hygiene is
authorized to delegate to the Commissioner of Health of Baltimore
City its responsibility for the [collection, binding, preservation]
designing of birth, death and fetal death certificates and for the col-
lecting, preserving and indexing of records of birth [s], [and] death
[s] and fetal deaths occurring within Baltimore City, according to
rules and regulations prescribed by the State Board of Health and
Mental Hygiene.

[d]  (4) Marriage, divorce and annulment records.

[1] (i) The State Board of Health and Mental Hygiene shall
collect, index and safeguard duplicate permanent records of mar-
riages performed in the State of Maryland, as provided in Section
18 of Article 62 of this Code, for the purpose of ensuring against
loss or destruction of the records maintained in the several courts
and for the purpose of providing certified copies of records for mar-
riages performed after June 1, 1951. [Said Board] The State Board
of Health and Mental Hygiene shall also receive from the clerks of
the appropriate courts of Baltimore City and of the several counties
of the State of Maryland reports of divorces and annulments of mar-
riage, as provided in said Section 18 of Article 62, and shall make
indices for such reports. [Provided, however, that] Nothing in this
sub-section shall be construed as giving [said Board] the State
Board of Health and Mental Hygiene authority to make certifications
as to divorces and annulments of marriage; and [provided further
that] nothing in this sub-section shall limit the authority of the
clerks of the appropriate courts of Baltimore City and of the several
counties of the State of Maryland to furnish certifications of mar-
riages, divorces, and annulments of marriage in accordance with
their usual custom and as authorized by law.

[2] (ii) The State Board of Health and Mental Hygiene shall
make changes in the marriage and divorce and annulment records
in its file only upon certification by the responsible Clerk of the
Court of Baltimore City or [of] one of the several counties of the
State of Maryland, as provided in said Section 18 of Article 62,
that the proposed change is correct and that the corresponding
record of the Clerk of the Court is being changed in like manner. In
any question arising from discrepancy between the record of the
Clerk of the Court and the record of the State Board of Health and
Mental Hygiene in the case of marriages, divorces and annulments
of marriage, the record of the Clerk of the Court shall be considered
correct.

15. Appointment of registrars.

[ (a) Health officers ex officio registrars—]

Local health officers of the several counties shall be ex officio
county registrars of vital [statistics] records. The Commissioner of
Health of Baltimore City shall be ex officio Registrar of vital [sta-
tistics] records of Baltimore City.