I was trying to determine who was the witness on a 1907 marriage from rural Nebraska. There were two candidates for the person who was the witness and then I remembered that in order to legally be a witness that person had to be over the age of majority.

In 1907 in Nebraska, that would have been twenty-one years of age for a male. And that answered the question. The bride’s brother would have been under twenty-one and her cousin would have been in his late twenties. Why one her “of age” siblings was not the witness is a mystery I may never know the answer to.

But “being of age” was the answer to the identity of the witness question. Contemporary state statutes will indicate the age required to witness a legal document.