The Hays County Clerk has your marriage license — and your cattle brand

The County Clerk near the courthouse square in San Marcos keeps a surprisingly wide drawer. The Records Division issues marriage licenses and holds the marriage records, birth and death certificates, and the county's official property records: deeds, deeds of trust, and liens running all the way back to 1848. It's also where you'd record an assumed name for a business, or, true to the Hill Country, register a cattle brand, which has to be re-recorded every ten years.

If you're planning a wedding, you and your partner both apply for the license here, in person, with photo ID. Texas builds in a 72-hour waiting period between getting the license and the ceremony unless you're active-duty military or you complete a state-approved premarital course, and the license is good for 90 days once issued, so don't pick it up too early.

One common mix-up: the County Clerk handles marriages, but divorces are not here. Those are court records kept by the District Clerk down the hall. If you need a certified copy of an old marriage record, the Clerk's Records Division is the place to ask.