Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

It would be highly unlikely for an error like that to occur on the marriage license as you are required to sign it before it is issued. In any event, your marriage is likely valid. Minor administrative errors can be corrected (see statute below). Also, if you have been holding yourselves out as married for 24 years, you have essentially ratified the marriage and equity would likely required that you be estopped from denying the legality of the marriage. This error is definitely not a get out of jail free card.

� 51-18.1. Correction of errors in application or license; amendment of names in application or license.

(a) When it shall appear to the register of deeds of any county in this State that information is incorrectly stated on an application for a marriage license, or upon a marriage license issued there under, or upon a return or certificate of an officiating officer, the register of deeds is authorized to correct such record or records upon being furnished with an affidavit signed by one or both of the applicants for the marriage license, accompanied by affidavits of at least two other persons who know the correct information.