This is the basic family-forming event. Every state has its own regulations as to who can marry, who can marry whom, and the way in which parties must marry to be recognized by the law.
Marital status refers to the way the law recognizes the contract between two people to marry.
Along with the legal status that comes from being married, the law in each state provides for the rights and obligations the couple contract for concerning their spouses. These rights and obligations begin when the couple is married and often continue after the termination of the marriage. Each state regulates who can marry. Every state has an incest law, which prohibits to one degree or another, the marriage of individuals genetically related to each other. Obviously, parents are prohibited from marrying their children, uncles and aunts can't marry their nieces and nephews, and brothers and sisters are universally prohibited from marrying each other as well.