Were marriage licenses created to prevent interracial marriages?

Any fellow historians / legal scholars out there who can confirm or deny that states got into the practice of "licensing" marriage as a means of enforcing anti interracial marriage laws?

Provide cites / references if you've got 'em please

:-)

..it was more to make sure people who were related weren't getting married.

and it might help explain why every state issues marriage licenses rather than just the ones that had anti-miscegenation laws.

... that it was to transfer ownership of the woman to her husband (and her property too).

(by a Fundi Pastor no less)
http://www.gbronline.com/thewholetruth/license.htm
Historically, all the states in America had laws outlawing the marriage of blacks and whites. In the mid-1800’s, certain states began allowing interracial marriages or miscegenation as long as those marrying received a license from the state. In other words they had to receive permission to do an act which without such permission would have been illegal.

Blacks Law Dictionary points to this historical fact when it defines "marriage license" as, "A license or permission granted by public authority to persons who intend to intermarry." "Intermarry" is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as, "Miscegenation; mixed or interracial marriages."

<snip>
In reality, this contention that people are not really married unless they obtain a marriage license simply reveals how Statist we are in our thinking. We need to think biblically.

You should not have to obtain a license from the State to marry someone anymore than you should have to obtain a license from the State to be a parent, which some in academic and legislative circles are currently pushing to be made law.

When I marry a couple, I always buy them a Family Bible which contains birth and death records, and a marriage certificate. We record the marriage in the Family Bible. What’s recorded in a Family Bible will stand up as legal evidence in any court of law in America. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were married without a marriage license. They simply recorded their marriages in their Family Bibles. So should we.
<snip>

So is it true that a Family Bible certificate signed by the officiating clergy will stand up as legal proof in a court of law?

in the states that allow for common-law marriage. And my knowledge of CLM is that it generally is dependent on a certain number of years of cohabitation moreso than any religious ceremony or the like.

I'm not sure how many states still recognize CLM, I know Minnesota doesn't and we're generally a pretty progressive state.