Origins In January 2001, Saul
Haffner became a Justice of the Peace in Connecticut and looked around for a
place to announce that he was available and eager to perform weddings.
Advertising in the phone book was prohibitively expensive and there was no
on-line web site dedicated to Justices of the Peace. So he suggested to his
wife, Barbara Jay, a web designer, that she create one. Thus began Justices of
the Peace of Connecticut.
Are you getting married? |
The home page of the original web site featured photos of two of
their daughters' weddings, both officiated by Justices of the Peace. |
Are you a Justice of the Peace? |
Growth As its popularity grew, the JP Association branched out into neighboring
states where Justices of the Peace perform civil ceremonies: Massachusetts,
Vermont and New Hampshire. With high hopes of going national, the original
website jpct.org
was renamed jpUS.org. At the same time, the founders decided to separate the two markets
served by the website: couples seeking a JP and the JPs themselves. The URL
jpUS.org was retained as the home of the JP Association, and all
the JP listings were moved to a new website findaJP.com.
Today Justices of the Peace from nearly all towns in
Connecticut are listed on the findaJP.com
website, with more than 200 having
featured listings that come with membership in
jpUS.org.
Massachusetts JPs are well represented too, followed by New Hampshire, Vermont
and Texas, the newest state to affiliate. The Association publishes a quarterly e-newsletter for Justices of the
Peace, with news and information about governmental and societal developments
affecting their duties. In September, 2005, on the eve of the legalization of
civil unions for same-sex couples in Connecticut, the Association hosted the
first state-wide conference for JPs in Middletown. Another conference was held
in November, 2006, in New Britain.
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