Newspapers are good sources for leads on marriage information. Relatives are often part of the bridal party, residence address/cities are often mentioned.
I love getting the church records and the witnesses and officiant. . It helps with building a bigger history of the family, and possibly helping in brick walls.
This was so helpful, thank you! I found a lovely bio on the Reverend that married a couple of my ancestors. Apparently he married over a thousand couples and only heard of 3 or 4 divorces. It was fun to read. I learned from this that couple were Methodists, which I didn't know before. As I said, very helpful, thanks again!
Very informative. I never thought before hearing your talk today to look at the marriage records for information on what religious affiliation my family was associated with. Thank you so much.
When my husband's grandmother was still alive I asked her when she & his grandfather had gotten married & where. Her answer? She didn't remember. I asked her if she knew where his grandfather had been born. Her answer? Independence, Missouri, near Kansas City. He had passed on years earlier so I couldn't ask him. Other family members, including my father in law & his sister (my husband's grandmother's only children) heard this exchange. From that moment on, it was like everyone stonewalled me concerning the grandparents! I couldn't understand why they would and neither could my husband. I later got a copy of grandpa's SS-5. It said he was born in Holland, Missouri ... clear across the state, down at the top of the heel! Years later, when we were clearing out grandma's house to sell (grandma lived by herself and wasn't do too well health wise so she was going into an assisted living facility), my husband's younger brother actually found their marriage certificate/license. He later told my mother in law that they didn't marry until my husband's aunt was about 18 years old! My mother in law told us that grandpa had been married once before but that the wife had been institutionalized and Missouri had a law that you could not divorce and institutionalized person (true or not, I don't know). She also told us what her middle son told her about finding the marriage certificate/license and told us that they didn't get married until my husband's aunt was entering nursing school and part of the requirements was she had to provide her parents marriage certificate/license (again, true or not, I don't know). My father in law and his sister were born and raised in eastern Iowa. After everyone except my husband's aunt had passed (and a number of years since that first conversation with grandma), I once again had the opportunity to ask my husband's aunt. She gave me an approximate year of 1935. She was born in 1936. I wrote that on a whiteboard to remind me later to look into it. My mother in law saw it and commented that the last 2 digits needed to be reversed! I later came across a newspaper announcement of marriage licenses that had been filed. The paper was The Rock Island Argus in Rock Island, Illinois, and there they were! The date of that newspaper? July 4, 1956! Right away I sent to Illinois for a copy their marriage certificate/license. They were married on July 2, 1956 in Rock Island, Illinois when my father in law was 19 years old and his sister was 20 years old!! Like you said, they can marry someplace else so it wouldn't be public knowledge in their home town. They can not want people to know for a variety of reasons. Even though it's no big deal now, my husband and I are thinking she probably didn't want us to know out shame or guilt that would have been present in their time. So consider that as well when you are searching. You might just find the records years or even decades later that when you expect to find them!
Oh such a wealth of information as to the who, what, wheres, and whens!!!! This might help me with one of my brick walls on my maternal side. That is one reason why our children have a photocopy of mine and my husband's marriage (TX) information. We were both active duty when we got married so we were nowhere near any family members. Only had close friends to be our Witnesses. 40 years later we are now living in Georgia.
Amy do you want a new best friend???? You fascinate me and I would love to pick your brain for hours!!! I have so many marriage records I can’t find, maybe they’re just too old? No newspapers, no church affiliation, did they burn up? Sometimes it just makes me want to cry!!! Some great tips on here, thank you!!!
Exciting and helpful video, Amy. Thank you. I like old civil records from Pennsylvania because they give the names of both sets of parents, occupations of the couple, ages, and whether there was a previous marriage. Some with prior marriages lead to finding information about the previous spouse(s). When my wife and I married in a Catholic church in 1970, they published banns in the church bulletin for three weeks before the wedding. We then got the license and had the nuptial mass. As for places, I found that many people from my area of central Pennsylvania went to Winchester, Virginia for their weddings. Elopements? I have found many wedding announcements in old newspapers. They inform of the date and location, and often the witnesses and officiant. They frequently note honeymoon trips and residential and occupational plans. When looking for a marriage date, I'll use the birthday of their first child to get a clue. A final thought about civil and Catholic church marriages - there are sometimes two dates. A couple may get married before the J. P. and subsequently get married in the church after an annulment of a prior union occurs.
Yeah God bless you for this and your other presentations too! Having given up on an ancestor's marriage record because apparently they were not together for long; census records them as "married" when they were living apart each partner with respective parents a couple years after the birth of one of my ancestors. Some times I guess it is not out there?
My mother had a Great Uncle, a prominent businessman in Cincinnati, whose daughter eloped to NYC in 1913, probably due to religious differences. I learned of it by looking for newspaper articles on him. It was in newspapers all over the country. The groom also became prominent in Cincinnati. The marriage lasted 54 years. (You never know what you'll find or where.)
My Great Great Grandparents were married 26, October, 1858 in Arkansas. Marriage license were NOT issued then. The officiant wrote down the info and returned it to the County clerk, along with a filing fee. The County Clerk's office recorded the marriage in a record book and filed the document, known as a marriage return. It is still in the courthouse. The officiant was a Justice of the Peace.
I was shocked when you showed records from Crawford County, Ohio. I lived here all my life. We are such a small area, I was blown away that you picked us to share your research on. Do you have ancestors here?
I have deep Ohio roots, with most of my lines passing through the eastern and southeastern part of the state. I don't know of any direct ancestors in Crawford County, but I'm sure I have some collaterals there.
Thank you for the insight. My situation is tricky. How do I check my ex husband's marriage from his first wife? I only know his information. I do not know where they got married nor her name. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you again!
another good one. my first thought about the grooms coming from other places was a "mail order husbands" kind of thing... more like there was an ad placed in their town for workers or land promises, and lots of brides to choose from ... which was not an uncommon practice. Could be a red herring, but I'd look at the whole book and see if there is a time chunk when these out of towners married local women. I tend to go on tangents though so... lol.
In this case, it likely isn’t anything like mail order husbands. Bucyrus is the next town over from Galion, and Dayton would be an easy train ride of a couple of counties. Since this is Ohio in the 1880s, I think it’s likely these were men who were originally from the area but moved away for work, then they came back to marry “the girl back home.”
Yes, it should be in whatever the county was when the event took place. If a couple got married in Thorn Township, Fairfield County in 1812, the civil marriage record would be there, even though Thorn Township became part of Perry County in 1818. The church record could be in a church that’s currently in Perry County.
I have a marriage license for my paternal grandparents showing they were married in January 1905 by the church Priceburg, PA. Supposedly Lackawanna held the records but even after I sent them the copy I had, the Court house couldn't locate their application and returned my money. I was hoping to find more details. Very disappointed and because they were Polish, names have been mispelled
You might want to take another look at the document you have. It is a marriage license (where it says they are legally able to be married) or is it a marriage record/certificate (records the date the marriage actually occurred)? It's possible that they got the license in one county and got married in another; the records could be in two different counties.
@@AmyJohnsonCrow I apologize. I took another look at the document. It's the marriage certificate indicating the Rev's name officiating, my grandparents names, date and that it was performed in "accordance with a license issued by the Clerk of the Orphans Court of Lackawanna". I provided a copy of the certificate which is numbered, to the Court but they can't find the license which I really wanted for more information. They returned my money.
