{"id":29137,"date":"2018-02-13T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T16:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=29137"},"modified":"2021-04-19T09:50:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T13:50:41","slug":"for-valentines-day-researching-your-ancestors-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/for-valentines-day-researching-your-ancestors-love-story.html","title":{"rendered":"For Valentine\u2019s Day: Researching Your Ancestor\u2019s Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega shows how newspaper articles about your ancestor\u2019s engagement, wedding and anniversary provide a lot of family history. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost Valentine\u2019s Day, and what a great time to research your ancestor\u2019s love story. Engagements, marriages, and anniversaries are well-documented in historical newspapers, and they provide opportunities for family historians to find more than one mention of their ancestor\u2019s love story. Let\u2019s take a look at some ways your ancestor\u2019s engagement, wedding, or anniversary might be listed in the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Marriage Licenses and Engagements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newspapers are great places to find lists of names. One list of names you might find is about those couples who have applied for a marriage license. This 1849 newspaper example includes seven couples. Six of the seven women are listed as Miss. The one woman who lacks a \u201cMiss\u201d at the front of her name might indicate that she was previously married.<\/p>\n

\"Notices<\/a>
Greene County Torch-Light (Xenia, Ohio), 16 August 1849, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember that the issuance of a marriage license is not a guarantee that a couple married. Make sure to complete your research by seeking out a marriage certificate or other proof that the marriage license was used and returned to the proper government authorities. Also, consider that the couple may not have lived in the area where they applied for the marriage license.<\/p>\n

Engagement announcements tend to provide more information than a list of marriage licenses. Consider the following engagement announcement list from 1920 that includes the bride and groom\u2019s parents\u2019 names and their home addresses. While the parents\u2019 names don\u2019t list the mother\u2019s first name, it\u2019s at least enough to get you started in your research.<\/p>\n

\"Engagement<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 4 January 1920, page 21<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More recent engagement notices might also provide a photograph of the bride, as in this 1950 newspaper example.<\/p>\n

\"Engagement<\/a>
Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 1 January 1950, page 28<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Wedding<\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite, next to milestone wedding anniversary articles (see below), are articles about weddings. They typically contain genealogically-relevant information, as well as interesting details about the wedding itself and the names of those involved, family and friends, as in this 1920 newspaper article. While I love the description of the bride (\u201c…in a stunning gown of silver lace and net, and her tulle veil was caught into a lace frill at the back of her hair\u201d), I\u2019m equally happy with the description of the couples\u2019 education and occupation (\u201cMr. Cadman has just returned from two years\u2019 service overseas where he was identified with both the French and American ambulance service\u201d), as well as the names of those in attendance (Little Miss Betty Cadman, a niece of the groom, was flower girl and wore a fluffy white tulle dress\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"Mills-Cadman<\/a>
Riverside Independent Enterprise (Riverside, California), 1 January 1920, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These 1880 wedding announcements provide the names of the couples, their attendants, and the officiating ministers, as well as the concluding sentence: \u201cThey at once enter on the duties of housekeeping in their neatly fitted home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wedding<\/a>
Cincinnati Daily Star (Cincinnati, Ohio), 1 January 1880, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Milestone Anniversaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

How long was your ancestral couple married? Have any of your ancestors been married for 25, 50, or more years? I have to admit that newspaper articles documenting a milestone wedding anniversary are some of my favorites. That achievement is one that is often lauded in the newspaper, and those articles provide rich genealogical information including date of marriage, family names, and more.<\/p>\n

This 1858 example commemorating an 1808 marriage includes the groom\u2019s occupation, bride\u2019s father\u2019s previous occupation, and some details about the 50th anniversary party. Unfortunately, what is missing is the groom\u2019s wife\u2019s name. The article implies that a 50th wedding anniversary was quite common with its statement: \u201cAmong those very happy and not rare occasions…\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Humphrey<\/a>
Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 4 June 1858, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This 1900 example of an African American couple\u2019s 50th wedding celebration doesn\u2019t provide the wife\u2019s name \u2013 but it does reveal their previous residence: \u201ccame to Kalamazoo from the south in 1853 and have since resided in this city.\u201d It\u2019s a good example of how valuable these types of articles can be.<\/p>\n

\"Clay<\/a>
Kalamazoo Gazette (Kalamazoo, Michigan), 21 January 1900, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I can\u2019t resist sharing one more 1900 example. In some cases, you will find photos of the anniversary couple accompanying the newspaper article about their anniversary celebration. I love this example that documents the couple via an illustration. One of my favorite lines in this newspaper article has to do with their immigration to the United States: \u201cthe aged couple were lovers in childhood in Germany and came to Cincinnati direct in 1847, taking up their residence in the West End.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Moormann<\/a>
Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, Ohio), 1 January 1900, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Find Your Ancestor\u2019s Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s your turn! What articles have you found in the newspaper about your ancestral couples? Any mentions of an engagement, wedding, or a milestone anniversary? Do you have a wedding photograph or a photograph found in the newspaper? I would love to hear your family history stories in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

Happy Valentine\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gena Philibert-Ortega shows how newspaper articles about your ancestor\u2019s engagement, wedding and anniversary provide a lot of family history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[8722,2053,12,2719,2045,2020],"class_list":["post-29137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-anniversary-notices","tag-engagement-notices","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-marriage-records","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/illustration-0213-2018-featured-graphic-wedding-anniversary.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66719,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137\/revisions\/66719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}