Look Next Door if You Must

Where might a couple have married if not where one expected them to wed? Family tradition often preserves the place of marriage along with an approximate or definitive wedding date. Researchers occasionally come upon a stubborn set of nuptials that just don’t want to be discovered.

One thing to consider is the birth of the first child. That is usually an identifiable event either through a civil birth record or a church baptismal registry. While we know that conception always preceded delivery it may not have been preceded by matrimony.

Broaden a time range for a wedding. It is very likely that doing so my discover a formerly difficult record to find. 

Broaden the range of locations that might have served as a place of marriage. For example a couple that lived for years in Hell’s Kitchen did not marry in New York City. They were single and not enumerated together in the 1910 federal census. However, just months later Thomas Moore wed Mary English in West New York, NJ. This record was found in the NJ marriage index and quickly explained why no record could be found through the Department of Health or the City Clerk in NYC.

Caroline Herzing was married twice and both were a challenge to track down. First, she married Peter Stephan and started a family with him in Brooklyn. Surprisingly once the Archdiocese of New York sacramental records went online a wedding was transcribed that stated they had married in Manhattan in 1887. It identified both sets of their parents. 

Several years later after she was widowed she remarried to an Albert Stevenson. The similarity of her married surnames made it no easy feat to identify what her children’s surnames were. She wed Mr. Stevenson in 1901 in New Jersey. This explained why no record had been found in NYC despite her appearances in their census records.  

John McGinn married Lillian Waters in Jersey City on 27 Jun 1937. Francis Xavier McGorry and Anne Borkstrom married in NJ in 1941. Both these men were native New Yorkers whose siblings married in NYC.

If your ancestor’s life event is missing or they are missing from a census, consider they may be just across the state border in the Garden State. They may not have left the Empire State for NJ but consider it. These were three dimensional people that lived in a real world. They were born, married and died. If you are not finding a record it might be because you are searching the wrong city, the wrong county, the wrong state and a few times even the wrong country. 

Some couples like the McGinns and the McGorrys settled permanently in NJ but others like the Stevensons and the Moores resume their lives in NYC very shortly after their nuptials.

If you are not finding a record try something new and outside the box a few miles away. Age requirements or other legalities may have incentivized or necessitated a wedding away from home. 

If at First You Don't Succeed

One of the strategies for family history research is to collect marriage records for more than one’s own ancestral line. I have collected numerous marriage records for my grandparents’ siblings and first cousins. 

My paternal grandfather had 5 paternal cousins and 2 maternal cousins marry. The weddings took place in 1909, 1910, 1914, 1919 and 1921 and 1910, 1920 and 1950. 

My paternal grandmother had 2 brothers that both married in 1916. They had 2 paternal cousins who married in 1916 and 1919. They had two maternal cousins who married in 1930 and 1937. 

My maternal grandfather had 6 siblings that married in 1919, 1921, 1924, 1927, 1933 and 1944. Their paternal cousins married in 1917, 1923, 1937, 1940 and 1944. Their maternal cousin married in 1941.

My maternal grandmother had 6 siblings that married in 1920, 1925, 1929, 1936, 1949 and 1950. Their paternal cousins married 1916, 1928, 1929, 1929, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946.

As a research aid I especially try to get marriage records for immigrants and the children of immigrants in case the place of origin is provided in either the civil or church registers.  These clues may be either in the marriage license or certificate from the state or the notations from a Catholic sacramental register. I have found specific localities in Ireland mentioned in various marriage records. 

I had struggled to track down a 1937 wedding for one of these cousins. The groom was baptized in 1912 in Manhattan. Although he married there was not the marriage notation I had expected next to his baptismal entry.

I was able to find him in the New Jersey Marriage Index (Brides) through his beloved but it did not provide a date or place for the nuptials. 

I was able to view the 1911 baptismal entry for the bride today. They were married 27 Jun 1937 in an urban area in New Jersey. I had provided this information in my request but it was returned with a letter that they had tried their best and not found it.

Now that I have the church notations I trust that a new search with the exact date and place will result in a find. (I am happy to update the report that a civil marriage certificate was sent to me recently. It detailed the occupation and address of the groom which was helpful in developing his life story.)

Irish Birth Registers

Irish birth registers are often beneficial because of the extra information that is listed on the page entire. A pair of cousins were listed on the same page months apart in Oct 1890 & Apr 1891 Ireland. Male cousin and his younger Female first cousin shared both a surname and townland of birth They lived very differently over the course of their lives. 

Male cousin was a fourth born son but he eventually took over the family farm and lived his entire life in Ireland from 1890-1978. He was one of ten children with seven living to adulthood. He was enumerated at the family farm in 1901 and 1911.  In 1933 at age 42 he married a young woman and raised a family of nine.

Female cousin was a second born daughter of eight children. Three of the children died as toddlers and two sons died as young adults without issue. The remaining three daughters lived to adulthood. Female cousin was enumerated with her parents and siblings in 1901. She set off to America in 1911. She settled with their fathers’ youngest brother who was the first of their clan to emigrate in 1897. She married a German immigrant in 1917 and had 5 children from 1919-1926. She would bury her eldest child before his tenth birthday and eventually was divorced by her husband in late 1943. The divorce petition and final decree were reported in the Nevada newspaper while she resided in New York. She became a citizen at about the same time and did not have to file a declaration of intent as the wife of a citizen. She was dutifully enumerated in the 1920, 30 & 40 federal censuses and both the 1915 and 1925 NY state censuses. She was also recorded in church and civil marriage records and newspaper accounts. She died in 1972. 

Two children, paternal first cousins, bookended a birth register page in 1890s Ireland but spent the rest of their years living individual lives and their unique record trails clearly show this. 

Male cousin had a sister that was just ten months younger than him and four months younger than (their) Female cousin.(While birth registers are often filled with inaccurate birth dates the baptismal register showed that Male cousin was baptized 5 Oct 1890 and his younger Sister was baptized 4 Aug 1891. Sister was registered as born 4 Nov 1891.) Sister was also enumerated in 1901 at the family farm but in 1911 she was living with their mother’s brother and his children. 

Sister, at age 14, had been sent to the neighboring farm after her uncle’s wife passed in 1905. This apparently did not sit well with her and she resented that for the rest of her life she was always a visitor in her father’s home and never slept overnight there again. Not surprisingly she emigrated in 1914 to live (initially) with their father’s youngest brother in NYC. She married an American born man in 1919 and became a citizen at the same time. They too had 5 children and remained married until his death in 1953. Sister couldn’t be found in the 1915 state census but otherwise she left a clear paper trail. She died in 1962. 

Remember to throughly examine records and look for unexpected relations to show up in the next cabin or the next entry. These three cousins had noticeably different lives although they were all born within ten months of each other in the same townland. 

Census Recounts

Searching an urban area is a unique endeavor in the family history setting. Some records such as census and vital records are similar to their rural counterparts. Others offer unique opportunities to unlock family mysteries and delve deeper into the story. 

One unique situation is census recounts. Understandably urban centers want as high a census count as possible and certainly do not want to be undercounted. This would cause a lack of congressional representation and missed funding and infrastructure benefits. In 1870 the federal census was criticized as undercounting a few urban areas. A recount was ordered for both New York and Philadelphia. This gives an opportunity for researchers to potentially find dual enumerations for a family in Jun 1870 and Jan 1871.

Enumerated in the 20th Ward in New York county in New York state for both enumerations the following is found:

Date 29 Jun 1870 Jan 1871

Dwelling 140 Family 444 528 (West) 38th Street

Robert English 40 blacksmith Robert English 40 chair maker

Fanny English 30 Fannie English 42

James English 14 James English 15 driver

Edward Mulligan 12 at school Eddie (English) 13

Martin English 12 Martin English 12

William Mulligan 9 Wm(English) 11

Elizabeth Mulligan 7 Lizzie(English) 6

George Mulligan 5 Geo(English) 4

Sarah English 4/12 b. Jan Sarah English 3

Fannie English 1

The information between two decennial censuses often has disparities. These censuses above are a mere 6 months apart and show dramatic differences. Mrs. English ages 12 years in half a year's time. The original census properly identified the stepchildren of Robert English with their father’s surname, Mulligan. The recount listed them by age interspersing the step-siblings and listed all as English. The later count identified the Mulligans by their pet names and even added an English daughter Fannie completely missed in Jun 1870. Sarah’s age is way off and one must wonder if she was missed in 1870 and correctly added in 1871 partly boosting the second count by 2% over the original. 

Chicago was denied a recount but conducted one anyway that was published in a headcount city directory. It listed the head of household and the number or males and females in each dwelling.

In 1890, New York again questioned the federal count. It was not granted a recount but it sent its police force across Manhattan and parts of the Bronx in the fall of 1890. They listed only the address, name, sex and age of each resident. 

In 1890 the Robert English household lived at 524 West 37th Street.

Robert English, 65, M

Annie, 45, F

Fanny, 16, F

Margaret, 13, F