Wednesday, September 23, 2015

WEDDING WEDNESDAY–What is the earliest recorded marriage in my tree?

wedding bells
I decided that today I would look in my Legacy database for the earliest recorded marriage.
 
Using the “Search” feature in Legacy I found the following:

Marriages before 1800 = 197

Since that list was so large I narrowed it down.

Marriages before 1750 = 84

Let’s narrow that down even more.

Marriages before 1700 = 47

I’m a little surprised to find so many before 1700.  There are only small portions of mine and my husband’s family that I’ve traced back to the 1600’s.
 
Narrowing it down a bit more.

Marriages before 1650 = 10

Let’s take a look at those 10 individuals (5 couples)

about 1588 – Francis HALL to Elizabeth LNU – My husband’s 9th great grandparents. 
Source: None
3 Feb 1606 – Francis HALL to Margaret LEWIS – My husband’s 8th great grandparents.
Source: Familysearch.org (I last modified this couple on 20 Apr 2009)  This means I need to go back and find that source and properly record it.

Before 1611 – Samuel MORSE to Elizabeth JASPER – My husband’s 9th great grandparents.
Source: None
1638 in Dedham, Massachusetts – Joseph MORSE to Hannah “Anne” PHILLIPS – My husband’s 8th great grandparents.
Source: Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700, page 1063
1641 in England – Joseph CLARK to Alice PEPPER – My husband’s 8th great grandparents.
Source: U.S. & International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 and Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700, page 324

UPDATE:  Thank you to Michele Simmons Lewis (who is tech support for Legacy) for pointing out another very quick way to find the earliest marriage in your database.

In your Legacy 8 file to go the Tools tab, then select Statistics.

This will bring up a list of everything in your family, from who lived the longest, births by era, how many males & females and MANY more interesting items.  Among them are the Marriage Statistics shown here:


As you can see this shows me 1 marriage between 1500 & 1599.  

Next, on the right hand side of the screen select "Create Search List."  This will take you directly to a screen like this:


There you have the exact marriage that occurred between those dates.

That's much easier than the method I originally used.  Thank you Michele for reminding how much information is at our fingertips via the Statistics List.

 
As you can see, these couples are all from my husband’s line.  I’ve had a lot more luck tracing his family back before 1700, than my own.  Looks like I need to go and hunt down the sources for the two I have “none” for and verify the one I found on familysearch.org.

What is the earliest marriage you have recorded?  How are they related to you?  Please let me know in a comment or on your own blog post.

PLEASE contact me if you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog.
 
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Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.