WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ The marriages of Henrietta Barnes in 1869 and 1876

 

You know how it happens that you go back through a folder, or a record and you find something that you missed or just passed over?

That is just what happened to me as I was reviewing Civil War Pension files this weekend.

This particular file was for Henrietta Barnes Thorp Bovie in the name of her deceased husband, Stephen B. Thorp. 

Stephen B. Thorp served as a Private and later a Corporal in Co. F, 122^nd New York Infantry from 1862-1864.

Stephen Thorp is my paternal 2nd great granduncle.

In scrolling through my online PDF file for this pension I located 2 beautiful marriage certificates.  I had looked through the file before, but it’s been a few years.  What I hadn’t done is pull these marriage certificates and add them to my Legacy file. I have no explanation for that oversight. 

But, here they are.  I don’t have many marriage certificates that are this nice among the records I have.

Marriage of Stephen B. Thorp to Henrietta Barnes - 15 Sep 1869 in Yorkville, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Stephen and Henrietta were married after he discharged from military service.  Sadly, less than 2 years later, on 14 Jun 1871, at age 31, Stephen died from “lingering consumption.” There were no known children born to this couple.

Five years after Stephen’s death, on 19 Sep 1876 in Yorkville, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Henrietta married Dr. William Bovie.  This couple had 5 children.

Here is their marriage certificate.

Marriage of Henrietta Barnes Thorp to Dr. William Bovie, 19 Sep 1876 in Yorkville, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Dr. William Bovie died 25 Apr 1901 of pneumonia.  Henrietta lived 33  more years and died a widow, at age 84. 

She saw two of her 5 children predecease her.

When she applied for a pension in the name of her deceased first husband, she was 81 years old and needed the extra income.  It is not stated in this particular file whether she was ever granted the pension.

Have you discovered items you overlooked or missed entirely? If so, I’d love to hear about them.

Reviewing our research is generally a good practice.  I know I’ve found my own omissions and errors in doing so.

If you are interested in my posts for Civil War pension files please click here.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2025   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ Divorces? How many of my ancestor couples divorced prior to 1900?

 

Today instead of concentrating on a marriage record, I thought I would find out how many couples in my database/tree were divorced overall and how many before 1900?

I know my own parents were, and my Dad also had a first wife, prior to my Mom. 

Divorce wasn’t always as common as it is today.  I don’t believe it was that couples didn’t have issues, I think it was just handled differently.  They could live apart or they would stay together and continue being miserable.

We have to remember that prior to 1900, women couldn’t own property, most had no means of support.  And shockingly, if they became widows or did divorce, they couldn’t even be guardians of their own children.

As a reference point here is a list of women’s rights, from 1769-1900:¹

1769 — The early American colonies base their laws on the English common law, which said, “By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law. The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband under whose wing and protection she performs everything.”

1777 — All states pass laws taking away women’s right to vote.

1833 — Oberlin College is founded as the first co-educational institution that accepts women and African Americans.

1848 — At Seneca Falls, 300 women and men sign the Declaration of Sentiments, a plea for the end of discrimination against women.

1848 — New York passes the Married Woman’s Property Act. For the first time, a woman isn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual.

1870 — The 15th Amendment is ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans may vote now, but women may not.

1872 — Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman to run for U.S. President. She receives few votes.

1890 — Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women the right to vote in its state elections.

1900 — By now, every state has passed legislation modeled after New York’s Married Women’s Property Act (1848), granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

Back to my subject –

·       How many divorces are recorded in my Legacy database? 108

·       How many of those divorces took place prior to 1900? 5

To find these figures using Legacy, I used Find>Detailed Search and then entered the parameters I needed.  You’ve all seen me do these kinds of searches numerous times.

Of the 5 couples who divorced these are the dates I have.

1863, 1865, 1874, circa 1880-1885 and 1899

I have 1786 Individuals or 893 couples who have a recorded marriage date in my tree, prior to 1900.

That’s a lot of marriages and only 5 divorces.  I suspect there are many stories we do not and never will know.

Are you curious how many of your ancestors divorced?

Let me know if you ran a similar report with your software and what the results were.

Source: 1 – History of Women’s Rights in America

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2024   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FOLLOW UP ~ Answering my questions from the blog post about Charles Brown & Cemathe Avery's wedding

 

I published a post, yesterday about another great find in Cora’s scrapbook.  But, that lead to some questions.  Did I get answers to those questions? 

Here are the questions I asked myself:

·   Which Presbyterian Church did John Woodbridge officiate as Pastor?  Was there only one Presbyterian Church in Saratoga Springs at the time?

·   Who are William & Charlotte Ayers?  There are no Ayers in my database/tree.  Were they friends or relatives?

·   Would it be possible to locate the actual church record for this marriage?

·    What other types of records would tell me more about the Pastor?

Here’s what happened………….

The first thing I did was search for a John Woodbridge (the Pastor) on Ancestry in census records from 1850 forward, in Saratoga Springs, NY.  I was rewarded in finding him listed in the 1870 census as a “Dd” living in Saratoga Springs with his wife and children.  I suspected that Dd meant Doctor of Divinity.  In looking on Google I confirmed that suspicion.  Now I know I have probably found Pastor John Woodbridge.

Further searching reveals Pastor Woodbridge in the Presbyterian Ministerial Directory for 1898 as follows.  And this matches up with the census records.

Let’s move on to William & Charlotte Ayers.

I have located them in the 1850 Federal census living in Saratoga Springs, New York and also the 1855 New York state census.  This does not tell me how they are associated with the bride and groom, but it does confirm them in the place and time of the marriage.

Can I use city directories to give me more information?  I entered Charles Brown in the Ancestry U.S. City Directories 1822-1995.  I found him in the 1882 directory on page 66.  His home address is one I’m familiar with 59 Church and I know that Charles was a Cigar Maker (although cigar is misspelled in the directory).

1882 Saratoga directory showing Charles Brown

Knowing that directories also contain lists of businesses, churches, associations etc., I am now going to try and find the Presbyterian Churches listed

In the Table of Contents for this directory from 1882, the churches are listed on page 45.  In reviewing that page I find two Presbyterian churches listed:

Ø First Presbyterian church, Broadway, north of Town Hall.  Rev. Peter Stryker, D.D. pastor and

Ø Second Presbyterian church, Spring street near Regent. Rev. William R. Terrett, pastor.

Neither of these shows a pastor named John Woodbridge, but this is 31 years after the marriage record and he likely had moved on or perhaps died. 

Can I locate a directory closer to the time of the marriage? I need to adjust my search on Ancestry and see if I can bring up other directories for Saratoga Springs.

The best I could do was a directory for Saratoga Springs from 1868.  That’s 17 years after the marriage, but let’s see what I can find in it.

I want you to know that I’m doing a little happy dance here.  On page 31 of the 1868 Saratoga Springs Directory is the list of churches.  And there is the “Presbyterian Church, Broadway, north of Lake avenue.  Rev John Woodbridge, D.D., residence South Broadway, a short distance below Circular street.”

Table of Contents from page 31 of the 1868 Saratoga Springs directory showing John Woodbridge as the Pastor/Reverend of the Presbysterian Church 

I made a couple of phone calls trying to locate the actual marriage record.  Afterall, the letter signed by Pastor Woodbridge states “that record of the same has been made in the Register of the Presbyterian Church.”

I made phone calls to the County Clerk for the County of Saratoga (518) 885-2213, the City of Saratoga Springs (518) 587-3550 and the Presbyterian Church (518) 584-6091 that is located in Saratoga Springs.  I spoke to some very nice ladies. We talked about the weather and had a few laughs about the difficulty in finding old records. 

Unfortunately, none of them could provide any marriage records from 1851.  I made sure to record in my Research Notes in Legacy, what organization I called, who I spoke with and the phone number.  I date all my research notes and going back to them provides me with a record of the things I’ve done in my research for a particular person or event.

When I record a marriage in my Legacy database I always include as much information as I can by using the Events/Facts entry.

Here is what this marriage looks like in my Legacy record.

This is the marriage event for this couple. 
Note the Event entries.

In the end, I did locate more information and answered some of my questions.

Ø I still don’t know how the witnesses, William & Charlotte Ayers were connected with the bride and groom.

Ø There were 2 Presbyterian Churches in Saratoga Springs at one time, but I still don’t know which one the couple was married at.

Ø I was not able to find the original church record of the marriage.

This was a good research session and I enjoyed the process. I hope that I’ve shared some ideas that would be helpful to you in your own research.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this or any of my other blog posts, please get in touch.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2023   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

CORA'S SCRAPBOOK ~ The marriage of her parents - Charles H.K. Brown & Cemanthe Avery - 1851 in New York

This is the story of my journey through Cora’s scrapbook.  Cora Emma Brown Hall is my husband's paternal great grandmother.  She created a scrapbook during her life and it was passed down through the generations.  It contains an amazing amount of family and general history.

Here’s that link to the posts I've written so far

 My posts about Cora's Scrapbook

Today's item from Cora’s scrapbook is a letter certifying the marriage of her parents Charles H.K. Brown and Cemanthe Avery.

My husband’s paternal 2^nd great grandparents were married in Saratoga Springs, New York on 12 Jun 1851.

Charles H. K. Brown was 25 years old and Cemanthe Avery was 20 years old.   Her parents were Frederick AVERY (abt 1810-bet 1850 & 1868) & Emeline CASE (abt 1809 to 1889)

I don’t have any information as to who Charles H. K. Brown’s parents were.  I’d certainly like to know, but so far my research has come up empty.  If you happen to uncover any information about his family/parents, please get in touch with me.

Until seeing this letter/record in Cora’s scrapbook, I had not located any other marriage records for Charles & Cemanthe. So, of course, I was excited.

This letter gives me a date and a place.  I also have a clue as to the church this couple may have been affiliated with, the Pastor’s name and names of witnesses.  That’s quite a bundle of good genealogical information.

Transcription of letter:

This certifies that Charles H. K. Brown and Cemanthe Avery were united in marriage at Saratoga Springs on the 12^th day of June A.D. 1851; and that record of the same has been made in the Register of the Presbyterian Church.

Signed

John Woodbridge, Afficiating & Pastor

Given at Saratoga Springs, Sept. 2, 1851

Names of witnesses – William & Charlotte Ayers

What questions does this prompt me to ask?

·   Which Presbyterian Church did John Woodbridge officiate as Pastor?  Was there only one Presbyterian Church in Saratoga Springs at the time?

·   Who are William & Charlotte Ayers?  There are no Ayers in my database/tree.  Were they friends or relatives?

·   Would it be possible to locate the actual church record for this marriage?

·   What other types of records would tell me more about the Pastor?

Of course I will try to find answers for those questions.

Please check back tomorrow for my post about what further information I was able to locate and how many of my questions I got answers for.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2023   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HAPPY DANCE WEDNESDAY ~ Church records for Thomas C. Hall, his wife Cora & their son Charles

 

What treasures can I share today?

 
How about church records recently received from a church in New York?
 
I called Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, New York, last month.  I was interested to see if they still held any records from 1877-1900. 
 
I was specifically looking for records for my husband’s great grandfather and his wife, Thomas C. Hall, Cora E. Brown Hall and their son Charles S. Hall.

 
While we can find some records online, we all know, many are still not available.  Some are indexed, but even viewing an index or transcription is not the same as looking at the actual record.  There could be any number of errors on an index or transcription.
 
I did my happy dance this morning when I received an email from the church with 4 records attached!!!
 
Images of actual church record pages from church registers of Baptism, Marriage, Confirmation and Burial.
 
Here they are: Please click on any image to enlarge it.

MARRIAGE OF THOMAS C. HALL & CORA EMMA BROWN

on 5 Feb 1877

BAPTISM OF CHARLES SCHUYLER HALL 

16 Jun 1878

CONFIRMATION OF CHARLES SCHUYLER HALL 

28 Apr 1892

BURIAL OF THOMAS CORNELIUS HALL 

13 Jan 1897

I already had a marriage date & and the marriage certificate for Thomas & Cora.  You can read all about that find here:
CORA’S SCRAPBOOK–Her wedding cake & marriage to Thomas C. Hall–1877, New York
 
But, this image of the church record for their marriage was new to me and gives one more piece of evidence to this fact.
 
What I didn’t have was the other 3 documents – the Baptism and Confirmation for Charles S. Hall and the Burial record for Thomas. Those will now be added to my Legacy database and sourced and added to my Ancestry tree as well.
 
What records have you recently received that made you do a happy dance? I’d love to hear about them.
 
Have you considered calling or emailing a church, funeral home or cemetery to obtain records or information?  This is not my first time doing so and I have found it to be very rewarding.
 
TIP: Keep a record of any calls or emails.  Whether you use your genealogy program for this (I use Legacy), or a spreadsheet, notepad or some other method.  It’s important to keep the date and make note of what you said, who you spoke with, who you emailed etc.
 
When or if I receive information as I did in this case, I not only send an email of thanks, I write a thank you note and many times include a gift card.

 
If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FRIDAY FINDS ~ The image for my Granduncle William Lindsay's marriage to Gertrude Watson in 1912

Finding my granduncle’s marriage record to his first wife.

Whether these items were missed by you, the researcher, or came online after your last search, it pays to keep going back.

That’s just what I did for my granduncle, William Lindsay’s marriage record to his first wife Gertrude Mae Watson.

I had located his other 3 marriage records, but not this one.  I had a note that the image “was not available” in the dataset I checked back in 2013.  I did find the index for it though.

To read about William’s other marriages WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ William “Bill” Lindsay & his many wives–the story of my Granduncle Bill

Here is the marriage index I downloaded in 2013.

You can click on any image to enlarge it

Today, I checked that same dataset on Ancestry.com – Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927, and located the image I'd been wanting to see.

As we all know, it’s always better to see an original image, than just to rely on a transcription/index.  Mistakes can and are made and interpretations can vary.

Did I learn anything new from seeing this image? Yes! 

  Here is what the index didn’t tell me…

• Places of birth for both William & Gertrude – U.S. for both

• Their nationality – Scottish for him and Canadian for her

• Religious denomination – Protestant for him and Methodist for her

• Residence for each – Detroit, Michigan

• Occupation of their fathers – Machinist for William’s and deceased for Gertrude’s.  That’s a big clue about her father.

• Names & addresses of witnesses

• That he was a Bachelor and she a Spinster (meaning both were previously unmarried)

• That they were not being married in Windsor for any purpose of evasion or other improper purposes.

• The name of the person solemnizing the marriage – not very readable on this document.

That is a LOT of missing information when compared to the index.

Do those additional items help me to be certain I have the correct couple?  Absolutely! 

There is a noticeable error on both the index and the actual document.  That is the maiden name of William’s mother.  It is listed as Fitzgerald and should be Fitzcharles.  Did William speak with a Scottish accent, since both his parents were born & raised in Scotland?  Was he misunderstood or was he simply misheard?

All together with my research, I can confidently conclude that this is my William’s marriage record.

I’m very glad to have this original document in my database now. 

Have you gone back & located items that were not available to you earlier? I’d love to hear about them.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION