From this we can infer that Charles E. Miller and Ellen Prickett must have been living in Coal City, Illinois in 1888. This might seem so obvious that it should classified in the "duh" category, but some people miss the fact that you can use the birthplaces of the children in a family to figure out where the family was living at a particular time. And if you happen to know the birthplace of the oldest child in a family, that birthplace might be the same location where the parents of the family were married. In this case, my grandfather was NOT the oldest child in the family, but after talking to relatives I learned that he was the second child in the family and that even the first child was born in this same area of Illinois.
By Googling "Coal City, Illinois" we find that Coal City is in Grundy County, Illinois, which is southwest of Chicago. The intent of this blog entry is to discuss the information available on marriage records. If you are married and you think about the process you went through, you will realize that from the legal perspective, you had to apply for a "marriage license" at your local courthouse. Once the license was issued, the person who conducted the marriage and two witnesses had to sign the license and then return it to the courthouse for filing. So the county courthouse for the county in which the marriage was performed is the place that should have a copy of the marriage record.
In today's world, some states have centralized their marriage records so that you can request copies from a statewide web site in the same way that you would request a birth or death record. But even in these cases, the county courthouse will still have a copy of the record also. In most counties in the United States, marriage records are kept in the office of the probate court. This might seem a bit illogical if you think of probate as the process of reallocating your assets at the end of your life. But actually, when a person marries, they are changing the way that their end of life assets will be distributed, so perhaps it isn't THAT illogical after all.
So I know that I want to request a copy of the marriage license for Charles E. Miller and Ellen Prickett from the probate court office in Grundy County, Illinois. Almost always, you will also have to have at least an approximate date for when the marriage occurred. In this case, I know that my grandfather was born September 20, 1888, so normally, one could assume that Charles and Ellen were married by the beginning of 1888 (given the nine month gestation period for humans). But my grandfather had an older brother, Frank Miller, who was born on November 26, 1886 (also in this same part of Illinois). So if Charles and Ellen followed a normal path, they would have been married around January or February of 1886.
I sent a letter along with the ubiquitous fee to the probate court office in Morris, Illinois (Morris is the county seat of Grundy county). Then I waited and waited and waited, and FINALLY I got mail from Grundy county...AND, they FOUND the marriage record! This is what I got:
What can we learn from this document? First we see that they were married by a minister named John S. Keir in Braidwood, Will County, Illinois. So they might have been religious and might have attended a church in the next county over from Grundy County (Will county is east of Grundy county). We also have exact dates for the marriage: the license was issued on 26 January 1886 and the ceremony was performed on 27 January 1886. Henry C. Stockwell and Anderino(?) E. Francis were witnesses to the marriage, so these people might have been friends of Charles and Ellen. Both Charles and Ellen were living in Braceville, Illinois which is a city adjacent to Coal City where my grandfather was born. Charles name is shown as "C.E. Miller" so we now know that his middle initial is "E." Ellen's name is shown as "Jane E. Pricket" so her name must actually be "Jane Ellen Prickett.."
Going to the second page we find a gold mine! Charles Miller was a 33 year old farmer, so he must have been born in about 1853. He was born in "Senaca Falls, NY" and the names of his parents were "Jacob E. Miller" and "M.E. Egner." For Jane Ellen, we see that she is 32 years old so she must have been born in about 1854. She was born in "Arena Township" in Grundy County and was the daughter of "Charles Pricket" and "Adelian Holderman." And finally we have the actual signatures of Charles and Jane Ellen!
So, in summary, to go back another generation for Charles E. Miller we should look his parents, Jacob E. Miller and M.E. Egner, in "Senaca Falls, NY" in the early 1850s, and for Jane Ellen Pricket we should look for her parents, Charles Pricket and "Adelian" Holderman right here in Grundy County, Illinois in the "Arena Township" in the mid-1850s!
When I find any tidbit information on a marriage from any source, I always write to see if a confirming copy is in their records despite the availability on line unless I can print out the original. I've run across transposed dates a couple of times (5/12/1887) which they reported as May 12, 1887 and the parties were actually married December 5, 1887 or the marriage date is reported as the date of the application. I always provide as much information as possible when I write and as close to an exact year as possible. I always ask for copies of any additional documents regarding their marriage as well if any are available. A neighbor wrote to Union County, Illinois and asked for a copy of the Certificate of Marriage from 1849. And that is all she got even though the application was there and available for copying and had tons of critical information on it as in Don's example. The clerk who filled my neighbor’s order took her request literally and chose only to sent what she requested. My neighbor didn't know more was available until I showed her other applications from Illinois from that time, so she had to write again, send more money and postage and wait for the results.
ReplyDeleteOther things that might be appear in marriage certificates might include an affidavit from the parent or parents of a minor child giving permission for those seeking to be married or information about a previous marriage of one of the parties stating their partner had died, divorced them or abandoned them or even number of previous marriages. These might appear as a separate document or be included on the original document. It might also mention permission from a step-parent or guardian and occasionally children which are legitimized by this marriage. Also, the person officiating at the marriage might be a ministers who is related to either the bride or groom, mostly uncles, which could help confirm family relationships of parents using an earlier census or other source. And sometimes a marriage certificate might say ‘married at the home of the Bride in (city/town). ‘
I also send a check for $5 or $10 depending on the quantity of things and difficulty in finding things I’m seeking. I feel that might imply that even though they might only charge $.25 for copies, clerks might feel compelled to copy other things. I could be wrong, but considering postage and time of writing back and forth even twice, the amount is negligible. I always volunteer to send more if this submitted amount is insufficient. So far, I've never had to do so. This is obviously my opinion!
And Illinois has perhaps the most informative marriage documentation I've ever come across.
I have certificates that are all hand written and merely give bare bones information, such as:
“I officiated at the marriage of Nathaniel Williams and Lucy Mallory on 9 Mar 1816, Madison County, Mississippi Territory.
(Signed) W.H. Winston, Rev.” While almost cryptic, this is still proof and not someone’s guess or wrong information obtained on line from someone else’s tree.