December Weddings in my Family Tree

In 2016 the Martha Stewart Weddings website opined that Christmas is one of the worst days to get married, but I've noticed that date given for the nuptials of some of my ancestors. I asked Christine if she could create a list of those folk and she responded with 17 pages of December weddings. Of course most of those folks aren't in my direct line but I've decided I'll spend the next several days seeking out the ones who are and sharing them here.

This mid-19th century engraving hints at the small-scale celebration involved in a marriage,* but it would be misleading to think that many of my ancestors' unions would have taken place in such opulent surroundings.

[Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. The wedding. Forrest, J. B. (John B.) (ca. 1814-1870) (Engraver)

Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-d187-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99]

As far as we know, none of my direct ancestors got married on Christmas Day but there are two couples whose weddings took place on December 24th:

My 3X great grandparents Jesse Warren Jr. and Timney P. Watts married on on December 24th, 1824, in Morgan County, Georgia and 2X grandparents George Marion Tomlinson and Elizabeth "Betsey" Taylor on Christmas Eve, 1860 in Washington County, Iowa.

Coincidently neither of these couples were destined to have a long life together. Jesse Warren Jr. died a little over a year later (when his only child was an infant) and Betsey Taylor Tomlinson disappeared from records about the time of her daughter Rufina's birth in early 1863. Both surviving spouses married again; their second unions lasted for decades and produced more children.

Why get married during the Christmas season? This blogpost by findmypast focuses on England but I think some of the same reasons would be relevant for U.S. couples.

*You can find a description of mid-19th century wedding preparations here at a blog by NYC's Merchant’s House Museum.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Josiah Haralson Freeman (1897 - 1950), Seaman

In 1919 Josiah H. Freeman (a second cousin, twice removed) was issued his seaman's protection certificate* in New Orleans. 

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Applications for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Application for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940. 1151 Boxes. NAID: 2788575. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1774-1982, Record Group 41. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

His application lists the birthplaces of his father Leroy W. Freeman and himself, both of whom were natives of Georgia. Josiah had enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I and apparently found the lure of the sea was stronger than his attachment to his Georgia home.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Applications for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Application for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940. 1151 Boxes. NAID: 2788575. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1774-1982, Record Group 41. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

As far as I can tell he never lived in Georgia again, residing first in Baltimore, Maryland, and then in Washington D.C. In his 1942 draft registration card he listed his place of work as the U.S. Government Navy Yard and named his mother as his nearest relative.

[Draft Registration Cards for District of Columbia, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947, Fold3.com. Original source: The National Archive.]

Josiah died at the age of 53 and is buried in the National Cemetery in Baltimore.

He was named for his great great grandfather Josiah Freeman, the ancestor we both trace to.

[Ancestry.com]

*Christine shared a much earlier version of the same type of certificate for her paternal fourth great grandfather Solomon Joseph Hartley (1775-1815).


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.