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.

Family Friday: Allen & Cora (Crossett) Taylor

If I have it right, Allen is one of my maternal first cousins, three times removed.* A life-long resident of Iowa, he and Cora were married on November 25, 1897, and had five children together. According to census records he was a carpenter.

[From the Ancestry.com family tree of bsutlery]

[20 Apr 1931, Page 8 - Iowa City Press-Citizen at Newspapers.com]

He's buried in the Wellman Cemetery in Washington County, Iowa. Cora survived him by eight years and is buried near him.

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: George Marion Tomlinson (1839 - 1922) Farmer

We're fortunate to have several pictures of this maternal great great grandfather although none of him as a young man so we don't know when he began to sport the short beard we see in all the photos.*

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The first record we've found for George Tomlinson is in the 1850 U.S. Census when he was 11, still living with his parents Jesse and Catharine (Gaskill) Tomlinson in Madison County, Ohio.

["United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QL2-JB?cc=1401638&wc=95RW-JW1%3A1031310001%2C1031549001%2C1031403901 : 9 April 2016), Ohio > Madison > Union > image 31 of 40; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

The Tomlinson's moved to Washington County, Iowa, in about 1856 and four years later we find George and his 13-year=old brother Albert living with their widowed mother.**  Catharine's occupation is the only one listed, that of Farmer but we can be sure that 21-year-old George was doing his share of the work.

["United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9B9V-SXF?cc=1473181&wc=7QXT-G4G%3A1589426666%2C1589422318%2C1589428167 : 24 March 2017), Iowa > Washington > English River Township > image 12 of 34; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

On Christmas Eve of the same year, George married Elizabeth "Betsy" Taylor and their daughter Rufina was born January 3, 1863. When George registered for the Civil War draft six months later*** he was listed as "married" which marks the last time we can assume that Betsy was still alive. Thereafter she disappears completely from the records.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863-1865. NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes. NAI: 4213514. Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110. National Archives at Washington D.C.]

Three years later on March 27, 1866, George married Amanda Darling (who happened to be the sister of one of my great great grandmothers Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh) in Jones County, Iowa.

In the 1870 U.S. Census record dated as of June 6th, George and his family were living in Greenwood County, Kansas, and had moved there sometime after the September 1869 birth of Albert, the youngest child listed.

[Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.]

By 1880 the Tomlinson household had grown, including several of George's extended family.

[1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Although we don't know exactly when George and Amanda left Kansas for Colorado, this 1893 list of electors who hadn't voted in the recent general election.

[Boulder Daily Camera (Boulder, Boulder County) Monday, December 11, 1893

Page: 3 http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/]

By 1900 only their daughter May and grandson William (Albert's son) were living with George and Amanda on their farm in Boulder County.

[1900 United States Federal Census. Ancestry.com - Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.:

National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 18]

Mabel (who didn't marry until 1915) was the only other person living with her parents at the time of the 1910 U.S. Census. They're living on a country road in Boulder County.

[1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census,

Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Finally, in the 1920 U.S. Census, George no longer gives his occupation as a farmer; my 80-year-old great great grandfather and his wife are listed as have "none" in that column.

Amanda died in April of the following year and by that November George's health had declined so he entered the Boulder Sanitarium where he died on August 30, 1922.

[Longmont Ledger, September 8, 1922 .Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection]

George and Amanda are buried in the Niwot Cemetery.


*Here's a group portrait taken at the same time as the the one I extracted George's image from in this post; here's the golden wedding anniversary celebration of  he and his second wife in 1916; and here's a 1918 snapshot of he and his clan returning home from camping.
**Jesse died in 1857.
***The occupation of every man on the page was listed as Farmer.
© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.