Hey, Genealogists! A question about weddings in the 1930s
February 17, 2018 10:43 AM
I'm doing some genealogy, and I just got a copy of my grandparents' marriage register (1931, New York state). It's signed by a pastor and witnessed by the pastor's wife.
They lived 70 miles away and in a different state, so I'm guessing they came across the state line because my grandmother was under 18. Around the corner from the Town Clerk's office is the Methodist church that the pastor was affiliated with. So, did they just show up at the church and get a pastor to officiate their wedding? Or would the pastor have been hanging out at the Town Clerk's office ready to officiate? Would there have been vows?
They lived 70 miles away and in a different state, so I'm guessing they came across the state line because my grandmother was under 18. Around the corner from the Town Clerk's office is the Methodist church that the pastor was affiliated with. So, did they just show up at the church and get a pastor to officiate their wedding? Or would the pastor have been hanging out at the Town Clerk's office ready to officiate? Would there have been vows?
You might like watching middle part of One Foot In Heaven which has a pretty detailed illustration of a Methodist minister who relies on income from weddings like this. Although about 20 years earlier.
posted by bleep at 11:07 AM on February 17, 2018
posted by bleep at 11:07 AM on February 17, 2018
I am a small town wedding officiant, though in 2017. Realistically I don't think that much has changed for boy/girl marriages between white people. The pastor's wife being the witness pretty much says "This is an elopement" A lot of times these trips would involve travel, a wedding and then staying overnight (legitimately!) in the town the night afterwards. I can't remember the movie I saw that outlined this sort of setup, but it stuck with me. You could probably call the minister ahead of time and schedule something like this. It could be performed in the town hall, the pastor's home or in the church. The license comes from the town clerk and in a lot of states you can get the license same day or next day. Some states have requirements (blood tests, waiting period, other nonsense) which may have also been why they chose to go to NY. I got married in Las Vegas, for example, and all we had to do was fill out a marriage license in golf pencil and file it with the town clerk.
posted by jessamyn at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2018
posted by jessamyn at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2018
Not sure how historically accurate the TV show The Walton’s was, but it ran in the 70s when a lot of people would have remembered the 30s and it was at least partly based on the memories of Earl Hamner. Anyway, there’s an episode where one daughter tries to elope. They go to a minister’s house in the middle of the night and knock on the door to wake him up. His wife was going to serve as witness.
I don’t see how you could plan on a minister being any place in particular, e.g., the church or the town clerk’s office, unless you catch him at the end of a service.
posted by FencingGal at 11:56 AM on February 17, 2018
I don’t see how you could plan on a minister being any place in particular, e.g., the church or the town clerk’s office, unless you catch him at the end of a service.
posted by FencingGal at 11:56 AM on February 17, 2018
I recall in These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder got married in Reverend Brown's parlor, by Reverend Brown, and the witnesses were Brown's daughter (Laura's friend Ida) and her fiance. It was not an elopement per se, but Almanzo's sister and mother were on their way to put on a schmancy wedding that nobody could really afford, and so Laura and Almanzo decided to marry in haste.
I think this was pretty common before World War II, because many people couldn't afford a wedding with all the trimmings, and small-town ministers could add on to their income with little outlay, by performing quickie weddings witnessed by their wives.
My maternal grandparents had a similar kind of wedding in the 30's - not sure if it was a minister or a judge - because a) it was a shotgun wedding (sorry, Grandma, I do know basic math) and b) it was the Depression and no-one had any money.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:02 PM on February 17, 2018
I think this was pretty common before World War II, because many people couldn't afford a wedding with all the trimmings, and small-town ministers could add on to their income with little outlay, by performing quickie weddings witnessed by their wives.
My maternal grandparents had a similar kind of wedding in the 30's - not sure if it was a minister or a judge - because a) it was a shotgun wedding (sorry, Grandma, I do know basic math) and b) it was the Depression and no-one had any money.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:02 PM on February 17, 2018
I don't know about 1931, but blood tests were definitely required in New York as early as 1945. In the movie The Clock, Judy Garland and GI Robert Walker are trying to get married on his 48-hour leave in New York City, and there's a big sequence where they try to get their blood tests rushed through in time.
Your ancestors may have asked the town clerk when they got their license where the nearest minister was. That's how my parents found the justice of the peace who married them. While he was in the other room getting the paperwork ready, his wife regaled my parents with stories of all the marriages she had witnessed (She was the witness for them, too).
My mom says it was so warm in the JP's house that she had to take her sweater off, and her short-sleeved dress didn't cover the huge bruise on her arm from the blood test. The JP kept looking at her arm, and she was afraid he would get the wrong idea about Dad.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:38 PM on February 17, 2018
Your ancestors may have asked the town clerk when they got their license where the nearest minister was. That's how my parents found the justice of the peace who married them. While he was in the other room getting the paperwork ready, his wife regaled my parents with stories of all the marriages she had witnessed (She was the witness for them, too).
My mom says it was so warm in the JP's house that she had to take her sweater off, and her short-sleeved dress didn't cover the huge bruise on her arm from the blood test. The JP kept looking at her arm, and she was afraid he would get the wrong idea about Dad.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:38 PM on February 17, 2018
Back in the early 1960s, we heard that a local minister told a high school age couple that if they were determined to elope, he would marry them. The idea was better they be married than not. (They did marry, but I think not an element per se.) But that was the thinking at that time and earlier.
My wife's grandparents went from Pennsylvania to, I think, Ohio.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:08 PM on February 17, 2018
My wife's grandparents went from Pennsylvania to, I think, Ohio.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:08 PM on February 17, 2018
The idea was better they be married than not.
This story is kind of romantic, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing. Circa 1960, college town in Upstate NY.
Uncle D, quiet boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Played guitar like Elvis, sang like Johnny Cash. Girlfriend S’s family looked down their noses at other drunks because they did their drinking at the Elks Lodge and not some dirty saloon. Under-underage, and in an interesting delicate condition, she was packed off by her parents to one of those Christian maternity homes where they tell everyone you've got “TB” and are off “visiting an aunt out West” while they fill you with stories about you and your kid dying on the street and going to hell if you don't sign this closed adoption agreement RIGHT NOW.
So Boy found Girl and busted her out of the joint, like Sir Launcelot in stained Levi's, and brought her home to the castle of his mother (Grandpa lived there, too). She said they could stay, but they had to get married. Grandma figured Maryland was the nearest place with the best combination of laws for their needs, and she drove them them overnight to a courthouse in Baltimore.
A call to Aunt S.’s parents made it clear that it was going to take a while for them to reach a state of What's Done Is Done. So Grandma suggested they spend the summer with Uncle P. In Pennsylvania, where Uncle D. could help with Uncle P.’s main job, giving him more time for his side work.
The moral of the story, kids, is don’t have unprotected sex if you don't want “Assistant County Gravedigger” on your resume.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:29 AM on February 19, 2018
This story is kind of romantic, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing. Circa 1960, college town in Upstate NY.
Uncle D, quiet boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Played guitar like Elvis, sang like Johnny Cash. Girlfriend S’s family looked down their noses at other drunks because they did their drinking at the Elks Lodge and not some dirty saloon. Under-underage, and in an interesting delicate condition, she was packed off by her parents to one of those Christian maternity homes where they tell everyone you've got “TB” and are off “visiting an aunt out West” while they fill you with stories about you and your kid dying on the street and going to hell if you don't sign this closed adoption agreement RIGHT NOW.
So Boy found Girl and busted her out of the joint, like Sir Launcelot in stained Levi's, and brought her home to the castle of his mother (Grandpa lived there, too). She said they could stay, but they had to get married. Grandma figured Maryland was the nearest place with the best combination of laws for their needs, and she drove them them overnight to a courthouse in Baltimore.
A call to Aunt S.’s parents made it clear that it was going to take a while for them to reach a state of What's Done Is Done. So Grandma suggested they spend the summer with Uncle P. In Pennsylvania, where Uncle D. could help with Uncle P.’s main job, giving him more time for his side work.
The moral of the story, kids, is don’t have unprotected sex if you don't want “Assistant County Gravedigger” on your resume.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:29 AM on February 19, 2018
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posted by muddgirl at 11:02 AM on February 17, 2018