{"id":1969,"date":"2017-11-14T11:40:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T18:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/?p=1969"},"modified":"2017-11-14T11:44:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T18:44:01","slug":"why-are-marriage-records-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2017\/11\/14\/why-are-marriage-records-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Marriage Records so Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The marriage record is the most important genealogical document you can find: The marriage record establishes a documented <\/strong>presence in a place of residence. Traditionally, the marriage took place where the bride lived; then, the couple went to the place of residence of the groom to set up their household, near the groom\u2019s employment. These places give you other residences and jurisdictions to search.
\nOther benefits from searching the marriages first:<\/strong>
\nBeginning of the family unit
\nAffects property ownership and descent
\nContains signatures!
\nMay name parents and other close family members
\nIdentifies maiden surnames and beginning of family naming patterns<\/p>\n

And since the average marriage before 1800 lasted only seven years, you can expect to find multiple marriages for one or the other ancestor in the initial marriage. <\/em><\/strong>Please consider:
\n<\/strong>__almost half of all marriages were broken by the death of one partner. Before<\/u> their 15th<\/sup> anniversary; Before<\/u> their oldest child became an adult; A new marriage was contracted and a new family unit begun\u2014the average marriage lasted seven years<\/strong>
\n__partners re-married quickly and could have three to four marriages during a lifespan<\/p>\n

__most children grew up as orphans and\/or step-children with half-siblings<\/p>\n

__one-third to one-half\u00a0 of all children born to a family never became adults\u201425% to 30% died within the first one or two years. And some 50% may not survive until age 20!<\/p>\n

__this high mortality required the family to produce many children to ensure survival of the family
\n__marriages occurred early\u2014at an average of 20 years of age or younger!
\nA wife was essential \u2013<\/strong>
\n__brought dowry of money or property to the marriage
\n__bore and raised the children\u2014the first workforce for the family unit
\n__was with child at marriage\u201417th century, under 10%; 18th century, up to 40% were expecting
\nA husband was essential \u2013<\/strong>
\n__conducted the legal business of the family\u2014women\u2019s rights were few, wills were written to protect property holdings of widows and children as well as ensure the survival of the family
\n__protected against enemies on the frontier
\n__supported the family members economically<\/p>\n

The<\/strong> marriage and family unit were dependent upon the kinship network:
\n<\/strong>__for financial advice and aid\u2014mortgages and loans were made by relatives to each other<\/p>\n

__for political preferment\u2014based on who your ancestors were related to and who they knew\u2014family connections, nepotism<\/p>\n

__for legal protection\u2014serving as bondsmen, witnesses, and co-signers<\/p>\n

__for chain migration patterns\u2014family units followed routes already taken by relatives and praised in glowing terms. Did you know that the majority of Italians who came to Cleveland, Ohio, were from same village in Italy?<\/p>\n

__for settlement patterns\u2014family members usually located their new lands near each other<\/p>\n

__formed the legal basis for ownership of property<\/p>\n

__legitimate claims to inheritance and preferment<\/p>\n

__source of money from civil government agencies created to ensure the survival of heirs<\/p>\n

Summary of \u201cBicentennial Perspectives on Birth, Marriage, and Death,\u201d National Genealogical Society<\/em> Quarterly <\/em>65 (March 1977): 16-24. Richard Jensen, the author of this little-known and essential article, was Director of the Family and Community History Center, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle http:\/\/arleneeakle.com <\/a><\/p>\n

PS Research strategies often determine your success in finding hard-to-find ancestors; strategies determine the evidence you have to prove the ancestor is yours!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The marriage record is the most important genealogical document you can find: The marriage record establishes a documented presence in a place of residence. Traditionally, the marriage took place where the bride lived; then, the couple went to the place … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56,235],"class_list":["post-1969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-marriage-records","tag-why-search-marriages-first-survival-of-family-unit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}