52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 7 -- Valentine

-
My parents -- native Texans both -- were married in Oklahoma. Marietta, Oklahoma. Marietta, LOVE COUNTY, Oklahoma, to be exact. Love County? Seriously?

When I saw the "Valentine" prompt for this week, I called my mom and asked her to tell me the story of how she and dad ended up being married in Love County, Oklahoma.



Me: "Did you pick Marietta because it was in Love County?"

Mom: "Oh, no, we had no idea. We didn't know it was in Love County until we received the marriage license back in the mail. And boy, were we ever in love!"

Me: "So why did you decide to get married in Oklahoma in the first place?"

Mom: "Well, I remember it was the end of plowing season and I was helping your dad plow some neighbors' fields to earn some extra money. I remember we plowed about 200 acres for $200, and we decided to take that money and go get married.

"We had decided we didn't want a church wedding, and we'd already talked to Mama and Daddy [mom's parents] about getting married. They were going to California to visit LaVerne [one of mom's older sisters], so we told them we'd probably be married when they got back to Texas.

"Texas had a three-day waiting period after getting a marriage license and Oklahoma didn't, so when we finished plowing we decided to drive to Oklahoma and get married that day. We stopped somewhere else first but the office in that town was closed, and someone told us to go to Marietta, so we did.

"The justice of the peace married us in his house. His wife was one of the witnesses.

"We spent two or three days at that big lake up there. What's it called?"

Me: "Lake Texoma?"

Mom: "Yes, Lake Texoma. That was a big deal to a couple of country kids who hadn't really been anywhere before.

"I remember the first time I saw your dad. I thought, "Look at that good looking guy. I think I'll marry him."

And so she did on August 21, 1954, in Marietta, Love Co., Oklahoma.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2020, Week 1 -- Fresh Start

-
I started the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge in 2018 and managed to write for almost four months before being completely overwhelmed by life and abandoning the task. Since then, I've kept up with each week's theme and written little blog entries in my head but never published them (which isn't terribly helpful for those of you who aren't mind readers). Entering 2020, I hope I can make a fresh start. I retired at the end of 2019 from my job of 23 years so I won't have that time-consuming peskiness getting in the way of genealogy research and writing. I won't over promise that I will (or can) write about each weekly theme, but I'll have a better chance in 2020. UPDATE 30 June 2020: Wishful thinking. I wrote for a whopping TWO WEEKS before being completely overwhelmed by life and abandoning the task. And just as I was contemplating another attempt, the COVID-19 PANDEMIC happened.
Read more

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2020, Week 27 -- Solo

-
Image
“How about someone on a line where you feel like you're the only one researching them? (I have a couple of those!)” --Amy Johnson Crow I know exactly how you feel, Amy. Welcome to my SHEHORN family. Unaided, unaccompanied, unassisted I search. I fly solo because I haven’t encountered another researcher since the mid-1980s who knows anything about this family.  My confidence that I’ve found “my” Shehorn family is fairly low, because there are so many unknowns. Here’s what I know as fact: Me < My Mother < My Grandfather (Ralph Wayne Jones) < My Great-Grandfather (John Henry Jones, Jr.). These first four generations I know exist, as I have the primary source evidence. :) Then the record gets a little sketchy when the Shehorn name is introduced. John Henry Jones, Jr.’s mother may have been Mary Eleanor Shehorn (b. 1835-d. ~1908). Mary’s father may have been William Shehorn (b. ~1802-d. 1846). The only “evidence” I have connecting John Henry Jones, Jr. to his mother is (1)
Read more

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 27 -- Independence

-
Image
My maternal 5x great-grandfather Zebulon Brevard was born 29 March 1724 in Cecil Co., Maryland and died 8 Aug 1798 in Iredell Co., North Carolina. In between he married, raised a family of 10 children and "assisted in establishing American Independence" [1] by serving as an ensign in the colonial militia in Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina. He also served as a jury member in the same county. (Perhaps that will make you rethink avoiding jury duty.) Obviously not a Brevard from the 1700s. This is my paternal grandfather John Frederick Goehring with a 48-star U.S. flag. I estimate this photo was taken ca. 1942 near the beginning of America's involvement in World War II. Although I don't know much about Zebulon Brevard (yet) as an individual, the Brevard family from that era were well-known and appear in many written histories of North Carolina. • The first Brevard ancestor in America -- Zebulon's father, John Brevard or Jean de Brever -- was a Huguenot refu
Read more