Family member name: Roger Pearson Webber, Charlotte Ellen Smith Webber
Lifetime: 1914 - 2000, 1915 - 2014 respectively
Places lived: Massachusetts; Rhode Island
Tree branch: Webber
Relation: My grandparents (my dad's parents)
I was very surprised when I recently found a document that made me question their wedding date. "Heavenly day!" as my grandma would exclaim.
This is my grandparents' newly discovered marriage certificate. It shows them as married May 27, 1938 - over one year earlier than we thought. The ceremony was in another state: New Hampshire, not Massachusetts.
I contacted my aunt, who sent me a photo of the marriage certificate she has in her files. This is the marriage we all knew about - in Massachusetts in 1939.
Both marriage certificates are valid documents and listed in the marriage indexes for their respective states.
Wow, do you know what this means? My grandparents got married twice. To each other.
Relation: My grandparents (my dad's parents)
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| Webber wedding - photo taken Sept 2, 1939 |
This is my grandparents' newly discovered marriage certificate. It shows them as married May 27, 1938 - over one year earlier than we thought. The ceremony was in another state: New Hampshire, not Massachusetts.
I contacted my aunt, who sent me a photo of the marriage certificate she has in her files. This is the marriage we all knew about - in Massachusetts in 1939.
Both marriage certificates are valid documents and listed in the marriage indexes for their respective states.
Wow, do you know what this means? My grandparents got married twice. To each other.
I have no record that they were divorced in between these marriages. And they did not live together after the first marriage. (Notice that they fibbed on their second marriage certificate by saying it was their first marriage.)
Why did they get married twice? We don't know. One possible reason could be that my grandmother's mother was dying of cancer. In fact she died April 13, 1939 in New Hampshire. Maybe it was her dying wish to see her daughter married, I don't know. We always thought she died a few months before their wedding in 1939. But, could she actually have attended their wedding in 1938?? Probably.
But why in the world get officially married again by a priest? Why not just have a late reception? How many people at their second wedding knew they were already married? Now both of my grandparents have passed away, along with anyone who may have known the reason for the duplication.
We now have a family mystery.
Why did they get married twice? We don't know. One possible reason could be that my grandmother's mother was dying of cancer. In fact she died April 13, 1939 in New Hampshire. Maybe it was her dying wish to see her daughter married, I don't know. We always thought she died a few months before their wedding in 1939. But, could she actually have attended their wedding in 1938?? Probably.
But why in the world get officially married again by a priest? Why not just have a late reception? How many people at their second wedding knew they were already married? Now both of my grandparents have passed away, along with anyone who may have known the reason for the duplication.
We now have a family mystery.
Sources:
New Hampshire Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659-1947, page 509
Massachusetts, US, Marriage Index, 1901-1955, page 175
