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A Rose for Sharon

    For many years now, I have posted the single pink rose image to my social media on August 19th and June 4th. Those who know me well know it is in honor of my little sister, Sharon, who died in 1994. Her birth date and her death date. That has been the extent of my communication about my sister or her life since. Thirty-two years is a long time to hold onto words. I have considered writing about her. It doesn't matter how deep my feelings are for her or how much I cherish her memory, the words don't come easily, if at all. Words feel cheap and wrong. It's hard to even describe why. Maybe it is because she was our family's: Our sister, our cousin, our niece, our daughter. We knew her best, so no one else should have the right to know about her like we did. Maybe that's why I hold onto my words. But I realize that if I don't tell her story, who will?  I have spent hour upon hour researching my long-gone ancestors, yet I haven't written about my own sister. ...
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GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Marriage Record


 

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Marriage Record - January 9th entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.

by Nancy Gilbride Casey 


One very important lesson for genealogy researches to learn is to always look at the pages before and after digitized images online. For me, this practice uncovered an additional document attached to the marriage record of my husband's great grandparents Stephen Henry Casey and Nellie Frances Taylor (pictured shortly after their wedding in 1909, above).1

Their marriage record was found easily enough on Ancestry; it shows that Stephen, then aged 20 and Nellie, aged 19, applied for a license in Muskogee, Oklahoma and were married on 14 July 1909 by Rev. A.N. Hall, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Muskogee.2 It seemed pretty clear cut. 


 

I didn't notice immediately the letter folded over to the left side of the book...


 

...eventually I noticed the Thos. B. Casey signature.

Paging back one image, I found attached to the marriage record was a letter from Stephen's father, Thomas Benton Casey:


Pryor Creek, Oklahoma

July 12, 1909

Clerk of the Court, Muskogee County

Dear Sirs, 

This is the certify that I am 

satisfied and perfectly willing for my son S.H. Casey

and Miss Nellie F. Taylor to unite in marriage 

on July 14, 1909 and as I cannot be present with him I am sending 

you this letter & ask that the license be granted

him and all courtesy be shown him possible the 

same will be appreciated by me.

His father, Thos. B. Casey

Pryor Creek, Oklahoma

July 12, '09

State of Oklahoma

County of Mayes

Subscribed and Sworn to before

me this 14th day of July 1909.

J.C. Chandler 

Justice of the Peace


Stephen was not yet 21, and according to Oklahoma law at the time, was under the legal age to marry:

"Any unmarried male of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, and any unmarried female of the age of eighteen years or upwards and not otherwise disqualified, is capable of contracting and consenting to marriage; but no female under the age of eighteen years, and no male under the age of twenty-one years shall enter into the marriage relation, nor any license issued whereof, except upon the consent and authority given either in person or in writing, by a parent or guardian..." 3



 

One can picture Stephen hand-carrying the precious letter to Muskogee to claim his bride.

Thomas Casey's letter helped begin a relationship which was to last over six decades; Stephen and Nellie Casey were married for over 62 years, until Stephen's death in 1972.


NEXT UP: Census Record

 

1 Nellie F. (Taylor) Casey and Stephen H. Casey photograph, ca. 1909; digital image; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/34074975/person/18860988756/media/06b9817b-df22-4dde-a204-29ed832cfe00 : accessed 9 Jan. 2021), originally shared by mcasey316, 2002.
2Marriage Record, Vol. 3, Muskogee County, July 5, 1909-May 14, 1910, p. 17, marriage of Stephen H. Casey and Nellie F. Taylor (1909); digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-9F3W-86 : accessed 9 January 2021); citing FHL Film 004708239, image 255-256/696.
3 John T. Hays, John Robert Thomas, William R. Brownlee, J.H. Sutherlin, The Revised Laws of the State of Oklahoma Embracing All Laws from 1890 to 1910, Inclusive, Now in Force (Columbia: E. W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1911), p. 1562; digital image, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Revised_Laws_of_the_State_of_Oklahom/7Xo0AQAAMAAJ : accessed 8 January 2021).

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