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When Grandpa Trod the Boards: From The Colleen Bawn to the Irish Cultural Garden

Title page from The Colleen Bawn script.   In 1933, when Joseph John Gilbride was 23 years old, he took to the stage. Grandpa had a bit part as a soldier in a production of the 19th century Irish play, The Colleen Bawn , by Dion Boucicault. The play was produced in Cleveland's Little Theater in Public Hall. 1   My grandpa's name and address in The Colleen Bawn cast list. 2   Now, it's not a huge stretch to imagine Grandpa doing a bit of theater. He was an outgoing fella, prone to jokes, puns, and visual nonsense that made his grandkids laugh.  Cut-up Grandpa checks out his new headphones, getting a smile from Grandma! 3 But beyond the novelty of thinking about a young Grandpa playing a soldier, it was the context of this Theater of Nations endeavor and the groups that helped produce  The Colleen Bawn  that grabbed my attention.   Beginnings  It began with this announcement on 13 December 1929 in The Plain Dealer: Races of City to Give Plays with P...
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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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