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Heirloom Investigation: Where Did This Cutlery Set Come From? Part 1

My father-in-law recently gave me a box of goodies that has me very excited! He gave me an old set of cutlery - five knives and four forks, and I've been on the hunt for who the set might have belonged to.  It's time for an heirloom investigation! I'm going to draw on some lessons I learned in a material culture class I took a few years ago to do so.   Description First, let's look at what we have and describe it. This process slows me down to really look at the items as a whole and at each individual piece to find every clue possible. (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)   The Box   The set was in an old paperboard box which was very brown with stains and age. The box had been sealed with brown tape, possibly gummed tape.  The box measures 10" long x 3-7/8" wide x 2" deep. The box bears a typed mailing label addressed to Mrs. Harold Casey, Box 307, Crescent, Oklahoma. Another postal label covers the zip code.  The return address states: After 10 days retu...
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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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