The treasure today is the 1874 marriage certificate for my great-grandparents, Frank Walton Seaver and Hattie Louisa Hildreth in Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire:
The transcription of this document is (with the groom and bride information not in columns, typed in information underlined, and handwritten information in italics):
State of New Hampshire
CERTIFIED ABSTRACT OF A CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE
00035872 FILE # 273GROOM
FULL NAME FRANK W SEAVER
AGE 0
RESIDENCE LEOMINSTER, MASSACHUSETTS
MARITAL STATUS
NO. OF THIS MARRIAGE 0
BIRTHPLACE
PLACE MARRIAGE INTENTIONS FILED KEENE
PLACE OF MARRIAGE KEENE
FILE DATE ++ SEE BELOW **
BRIDE
FULL NAME HATTIE L. HILDRETH
AGE 0
RESIDENCE LEOMINSTER, MASSACHUSETTS
MARITAL STATUS
NO. OF THIS MARRIAGE 0
BIRTHPLACE
DATE OF MARRIAGE DECEMBER 16, 1874
MARRIAGE PERFORMED BY REV. G.W. BROWN
** Filed in chronological order with records from 1872 to 1876.
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE ABSTRACT ISSUED FROM THE OFFICIAL RECORDS ON FILE AT THIS OFFICE.
ATTEST: Patricia Cutler STATE/LOCAL REGISTRAR Charles E. Sirc
CHARLES E. SIRC
STATE REGISTRAR
DATE ISSUED: SEPTEMBER 13, 1994 STATE /CITY/TOWN OF: KEENE
The source citation for this record, crafted using the Marriage Records (loose, licenses and bonds) source template in RootsMagic (based on EE 9.5):
Keene, New Hampshire, Abstract of a Certificate of Marriage, File #273, Frank W. Seaver and Hattie L. Hildreth, 16 December 1874 (abstracted 13 September 1994); Keene [N.H.] Town/City Clerk's Office, Keene, N.H.
Since this certificate was created 120 years after the marriage event, it is an official certified record of the marriage. It is a Derivative Source, with Primary Information and Direct Evidence as to the Marriage date and place.
Note that there are no ages given on the certificate. Either the town clerk didn't ask for it, didn't write it down, or it wasn't required (really?).
Hattie Hildreth was age 17 at the time of this marriage, and Frank was 22, and they were neighbors in Leominster, Massachusetts. They probably "eloped" to Keene (which is about 45 miles away). I'm not aware of any close family members of either Frank or Hattie who resided in or near Keene. Perhaps one of their friends went with them or referred them to a family member.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/treasure-chest-thursday-post-190-1874.html
Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver
5 comments:
Hmmm, 45 miles is close to an all-day trip by horseback. How did they get there? Borrow a buggy? Was there a stage? Did they leave a day or two before the marriage was celebrated? Where did they stay? Eat?
Randy - my husband's family, the Hall's, were early settlers and founders in Keene, NH. We visited there 3 years ago. It's a wonderful old town and has a couple of very old cemeteries.
I have a large book, History of Keene, New Hampshire by S. G. Griffin. I checked the index and found no mention of Seaver, Hildreth or Rev. Brown.
Interesting that they would go there to be married.
Randy - just ran across this post in a redirect from Google+.
You probably already knew this by now, but I thought I would pass along that Rev. Geo. W Brown was the pastor of the Episcopal Church, according to the 1877 Keene City Directory at Ancestry.
http://interactive.ancestry.com/8775/NH-Keene-NH-1877-0001100?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fsearch%2fdb.aspx%3fdbid%3d8775%26path%3d&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnBrowsing#?imageId=NH-Keene-NH-1877-0040660
Also- the Episcopal Church, was named St. James, and located on West Street.
http://interactive.ancestry.com/8775/NH-Keene-NH-1877-0001100?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fsearch%2fdb.aspx%3fdbid%3d8775%26path%3d&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnBrowsing#?imageId=NH-Keene-NH-1877-0026100
I don't get out there very often, but I can try to remember to take a photo next time I'm in the area. A very, pretty, gray stone church, right off the central street in Keene.
and the Keene Library has an album up on Flickr, showing churches in the area. There is a photo of St. James, dated to about 1870, which can be seen at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/keenepubliclibrary/4403508285/in/set-72157605664376176/
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