Thursday, March 04, 2010

Weddings.


I have been looking everywhere because I know I have a picture of the four generations of "Maes" from my post below...of course it's nowhere to be found! Ah well.

Today's Women's History Month prompt from Geneabloggers:

March 4: Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

I have dates of marriage for most of my ancestors, but I don't know too many details about any of the weddings. I suppose the most I know is about my Martin grandparents--they met when Grandma's friend married Grandpa's brother, and Grandma and some of her friends took a trip out to visit her. Grandpa's parents invited the group to their home for dinner, and that was how Grandma met Grandpa.

They were married January 21, 1943, and I believe they had the longest marriage of any couple in my family: 66 years.
Here are Ira Martin and Martha Weaver on their wedding day:


I've mentioned before that since most of my family was Mennonite, and the ones that weren't were dirt-poor, we have a scarcity of fancy wedding portraits in my family! Here is the only one I've got...these are my Grandma Martin's parents, Noah Weaver and Fannie Martin, who were married November 26, 1908:


In their church at that time, young people could dress "fancy," I believe, until they officially joined the church. I remember Grandma telling me that her parents dragged their feet about doing so! No wonder--they were handsome people and looked very nice dressed "fancy."