Well, now I'm confused. While at the
WMU Archives
in Kalamazoo, I went hunting for more divorce records, this time for
Cass county, Michigan.
Before I entered the archives I had
information from a Civil War pension application file that told the
following fragmentary tale. Once upon a time Gaylord Brown married
Lydia Whitcomb. Then Gaylord's brother, Fernando, caught Lydia's
fancy. She jilted Gaylord and married Fernando. In an attempt to
corroborate this information I searched databases at
Family Search. I found a marriage return for Gaylord and Lydia
stating the date of marriage was 24 July 1881. A marriage return for
Lydia and Fernando provided a date of marriage of 11 Jun 1893.
When I went to the WMU archives I
wanted to find divorce records, particularly the bills of complaint
for Gaylord's divorce from Lydia as well as Fernando's divorce from
his first wife. I hoped these records might shed light on the
circumstances of Lydia's defection. The first thing I discovered was
that only the divorce decrees were available for Cass county on the
microfilm at the archives. I need to find out if the bills of
complaint still exist and are locked away somewhere where I can
someday access them.
Although I didn't discover all I hoped
for I did gain some information, but as usual, I was left with more
questions than answers. Instead of finding a single divorce decree
for Gaylord and Lydia I found two. That was a surprise, but that
wasn't all. As I added the information to my family tree software I
discovered that, Gaylord and Lydia divorced (12 Jul 1881) before they
even married (24 Jul 1881). Clearly this is wrong.
So what is going on here? I still need
to figure it out, but I have a few ideas. First of all, I'll believe
the divorce date of 13 Jul 1881. It comes from the microfilm of the
original court record signed by the judge (a primary source of the
information). Now the question is, is the marriage return correct?
Unfortunately, I don't have sufficient information to make that
determination. The marriage return is a derivative record, but that
doesn't necessarily mean that it is wrong. The return was
filed 16 Feb 1882 and it is certainly possible that whoever recorded
the information here transcribed it incorrectly. However, as there
are two divorce records (the later one provides a divorce date of 27
Feb 1893), it is theoretically possible that within days of their
divorce becoming final that Gaylord and Lydia remarried. Hey, I
didn't say that makes much sense, but stranger things have happened.
So, if we accept the first divorce date
of 13 Jul 1881 then it must mean that Gaylord and Lydia were married
prior to that date, and at least as early as 13 June 1881 when Lydia
filed the bill of complaint. Unfortunately, I have failed to find an
earlier record of marriage for this pair of lovebirds. While vexing,
the lack of a record isn't a complete surprise to me. Although civil
registration began in Michigan in 1867, I have found that for the
first couple of decades afterward some records didn't seem to make it
onto the official rolls.
The 1880 census is likewise
unenlightening. Gaylord Brown does not appear in the census in Cass
county, but a Joseph Brown born in 1843 in NY (the right information
for Gaylord) is living in the appropriate area of the county with his
wife, Lydia. Census enumerations being what they are, I can't
conclude anything from an entry like that.
So, where does this leave me? Well, it
leaves me in Tennessee, nine to ten hours away from any records that
might settle this, assuming the records still exist. I suppose it
will supply me with ample time (in theory) to compose some hypotheses
and plan my attack for the next time I'm in the area. That's
genealogy for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment