26 February 2013

A Roundabout Way for an 1850 Era Marriage

As part of a larger project, I am trying to locate the marriage record for George and Wilhelmina Rothweiler who were living in the St. Louis, Missouri, area from the 1850s through at least the 1890s.

They may or may not have been married in St. Louis.

Attempts to find the marriage "easily" online have not been successful. The couple probably married in the St. Louis area, but it is possible that they married at some location east of that and moved to St. Louis after their marriage.

Instead of spinning my wheels, I decided to determine if George had military service in the Civil War. He apparently served in a Union unit from the St. Louis area and a widow received a pension based upon his service.

The widow would have needed to have documented her marriage in order to qualify for the pension. If it's the correct couple (I have additional identifying information on George and Wilhelmina), I'll get the date and place of the marriage in the pension file and can then attempt to locate the actual record since I know the location.

There is the added benefit that the widow may provide additional details in her application.

Sometimes it pays to think "where could that piece of information be recorded" other than the "obvious."