Matrilineal Monday is a blogging theme to celebrate or share something of your mother’s line.
When I started on the process of locating my grandparent’s marriage record, all I knew from my aunt (their daughter) was they got married on Thanksgiving and the reception was at Aunt Sadie’s.
I didn't know who Aunt Sadie was.
I wasn't sure of the year, so I didn't know when Thanksgiving fell.
All I knew was William Cyril (known as Cyril) came from Hamilton in Ravalli County, Montana and Anna (later known as Anne) came from Anaconda in Deer Lodge County.
Letters sent to the county recorders in both counties came back with no record found. Gosh, why wouldn't they be married in one of their hometowns?
Letters were sent to the Catholic churches in both counties with the same results: no record of marriage found there.
So, who was Aunt Sadie?
My daughters and I had taken a trip to Montana to visit both Hamilton and Anaconda, hoping to find more information about this marriage (among other things). I made a quick call to my aunt pleading for more information about this Aunt Sadie.
It seems she was married to a Sullivan. She lived in Butte (which is in Silver Bow county) and had three children: Margaret (who never married), Daniel (who was a priest), and John (who was in the electrical business). These were better clues.
So off to Butte we went.
The county recorder’s office found no marriage for Sullivan and Hork. Sigh.
Not completely discouraged, we went to the Catholic Church close to downtown. The office woman took us to a side room and brought all of the old church record books from that church and others in the area that were no longer present. I divvied out books to each of my daughters (who were 8 and 10) and said to look for the names Sullivan and Hork together.
So quietly we searched through the old record books. We were so busy looking that I didn't think to take a photo of us working.
Suddenly daughter #1 yelled out, “I found it!” There in the St. Patrick’s Church book on page 434, Hork & Sullivan were handwritten in the margin.[1] They were married on 30 Nov 1922. The witnesses were Daniel J. Sullivan (the one who would become a priest) and Ethel Sullivan (Anna’s sister).
With the photocopy the office secretary was so nice to make for us, we returned to the courthouse and requested another search of their records. Of course with the known date, the record was found.[2] It had been indexed incorrectly (I can’t remember now how Sullivan or Hork were misspelled).
The information was basically the same between the two documents with some minor misspellings.
Later at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, I found a newspaper notice about the marriage with a bit of help from my daughters:[3]
No mention of the reception at Aunt Sadie’s but she and her husband, Michael J. Sullivan were living at 162 West Granite Street in Butte.[4] Michael was the brother of Anna’s father, John H. Sullivan.
There is no other record of the wedding: no photos, no invitation. In fact, I have no photo of Cyril and Anne together.
[1] St. Patrick's Church, Butte, Montana, Marriage (Church) Record of William C. Hork & Anne M. Sullivan, p 434, Hork-Sullivan.
[2] Silver Bow County, Marriage Record of William C. Hork & Anna M. Sullivan, record A-14551, photocopy, 30 Nov 1922.
[3] Marriage Announcement of William C Hork & Anne M. Sullivan, Dec 3, 1922, col 4, p 7.
[4] 1920 Silver Bow Co, Montana, population schedule, Butte, ED 214, sht 3a, dwl 29, fam 43, Michael Sullivan, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Apr 2013).
When I started on the process of locating my grandparent’s marriage record, all I knew from my aunt (their daughter) was they got married on Thanksgiving and the reception was at Aunt Sadie’s.
I didn't know who Aunt Sadie was.
I wasn't sure of the year, so I didn't know when Thanksgiving fell.
All I knew was William Cyril (known as Cyril) came from Hamilton in Ravalli County, Montana and Anna (later known as Anne) came from Anaconda in Deer Lodge County.
Letters sent to the county recorders in both counties came back with no record found. Gosh, why wouldn't they be married in one of their hometowns?
Letters were sent to the Catholic churches in both counties with the same results: no record of marriage found there.
So, who was Aunt Sadie?
My daughters and I had taken a trip to Montana to visit both Hamilton and Anaconda, hoping to find more information about this marriage (among other things). I made a quick call to my aunt pleading for more information about this Aunt Sadie.
It seems she was married to a Sullivan. She lived in Butte (which is in Silver Bow county) and had three children: Margaret (who never married), Daniel (who was a priest), and John (who was in the electrical business). These were better clues.
So off to Butte we went.
The county recorder’s office found no marriage for Sullivan and Hork. Sigh.
Not completely discouraged, we went to the Catholic Church close to downtown. The office woman took us to a side room and brought all of the old church record books from that church and others in the area that were no longer present. I divvied out books to each of my daughters (who were 8 and 10) and said to look for the names Sullivan and Hork together.
So quietly we searched through the old record books. We were so busy looking that I didn't think to take a photo of us working.
Suddenly daughter #1 yelled out, “I found it!” There in the St. Patrick’s Church book on page 434, Hork & Sullivan were handwritten in the margin.[1] They were married on 30 Nov 1922. The witnesses were Daniel J. Sullivan (the one who would become a priest) and Ethel Sullivan (Anna’s sister).
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| 1922 Marriage record from St. Patrick's Church in Butte, Montana of Cyril Hork and Anna Sullivan |
With the photocopy the office secretary was so nice to make for us, we returned to the courthouse and requested another search of their records. Of course with the known date, the record was found.[2] It had been indexed incorrectly (I can’t remember now how Sullivan or Hork were misspelled).
 |
| 1922 Marriage record of Cyril Hork & Anna Sullivan |
Later at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, I found a newspaper notice about the marriage with a bit of help from my daughters:[3]
 |
| From Butte Miner, 3 Dec 1922 |
No mention of the reception at Aunt Sadie’s but she and her husband, Michael J. Sullivan were living at 162 West Granite Street in Butte.[4] Michael was the brother of Anna’s father, John H. Sullivan.
There is no other record of the wedding: no photos, no invitation. In fact, I have no photo of Cyril and Anne together.
[1] St. Patrick's Church, Butte, Montana, Marriage (Church) Record of William C. Hork & Anne M. Sullivan, p 434, Hork-Sullivan.
[2] Silver Bow County, Marriage Record of William C. Hork & Anna M. Sullivan, record A-14551, photocopy, 30 Nov 1922.
[3] Marriage Announcement of William C Hork & Anne M. Sullivan, Dec 3, 1922, col 4, p 7.
[4] 1920 Silver Bow Co, Montana, population schedule, Butte, ED 214, sht 3a, dwl 29, fam 43, Michael Sullivan, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Apr 2013).
It's so cool that your young daughters were willing to help and that one of them made the discovery!
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