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SNGF -- What Was the Great Love Story in Your Family Tree?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 

1)  It's Valentine's Day - a day for lovers! We all have hundreds of love stories in our ancestry.

2)  What was the great love story of the ancestors in your family Tree?  What wedding had a great story in it?  Choose one ancestral couple. Share how they met (if known), when and where they married. Note how long they were married. Highlight something that suggests affection or partnership.

Here's mine:
I have written about my parents a few times before. My paternal grandparents split up after 15 years or so. My maternal grandparents had issues but stayed married until my grandfather died. My grandmother lived another 40 years.

I shall write instead of my husband’s parents: George Joseph Gorrell and Thelma Marie Nilsen. They married on 6 October 1951 in the chapel of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento.[1] James M. Fraser and Marian H. Kerkes were their witnesses.

George and Thelma met at church. Thelma had joined the choir and a Christian Endeavor group.

They were the parents of five children: four sons and one daughter. They celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2001,[2] and continued married until George’s death on 1 March 2011.[3]

They adored each other and their families and it showed whenever everyone were together.


[1] Westminster Presbyterian Church, Sacramento, certificate of marriage, 6 Oct 1951, George Joseph Gorrell & Thelma Marie Nilsen by Clarence K Kircher.

[2] Invitation to celebrate George and Thelma’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, North Highlands Community Center, North Highlands, 6 Oct 2001.

[3] California, Sacramento County, Department of Health and Human Services, certificate of death, no. 3052011040707 (state file no), George Joseph Gorrell, 2011.


Copyright © 2011-2026 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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