Many of our ancestors eloped. They ran away from home to marry, sometimes in secret, then returned to announce the news.
In my hometown in the 1960s, some couples would say they married at the beach, but really had run only as far as Chattahoochee County, south of Columbus. It was a way of romanticizing their stories, instead of saying they had gone to the closest, most receptive probate judge, a man who rarely turned anyone away. Historically, there are many euphemisms for runaway marriage spots, Gretna Green being one of the most famous. It refers to an actual place just over the border from England, in Scotland. A change in the law in 1754 seems to have made it a haven, mentioned even in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”
In Columbus, couples also could cross the state line and go to Phenix City, Ala., to get hitched.
Why mention all this? Because it’s important to think outside of the box if you’re having trouble finding records of an ancestor’s marriage. A friend of mine was recently searching for a Chattanooga area marriage and was told by the clerk in Ringgold that they should also check adjacent Walker County, as a marriage could be recorded in either county, no matter what the couple might have said.
South Carolina didn’t have civil marriages until 1911. So there are no “marriage books” in the courthouses before then. Researchers must look to church records, newspapers, a family Bible or other sources. So if you can’t find a marriage, check for spots nearby where couples went to elope, or expand your search just a county or two away.
Genealogy interviews in EMC’s Georgia Magazine
Professional genealogist Elizabeth Olson and this columnist were interviewed last fall about how we got into genealogy and some of our family stories. These interviews, along with family photographs and websites, are in the February issue of “Georgia Magazine,” published by the Georgia EMC (Electric Membership Corporation). It’s online at georgiamagazine.org. Many across the state get this magazine, so it was a good way to promote genealogy.
Are cemetery and graveyard interchangeable?
Recently, reporter Tim Chitwood of The Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus said a reader commented on his article where he had interchangeably used the terms cemetery and graveyard. The reader said he was told a graveyard was always associated with a church, while a cemetery stood alone, such as city-owned Oakland Cemetery. Some terms have older associations than we often think of today. An online search turns up lots of discussion on these terms.
