Wedding Wednesday

Gospel Messenger,  20 JAN 1934, Pg. 27

Eichhorn – Early  - Dec. 28, 1933, at the Bride’s home, the home of the undersigned, Gaylord Eichhorn of Troy, Ohio and Genevieve Early.
 --S.P. Early, Roaring Spring, Pa

  The week between Christmas & New Years Mr. Brown Eyes always takes me away for a few days of research.  This year we spent some time researching in three different locales in the area of Dayton, Ohio.  

  Thursday we spent at the Dayton Public Library getting obituaries using their obituary index for some of my "wants", others we had to search for.  Friday we worked at the Montgomery County Records & Archive Center.  Saturday we spent at the Brethren Heritage Center in Brookville.

I enjoy using all of these places to research the families I have in the Montgomery County area.  Today's wedding entry I found in the Brethren Heritage Center.  The Heritage center has a very large collection of Brethren periodicals, mainly newspapers.  They are indexed and the staff there is very knowledgeable regarding the indexes and the collection in general.  I had about 48-50 items on my to do list and the only items I didn't get were items that were in three issues that they did not have of The Gospel Messenger.  

Most of the entries that day were obituaries I was seeking on the Early family out of Rockingham County, Virginia.  While looking for the obituary of one of that family I just happened to notice the above under "Matrimonial".  I couldn't leave it there. 

 Genevieve Early is the daughter of Simon P. Early (1874-1948) and his wife, Emma Wine.  

 You'll be seeing more of the Early family in weeks to come as I have plenty of items I want to share.  They were in Rockingham County, Virginia and then migrated thru Pennsylvania (where some remained) into parts of southwestern Ohio and then into Illinois and Missouri.  

Happy Researching!

Monday Musings

I've been working on the things I pulled when I was in Dayton two weekends ago.  It seems my list of things I need to get there grows daily.  With my moms entire family tree basically all from that area the list has turned into the to do list that never ends.

When we go there on Saturday its either cemetery photo's or newspaper items at the library.  Every year we go somewhere to research between Christmas & New Year's.  This year we are going to Dayton.  More specifically to the Archives & Record Center downtown.  It's nice to be able to go there thru the week (yes, they are open - I checked already!) when we can go to the Archives.

It houses every old record for Montgomery County, Ohio & the city of Dayton except old newspapers.  We stay right across the street (3 minutes door to door!) so its easy if one wants to take a break to just walk back across the street.  It's like one stop shopping for the genealogy researcher.  We take a day and do just newspapers which is just a couple of blocks away and then spend a day or two at the archives. 

Of course while there we always take time to have dinner with friends - so its a double win - research & time with some friends & family.  Does it get any better than that? 

Speaking Of Rabbit Holes... Well Sort Of...

We were in Dayton a few weeks ago at the Montgomery County Archives & Record Center.  I love that place! It has everything Montgomery County (Ohio) except obits in one place, under one roof.  Now that I can handle!

Alot of times we will pull a marriage book and just go thru it line by line.  On this particular day we were doing just that.  Mr. Brown Eyes came across a real interesting rabbit hole.  I'm not going to include the images or names due to the nature of what I found during my chase down the rabbit hole.

Some Ohio marriage records contain a great amount of details - especially for the time frame around the 1920's.  Mr. Brown Eyes came across the marriage record of this young woman in my data base.  She was a third cousin to me.   Mr. Brown Eyes called me over to show me what he had found.

On the line where her father's place of residence was we saw the letters O.S.P. - O.S.P ?  What the heck?  After conferring and discussion we decided it was Ohio State Penitentary. Really? 

We inquired with the Librarian on duty at the Archives and asked if they had records for Prison's, especially the Ohio State Pen.   Her reply was that no, they didn't but that if the felony occurred in Montgomery County they did have those records.  So off we went on yet another chase. 

The court records were easy to navigate and we soon found the case.  It wasn't pleasant at all - the guilty party had been "having relations" with his daughter.  (nuff said moving on).  Of course this leads us to yet another rabbit hole - Divorce records.  A natural conclusion I would think.

So down the rabbit hole we went.  The divorce was a nasty one - with the guilty party literally selling everything the family had as he sat in a jail cell.  Law suits flying, accusations flying...  in the end the divorce was settled, he went to jail for a whopping three years.  The daughter did marry and life went on.  Did I mention in the process of chasing that rabbit hole we came across yet another set of rabbit holes that we can chase next time?   So many rabbit holes, so little time. 

All because of O.S.P on the line of marriage record.  I love doing genealogy!

Happy Researching!