Well, I got that email. You all know the one I'm talking about. The one that pops up after you have turned in all your flawless research that no one is ever going to dispute.
And it turned out that my ancestors were born.
And it turned out that my ancestors successfully passed away.
And everyone was married.
Except for my parents!
They looked married. We all lived in the same house. I called them Mom and Dad. Hello, we opened presents together on Christmas morning.
I guess when you are doing family research it is easy to take things for granted. This is one of the things that really hit home with me when I was filling out my lineage papers. One thing they always tell you is to not enter any information on your application that isn't actually on the document you are working from. This is the gospel, there are no exceptions.
You would be surprised how easy it is to throw in a place where your ancestor was born, married, or died. I know that my dad was born in Mt. Carmel, Ohio but his birth certificate doesn't say that. I have been there; I have seen the house where he was born. Nope! The BC says Union Township and no matter how much I want to enter Mt. Carmel, it won't work.
So basically I did very well with everything except the marriage of my parents.
What happened was I had a document in my possession that said Certificate of Marriage and it was signed by the minister and witnesses. Looked good to me!! Apparently "Certificate of" does not mean "certified copy". I understand that now and I really feel stupid since all my other documentation came from a court house and my parent's marriage certificate came from a box in my closet.
No problem. A phone call and a quick trip to the Courthouse in Bowling Green, Ohio plus $2.00 took care of the problem. So there I was in the Wood County Courthouse holding a certified copy of my parents' marriage record. Standing in the same spot where my parents applied for a marriage license 80+ years ago. What a great feeling that was.I guess I have to thank the person who would not approve my application until I experienced that moment.
Oh, and by the way, that certified document I picked up in BG says my dad was born in Mt. Carmel, Ohio. So there!!
And it turned out that my ancestors were born.
And it turned out that my ancestors successfully passed away.
And everyone was married.
Except for my parents!
They looked married. We all lived in the same house. I called them Mom and Dad. Hello, we opened presents together on Christmas morning.
I guess when you are doing family research it is easy to take things for granted. This is one of the things that really hit home with me when I was filling out my lineage papers. One thing they always tell you is to not enter any information on your application that isn't actually on the document you are working from. This is the gospel, there are no exceptions.
You would be surprised how easy it is to throw in a place where your ancestor was born, married, or died. I know that my dad was born in Mt. Carmel, Ohio but his birth certificate doesn't say that. I have been there; I have seen the house where he was born. Nope! The BC says Union Township and no matter how much I want to enter Mt. Carmel, it won't work.
So basically I did very well with everything except the marriage of my parents.
What happened was I had a document in my possession that said Certificate of Marriage and it was signed by the minister and witnesses. Looked good to me!! Apparently "Certificate of" does not mean "certified copy". I understand that now and I really feel stupid since all my other documentation came from a court house and my parent's marriage certificate came from a box in my closet.
No problem. A phone call and a quick trip to the Courthouse in Bowling Green, Ohio plus $2.00 took care of the problem. So there I was in the Wood County Courthouse holding a certified copy of my parents' marriage record. Standing in the same spot where my parents applied for a marriage license 80+ years ago. What a great feeling that was.I guess I have to thank the person who would not approve my application until I experienced that moment.
Oh, and by the way, that certified document I picked up in BG says my dad was born in Mt. Carmel, Ohio. So there!!
No comments:
Post a Comment