"We ran down to Angola"
My maternal grandparents were married February 8, 1950. In my grandma's words, she and my grandpa "ran down to Angola, Indiana" to get married quickly. I'm glad that phrasing has stuck in my head all these years, because I wanted to track down their marriage license. After looking up the county Angola is in (Steuben), I searched for and found their application for a marriage license on familysearch.org. The application had a lot of valuable information in it, and other stuff that, once again, just leads to more questions.
The first problem I encountered: some of the info on the application is wrong. My grandpa's birthday is listed as August 7, 1925. He was actually born August 7, 1924. My grandma's birthday is listed as May 25, 1930; it should have said May 25, 1931. Not sure why my grandpa subtracted a year and my grandma added one...surely they knew their own birthdays!
The second problem was the misspellings of their parents' names. My grandpa's mother is listed as "Clara McMain" - it should be Clara Manes. My grandma's father is listed as "Thayler Graham" instead of Thayer Graham. My guess is that the misspellings were just an error on the part of the clerk.
As I've written previously, I was under the impression that my grandpa never knew what happened to his mother, Clara. I thought they had never seen each other again after Clara dropped him and his sister off at the orphanage in Kentucky in 1930. But this application listed Clara as living in Van Dyke, Michigan! And my grandpa was living in Van Dyke, too! Whaaaaat? Why didn't anyone in our family seem to know this? I don't recall my mom EVER saying anything about this during her intense online search for Clara back in the late 1990's. Does this mean my grandpa actually had contact or was even living with his real mother in 1950 right before getting married to my grandma? What happened to Clara after 1950?
I'd never heard of Van Dyke, Michigan, the town, just Van Dyke, the major road. The Google and Wikipedia told me Van Dyke was a community along the northern boundary of Detroit, in the southern end of what used to be Warren Township. Van Dyke was annexed into Warren, Michigan when Warren became a city in 1957.
The application listed my grandma as living in Center Line, Michigan. I know where that is; it's not far from where Van Dyke would have been. I didn't realize she was living in that area in 1950. I always assumed she was still living up in Saginaw. I'm not sure who she was living with in Center Line, but my guess is one of her older sisters. I also don't know how she and my grandpa met one another. I have a vague idea that they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance, but I have no details.
At least now I have some more clues about my grandpa's family. It's not much to go on, but it's a start.
The first problem I encountered: some of the info on the application is wrong. My grandpa's birthday is listed as August 7, 1925. He was actually born August 7, 1924. My grandma's birthday is listed as May 25, 1930; it should have said May 25, 1931. Not sure why my grandpa subtracted a year and my grandma added one...surely they knew their own birthdays!
The second problem was the misspellings of their parents' names. My grandpa's mother is listed as "Clara McMain" - it should be Clara Manes. My grandma's father is listed as "Thayler Graham" instead of Thayer Graham. My guess is that the misspellings were just an error on the part of the clerk.
As I've written previously, I was under the impression that my grandpa never knew what happened to his mother, Clara. I thought they had never seen each other again after Clara dropped him and his sister off at the orphanage in Kentucky in 1930. But this application listed Clara as living in Van Dyke, Michigan! And my grandpa was living in Van Dyke, too! Whaaaaat? Why didn't anyone in our family seem to know this? I don't recall my mom EVER saying anything about this during her intense online search for Clara back in the late 1990's. Does this mean my grandpa actually had contact or was even living with his real mother in 1950 right before getting married to my grandma? What happened to Clara after 1950?
I'd never heard of Van Dyke, Michigan, the town, just Van Dyke, the major road. The Google and Wikipedia told me Van Dyke was a community along the northern boundary of Detroit, in the southern end of what used to be Warren Township. Van Dyke was annexed into Warren, Michigan when Warren became a city in 1957.
The application listed my grandma as living in Center Line, Michigan. I know where that is; it's not far from where Van Dyke would have been. I didn't realize she was living in that area in 1950. I always assumed she was still living up in Saginaw. I'm not sure who she was living with in Center Line, but my guess is one of her older sisters. I also don't know how she and my grandpa met one another. I have a vague idea that they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance, but I have no details.
At least now I have some more clues about my grandpa's family. It's not much to go on, but it's a start.
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