Thursday, May 31, 2007

I found it!



I look at the marriage applications and returns at the Clearfield County Courthouse, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 2007. Marriage Records are archived back to 1885. In the 1990s, the records were indexed and put on computer. But, one must still go back to the original records to find the parents' names and who married the couple. Other information may include occupations and residences.

Today, I found several records such as (extracted):
Page 455; No. 6089:
Henry S. ZIMMERMAN, 34, coal miner, son of Soloman and Elizabeth, married on 1 Jan 1896, by E.A. Born, minister of the Gospel; to THERESA A. BERNDT, 20, daughter of William and Mary. Both bride and groom reside in Ramey.

And later the widowed Theresa, nee. Berndt, remarries:
Book 24; No. 18237:
Samuel Kuhn, 31, miner, of Ramey, PA, son of Daniel and Jennie; married in June 1912 by James W. Ruffner, Justice of the Peace, to THERESA ZIMMERMAN, 36, of Ramey, daughter of William and Mary. Death of Bride's former husband [Henry Zimmerman]: 28 Dec 1909.

Note: Theresa Berndt was the sister of Albert Berndt who married Maria Kramp, the older sister of my adopted grandfather, Robert "Pop" Kramp.
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As I thumbed through the yellowed and tattered pages, I remarked to a fellow researcher in the room (the lady who took my picture) that these books would not last forever with this amount of wear and tear. Book spines are broken and some of the more greasy indexes have been laminated. She told me that nearby Blair County, PA, was indeed transferring original records to microfilm, and then, probably to compact disks. The county staff was in the process of throwing the old, original books into a dumpster, when an alert passerby, who just happened to belong to the Blair Co Historical Society, rescued the records and transferred them to the Society's archives in Hollidaysburg. Good Catch!

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