The images I viewed were from the New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900. Some were for my family in northern New Jersey, and some were for my husband's family in Cape May County, in the southern part of the state. (See the image at right from Wikimedia Commons for the location of Cape May County.)Two years ago, I shared an image of the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) for my husband's great-grandparents, Max Levitt and Golda Segal. The Hebrew date translated to 26 October 1898.
Although these records are indexed at FamilySearch.org, I had not found the marriage record of Max and Golda in the index because their names were not what I expected. I had to browse the marriages year-by-year, looking for Cape May County, which, being sparsely populated at the time, made it not too painful.
Following is the page for the Index Register of Marriages in Cape May County, 1898-99:
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| Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton. New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900 (Salt Lake City, UT, USA, FamilySearch.org, 2017). Family History Library microfilm, #589818, Marriages Atlantic-Hudson v. 36 1898-1899, image 137 of 372. p. 124, line 59, Maik Levin-Lossie Siegel marriage, 26 October 1898. |
Close-up images of the Levitt-Segal marriage at the bottom of the above image are below:
Name: Levin, Maik
Township: D [for Dennis]
Age: 30 [However, he was supposedly fifteen years older than his wife.]
Township or City of Residence: Woodbine
Occupation: Tailor
Nativity: Aus [Austria]
Nativity of Parents: Rus [Russia]
Number of Marriage: 2
Name: Siegel, Lossie
Age: 24
Township or City of Residence: Woodbine
Occupation: Tailor
Nativity: Aus [Austria]
Nativity of Parents: Rus [Russia]
Number of Marriage: 2 [which I believe is in error]
Place of Marriage: Woodbine
Date: 10 26
Person Officiating: This is not recorded for anyone on this page, but for this marriage, 1900 is noted, suggesting that their marriage was officially recorded at the township a couple of years after it took place.
Note that Max Levitt was born Model Lewites (see Levitas=Lewites from Austria), and ultimately became Max Levitt. In this record, however, he is Maik Levin.
Golda was also known as Gussie and Lossie is possibly how her name was indexed. And Segal can be spelled in many ways.
It is important to note that this is an index, suggesting that there is an original marriage license that this information was collected from. Seeing the original would help determine whether there was an error in indexing or an issue with the recorder of the information having a difficult time understanding Max as he reported it.
Remember: Spelling doesn't count in this time period, especially for recent immigrants.
You are so right--spelling doesn't count, and ancestors' accents probably made it difficult for clerks to record accurately. My Burk ancestors were recorded as Birk, Berk, Burke, Block, and Birck. I hope you're able to obtain the original marriage license for your ancestors!
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents and great-grandparents had their names spelled so many different ways over the years after immigrating. But sometimes it's the indexer, sometimes the census enumerator or other recorder, and sometimes it's their own inconsistencies! Glad you found Max and Goldie!
ReplyDeleteMarian and Amy, you're right - there are so many reasons for different names on older records. Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDelete