A Family Event on February 14, Valentine’s Day – 52 Ancestors # 7

Having figured out how to get my RootsMagic program to generate lists of different things, I now know what life events (birth, marriage, death) occurred in my families on Valentine’s Day (February 14).  Even before running this list I remembered that my grandmother Cena died on Valentine’s Day.  But I wondered what other people had life events, and especially if there were any marriages on that day.

I discovered that, of the people and events I have information for in my database, there are 5 births, 1 marriage, and 6 deaths.  The first was a birth in 1792 and the last was a death in 2007.  Of course, there are any number of events that I don’t have dates for yet, or don’t have full dates for, so there are likely in a perfect world of having all life-event dates to be more falling on Valentine’s Day.

I’m intrigued by the wedding that happened on Feb. 14 and decided to explore a little further.  The marriage was between Myra Louise Pierce and August J. Ruckel in 1920 in Wakeman, Ohio.  Myra was my second cousin twice removed, on the Denman side of my family.  I don’t know much of anything about them.

I have a digital copy of the register in which the marriage license application/approval and then the marriage return were recorded.  They were granted the license on the 10th of February 1920.  The return shows that the marriage was solemnized by Rev. Allen J. Blair or Wakeman on 14th February 1920 and he recorded this on the 3d of March 1920.  I immediately wondered if they had picked that day for a reason, so used a perpetual calendar website to find out what day of the week it was.

February 14, 1920 was a Saturday.  When I think about it, it probably made sense in this small farming community to hold a wedding on a Saturday (and not on the Sunday when the minister would have church responsibilities).  Family stories in another branch have told me that among farm people the pattern would be to work hard on Saturday to get all the work and regular chores done early enough so that late in the day into the night a party or dance, for example, could be attended.  A wedding might certainly have been planned on the same timetable.

And it seems likely, as the federal census was enumerated just 2 days later, on 16th February 1920 and showed the young couple in the same household as her step-father Alfred B. Coon and her mother Anna Belle (Denman).  Both Alfred Coon and his new son-in-law were listed as Farmers.  There is no agricultural schedule available for 1920 so I have no other information about their farm labors.  What I do know is that August reported himself as a mechanical engineer on the marriage license application and by 1930 he and Myra along with 4 children were living in Akron, Ohio and he was working as a mechanic in a factory.

Additional facts about this family:  August was born on February 15, so had a birthday between his marriage and the day of census enumeration.  Their second son and third child was born on February 14, 1925.