A Christmas Marriage

Source: Ancestry. Sumner County, Tennessee Marriage Record.

New digital records often come available in family history research, so it is useful to periodically check to see what might be out there. Here is another example of a new find on my Mom's Whitley/Matthews side of the tree. Back in August 2012, I wrote about my 2nd-great-grandmother Elizabeth Hayden Matthews. I thought she had married my 2nd-great-grandfather Thomas Whitley around 1885 or 1886, based on the birth dates of their children, but I had not found a marriage record. A new-to-me record recently appeared when searching on Ancestry, showing a marriage on 24 December 1885 in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee. This was a surprise, as I expected to find them married in or around Barren County, Kentucky.

Sumner County, Tennessee is located on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, directly south of Barren County. Looking at the dates, Elizabeth (Lizzie in the marriage record) would have just turned 16, while Thomas was 24. It certainly looks like Elizabeth and Thomas eloped to Tennessee over Christmas in 1885. They eventually had twelve children, including my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Lois Whitley.