Skip to main content

Wedding Wednesday: Miss Welsh Weds

Some of the greatest discoveries come when you are not even looking for them! I was searching for information on my Uncle Gerry the other day and came across his sister’s (my grandmother) wedding announcement.

23 October 1939
Pottstown Mercury
The announcement – as transcribed:
Miss Mary Rose Welsh, daughter of Katherine Welsh, 413 Vanderslice Street, Phoenixville, and Lloyd Pierson Still, son of Pierson Still, Steamboat Still, Colo., were united in marriage in St. Mary’s rectory, Phoenixville, with the Rev. William Geary officiating Saturday morning at 10 o’clock.
Attendants were Morgan Clark, Unionville, and Miss Laretta Welsh, sister of the bride. A reception followed in the home of the bride. After returning from a honeymoon trip to Canada, the couple will reside temporarily with the bride’s mother and later at Unionville.
The bride is an employe of Schuykill Valley mills, Spring City. Still is employed by Logan Still, Unionville, as a painter and paper hanger.

The announcement appeared in the Pottstown Mercury on Monday, 23 October 1939. That means they married on Saturday, 21 October 1939. They were married in the rectory because my grandmother was Roman Catholic, Latin Rite, which is what St. Mary’s denomination is as well. My grandfather however was Presbyterian. He later converted but in 1939 marrying outside the Catholic faith meant she could not have a wedding mass nor could she even be married in the physical Church.

I have seen my great grandmother (Katherine Welsh) spell her name with both a K and a C both in family records and government / public records. My great grandfather (Pierson Still) lived in Steamboat Springs at the time. I am sure this (Steamboat Still) was simply a typo. He was, at the time, living out there with my Uncle Jim (James Still).

Morgan Clark was a friend of my grandfather’s. My Aunt’s name is also spelled differently. I have always seen in spelled with an “o” not an “a”, as in Loretta. My grandparents lived in Phoenixville while their house was finished up. Logan Still is my grandfather’s uncle (Pierson’s brother). Eventually, my grandfather would own his own painting business in Unionville.

I never did find what I was looking for in regards to my Uncle Gerry but I was so excited to find this.



Wedding Wednesday is a genealogical prompt of GeneaBloggers.

© Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2016
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

52 Ancestors: Anna Keating Walsh is one Tough Woman

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small , has challenged us this week with tough women. She asked “ Who is a tough, strong woman in your family tree? Or what woman has been tough to research?” My 2x great grandmother Anna Keating Walsh is indeed a tough woman.   She is a tough woman to trace and I believe she was a tough woman in her time as well. Anna (everyone past my grandparents get actual names; it is the only way I can keep people straight) was born around 1855 in Ireland . According to my grandmother, she was born in County Mayo .   My grandmother had told me that Anna had immigrated with her siblings and that she was the youngest Her parents – Patrick and Knapy Penelope Keating - had stayed behind and she settled in Ringtown which is just a stone’s throw from Shenandoah (assuming of course you can throw a bit)!   She married Michael Walsh and the lived in Shenandoah. The 1910 Census stated Anna had 11 children, with only six living in 1910. I would...
8 comments
Read more

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc...
6 comments
Read more

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he...
Post a Comment
Read more