52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Wedding

The No Story Too Small blog has been doing a project called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”. Each week, a new theme is presented that is designed to prompt genealogists to write about one of their ancestors. The themes are considered to be optional.

In June, one of the themes that has been selected is “Wedding”. There are so many different directions that genealogists can go with this topic! This might be the easiest theme of the year. The difficult part will be selecting which of your many ancestors to focus on for the “Wedding” topic.

The first thing to consider, of course, is that this topic is going to focus on not one, but two, ancestors. In general, it takes two people to get married. In some families, it is possible that an ancestor was part of a polygamous marriage because of his or her religious beliefs. It is acceptable to focus primarily on one ancestor who had a wedding and briefly mention that person’s husband or wife. You can always select the other person as the focus of a later blog post!

The month of June is a traditional time for weddings. Start by selecting an ancestor who got married during the month of June. Who was that ancestor? How old was that ancestor and their spouse? Tell the story about how your ancestor met his or her spouse. If possible, include a photo of the couple on their wedding day into your blog.

Speaking of photos… it would be possible to put together a blog that is filled with photos from family weddings. Start with the photo of the wedding of a particular ancestor. Include photos of that person’s adult children at their own weddings. You could put together a “family tree” of wedding photos. Another option is to simply choose your favorite family wedding photo and discuss the details about it in your blog post.

The No Story Too Small blog suggests that it could be interesting to write about an ancestor who has been married several times. In the past, it was not unusual for a man to outlive his wife – because the wife died during childbirth. That man could have ended up with several different wives, one after the other, throughout his life.

Or, if you want to take a different approach, focus on an ancestor who got married, and divorced, and remarried, several times. This could be especially interesting if you happen to be related to a famous person or someone from a royal family. Tell the story of how that ancestor ended up marrying someone, and then tell the story of why the couple broke up.

It is also possible to focus on a relative who is still alive today instead of an ancestor. Today, same-sex marriage is legal in many states in the United States of America. It has also been legalized in New Zealand, Scotland, and recently Ireland. Tell the story of a relative who was finally able to marry his or her partner after years, or decades, of being denied access to that right.

Image by Walter on Flickr.

Related Articles at FamilyTree.com:

* 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Black Sheep

* 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Luck of the Irish

* 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Love