Joseph Martin, Have you checked Chicago for a divorce for your Kathryn Martin? Possibly, after she met John Raab in Chicago, she might have decided to file for divorce in that city. About her marriage to Mr. Raab, is it possible that they were not married in Chicago and could have gone either out of the city or across the boarder into another state? Also, think about what brought her to Chicago from Pittsburgh. Undoubtedly she knew someone living there. If that "someone" was not living in the city of Chicago, check the area where that individual lived. I would be more inclined to put into any "source" area that you can't find their marriage rather then assume they are living as common law husband and wife. You also might check Illinois court records to see if that state even recognizes a common law marriage. Pat ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 07:07:12 -0600 From: "Martin, Joseph" <MartinJo@lewisu.edu> Subject: [COOK-CO-IL] Documenting a common law marriage To: <COOK-CO-IL@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <RET-iB679Vd43c66b7c3e94bbd5815de067e4e43f4-91C3269C1DC8D343A886B4C4B25138B B0267273A@A0MAIL01.lewisu.local> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Would anyone know how to document a common law marriage? My great aunt Kathryn MARTIN was married in Pittsburgh, and her husband filed for divorce. But then he failed to show up for the court appearance, and so no divorce decree exists in the county file for them. She moved to Chicago about 1921 and met John RAAB about 1923, the year after he divorced his first wife. At some point John and Kathryn started a common law marriage. But how do I document that fact? I have a 1926 Chicago Tribune article about them in which John stated that they had been married for three years. I have photos of their tombstones which list them as husband and wife. I have her obituary which calls her the beloved wife of John. But the Cook County Court House could find no marriage record for them from 1922 when he was divorced to 1953 when Kathryn died. Any ideas about how to document their marriage? Joseph Martin Romeoville, IL ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 13:48:11 -0600 From: "Martin, Joseph" <MartinJo@lewisu.edu> Subject: [COOK-CO-IL] Documenting a common law marriage To: <COOK-CO-IL-L@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <RET-iB6DmB1eea5a0cb854aced414285a1ec2ae309-91C3269C1DC8D343A886B4C4B25138B B0267274B@A0MAIL01.lewisu.local> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Would anyone know how to document a common law marriage? My great aunt Kathryn MARTIN was married in Pittsburgh, and her husband filed for divorce. But then he failed to show up for the court appearance, and so no divorce decree exists in the county file for them. She moved to Chicago about 1921 and met John RAAB about 1923, the year after he divorced his first wife. At some point John and Kathryn started a common law marriage. But how do I document that fact? I have a 1926 Chicago Tribune article about them in which John stated that they had been married for three years. I have photos of their tombstones which list them as husband and wife. I have her obituary which calls her the beloved wife of John. But the Cook County Court House could find no marriage record for them from 1922 when he was divorced to 1953 when Kathryn died. Any ideas about how to document their marriage? Joseph Martin Romeoville, IL ------------------------------ ------------------------------ To contact the COOK-CO-IL list administrator, send an email to COOK-CO-IL-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the COOK-CO-IL mailing list, send an email to COOK-CO-IL@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COOK-CO-IL-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of COOK-CO-IL Digest, Vol 1, Issue 132 ******************************************