The 'borough' could have been called ''Tombs Prison". Check for names of Borough's in Manhattan. An e-mail to the Historical society will produce the answer. Borough's also were called "tracks' and tracks were named by the people who bought that section of land. Some very strange names were thougth of in those days to call the land they lived on. perhaps the first owner of the Track's last name was "Tombs" and he thougth of it as a prison. Thus Tombs Prison. Also check out the name of prisons in that area then. My experience with seeing marriage license of marriages actually occuring in a prison is they are signed "by the Prison Chaplin -----------" giving his name too. Marriages did occur in prisons in early 1800's . While checking my gg grandfathers 3rd wifes statements to the pension dept. she stated she had been married once before. I found a copy of her that marriage and discovered she had been married before that , so I sent for the next marriage certificate and it was from a prison and she was married in a prison to an inmate. very interesting, and it was signed by the Chaplin of that prison. Hope this helps RLee ----- Original Message ----- From: Kathleen Chappell <kchappell@mail.portup.com> To: <GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 12:51 PM Subject: Re: I think I have a mystery > Not to cast any shadows on your grandparents, but if he were serving time > for something and they wanted to get married for practical reasons, a > jailhouse marriage is not unheard of. There have been several in our small > county so I imagine Manhattan would be no different. > > ...Kathleen > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <YoAHop@aol.com> > To: <GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 12:26 PM > Subject: I think I have a mystery > > > > Hi Listers, > > > > I have a copy of my grandparents marriage certificate that has me puzzled. > > Hopefully, someone will be able to come up with some ideas as to what > course > > I should take. My grandparents were married in > > June, 1908 in the borough of Manhattan. On the certificate where it has > the > > location of the marriage it says Tombs Prison (at least that's what the > > handwriting looks like). I have had it enlarged hoping to make it clearer > > but it didn't help. Has anyone ever heard of this? Did they allow > marriages > > in Prison in 1908? Is there any way this can be verified? Help!!! > > > > Adrienne > > > > > > ==== GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES Mailing List ==== > > Please consider becoming a Rootsweb contributor. > > > > ============================== > > Ancestry.com now has more than 200,000 subscribers! To celebrate, > > access to ALL of Ancestry.com will be free from July 18 to July 31! > > http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/freepromo.asp?sourcecode=A11AM > > > > > > > ==== GEN-UNSOLVED-MYSTERIES Mailing List ==== > Please consider becoming a Rootsweb contributor. > > ============================== > Ancestry.com now has more than 200,000 subscribers! To celebrate, > access to ALL of Ancestry.com will be free from July 18 to July 31! > http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/freepromo.asp?sourcecode=A11AM >