In a message dated 7/25/2007 3:01:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: It wasn't unusual, in backwoods America, for a couple to begin living together well before the marriage ceremony was performed. Traveling ministers didn't visit very often and a couple would pledge to be married and begin living together as man and wife. Then, when the minister finally appeared the actual ceremony was performed. And those ministers often arrived back at a point of civil registration with a pocket full of scraps of paper, weeks or months after having performed marriages. If they got wet, or lost or were illegible, there warn't gonna be no record of that wedding. Somewhere, in a historical society office, I saw a wad of papers that had come from an old trunk belonging to a circuit rider, including weddings and couple of baptisms. I don't worry a lot if I can't find a wedding record. It's nice when it's available, but there's more than one way to skin a cat. Jim ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour