Just some miscellaneous items on the last day of winter. 1 - Over the weekend I finished the 1853 Barren Co marriages, copying the original images. I am going to likely do two more years and then take a break for a tad. This year was particularly interesting. Clerks were in the process of changing from the 1/2 page cream colored license with notes on the back to a 8x14 blue paper. At the top is the license; the bottom half is the marriage certificate signed by the minister and witnesses. One thing I will say - the Clerk wrote a lot better than the latter! The minister wrote all over many of the certificates showing the ages and places of birth of the couple, sometimes with additional information. Not all have extra information but there are two that I love. One minister wrote, after listing the major witnesses, "and all the other boys in town"!. Another wrote after the witnesses' signatures "and 100 more for whatever good that does." They had a sense of humor! There were 132 marriages in 1853 and sometimes the spelling of names in the license is different from what the minister wrote. Some are faded, many torn from years of handling. But I have tried to edit each page and bring out the information as clearly as possible. These are copies of the actual image. If you would like to see a copy of the index to these marriages, write me privately as usual. 2 - There will be no posts tomorrow. I am going to be touring western KY for the day. 3 - By popular request, today begins the Puzzler series again. I have started you off with an easy one. If you would like to take a guess, click on the URL in my signature line called "Sandi's Puzzlers". The web site to which you will be taken is safe, enter your e-mail address and your guess and it will come directly to me. I will respond as I have time. 4 - A little tip for the week. How many times have your read old correspondence, newspaper articles or depositions and someone refers to another person as "cousin" or Grandma/Grandpa. I've found that in the south, no matter how close or distant the relationship, one is considered a cousin! This does not always mean that this person is a close cousin! The same with Grandma/Grandpa ... it was often used as a term of respect for an older person. Another term used a lot is referring to someone as aunt or uncle. This is also a term of endearment used by a white person for an African American. Possibly a freed slave who stayed with the family or some other close bond of affection. People called these dear people aunt or uncle to show their feeling of respect and fondness of them. 5 - For those of you in the Bowling Green area, remember: The next meeting of the Southern Kentucky Genealogy Society will be held Monday, March 19, 2012, in the Kentucky Building at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY. The meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. The speaker will be Sue Forshee Cooper who will discuss Researching Across the State Line and Other Borders. Sue is a native Kentuckian who now lives in Tennessee. She helped establish the Simpson County (KY) Archives and Museum and served as the Director for over 10 years; editor of the "Jailhouse Journal" newsletter. Sue was commissioned a KY Colonel in 1992 for her preservation work. She also is a member of Association of Professional Genealogists, Simpson County Chapter DAR and the Middle TN Genealogical Society and has been doing professional genealogical research for about 15 years. See you Wednesday! Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=south-central-kentucky