As you know from a recent post, I finally found out the name of my 3rd great-grandfather and how he really died. Well, today I took a trip to Christian County (they have a nice genealogy dept. in their library!) to get a copy of my parents marriage records. (They were divorced after 3 years so who knows if either of them has a copy!) Someone had told me that my gg-grandparents were married in Christian County, KY so I thought I'd look through the marriage index books while I was there. The year I was given was 1876 but I didn't see a record of the marriage. Some nice person went to the trouble to compiling an alphabetical marriage index so I looked through that without paying any attention to the year---I just looked for a Hays/Hayes and when I found one, I looked to if it was what I wanted. I knew my g-grandmother was born in 1880 because she was on the census record for that year as an infant. I knew she married in 1898 because I have a copy of that marriage record. Imagine my surprise when I learned that her parents got married when she was 16 years old! My husband was totally confused---he kept saying those things didn't happen "back then". (I told him that he needed to do a little research himself and he'd find out just how often it did happen!) My gg-grandparents had 12 children but they didn't decide to get married until after the 10th one was born. I had always wondered why they didn't get married in Stewart County where they lived---now, I think I found a pretty good reason for them to cross that state line to get married. (I'd bet no one knew they were never married all those years!) Theodore Baxter Hayes married Clara Alice Trump on 28 Mar 1896 in Hopkinsville, Christian County, KY. The paper says "T.B. Hays" and I have an affidavit written by Clara's mother that says her name is "Clara Ann" although "Alice" is on the marriage record and the tombstone. After I got back to Clarksville, I paid a visit to the cemetery where these two are buried. I've been there before and have photos of their tombstones made 15-20 years ago. Back then, there were 2 seperate stones under an old oak tree. I cleaned the leaves off the stones to be able to read the dates. My second surprise for the day was at the cemetery. Someone has replaced those two stones with one stone---and the stone has been turned around! Before, I faced that oak tree to photograph the stones. Today, I had my back to the tree to read the stone. Isn't genealogy FUN!!!! (Now I have to try to find out who replaced those stones and why this one is turned around!) Sandy Ellis