Wonder if the reason there is a small town between Danville and Lynchburg named Gretna? No Green attached to the name now. Interesting tidbit. Bill Crews Symonds wrote: > The below mail spurred a question: were there extra-legal marriages > performed in the Virginia colony by blacksmiths, or others, especially > among those colonists who had immigrated from Scotland? > > Marilyn > > From Merriam Webster Word of the Day, June 25: > >>Gretna Green \gret-nuh-GREEN\ noun > : a place where many eloping couples are married > Example sentence: > Reno, Nevada is an American Gretna Green, the ideal place for runaway > lovers to tie the knot. > > Did you know? > In the England of the 1700s, a person could not marry without parental > consent until age 21. The Scottish were more lenient, allowing young > people to marry without parental permission at 16. England also had > rules that made it difficult to marry quickly, but Scottish law required > only that couples declare their desire to be married in front of > witnesses before tying the knot. So it isn't surprising that many > English couples ran to Gretna Green, a small village on the > English-Scottish border, when they decided to elope. In Gretna Green, > the wedding ceremony was typically performed by the blacksmith at a > roadside tollhouse, but it was all perfectly legal.<< > > > ==== VA-SOUTHSIDE Mailing List ==== > Always Keep Your Anti Virus Program Updated Regularly. > USGW Archives Pension Project > http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pensions/ > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >