Fearless Females March 4 - Wedding Stories and Photos

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

My parents were married on Friday July 13, 1979. My mother always wanted a September wedding, but my grandparents had married on a Friday the 13^th and my father wanted to as well, so they wed in July. The church (First Church of God on Pleasant Ave in Hamilton OH which is no longer. Well the building’s there but another church owns it now unfortunately. I miss that church) had a courtyard and that is where the wedding was supposed to take place. However, there was a thunderstorm that day and so the wedding took place in the sanctuary.

My mother still (jokingly) berates my father for it, since she wanted a September wedding.

My mother with her father on her wedding day

I don’t know any stories about either of my grandparents’ weddings.

However, we do have an heirloom wedding dress. My grandfather William was in Korea and was sent to Japan for R&R. He purchased some Japanese silk and sent it to my grandma Jenny for her wedding dress. It has a high neck because she was so skinny that she wanted to hide her collarbones (I take after her, except that I like to display my collarbones, I think they’re pretty) and a little bit of a train, she made it as long as she could with the fabric she was given. When my great aunt Marilyn married a few years later, she wore the dress as well. And my mother wore it when she married my father. The dress has been improperly stored and needs some repair work done, but as a seamstress I know I can handle it. When I marry, I plan to wear the dress with the Brussels lace wedding veil that my grandma Jenny bought me when she took me to Brussels when I was seventeen.

This is my dad's parents, Grandpa Stub (aka Donald) and Grandma Katie at their Friday the 13th wedding.

And this is my mom's parents, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jenny at their wedding. That is the dress that I have inherited.

Fearless Females March 6 - Heirlooms

March 6 — Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.)

I have several family heirlooms.

I used to have my great grandma Fern’s wedding ring but I lost it. It was a gold band with flowers and leaves on it. My mother said it was cursed. Apparently my great grandfather had bought it at a pawn shop and the owner had told him that the original owner had divorced. My great grandparents also divorced. I wore it for years and in my senior year of high school, took it off during art class while working with clay and left it (and my graduation ring) on the table. Never saw either one again. I still miss my rings. I also have a gold locket with a diamond in it that's engraved that was Grandma Fern's and a gold pocket watch as well. Its also engraved. The locket has flowers, the watch a cross (I think). Oh and I almost forgot the most important thing! My sewing machine was Grandma Fern's as well! I use that more than I use about anything. And its even named Fern after her.

I also have furniture from the Fink side of the family – a dresser and a mirror. They were Aunt Nora’s but I got them when I was about seven. Nora was the daughter of John and Annette Fink, my 3^rd great grandparents, so I guess that makes her my 3^rd great aunt. From what my great aunt Esther Jo said, they may have been brought to Ohio from Pennsylvania when Jacob and Nancy Fink (my 4^th great grandparents) migrated.

I also have a huge woven basket and an abalone shell that belong to my great grandmother Edna’s on the Cookman side (she was a Groff). It took me years to get that basket from my mother. My argument was that I should have it because she was only a Cookman by marriage, not blood. I wonder what she used the basket for...

I don’t know if it’s really an heirloom, but today I’m wearing a top that my grandma Jenny made while she was in the hospital. My mother wore the top and now I wear it. It’s a 70s cream polyester pullover with hand embroidery.