Two Marriage Ceremonies

The index of marriages for New York City and New Jersey at Ancestry is a great help to researchers. Many people living in northeastern New Jersey crossed the Hudson River into New York to be married.

George Henry Holsten (1882-1955) and Hilda Rachel Frey (1884-1943) married twice. Their first ceremony was in New York City on September 17, 1905. The second was in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey on September 16, 1906. Images are below.

Certificate and Record of Marriage
George Henry Holsten and Hilda Rachel Frey
married September 17, 1905 in New York City

Certificate and Record of Marriage
George Henry Holsten and Hilda Rachel Frey
married September 16, 1906 in Newark, New Jersey

The first marriage was performed at a church, perhaps Grace Church. The specific location of the second marriage is not written, but the officiant was Elliot White of Grace Church in Newark. It may be possible that the couple undertook a religious ceremony and a civil ceremony; however, repeating and registering the second ceremony was not necessary because the first union was recorded.

This is not the first duplicate marriage I have found. See this post for the two marriages of Peter Romain and Lucretia Daily, in 1885 and 1890, both in Newark, New Jersey.

If anyone has any insight into marrying twice, please leave a comment. Is there any significance to the two ceremonies being a day shy of one year?

Research Note: To obtain these images, you can visit the New York City Department of Records and Information Services ["DORIS"] online and search or browse. View and download for free. New Jersey marriages are housed at the Archives in Trenton. You can search for free in person and copy for fifty cents. Or you can order online for $10.

1920s School in Kearny, New Jersey

Black and white photograph of school children in the 1920s.

Someone showed me this picture and asked if I could shed some light on its origins. She suspected that it was from her mother's photo collection. Her mother was born in 1915 and attended school in Kearny, Hudson County New Jersey. The girls in the photo are wearing loose-fitting dresses and all have bobbed hair, so the 1920s fits as the timeframe when this image was probably captured.

In faint pencil on the reverse of the photo is printed, "5th Grade Nathan Hale School." "Home Room Teacher Miss Schad."

A search on Google revealed that Public School Number 2 was renamed Nathan Hale School in 1919. In 1954, the building was demolished.

The photo is not in crisp focus, but if you zoom in on the writing on the blackboard, you can make out most of the names. I listed them below with their dates of birth and death as I could find them. Those with entries on FindAGrave are linked. They were born mostly in 1914 or 1915, making them contemporaries of the suspected original owner of the photo. These were ten students with perfect attendance; 28 students are in the photograph.

Andrew Dick (1914-1976)

Everitt Jarvis (1914-2003)

Peter Kaminskas (1912-1992)

William Weiler (1915-1941)

William Winn (1914-1971)

John Pullins (1915-1990)

Anna Campbell

Josephine Inzano (Inzana?) (1915-1988)

Secrada Nurtz (maybe not spelled this way)

Ruth McAllen (1915-2006)

The teacher could be Pauline Schad (1905-1984) who lived in North Arlington, which is a mile north of Kearny. In 1930, she married Arthur Lehn.

Dunn Siblings

Left to right: Frances, John, Katherine in August 1938

After identifying my great great grandmother, Katherine Butterfoss Dunn (1865-1944) in several family photographs, I noticed a few of her later in life posing with an older man and woman. On the back of the photo is handwritten "August 1938." I think they were her siblings, Frances Dunn (1858-1944) and John Dunlop Dunn (1870-1939).

Their parents were Ezra Dunn (1821-1898) and Hermione Dunlop (1827-1900). As of August of 1938, these were the three remaining living siblings, having outlived the other five. The children were born in the 1850s, 60s, and 70s in what was then called Raritan Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Although they lived and died outside of Monmouth County, they returned home for their final resting places.

I found no marriage record for John. He was buried with his parents at Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan.

Katherine was buried with her husband, William Walling Winterton, in Green Grove Cemetery in Keyport.

Frances was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Middletown.

John and Frances appear in other group photos and separately.

This wedding picture helped me decide that this elderly woman is Frances Dunn, a sister of Katherine and John.

The back of the photo is labeled, but not with complete names:

Frances Mae

Grandma

Ruth Bridesmaid

June 15, 1940

In 1884, Frances Dunn married George Smith in Brooklyn, New York. George died at the Trenton Insane Hospital in Ewing, Mercer County, New Jersey in 1896. This institution is now called Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. (I will copy his death certificate on my next trip to the Archives to find his burial place.)

George Smith
died at the Trenton Insane Hospital on
Tuesday of last week and his body was
taken to his father's house in Middletown
Township the next day, where the
funeral was held on the following Friday.
Mr Smith leaves a wife, who
is a daughter of Ezra Dunn of this place,
and two children. Mrs Smith has
been making her home with her father
since her husband was taken to the
hospital a couple of months ago. Mr
Smith was 45 years old.

George Smith and Frances Dunn had two children, a son, Floyd K Smith (1885-1967) and a daughter, Georgia Davis Smith (1890-1971), who married Arthur Beach Nichols (1888-1971). Their daughter, Ruth Harriet Nichols (1917-2009), married George Andrew Miller (1916-1988). The newspaper article is below. Frances Mae Nicholas was Ruth's oldest sister. According to the article, the ceremony was on June 8, not June 15.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York). Sunday, June 16, 1940. Page 33.

MILLER-NICHOLS

Announcement is made of the marriage of Miss Ruth Harriet Nichols, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Beach Nichols of 863 E. 10th St., to George Andrew Miller, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Everett Miller of 1664 42d St., on June 8, at the Parkville Congregational Church.

The bride wore a white satin gown with a court train, long tulle veil caught with orange blossoms and carried a nosegay of baby's breath and lilies of the valley. Miss Frances Mae Nichols, her sister, was maid of honor and was gowned in nile green marquisette with a nile green veil. She carried a nosegay of Talisman roses.

Everett Miller, brother of the bridegroom was best man. William Miller, Arthur Nichols and Grant Edmonds were the ushers.

A reception followed at the Pierrepont Hotel.

After a tour of New England States the couple will reside at 687 E. 4th St.