Monday Mailbox

So my husband checked the mail this morning and a couple of documents I had been waiting on have finally arrived!

The first document was the death certificate for my great-great grandfather John A. Blom. 

A few posts back, I posted a copy of my great-great grandfather's obituary and looking over the death certificate it looks like a great deal of that information is confirmed by this.  More importantly, I now have an exact date of birth rather than just the year of birth for him.  Next up on my todo list for my great-great grandfather is a copy of his birth certificate and his SS-5.  Eventually I also want to track down academic records for him from Northwestern University and I imagine there will be quite a few church records to track down as well.  

The other documents I received in the second envelope were the marriage license applications for both great-great-grandparents, John A. Blom and Jeanette Moes, as well as their marriage certificate: 

 

So now, after looking over the applications, I am wondering what my 3rd great-grandfather Henry Moes was a Foreman of.  I am also wondering what a Hod Carrier (sp) is as that is the occupation of my other 3rd great-grandfather Arie Blom.   

Isn't it funny how answering questions in genealogy generally leads to more questions?

Hidden Gems in Plain Sight

I have been searching extensively for a few months trying to track down the marriage date of my great-grandfather John A. Blom and great-grandmother Jeanette Moes without much luck.  That is... until earlier today!

I was browsing around at archives.com and found a couple of newspaper articles from The Hammond Times paper, and in April of 1926 my great-grandmother was mentioned under her maiden name because her friends threw her a "miscellaneous" shower.  A few months later in October of 1926 there was a birth announcement mentioning my great-grandparents being the parents of a 9 pound baby girl.  This information matched what I had already narrowed down by census records.  I had guessed that my great-grandparents had been married sometime between 1920 and 1930 as on the 1920 Census my great-grandmother was still using her maiden name Moes, and in the 1930 Census she was living with her husband and daughter. 

I decided to do a search for Lake County, Indiana marriage indexes because I knew that both great-grandparents had died in Indiana and had spent a lot of time living in the Lake County area.  I came across a site containing the Lake County, Indiana Marriage Book Index with links to listings both by Groom's surname and Bride's surname.  I wasn't sure I would find anything as most references to the Indiana Marriage indexes seemed to show the latest year to be 1920, however I decided to look anyways just to see.

Well, it turns out, I hit the jackpot!  I found them listed in both links with the same information!  I now know that I will need to a copy of page 77 of book 59 for their marriage that occurred April 15, 1926 in Lake County, Indiana.  I am going to be sending that request by mail on Monday morning, and I can't wait to have it in my hands!

Marriage Record found!

I was browsing the familysearch.org site last night and I was looking through records for my paternal line, the Blom surname.  Well, I managed to uncover a marriage record for my great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother and I now finally have the date and place they were married.  Below is an image of the marriage license with the date the marriage occurred also.

So now I have some new information to process and more research to do in the Chicago area. 

I also found a couple of other documents but I am waiting until I can confirm they are for the ancestors I think they are before I will post them here.