The Marriage Record of Albert Francis CHAPLIN, Sr. and Emma Alice LYTON

Recently, I discovered that Ancestry had added the Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880 - 1937 database to its collections. While I don't have Iowa ancestors, my children do on their paternal grandmother's side. I was hoping to confirm marriage information for their great-great-grandparents, Albert Francis CHAPLIN, Sr. and Emma Alice LYTON. A family history written by an aunt of their grandmother lists Iowa as their marriage place [1], but no date is given. Their eldest child was born in 1892 in Surprise, Butler Co., Nebraska, but the next two children were both born in Fremont Co., Iowa [2], as was Emma [3], so I figured that was the likely location of their marriage.

A year and a half ago, my children's aunt received the Chaplin Family Bible [4] from a relative, which gave Albert and Emma's marriage date, but not the location:

I was able to locate the marriage record on Ancestry [5] with no difficulty:

The record is written across the top two lines of the register. I've enlarged and cropped the image to facilitate reading it on this blog. You can click on any of the images in this blog to view an enlargement; then use your "Back" button to return to this post.

As you can see, both Albert and Emma were living in Percival, Fremont Co., Iowa and that is where they were married on 18 March 1891 (confirming the Bible entry) by the Justice of the Peace, D. Lumm. It is interesting to me that no witness names were recorded on this register page for any of the marriages recorded here. That's too bad; I would have liked to have known who the witnesses for their marriage were.

From other research I've done, I know that their parents' names were not quite recorded in full or with accuracy here. Albert's parents were Gideon CHAPLIN and Susan W. HAINLINE. Emma's parents were Henry LYTON and Maria(h) Emily DAILEY. Henry's name was an alias. He was born George TURK in Ottawa, Ontario and came to the U.S. to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. He changed his name at that time, although it is not clear exactly why.

Sources:

     1. Southard, Velma Chaplin, The History of the Chaplin Family as of December 1970, p. 4.
     2. Ibid., p. 2.
     3. Ibid., p. 4.
     4. Albert and Emma (Lyton) Chaplin Family Bible, 1867-1922; The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (undated, no publication information); privately owned by Mary Duncan [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Washington State, 2015. Dates from 1867 to 1919 appear to have been written in the same hand and at the same time. One marriage entry, dated 15 February 1922, appears to be written in the same hand, but at a later time than the other entries.
     5. Fremont County, Iowa, Return of Marriages, 1880-1922, vol. 36, p. 483, Albert Chaplin-Emma Lyton, 18 March 1891; digital images, Ancestry.com, “Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1937” (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8823 : accessed 24 November 2016).


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