For over 30 years I have looked for the marriage record of my maternal grandparents, Thomas Fritz Matherly (1893-1965) and Nancy Margaret Edwards (1898-1992). He was from Wilkes County, NC and his first wife died young and left him with 5 children. She was from Elberton, GA. I looked relentlessly for their marriage record and had pretty much come to the conclusion that maybe they never legally married and it was just a common law marriage because I could not find a record. Trust me, I looked. Well, I finally found the record. They were married on the 20th of December 1933 in Anderson, South Carolina. The record was there in South Carolina all along but it WASN'T digitized and put online until a year or so ago. It was Christmas time and I assume that they married on the way to Georgia from North Carolina for the Christmas holidays since that is where her family was. I've had some great finds over the 40+ years I've been doing genealogy but I think I was more excited to find this record than any of the others. Maybe because they were a real living breathing part of my life and two people I truly adored. I have such very fond memories of them both and that rock house on Bruce Garner Road in Granville County, NC.
I just wanted to share my joy in finally having this record. More records are added online daily. Never give up your search, go back every so often and check again. Maybe you will get lucky and find what your are looking for without having to wait 30 years like I did. Happy hunting!
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