Marriage Mystery: Why Did So Many Out-of-towners Get Married in Blaney, SC?

When I saw the prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks was Marriage, I knew I had the perfect topic to write about.

As you can see in the chart below, 13 couples in my family tree had married in Blaney, South Carolina (now known as Elgin) even though none of them were from Blaney or Kershaw County, the location of Blaney/Elgin.

A Research Surprise

I decided now is the time to do some research to solve this mystery. First, I did some research on Blaney itself and I made a discovery I was not expecting.

The geographic location that became Blaney was first called Jeffers. Jeffers was recognized as a place in 1898. The place was renamed Blaney in 1907. It became Elgin in the 1960’s.

If you look at the chart again, you will see that the first 10 couples supposedly married in Blaney before 1893. This cannot be true since there was no Blaney yet to be married in.

How Did I Get All This Incorrect Information?

I did a deep dive into my tree on Ancestry to see what kind of proof I have for these marriages. And I found that I have no definitive proof on ANY of them, even the three that could have taken place in Blaney. A few say the information came from a Grant family bible, but I have not seen copies of the bible pages myself.

I blame those shaky little leaves on Ancestry. I expect that I just copied the information from other trees along the way with plans to go back and research later. My bad.

So What Do I Do Now?

Well, now I will go back to these people and ‘facts’ and make notes about my findings. Then I will see if I can track down anyone who has a copy of these bible pages. It is still a marriage mystery, just not the one I started with.

What marriage surprises have you found in your family? Please comment below.

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