Fearless Females - March 5

In honor of National Women's History Month, I will be following the blogging prompts from The Accidental Genealogist blog. The prompts are interesting and I need to post something so I am following along again.  Here is Day 5.

March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

I wish I knew more about my parent's and my grandparent's lives when they were young.  I don't have any idea how my parent's met.  When I was born my dad was 45 and my mom was 36.  Dad died when I was 20.  I don't ever remember hearing about how they got together.  My older sisters know some stories, but I don't think they even know how our parents met.  They told me Dad dated one of Mom's sisters first.  So maybe they were introduced by the sister.  I wish I knew more.

I wrote about my grandparents and posted their wedding certificate last night.  I don't know anything about how my grandparents met or any stories about them.  My grandmother died when my mother was 15.  My grandfather died when I was 12.  

I think one of the reasons that I started researching my ancestry is because I really knew nothing about my family.  I knew my brothers and sisters and a few of my aunts, many of our ancestors had died before any of us were born.

So, from what I have learned about my grandparents in my research I am going to tell you how I think they met.

On the 1910 Census for Richmond City, in Wayne County, Indiana I found that my grandmother, Ethel Manis,  lived next door to my grandfather's sister, Luella Hoover Kortright.  I'm sure that they met while she was living next door.  They married in 1912, so that sounds like about the right time frame.  She was only 14 in 1910 and he was 20.  They didn't get married until she was 16.  I have found a few pictures of my grandfather, James Hoover,  with his brother-in-law, James Kortright.  I believe they were good friends so it makes sense that he would spend time at his sister's house.

This is one of those cases where I had a horrible time finding a census record to begin with.  I missed my grandmother on this record for a while.  My great grandfather's name was Lester Parker Manis.  Someone had recorded the entire family as the Parker's.  I did a search using all their first names and their ages and this record came up and I knew I had found them.  I was surprised then to see my Grandpa Hoover's sister's family right next door.  Their last name was recorded as Cartright, instead of Kortright.  

I wish I had a wedding picture or knew a romantic story, but for now this is the best I can do!