On this Wedding Wednesday, I am highlighting the marriage of my great-grandmother Beatrice Harris to her second husband, Raymond Montgomery West. Below is their legal marriage record from the Probate Court of Belmont County, Ohio, including their approved application for a marriage license and their marriage certificate itself. They were wed by a Justice of the Peace in St. Clairsville on September 23, 1947.
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| Note: This document gives Player as Beatrice's last name. This is the last name of her mother Ardenia's second husband, Tim, who had been married to Ardenia since 1935, when Beatrice was 20. |
A few things we know about Mr. Ray (as my Dad knew him):
- He was a native of Ohio, having been born in Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson County, to Samuel West and Sarah (Sally/Sallie) Ray.
- He is 24 years older than his new wife, she having been born in 1915 and he in 1891. (23 years, 11 months and 29 days, if you want to be precise!)
- He was a mill worker at the time of their marriage, and had spent much of his adult life working for iron and steel mills and the coal mining industry in the Ohio River Valley (Powhatan Point, OH; Moundsville and Weirton, WV)
My branch of the family is actually not descended from Mr.
Ray – we are descended, through my grandmother, from Great-Grandma Beatrice’s
first husband, Steve Evans (also known as Theodore Johnson – we’ll get to that
in another post). But Mr. Ray fathered 4 children with GG Beatrice and they
(and their descendents) are as much my family as anyone else! Mr. Ray is the
only companion my father knew for his grandmother. He married my great-grandmother
when she was the divorced mother of 6 children who were not his and in a difficult financial
place. They remained together until his passing in 1971.
Family, do you have any pictures of Mr. Ray, or of Mr. Ray
and Beatrice together? Any memories or stories you’d like to share about him
and his personality? Please share!
Awesome!
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