Wedding Wednesday: Routte - Routte, 1871

 After the Civil War, [many newly emancipated couples] who desired to stay together, legalized  their unions by getting married. As a result, marriage became one of the very first civil rights that [newly free] African-Americans [were] able to exercise. [1]

I strongly believe this was the case for my paternal 3rd great-grandparents, Osborn and Sallie Routt! According to the 1870 Census, the very first census to document African Americans by name, Osborne and Sallie were listed as a family with three children -- Jefferson age 7, Mary Francis age 5, and Louisa (aka Lula) 9 months. So today for Wedding Wednesday, I celebrate the official marriage of Osborn and Sallie Routt, which took place, 9 July 1871!

[Abstraction]

State of Texas, to wit: Washington County, S.-S.

TO ALL WHO SHALL SEE THESE PRESENTS, GREETING:

     Know We, 

That any person legally authorized to solemnize the RITES OF MATRIMONY 

is hereby Licensed to join in Marriage as Husband and Wife,

Osborne Routte and Sally Routte

and for so doing, this shall be your authority.

In Testimony Whereof, I, J. J. Stockbridge, Clerk of the District

Court here unto subscribe my name, and affix the seal of said 

Court, this  8th day of July 1871

                                                                            
                                                                            J.J. Stockbridge, C. D. C. W. C.

                                                                            By _____________, Deputy 

The State of Texas, to wit: Washington County, S. S.

THIS CERTIFIES that I joined in Marriage a Husband and Wife Osborn Route
and Sally Route on the 9th day of July 1871.

                                                                                                            Elder Butler

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Because marriage records vary from state to state and often contain several dates (i.e. a license date, a wedding date, a return date, and filing date), I want to remind new researchers to double check these records carefully and make sure to record the correct wedding date on their family group sheets and pedigree charts. At first, I had their marriage date as 8 July 1871 in my notes. But upon careful review of this record, I now realize that was the date they applied for the license. Their actual wedding date was 9 July 1871!

Source Citation:

1. Hunter, T. (2010, February 11). Slave Marriages, Families Were Often Shattered By Auction Block [Interview by M. Martin, Transcript]. In New Discoveries in Black History. NPR.

2. Washington County Marriage Volume 3: 488, County Clerk's Office, Brenham, Texas.