Since it came up in the discussion, the “photo of the day” today is actually a scan of the marriage certificate of John W. Hammil and Sarah M. Rine. I’m sorry the scan isn’t as nice as I would like it to be. This is a large piece of paper. I’m thinking maybe 22″ by 17″ or something like that. (Maybe Art can provide more exact dimensions.) It had to be scanned in two swaths (thanks, Art!) and the two combined. So you can tell where the joint between the scans is. On top of that the individual scans weren’t able to capture the full width of the document even then. So there is a little bit missing, especially along the upper right edge.

In spite of that, the scan did capture the beauty of the document, and captured all the writing on it plus the photos of the bride and the groom.

Verna Hammel (the wife of the younger Jack, Floyd J.) left a couple of notes on the back. The first reads:

“Jack Hammel’s mother and father, (Jack passed away Feb., 1985 at the age of 95 years.)“

And in a separate note in an envelope taped to the back:

“Wedding license [sic.]; John W. Hammil (notice spelling); Sarah M. Rine–I’m not sure if she came from Ireland or her father did. The name Hammil–in later years he spelled it Hammell and then Jack changed to Hammel. He died at the age of 95 years. Floyd J. (Jack) was my husband.“

In fact, John was not at all consistent about the spelling of his surname. For example it shows up as both “Hammil” and “Hamil” in the county marriage registry, and his signature is “Hamil.” As Verna stated, he spelled it “Hammell” later in life. (Said county marriage registry image is below. Note John’s signature in the middle column.)

I already wrote you a bit about this: The idea that the Rine family was from Ireland, while common among John and Sarah’s descendants, is not correct. Nor is the idea that they were recent immigrants to America. (It would be interesting to know where these two ideas came from and how they became so widely accepted in the family.) The fact is that Sarah’s ancestors in the Rine family back to her great-great grandfather were born in America. At some point before that the family apparently immigrated from Germany.

The certificate indicates that John and Sarah were married 12 July 1883, in Coshocton County, Ohio. It further indicates that John was from neighboring Knox County. (I found an obituary for John from the Democrat-Herald which listed among his survivors a brother Logan Hammell of Fredericktown, Ohio, which is in Knox County. So possibly some members of his family didn’t ever leave Knox County after this time.)

The certificate indicates that the wedding took place in the bride’s residence and was officiated by Daniel Mikesell, J.P. The witnesses, Casper Rine and Jane Rine were a married couple, Sarah’s cousins. They were married 21 April 1870, some thirteen years before John and Sarah. Casper was the son of Sarah’s father’s older brother, Rudolph Rine. (Good ol’ Uncle Rudy! ;–)

The name “Casper” (sometimes “Caspar”) is extremely common among Sarah’s ancestors. Her father was William Casper. His older brother was Casper H. In the previous generation, their father’s brother was named Caspar. And in the generations before that, the father’s name was Caspar and his father’ name was Johanes Casper. Lots of “Caspers”!

I mentioned this earlier also, in response to Donna’s question: The name Rine is spelled in various other ways among Sarah’s ancestors: Rein, Rhein, Ryne, Ryan, and Rhine at least.

It is ironic that there has been so much misinformation about the Rine family over the years, while now that genealogy is pretty well documented. In contrast, I have no information at all about John’s family (but see this later post), other than that he was born in Winchester, IL; his otherwise unknown parents were born in Ohio; he lived in Knox County, Ohio at the time of his marriage to Sarah, possibly with or near other family members; his children were born in and around Lincoln, NE; and he moved to Albany about 1900 in 1890. (Well, there is a lot of information after that. But that’s all I have from before he moved to Albany.)

Question about the “floozy” (Mom’s term, I believe) G’pa Hammell married after G’ma Hammell passed away: Did you ever meet her? Did you know her name? The Linn County record of his death lists a spouse “Charlot”. I did find a marriage record in King County, WA for a “Jack W. Hammell” marrying a “Charlotte E. Carty” on 10 December 1945. Unfortunately the record has no other information that might determine whether this was G’pa Hammell. Any idea?