Luckiest Months: 1897 Wedding Lore

On the heels of publishing the 1897 marriage record of George Doyle and Emma Everall comes this newspaper article I recently found about the best months and days to marry, published in the April 22, 1897, issue of The Butler Citizen.  I suppose a tradition, a little superstition, and perhaps the results of some previous marriages, contributed to the views expressed in this article.  (Just to say, I'm not the least bit superstitious and would have ignored the information in this article.  I don't think luck has anything to do with a successful marriage.) 

—Wedding bells are ringing.  Few
girls are dauntless enough to risk being
married on a Friday and also in the
month of May, which is considered a
very unlucky time, while April, June,
September, October and December are
deemed the luckiest months of the year
says a writer.  Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday are considered the best
day to be married on, if assurance of
happiness is desired.
           Monday for wealth,
           Tuesday for health,
      Wednesday the best day of all!
           Thursday for crosses,
           Friday for losses,
      Saturday no luck at all.
   All brides—elect rejoice when the
marriage day dawns bright, remember-
ing the old adage:
      "Blest be the bride upon whom the
sun doth shine."
      And all are equally certain that—
To change the name and not the letter,
Is a change for the worse and not for
the better.

This article sent me searching for ancestors and relatives who married within a few years of 1897 to see if they'd heeded this advice or ignored it.  There were only five marriages within five years of the publication date of this article.  It's hard to say from the distance of more than 100 years' time whether a couple had a good marriage or not.  I've just noted below what I know of their marriages.

George Doyle and Emma Everall 
Monday, December 20, 1897 (lucky day, lucky month)
George and Emma appear to have remained married throughout their lives.  An obituary at FamilySearch for one of their sons, Allan, suggests that George and Emma had at least a dozen children. 

Jacob Froman and Maria Watts
Thursday, April 14, 1898  (lucky month, unlucky day)
Maria died in 1899.

Edward G. Gerner and Ella Knapp
Wednesday, June 24, 1903  (lucky month, lucky day)
Edward died in 1917.  They had no children.

Benjamin Robert Hashman & Marie Isabella Meinzen
Wednesday, November 20, 1901   (unlucky month, lucky day)
Ben and Belle remained married until Ben's death in 1959.  They had seven children.

Henry Carl Meinzen and Ella Dray 
Sunday, December 27, 1896  (lucky month, unknown about the day)
A child of this marriage told me that there were problems, though there was not a divorce.  Ella died in 1930.  They had at least eight children.

If you're wondering about this quote, "To change the name and not the letter, Is a change for the worse and not for the better" it suggests that marrying a person whose surname begin swith the same letter as yours was unlucky.  You can read more about that superstition and its origins here.

What do you know of your ancestors' marriage dates and their "luck" as a married couple?

-–Nancy.

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