Friday, December 18, 2009

Hoffman Marriage Certificates

Originally posted 17 May 2009

Albert Hoffman's marriage certificate came yesterday from the New York City Municipal Archives! It is rich in information about his bride. It tells where each of them lived in 1897, their ages, birthplaces, parents' names and the name and residence of the priest who married them. One of the witnesses was Ellen A. Nevins who may have been Albert's new mother-in-law. I notice that the bride and witness both signed their names Nevins with an 's' at the end. Also the bride is listed as Catherine, but signed her name Kate. Take a look at both the certificate and the signatures.






Louise Hoffman, Albert's little sister and another of Caspar Hoffman's orphaned children, married a man who homesteaded in Snohomish County, Washington, a little north of Seattle. I still don't know how they connected, but the Washington Secretary of State Digital Archives is now adding marriage records from King County and I found her marriage certificate there. She and John B. Kelley (sometimes spelled Kelly) were married five years before Albert and this record has less information, but it does say Louise was from San Francisco, California. Her older siblings, Susie (Hoffman) Thompson and Henry H. Hoffman both lived in San Francisco by 1892, so she must have been with them.



Henry Hoffman, the original immigrant in the family, in 1858 married the first time in LaSalle County, Illinois, to Mary Donner, a German immigrant. I had an index listing of the marriage, but recently sent to the County Clerk for a copy of the actual record. At this early date there is little data, but it does have his signature. Having begun life as Heinrich Hoffmann, his version of his name in America was still evolving at this time. Sadly, Henry's first wife died in 1872. They had no children.



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