chapter 2: No Marriage License was Required

The funeral memorial booklet for Elizabeth Ann (Fawkner) Ehlenbach stated that her parents, James Coleman Fawkner and Julia Ann Angell, were married 10 November 1862 near Sturgeon, Missouri. A marriage license or registration might confirm the date and possibly identify their parents, but none was found.

Still, a little census sleuthing reveals the likely parents of Julia Ann. She would be expected to be found with her birth family somewhere near Sturgeon in the 1860 U.S. Census. She was 38 in 1880 and 28 in 1870, so we are looking for a Julia Angell about 18 years-old in 1860. In 1860, a Julia A. Angell, 18, and a possible father, Robert Angell, 62, were enumerated in the household of John and Tabitha Dunbar in Rocky Fork Township of Boone County. Working back 10 years, Tabitha, 14, and Julia A., 8, were apparent daughters of Robert Angell, 51, and his apparent wife, Martha, 47, in Boone County District 8.  This evidence suggests that Julia Ann Angell was the daughter of Robert and Martha Angell. Martha died in November 1857 and was buried at the Mt. Zion Cemetery in Hallsville (see photo at left).

 The funeral booklet also stated that James Fawkner served as a volunteer from Illinois in the Union Army. This will turn out to be only partly true.  While not discovered until much later in the research process, a Civil War pension file for James C. Fawkner provided the only documentation of the Fawkner-Angell marriage. In an affidavit dated 12 October 1891, George W. Angell stated that "James C. Fawkner & Julia A. Angell...were married at his house in Randolph County [Missouri] some time in the fall of 1862 or 1863, the chaplain of Merell's [Merrill's] horse officiating." Merrill's Horse was the 2nd Missouri Cavalry. Angell went on to say that he was Julia's brother, and explained that, at the time of the marriage nearly 30 years earlier, Missouri law did not require a marriage license and and officiating clergy were not required to file a marriage return. This is true; licenses were not required before 1881. Some marriage returns were recorded in Boone and Randolph counties in the 1850s and 1860s, but that of James and Julia was not -- perhaps because of unsettled war times

Boone and Randolph counties are the heart of an area once known as Little Dixie, settled by families from the hemp and tobacco growing areas of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Slavery was relatively common in Little Dixie. Family lore states that Angell family loyalties were divided between the Union and Confederacy. The fact that a Union chaplain officiated at the marriage of James and Julia Ann in George Angell's home suggests that this part of the family leaned toward the North.

Finding the Fawkner family in Illinois (see 24 April 2015 post) was just a matter of following some rather large bread-crumbs. Locating the family in Missouri in 1870 was also not hard, but was a good example of a basic research strategy: matching individuals and families across censuses. Julia has been identified as the daughter of Robert Angell, but nothing is known yet about James C. Fawkner's background, except that he was born in Kentucky about 1829. In the next post, I will explain how James was found in the 1850 census.

LESSON: Match up households across censuses. Note birth dates and places as clues to migration.

Angell and Fawkner Census Enumerations
1850 District 8 Boone County, MO Angell household	1860 Rocky Fork Township Boone County, MO Dunbar household	1870 Township 51 Boone County, MO Falker household	1880 North Okaw Township Coles County, IL Falkner household
	John W. Dunbar, 21, b. MO
Robert Angell, 51, b. KY	Robert Angell, 62, b. KY
Martha, 47, b. KY
Martha J. L., 23, b. KY
Mary E., 21, b. MO
Catherine, 19, b. MO
James M., 17, b. MO
Tabitha C., 14, b. MO	Tabitha C. Dunbar, 23. b. MO
Robert, 11, b. MO
		James C. Falker, 41, b. KY	James Falkner, 51, b. KY
Julia A., 8, b. MO	Julia A. Angell, 18, b. MO	Julia, 28, b. MO	Julia, 38, b. MO
Henry G., 6, b. MO	Henry G., 17, b. MO
Joseph E., 4, b. MO	Joseph, 14, b. MO
		Robert G., 7, b. MO	Grant, 16, b. MO
		Julia K., 3, b. MO	Julia K., 13, b. MO
		Cyrus G., 1, b. MO	Cyrus, 1, b. MO
			Elizabeth, 9, b. IL
			Mattie, 6, b. IL
			Attie, 6, b. IL
			Henry, 3, b. IL
		Ann B. Sears, 62, b. VA
		Mildred Sears, 20, b. IN