A very useful site

I feel lucky to have ancestors that settled here in Minnesota. Both because I live here which makes it so much easier to do research and because there are so many good resources online. One I actually ran across in an issue of Family Tree Maker magazine is called MACO eCounties. This site has been so useful in finding marriages that took place before or after the database that Ancestry.com covers for MN. I've had two big finds so far using this. One on my side and one on my husbands.

There were stories in the family that my great-grandfather William LeFavor re-married after my great-grandmother Ann died in 1933. Doing a search did indeed turn up another marriage! I sent away & very promptly received a copy of the marriage. William married Maud Ann Moore (b. 9 Dec 1914 MN) on 21 Oct 1934 in East Grand Forks, Polk, MN. They were married by Rev. Daniel James Kerr, witnesses: Mrs. D. J. Kerr & Dr. L. E. Doringan. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything more on Maud. I'm hoping when the 1940 census comes out next year, I'll be able to do some more tracking on them.

On my husband's side, he had heard that his father's father's surname was Anderson. This has been a hard thing to really verify as his grandmother died some years ago, and his father isn't listed in Ancestry's birth index as his parents were not married. Wouldn't you know that doing a search for Portlance turned up a record for his grandma & a Michael Anderson? I sent for this record but was sent an email back saying no marriage record existed but perhaps a marriage license which the recorder could send me. So as it turns out Arlene Elizabeth (Kerr) Portlance, aged 26 and Michael Frank Anderson, aged 21, filed for a marriage license on 29 Sep 1960 in Hennepin County. The month after my husband's father was born. But according to the county recorder, they either never married or did it in another state. I'm guessing they never married. But I never would have gotten this clue without the website.