Joslin Family :: The Marriage (?) of James and Abigail

Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my memory is a nagging thought that the early marriage records for Delaware County, Ohio were "lost" in a fire or flood or something. I don't have the marriage record for James Joslin and Abigail Goodrich. I can't imagine making a trip there (which I did in the late 1980s) and not obtaining the record if it was available.

A place search for "Delaware Ohio" in the Online FamilySearch Library Catalog shows two entries for Delaware County marriage records.

• The early marriage bonds of Delaware County, Ohio, 1832-1865 Daughters of the American Revolution. Delaware City Chapter (Delaware, Ohio). Microreproduction of typescript (3 volumes) written 1940, in the State Library of Ohio, D.A.R. Collection, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marriage records, 1835-1951 Ohio Probate Court (Delaware County). Microfilm of original records filmed at the Delaware County courthouse and Delaware County Records Center, Delaware, Ohio. Includes general index to volumes 1-4; remaining volumes individually indexed.

From that we can see that the earliest recorded marriages that are most likely available are from 1835 (or perhaps they haven't been filmed) with some bonds from as early as 1832. But if these are all that are available, 1835 is too late for my Joslin family. According to his family bible records, Lysander Joslin was born May 1, 1825. Presumably, his parents would have been married prior to that date ;-) but perhaps not. We have no record of their marriage. Not in the official records nor in any personal family records.

However, several intrepid souls have literally scoured the early Delaware County newspapers for articles relating to marriages and other vital records and abstracted them for publication. For which I am very grateful!

In "Delaware County, Ohio Genealogical Abstracts" by Carol Willsey Bell, 1980 we find this entry from the Delaware Patron & Franklin Chronicle of July 13, 1826: "James Joslin vs. Abigail. Wife Abigail left my bed & board at Liberty Tp., will pay no debts."

A similar entry was found in "Abstracts from Miscellaneous Delaware County, Ohio, Newspapers 1821-1857" compiled by Mary V. Reed and Sharlene Shoaff, 1992. From the Delaware Patron of Thursday July 13, 1826: "Whereas my wife Abigail has left my bed and board - I am determined to pay NO debts of hers. James Joslin. Liberty June 30th, 1826.

This evidence seems to indicate that James and Abigail were married sometime prior to June 30, 1826. Assuming that Lysander is their son and first child, Abigail would have been pregnant with her second child at that time, Fanny Philanda Joslin was born in October 1826. Apparently James and Abigail reconciled as they had more children and in 1838 moved to Whitley County, Indiana.

Simply Dazzling

It's been a little quiet here at kinexxions the past few days. I've been busy, just not writing and blogging. You see, a friend, a young fella I used to work with (who just *might* be my 5th cousin once removed - if we can prove his ancestor was a son of Bela Goodrich), contacted me the other day and, among other things, we discussed converting VHS tapes to digital format. I've got 17 VHS-C tapes from about 10-14 years ago that I'd like to convert. Like I really need another project to work on right now! I still haven't started on that last box of my sister's family photos (but it is in the dining room, waiting, where I can see it, calling me every day) and there are still some genealogy files to be scanned.

Anyway, it seems he has video capture hardware and software that I can borrow! So, last Wednesday evening he comes over, gets the hardware and software (Dazzle and Pinnacle Studio) installed on my laptop, and shows me how to use it. A little over an hour later, he's gone, and I'm on my own! Within about two hours after he left, I had a "finished" movie! It had been converted, edited, and a few scene transitions were added. It does take some time, but I was surprised at how easy it was to learn. Of course, I haven't gotten into adding music or menus, and that first video/movie was only 12 minutes long. I've digitzed two more tapes but haven't edited them yet. But it is a start. Only 14 more tapes left...

Out of curiosity, I did a bit of looking on the 'net this morning for the Dazzle and must say that many of the reviews I saw were not very favorable. Some of those reviews were several years old though. It looks like people either hate it or love it. Guess it depends to some degree on the Dazzle model and the other (computer) hardware used, and their results. Based on those reviews, I'm not sure I would have purchased it. I'm not technologically sophisticated, i.e. I don't know whether my results are "good quality" or not, but I'm happy with the results thus far, and I guess that's what really matters.