Normally, this is where I would refer you to Randy Seaver's blog, Genea-Musings, and pass along the assignment for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. However, since I have never had a particularly memorable Valentine's Day (his mission for this week), I have chosen to put my own spin on some Valentine's "fun" for this post.
I decided to go to my FTM database and find out who has been born or got married on February 14th. (There should be an easier way than what I used to find this information in FTM... if anyone has suggestions, please share!) As I was thinking about this, I wondered how long has Valentine's Day been around and did my ancestors celebrate it? Did they plan to have their wedding(s) on the day of love or did it just work out that way? I didn't find the answer to THAT question, but I did discover that Valentine's Day has been around... if not forever, then at least for a very, very long time. The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in 1382. By 1797, printers had bung producing a cards with verses that were the forerunners of the modern Valentine. In the 1800's handwritten notes gave way to mass-produced greeting cards. (Valentine's Day. (2013, February 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:04, February 10, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valentine%27s_Day&oldid=537352548)
I found only nine people in my database of 5,319 people who were born on February 14:
1) Ralph Hubbard, born 1804, my 3rd cousin, 5x removed
2) Jennie May Mayo Snider, born 1869, 2nd cousin of my Grand Uncle James L. "Jim" Tapley's wife, Maggie Powell Tapley
3) Sarah Theodora Price Tapley, born 1880, my grand aunt, married to my Grand Uncle George Washington Sentell Tapley
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| George Washington Sentell Tapley and Sarah Theodora Price Tapley |
5) Jaqueline "Jackie" Tapley Snell, born 19XX, my father's first cousin and my first cousin, 1x removed
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| Jackie and Bill Snell, September 2010 |
6) Theodore "Ted" George Bakan, born 19XX, my Aunt Evelyn Tapley Bakan's husband
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| Ted and Aunt Evelyn, October 2009 |
7) Lynn Arthur Holyoak, born 19XX, my 8th cousin, 1x removed
8) Jerri Patricia Powell, born 19XX, the grand niece of my Uncle Jack Dempsey Tapley's wife, Blanche Dixon Tapley
9) Shawn Thomas, born 19XX, my 1st cousin, 1x removed
Amazingly, even though it is obvious from my research that Valentine's Day has been a day for lovers from at least the late 1700's, I found only one couple in my entire family tree that married on February 14:
Oris Irene Tapley, my 1st cousin, 1x removed, and James Leonard Price married on February 14, 1932.
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| James Leonard Price and Oris Irene Tapley Price, photo courtesy of their daughter, Joyce Price Moore |
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