John Charles Slowey - Wisconsin to South Dakota - Part 10

Today was a long day.  We were preparing for a trial tomorrow morning and ended up working until about 7 this evening.  Very long day.  Around 5:00 this afternoon, the bottom fell out of the sky and we have had varying stages of torrential downpour for the past 5-1/2 hours.  I am so ready for it to be sunny and springy.

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived home and found an envelope from St. George Catholic Church in Scotland, SD.  I knew that St. Kyran, the church where they were married, was no longer in existence.  Several weeks ago, I sent a letter to a nearby parish requesting information on how to find the marriage certificate for John Charles Slowey and Theresa Burns (my great great grandparents).  When I opened the envelope, there was a Certificate of Marriage (albeit recreated from the marriage register)! There is a handwritten note on the back of the certificate that says "St. Kyran's Church do [sic] not exist now. Records (some) kept with St. Columba, Mayfield."  I thought it was very nice of them to let me know!

While I would have liked for it to be an actual copy from the register or a photocopy of the actual certificate, I am perfectly happy with what they sent (especially since it didn't cost me anything!).  At least now I can confirm their marriage date.  I really was hoping their birth dates would have been included on the certificate, since that's a major piece of information that has me tied up in knots at this point, and I have very little hope of ever finding a birth certificate for either of them.

So, it appears that Theresa's father and John's sister were the witnesses.  His mother had passed away two years prior to the marriage.  There's another mystery to solve ... how John's mother died.  The only information I have regarding her death is that she "dropped dead" on 10 Aug 1884.  I assume this is hearsay information I received, since I have no supporting documents and made no notes regarding the source of the information - obviously before I became the source-savvy genealogist I am today!