Wedding Wednesday/Earl and Muriel Turner MA

   

     When my Great Aunt Alice O'Hora Shannon passed away, I was given her photo album.  Everyone in my family knows I am the self-designated keeper of family history, so I have piles of photos I'm working on labeling and storing.  Most are 20th century, but still well worth preserving.  The photo above, in it's little envelope, was tucked inside Aunt Alice's album.

     The return address on the envelope read, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Turner of 60 Edward Ave, Pittsfield, Mass. and is postmarked 1935, so I believe the marriage probably occurred that year.  The card inside is signed, "Muriel and Earl Turner are wishing Alice O'Hora a Merry Christmas."  The Turners are not members of my family, in fact I had no idea who they were.  I turned to the 1940 census to see if I could learn more about them, and perhaps find some clues as to how my great aunt made the acquaintance of a couple from Massachusetts.

     In 1940 Muriel was 32 years old and the mother of a one year old girl named Patricia.  Her husband Earl was a 34 year old engineer at GE.  Muriel did not hold down a job at that time, but she did have a 4 year college degree.  That bit of information leads me to believe she and Aunt Alice may have met at college.  My aunt earned a teaching degree at Geneseo College here in New York, and taught at local one room school houses before moving to Rochester, NY where she taught in Catholic schools for many years.

     I checked the Vital Record index maintained by the state of Massachusetts covering the years 1841-1910 and found two Muriels born in 1907 at Pittsfield-- Muriel McArthur and Muriel Eileen Smith.  I'm not sure which one if either are my girl.  I found Earl in the Massachusetts Death Index at Family Search, passing away April 19, 1980.  I wasn't able to find Muriel in that index that covers the years 1970-2003.  Either she passed away before her husband, or made it to a very old age.