Tonight WE and I were discussing the possibility that a current project at work might take me overseas for an audit. Right as we were talking logistics and if we could make it work, I opened my fortune cookie from dinner.

Lately, I have to admit that I’ve experienced quite a few epic disappointments. Here’s a list in pictures:

Impulse purchase to test WE's adventurous side. Fail.

Travis' Birthday Cake

The only tree in our back yard. Dying from the inside out.

US vs Japan: World Cup Finals. Lost in the shoot out. Boo.

No caption necessary! Just look at me.

Life would be so boring if everything always worked out the way we wanted it to, now wouldn’t it?!??

Here’s a shot that cheers me up no matter how epic the failure:

Look how big my boy is!!! What a cutie!

So, after my last post you could probably guess that I got the family history bug again. This time I had a very specific goal: find out more about Lulu and Lee’s wedding. (They are my great grandparents)

I had notes from my dad’s uncle Carl from a long time ago that they had been married in Oct 1910 in Weatherford, Oklahoma. But we did not have anything to confirm Carl’s personal knowledge. Not until today that is! Yesterday I wrote an email to The Western Oklahoma Historical Center and The Western Plains Weatherford Genealogical Society to seek out a marriage record. You never know how quick a response you will get from a place like that – but surprisingly enough I got an email back today with a copy of their marriage certificate. The volunteer there said that I lucked out and my relatives just happened to be found in a book that was recently indexed. See the record here.

I did a little more research online about Weatherford in the early 1900s as well. The OKState library site had this to say about the history of the town. It’s located west of OKC on historic Route 66. Before marrying Lulu, Lee had lived in Clarendon, TX (working there with his father as a grocer) and then also in Tucumcari, NM (where he was living with his younger sister Grace and her husband). All three of these small towns are located along Route 66.

The marriage certificate also answered a question that I had. Why did Lee and Lulu travel back east along Route 66 to Weatherford in 1910 to get married when according to 1910 census records – they were both living in New Mexico. Turns out that when Lee and Lulu married, Lulu was residing in Weatherford. Still doesn’t answer why Lulu had moved there from New Mexico but it does explain why they were married there. Dad suspects that Lulu was a school teacher. This might explain her status as a “boarder” in the 1910 census (April) in New Mexico. Also, according to Weatherford history – a regional school (Southwestern Normal School now Southwestern Oklahoma State University) had opened in 1901. Maybe she moved to teach school there? Maybe she went to work at the German Bank? Maybe she simply had other family that lived there?

At any rate, here’s a picture of the main street in Weatherford in 1910 (the same year that Lulu and Lee were married there)

I can only guess without more information, but I figure that she was probably a crotchety old (20+) school teacher, spinster that met Lee in Tucumcari,NM on her way to Oklahoma. Luck for her, he was just as old and couldn’t get his mind off such an intelligent lady so he followed her to Weatherford and made her is bride a few months later! I can only imagine how beautiful she must have looked in that dress.

One more interesting fact: Lee was actually born William Edward (verified by his 1900 census record). Apparently sometime in his late teens / early twenties – he decided to go by Lee. Family lore indicates he went from ‘Will’ to ‘Will E’ to ‘Willie’ to just ‘Lee’. Maybe when he met Lulu he decided that Lulu and Lee just sound nice together. At any rate, they had five children – Ercel, Lucille, Evelyn, Donald, and Carl. (Evelyn is my Grammy.) They are buried side by side in Wagon Mound, New Mexico.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went to Colorado to my cousin’s wedding. While we were at the family dinner the night before, my aunt told me that they had pulled out Grammy’s wedding dress to see if they could take some of the lace and use it as the ‘something old.’ When I found out that Grammy’s wedding dress was really HER MOTHER’S wedding dress (making it probably over 100 years old) I insisted that my aunt bring it up from the basement so that I could see it! It wasn’t in great shape and was quite yellow – but I have to admit that I was IN LOVE with that dress the moment I saw it!

Now, if only I can discover the date that Lulu Bryan was married to William Lee Anderson and wore this gorgeous dress…