Wedding Wednesday: Jesse James & Louiza Jane Jaggers

I love finding really old documents and photos of my family. The old marriage certificates and licenses were not only beautiful, but they also often contain information that may help me to fill out the branches of my family tree. For example, some marriage records show that their parents may have given them permission to marry (especially if they were quite young). Marriage records also list witnesses to the ceremony, and those witnesses are often family members. I don't know why, but I also get a kick out of seeing their own handwriting.

Here's the marriage record for my paternal 3rd great grandparents, Jesse James Jaggers and Louiza Jane Turman. They were married on October 3, 1875, in Sanford County, Alabama, by the Reverend J.R. Baker, Minister of the Gospel. Alexander Cobb was the probate judge who granted them the marriage license. It appears that a mistake was made in the part where the time of marriage was supposed to be written: Louiza's father's name, Robert, appears on that line. Strangely, it also appears Jesse, along with Robert, was witness to his own wedding (unless there's another Jesse J. Jaggers in my line that I'm not aware of...).

Jesse was born sometime in 1854 in Morgan County, Alabama, to Benjamin Franklin Jaggers and Nancy Catherine Sandlin. I can't find any record of his death but, based on census documents and the birthdates of his children, I believe that it happened sometime after 1889 and likely somewhere in Oklahoma. 

Louiza was born on December 15, 1854, in Alabama to Robert Wilson Turman and Dezina Noe. I don't have documentation, but it is believed that she died on October 14, 1905, in LeFlore, Oklahoma. 

Like most of my ancestors, Jesse was a farmer. He and Louiza had five children: Robert Franklin, Nancy Dezina, James Thomas, Catherine Elzoria and William Donald. All lived into adulthood and had families of their own. Their daughter, Nancy Dezina Jaggers, was my great great grandmother. 

I don't really know much else about Jesse and Louiza, but I love the one picture of them that I found in my Grandma Edith's files.

Here's how I'm descended from Jesse and Louiza:

Jesse James Jaggers (1854-?) & Louiza Jane Turman (1854-1905) >

Nancy Dezina Jaggers Martindale (1877-1944) and Riley Harrison Martindale (1876-1899) >

Ethel Modena Martindale Hunt (1896-1977) and James William "Earl" Hunt (1891-1961) >

Edith Vivian Hunt Brittain (1921-1993) and Woodie Leroy Brittain (living) >

William Lee Brittain (1942-2003) and Rebecca Elizabeth Bartram Brittain (living) >

ME!