Posted on 09/29/2009 5:47:42 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Wilmore, PA (AHN) - Frank and Betty Skrout were married on Oct. 6, 1960 - or so they thought. The couple recently discovered that their wedding was never made official in the eyes of the law.
The couple was looking for documents for Betty Skrout's pension plan when they found their "return of marriage" document had never been filed by Rev. James Feehley after their wedding at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, The Tribune Democrat, of Johnstown, Pa., reported.
The Cambria County official in charge of the records, Patty Sharbaugh, said she would file the necessary paperwork and backdate it to the wedding date, if the right form can be found.
The Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese has officials looking for the documents to make the marriage official, 49 years later, the Democrat reported.
In the mean time, Frank Skrout joked that he'd been living in sin for 49 years with a woman he thought was his wife.
Betty was heard to say, "I'm free! I'm free! I'm finally FREEEEEEEE!" as she packed her bags and headed for the bus depot. ;)
Oopsie Daisey.........
and if not? better tell the kids!
;)
More. That Frank is quite the character, LOL!
Wilmore couple find marriage paperwork not filed
By KATHY MELLOTT
The Tribune-Democrat
WILMORE — In a few weeks, Frank and Betty Skrout should be celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary.
Instead, they are in search of documentation to prove they ever tied the knot on a warm autumn day when Dwight Eisenhower was president and the Pirates were closing in on a dramatic World Series win over the New York Yankees.
“All these years we’ve been living in sin,” the good-natured Frank Skrout said jokingly in an interview on the front porch of the their longtime Wilmore
home.
“I thought I was married, and I was a single guy all this time,” he said.
The couple declared their love for one another in front of God and the late Rev. James Feehley at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in Wilmore on Oct. 6, 1960. In attendance at that ceremony were Betty’s 5-year-old daughter and two witnesses.
Frank and Betty settled into a contented life, with Frank working for Bethlehem Steel and Betty at sewing factories in Johnstown, Windber and Portage.
All was well.
A son, Scott, came along, and the couple helped raise a grandson.
Now – well into retirement with five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren – the Skrouts have learned that the ceremony they based their life on was never registered at the Cambria County Courthouse as required by Pennsylvania law.
“I guess we’re not married, I don’t know,” said Betty Skrout.
“We went through everything. We did the whole thing.”
Frank interjected: “I might as well play the field. What the heck.”
‘We were married’
The problem surfaced recently when Betty learned of pension benefits she was eligible to receive from her days in the needle industry through the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
But she needed documents to reflect her status change and her married name.
Surprise.
The certified license for the Skrouts does not exist at the office of the Cambria County Register of Wills/Clerk of Orphans Court.
What the Skrouts learned was that the “return of marriage” document completed by the priest performing the wedding ceremony was never returned to the courthouse as required by law.
Word of the couple’s situation spread quickly through the community and the joking followed.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with this,” Betty said. “But it’s like the priest told us: We were married. The records are there – somewhere.”
The Skrouts wonder how many other couples married at St. Bartholomew’s during that era may be in the same boat.
Meanwhile, they have discussed going through the process again with a small private ceremony at the church.
‘A big problem’
Patty Sharbaugh, the elected Cambria County official in charge of the records, said that while similar problems have arisen in her 33 years in the office, this is the first one she has heard of from the Wilmore church.
“Boy, that’s bad. That does cause a big problem,” Sharbaugh said.
She requires the return of marriage certificate be back to her office within 10 days of the ceremony. But if the Skrouts can locate the information from the church, she will record it, back-dating the marriage to Oct. 6, 1960.
“If the priest is still around or if they can locate those church records, we’ll complete them,” she said.
Sharbaugh said she will do the same for any other couples married at the Wilmore church and in the same situation.
But as for now, Frank and Betty as the Skrouts do not exist as a married couple in the public record.
“Not according to us, not according to our records,” Sharbaugh said. “They’re not married.”
‘Property of the parish’
During the past several years, Sharbaugh has instituted a procedure reminding people to get the certificates returned.
“Now if we don’t get a return, we call the people and write them letters. We bug them,” she said.
“If they called off the marriage, then we attach a letter to show we tried.”
The procedure is too late to help the Skrouts, but Tony DeGol, secretary for communications of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese, said the marriage certificate should be available.
“Those records are the property of the parish and they can be found,” he said late last week.
Meanwhile, the Skrouts continue to be good natured about their strange situation.
“I guess I still don’t have my freedom,” Frank Skrout said.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_269234253.html?keyword=topstory
“Couple Finds 49-Year Marriage Was Never Official”
Did not having the permission of the state to wed (paper filed) make them any less married?
At a dinner we had to celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, my dad suddenly began to cry. I asked what was wrong. He said your grandfather caught me and your mom messing around behind the barn. He got his shotgun and told me I was either going to marry her or I was going to prison for 50 years. I asked why that made him cry. He said, “Well, I just realized tomorrow I would be a free man.”
That annoys me, too. However, I am legally wed to one man in Wisconsin. Call me old-fashioned.
But don’t tell my other husband in IA, though...OK? LOL!
*GROAN*
It doesn’t matter what the law says. Its God who needs to know.
My parents had a similar problem. They had been engaged for about three years. My father was in the Army for two years, which was extended to an indefinite term after the start of World War II. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. They were married on December 13, 1941. My father then went on a honeymoon to North Africa, Sicily, Italy, England, France, and Germany—without my mother but with 2.5 million or so of his closest friends. The priest failed to file their marriage certificate because my father forgot to sign it and he was unavailable for about four years. I was eight—born after the war ended—when the priest was assigned to a parish in our town. He still had the marriage certificate which my father signed. So I guess all the people who call me a b@st@rd may be “technically” right.
Perhaps in the eyes of the IRS!!! That would really be bad news.
It’s waaaay past time to get government out of marriage.
that’s why in Europe you have a brief civil ceremeony followed by a church wedding on the next day.
I did that twice.
Not yet, give them just a bit more time to ruin it completely.
We went to a 15 hour wedding in Mulhouse Fr in the east near the German/Swiss borders. They started at the city hall at 2:00. By 3 PM we were across the street in the church for that ceremony.
They are blaming the priest - what if the COUNTY lost the paperwork?
How can they be sure that it’s the fault of the priest who is now dead? Maybe he filed the forms and some nitwit at the courthouse misplaced them.
Great minds think alike.
LOL! Some things are what they are, LOL!
In georgia a wedding is legal if there is an ordained preacher and witnesses. The record of the wedding can be made in a Bible. No license is needed for it to be legal.
Well, that explains a lot, LOL!
In many states the officiating clergyman is subject to a fine if the license is not returned to the County Clerk within ten days.
That’s baaaadddddd!!!!!
“It’s waaaay past time to get government out of marriage.”
I’ve often thought that, but good luck finging a Minister or church that will perform a wedding ceremony w/o the permission of the government.
That’s because in all states (since I believe common law marriage is now off the books in all 50 states) the resulting marriage would not have legal standing, and the idiot churches/synagogues/etc all seem to have some article of faith that marriage isn’t really valid unless the government says it is. Most mainstream religious bodies have explicit language in their regulations governing activities of their clergy, that marriages can’t be performed without a license from the government. Why anyone would donate a penny to support such government-worshipping religious bodies is quite beyond my understanding.
It used to be explicitly illegal in many states for a clergy person to perform a marriage ceremony for a couple that didn’t have marriage license from the government beforehand. I suspect that’s no longer true (and probably not enforceable, even if it’s still on the books in some states), but most mainstream religious bodies still act as if it is. A chilling note from 19th century Mormon history: before the Mormons had started teaching or practicing polygamy, the state of Ohio refused to recognize marriages performed by Mormon clergy on the grounds that the Mormon religion wasn’t a “legitimate religion”. Apparently the government of Ohio read the First Amendment as granting a right to freedom of religion, as long as you picked from a list of religions that your state government happened to deem “legitimate”.
What we need is for freedom-loving citizens to dump all the nonsense about legislative moves to “preserve traditional marriage”, and just start practicing their own idea of marriage without the government’s permission. Refuse to get marriage licenses, get a legal divorce if you have one already, and refuse to support religious bodies that make government licensing a percondition for marriage. Then start fighting all the government schemes to use government-registered marriage to exercise more control over your assets, both while you’re alive and when you die.
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