Content of the Record:
On May 11, 1896, in the City of Newark, Charles Edward Ecker married Edith Agnes Beaver. Charles (called Edward) was a clerk and lived at his parents house on 79 Littleton Ave in Newark. He is 22 years and 5 months old. [We know from elsewhere that he was born in Albany New York on 9 Nov 1873.] His parents were William Ecker born in Germany, and Hanna [Hannah] Squire born in the United States.
The bride lived at 247 South Orange Ave and was 19. Her father was ?Wm. Beaver born in the USA, and her mother was Catharine Burke born in Ireland. It is the first marriage for both.
The name of the witness may be Samuel Kearney [not familiar to me] and the Justice of the Peace was Francis ???.
Conclusions and Speculations:
This is the earliest formal document available to me mentioning the name of my Great-Great Grandparents Beaver. They are the parents of the bride at this Ecker/ Beaver wedding of my Great Grandparents. I obtained this through the mail from the Archives of the State of New Jersey. I was thrilled to find this record as it gives a first name to William Beaver.
It appears that there may not have been a church wedding. The first child of Edith Agnes (Georg Arthur) was born 7 November 1896, some 6 months after the marriage so a church wedding may not have been available to the couple. Additionally, Charles Edward was from a Protestant family and I presume that Kate was Catholic. [Their daughter, my My Grandmother Edith Ecker, was Catholic.] At the time of her death in 1921, Catharine still gave an address, perhaps of family, on South Orange Ave. It will be worth a trip to the area to see what Catholic churchs might have serviced the family at that time.
The witness to the wedding was Samuel Kearney. Looking over all the records today I see that Kate traveled to America in the company of a Kearney family. There may well be a connection.