During our pre-Hannukah Hannukah party, my cousin asked for immigration information on her great-grandmother, Bertha Rothen, for her daughter’s school project. Bertha Rothen was my maternal grandmother’s eldest sister.  It was easy to provide my cousin with images of ship manifests for Bertha Rothen and her soon to be husband, Louis Kornfeld.  Bertha Rothen was the first in her family to immigrate to the US in 1920 at the age of 20 and soon her parents and most of her siblings followed.  I was also able to provide my cousin with images of Bertha’s declaration of intention and petition for naturalization.  All of these documents are available on ancestry.com and familysearch.org.

Although I knew the date of Bertha and Louis’ marriage, I did not have a marriage certificate.  Upon landing in NY in 1920, she went to Dunmore, Pennsylvania to join her uncle where she worked and soon met her future spouse.  Louis and Bertha married in 1924 and raised their family in Scranton, PA.  I learned that marriage records are kept at the county where the marriage took place which was Lackawanna County.  After a bit of googling, I found that Lackawanna County had digitized marriage licenses from 1885 to present day!  It was exciting to find marriage records indexed, searchable by name, and linked to a pdf of the application for marriage license.  In addition, the site also has digitized images of wills and probate  and orphans court from 1878 to present day.

If you have relatives who lived in Lackawanna County, look for records at this site.

https://www.lpa-homes.org/LPA_Applications.htm

Below is the application for marriage license for Bertha Rothen and Louis Kornfeld filled out on June 20, 1924.  Bertha signs her name and includes the following information about herself.  She worked as a clerk, resided at 404 Prescott Avenue, had no previous marriages, and was 22 years old.  She also provided the following information about her parents.  Her father’s name was Abram from Poland and worked as a laborer.  Her mother’s name was Ida Furman from Poland and she worked as a housekeeper.  The wedding was officiated by Rev. William S. HORN on June 22, 1924 in Scranton, PA.  Bertha consents to the marriage by stating “no” to “Is applicant an imbecile, epileptic, of unsound mind or under guardianship as a person of unsound mind, or under the influence of any intoxicating liquor or narcotic drug.”  Bertha was far from.  She had a very sound mind even until her death at the age of 99!