5 Hartje/Bertha Abraham marriage

I don't have much for this post.  I guess it's a good thing when your relatives didn't make the news!
Here is the 1920 Census for Bertha.

1920 U.S., National Census
Lodema Township, Pembina County, ND1

Bertha's parents, Theodore(53), Emma(48) are still farming grain.  Bertha's brother William is 13.  This Census was taken in the middle of January (seems like a cruel thing to do to the Census takers), I am guessing William was still in school because he doesn't have a job.  Often they left school around this age to start working on the farms.  Bertha is 19 and does not have a job although I would bet she did plenty of work around the farm.

Herman, Bertha's stepbrother is listed next but this time he is in his own household as the head of the house.  He is 25 and farming.

A little over a month later Bertha married Alfred on February 22, 1920.  They traveled to Gretna Manitoba to get married.  I tried to find information about marriage laws at the time.  I thought maybe it was easier to marry in Canada than North Dakota.  I think it just may have been a convenient location.  Here is a map that shows just how close Gretna is to where they were living in North Dakota. (I circled Gretna in blue.)

Manitoba map 18872

So you can see it is right on the border in the red river valley.  In the society news of the day people often traveled to Gretna for many reasons, the circus, plays etc.  It was a very popular city.

I'm still waiting for their marriage license.  In the mean time I just found a site with a possible treasure trove of information about what life was like for women in Pembina County.  I may need to go to the Pembina County Historical Society Museum to see them, so that would be a trip for next summer.  They have a three volume collection.  The first would contain information about the Icelandic side of the family, I think the third would contain the information I would like about the Hartje side of the family.

Happy Discoveries to you from one Ancestral Explorer to another,
Janet

Sources:
1.   'Bertha Abraham' 1920 U.S., Federal Census, Lodema Township, Pembina County, North Dakota, Sheet 6B, Line 89; Ancestry.com online.

2.  'Window of the Northwest'  http://www.mb1870.org/localhistory/133%20-%20Gretna%20-%20Window%20of%20the%20Northwest.pdf page 51.