I had searched the UK records, without success, for the marriage of my great grandfather Samuel Drew to Jane Harris. My father, uncle, aunt could throw no light on the matter. Great grandfather’s stepmother had written in the family “register” that “Samuel Drew left for a ferran land 7th April 1867”. The ship leaving that day for America was the North American, and on the passenger list were “Samuel Drew, 22, Miner” and “Jane Drew, 21, Spinster”. Why did she travel as a spinster if she was already married? Aha! She wasn’t. Eventually, Ancestry made the Maine marriage records available for viewing, and there they were. Married 26 June 1867 by a Justice of the Peace (JM Heath) in Portland, Maine.

So, they had eloped and traveled to the New World as brother and sister, a fact hidden from their descendants until just recently.

— story submitted by Ancestry member Geoff Drew. By the way, Geoff would love to find the couple leaving America for England (with 5 children) in 1885. Post a comment through the link above if you happen to discover it!