I don’t often read stories like this but, when I was researching through the newspaper archives I had to read this story twice it was so fascinating.

Ottawa Journal– October 21 1913 headline read:

Girl Underage Wed- Trouble Now!

Charity Officer John Keane and his Charity offices of Ottawa were asked to investigate a case of a fair young U.S. visitor who had married her groom while still underage. It began innocently enough when a young girl came to Canada on a visit and met a young Lanark County man and Cupid engineered the rest.

They married and sent a clipping of their marriage to her parents in the United States. Maybe that wasn’t such a wise decision as the young girl’s parents immediately contacted Canadian authorities that she was not yet eighteen–meaning in capital letters she was still underage.

Children’s Aid was then contacted who in turn contacted a similar American agency that immediately asked them someone underage cold get married in Canada. Well it seems that the young girl had made some misstatements and in those days official papers were not the first thing on everyone’s mind- so she got away with it.

Both agencies American and Canadian said that nothing could be done now as the marriage had taken place without incident. Had they known her parents had not given consent they could have stopped it– but there was nothing they could do about it now. The couple was now living in Ottawa and hopefully happily ever after.

My how times have changed.