Why did Michigans marry in Canada?

Question

I was flipping through some 20th century marriage records in Essex County, Canada and noticed many Michigans crossing the international border from Detroit to get married in Sandwich, Canada. I thought Michigan was itself sort of a marriage haven in the U.S. due to less stringent marriage-license requirements. Does anyone know the cause of this phenomenon?

Comments

I wonder if some of these marriage occurred during prohibition?

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This also happened in Ontario and Quebec (Upper and Lower Canada) and was related to the logging and farming industries along the Ottawa River.  May be similar there.

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I was looking at marriage between 1900 and 1910, but it extends into the prohibition era.

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You might be dealing with availability of clergy of a specific denomination also.  I don't think Ontario had majority below 21 at that time, although I haven't been able to find anything to give a timeline on age of majority for that province as I can for Québec.

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Interesting point. The couple of interest were Methodists. There were several Methodist churches in Lenawee County, but perhaps they didn't have a permanent minister. I'm guessing this was not the issue but is something I will look into. Thanks for the input.

Answer 1

Interesting observation. Never heard of the particular area having that situation. Sounds like Gretna Green, Scotland-type marriages for England & Wales couples, more liberal on the Scottish side for a long time (religious vs civil, age of consent, parental consents, etc).   But for most of the 20th century I don't think Ontario was more liberal than Michigan, other than maybe age?  There were historically strong family ties across the border in that area, much like Vermont/Quebec, could be that.

Comments

It seems like it was done primarily to elope. For example, my 3rd great grandparents lived in Lenawee County on the Michigan/Ohio border, but crossed into Sandwich, Canada for their marriage. He was 19 and she was 18. But there are there are older Michigans and even Ohioans that married there as well.

Answer 2

The Windsor-Detroit border has never been much of a barrier, although that has changed somewhat in the post-911 era.

Windsor (Sandwich) is in many ways a suburb of Detroit. My wife's mom worked in Detroit and we both have family members who married Americans from Detroit.

There are actually a lot of Canadians who went to Michigan to marry as well. They allowed divorce, for one thing, which was not really available in Canada until fairly recently.

Comments

Thanks for the response. That takes care of the Detroit residents. But what about Ohioans and those from further away in Michigan? Doesn't seem like "destination wedding" explains it either given that it was like a suburb of Detroit.