Dirk Sutorius and Maria Schuetz Marriage Certificate

This ornate document is a marriage certificate for Dirk Sutorius and Maria Schuetz, maternal great-grandparents of Bill Dean, whose family provided the document. Born in 1867 in Switzerland Maria (Mary) Schuetz came to Humboldt, Nebraska with her parents Gottlieb and Anna Schuetz in 1870. She married German-born Dirk Sutorius in 1889. Sutorius' daughter Emma, born in 1890 married a recent emigrant from Germany (1908) Edo F. Harms in 1914. All three generations lived in Humboldt, Nebraska in close proximity with various relatives (Emma Sutorius's uncle John Schuetz lived right next door to her family according to the 1930 census).

The document is decorated in the German tradition with quotations from the Bible, roses and flower ornament. In the folk tradition the witnesses were Maria's elder brother Arnold and his fiancée Bertha.

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