First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage: How Appalachian Folks Find Somebody to Love

Creator: Estes, Abigail Lee

: Price, Irene

: Clark, Jim

: Clark, Catherine

: Coles, Margaret Kish

: Effler, Louise

In this project, Abigail Lee Estes chose to focus on courtship. This topic proved difficult because her informants frequently did not talk much about that but instead focused on marriage. In her interviews, Ms. Estes heard about courtship in coal mining camps, about how World War 2 affected it, and heard interesting new terms and stories. This is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.