Good marriages are made in heaven, but lasting ones must be made on earth. This was well known by Ivan Afanasevich Kurzhupov, a merchant of Alexandrovsk [since 1921: Zaporozhe] when to his marriage ad posted on 25 (in the old calendar 12) August 1907 he also included, for the sake of an unambiguous proposal, the balance of his movable and immovable property authenticated on the first of January of that year.
For the purpose of marriage
I’m looking for the companion of my life for common work and a happy life. I am 48 years
old. I have children and fortune worth HALF A MILLION. I am looking for a maiden
not older than 30 or a childless widow not older than 35, with good morals.
I pursue extensive economic and commercial activity. An intelligent,
music savy and non-smoking companion with a high school
diploma is required. Serious correspondence. Address:
Alexandrovsk, Ekaterinoslav Government,
[since 1921: Dnepropetrovsk], to Ivan
Afanasevich Kurzhupov, into
his own hands.
The balance included two estates, one in the Poltava Government and another in the Kursk Government, furthermore eight houses in Alexandrovsk, indicating the precise location and value of each, in a total value of 514 thousand rubles, signed “in withness whereof, by Ivan Afanasevich Kurzhupov, merchant of Alexandrovsk.”
It seems that the exceptionally straightforward offer attracted no “serious correspondence”, as Ivan Afanasevich repeated the advertisement on 15 (in the old calendar 2) December with unchanged text, but this time without a balance.
It is not known whether the advertisement finally had any result. If yes, we can only hope that the young bride replied to the second version without the balance, and she was more pleased by the personality of Ivan Afanasevich than by his fortune, because this latter had not even ten full years left. We would like to think that Ivan Afanasevich and his family had more than that.
Late 19th-century map of Alexandrovsk, and the farmacy at the corner of Cathedral Street
where Kurzhupov also had a house.
For the purpose of marriageI’m looking for the companion of my life for common work and a happy life. I am 48 years
old. I have children and fortune worth HALF A MILLION. I am looking for a maiden
not older than 30 or a childless widow not older than 35, with good morals.
I pursue extensive economic and commercial activity. An intelligent,
music savy and non-smoking companion with a high school
diploma is required. Serious correspondence. Address:
Alexandrovsk, Ekaterinoslav Government,
[since 1921: Dnepropetrovsk], to Ivan
Afanasevich Kurzhupov, into
his own hands.
The balance included two estates, one in the Poltava Government and another in the Kursk Government, furthermore eight houses in Alexandrovsk, indicating the precise location and value of each, in a total value of 514 thousand rubles, signed “in withness whereof, by Ivan Afanasevich Kurzhupov, merchant of Alexandrovsk.”
It seems that the exceptionally straightforward offer attracted no “serious correspondence”, as Ivan Afanasevich repeated the advertisement on 15 (in the old calendar 2) December with unchanged text, but this time without a balance.
It is not known whether the advertisement finally had any result. If yes, we can only hope that the young bride replied to the second version without the balance, and she was more pleased by the personality of Ivan Afanasevich than by his fortune, because this latter had not even ten full years left. We would like to think that Ivan Afanasevich and his family had more than that.
Late 19th-century map of Alexandrovsk, and the farmacy at the corner of Cathedral Street where Kurzhupov also had a house.
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1 comentario:
I found your blog really interesting, its strange how little the search for companionship has changed if we compare the add with any match page in the internet.
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