Mind the Gap: Alex and Blanche Married Far from Family

I've wondered about the marriage of my 1c2r Alexander Roth (1893-1949), related to me via my great-grandmother's Kunstler family. Alex was a son of Sali Kunstler Roth and Bela Bernard Roth, Blanche was a daughter of Frank Schwartz and Freida Klein Schwartz.

Both had immigrated from Hungary with their parents, settling in New York City in the early 1900s. 

Mind the gap

Alex was enumerated as living with his parents on East 19th Street in New York City until the 1920 US Census. Then a gap of 11 years. The next record I found was his name in a Boston city directory from 1931, married to Blanche Schwartz (1892?-1986). 

Blanche was enumerated with her parents in Jewish East Harlem, New York City in the 1915 New York State Census. Then a gap of 16 years. The next record I could find showed her as the wife of Alex in that Boston directory of 1931. 

Marriage in "the gap"

Clearly, Alex and Blanche married during the gap years where I couldn't seem to find any documentation of their whereabouts.

Knowing that different websites use different indexing and search algorithms, I recently redid my research using MyHeritage--and immediately discovered where and when the couple got married during the gap. I followed the link to obtain a scan of the original license/certificate (shown at top), which is housed on FamilySearch but didn't pop up when I searched that site several times. 

Why California?

Why Alex and Blanche married in Los Angeles, 2,800 miles from their parents and siblings, I can't even imagine. The Roth family was heavily into the garment district of New York City, so perhaps Alex was scouting Los Angeles for business opportunities in clothing. That's a guess, only a guess. 

Blanche had experience sewing neckties in the Big Apple. In fact, she may have worked for an uncle who owned a necktie factory in the garment district (my grandma Minnie worked for that same Roth gentleman before she got married). Still, how and why Blanche made the trip to Los Angeles and then married Alex in LA is a total mystery.

I note that Blanche and Alex were married by Rabbi Mayer Winkler, who headed up the Conservative synagogue Congregation Sinai in Los Angeles. Did this factor into their thinking? Nobody knows. I'm just glad I was able to locate their marriage record. 

Thinking of Blanche, who was born on February 3d, and of Alex, her husband for 26 years until his death in 1949.