New York Civil War Reenactors Forum

I've seen in several posts on other forums that wedding rings were worn on the opposite hand in the 1860's then we do now, does anyone have any research or articles on this.

Don't know anything about that Will, I've never seen anything. On a slightly different note though, I recently learned that when a man and wife shared ajoining burial plots, they were supposed to be buried on the same side that they were on when they walked down the aisle together, never knew that.

Will.
Heres another reason to order Columbia Rifles Research Compendium 1st edition.Because that topic is covered.

Brian,

It's not covered in the 2nd edition, but I did just find it in the first edition. Looks like the left was more prominent, at least when worn on the ring finger. When worn on the little finger it was a 50/50 split between right and left. I'll also add that of those cases reviewed, 80% had them on their little finger while only 18% on the ring finger and 2% on the middle finger.

Yeah the CRRC first edition is a rare bird indeed.

Is it possible that those who wore their rings during their service found that the hardships of duty and exercise on their hand caused the rings to be uncomfortable on their "normal" ring finger and moved the ring to a smaller finger such as the little finger? I know if I am actively using my hands for work the ring sometimes gets tight on my ring finger and needs to be moved to my little finger for a while. Just a guess, but I would imagine married soldiers wouldn't want to remove their ring entirely, and I know of no research that indicates the little finger was ever customary for wedding ring wear. The ring finger and middle finger, certainly both have documentation, but I haven't found any for the little finger (and please point me to the source if anyone has seen it). They certainly wouldn't have had access to a jeweler to resize the ring, so shifting to a smaller finger may have been an expedient way to retain it.

For what it is worth, Germans wear them on their right hand...perhaps some are of German extraction?

I have to think that several things would come into play, personal preference for instance, as well as like Bummer said, possibly the custom where they were raised.