Wedding Group

Marriage of Samuel Dennis to Harriet Jane Evans (“Nan”), 16th September 1912 at Tettenhall Wood Congregational Church.

L to R standing: ?, ?, Tom Cox, John “Jack” Dennis (Samuel’s brother), Samuel Dennis, Harriet Jane (Evans) (“Nan”), T H Hill?, Susannah Evans (?), Mary Evans (“Aunt Mary”), Harold Cox; seated: ?, Francis Evans (“Aunt Francis”), Minnie Shadbolt, Harriet Jane Evans snr, ?; small children unknown.

Wedding group photographs can provide unique information to help progress to earlier generations, as they usually bring together the parents of the happy couple and sometimes grandparents. They also help bring your ancestry to life.

That is if you know the names of the people involved! Like most other photographs in my collection no one thought to write the names on the back or in an album, so some will forever be a mystery.

Happily, I was able to ask my father and others with longer memories than my own, so names can be put to some of the faces, sometimes uncertainly, but if this is made clear there is no harm. You never know; someone might find it and match a face to a known image.

Other useful information includes the name and occupations of the fathers of bride and groom. In this case the groom’s father is John Dennis, colliery checkweighman. The space for bride’s father is blank. Sometimes this information simply corroborates what has already been discovered. The entry of marriage also includes age, status, occupation and residence of bride and groom.

Witnesses can also lead to new connections. In this case they are T H Hill, who was the husband of Harriet’s aunt Mary, and H A Powell. I have not been able to find such a person in the censuses. Harriet’s aunt Jane married a William Henry Powell. The closest I can get is their daughter Winifred Amelia, who would have been about 21; could she be the lady standing second left?.

Although I already know much of this part of the family tree, partly because others had been researching the same lines, before seeing this image, but if it had been my starting point, it would have supplied a lot of useful information, and some interesting lines of enquiry.