Last
Wednesday, October 1st, 2014, would have been my parents’ 75th
wedding anniversary if they had still been around. We sometimes get caught up
in genealogy with thinking about family members who lived hundreds of years ago
and often miss thinking about the particular events that happened much closer
to our own existence.
I
have been rebuilding our family albums in recent months and have been reminded
of people and events that I remember or was told about. Photographs are great
at bringing realism and life to stories and for showing us who the members of
our family really were, not to mention what they looked like. One should dig
out their old albums every once in a while to revisit family members that are
now gone.
Wedding
photos are particularly important and poignant as they document the actual point
in time when a new family began. I have wedding photos in my collection that
span five generations, from my children on back. The earliest was taken in
1890. They are all very valuable to me and hang together in a special place in
our home. I have some pictures of individuals that go back further but not of
couples. The one furthest back in my direct line was taken in 1875. Imagine –
almost 140 years ago!
My
parents did not live together to celebrate their 35th anniversary,
my mother dying just two days prior to that date, at the age of 57. My father
died less than a decade later, at the relatively young age of 68. I will go
past that age this year.
Anyway,
the photo of them together on their wedding day is something very special to
me.
%2BWedding.jpg)
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Some
other photos from that important date:
 |
A
wedding shower held for the bride
|
 |
The wedding party at the home of
the bride’s parents where the marriage took place
|
 |
The
bride and groom with their parents
|
 |
The
wedding guests
|
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program,
handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past
Editor of Chinook, the quarterly
journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides
genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.
