Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Not-So-Mystery Wedding

 

mysterywedding

Among the photos in our Great Grandfathers photo album was this photo Rachel and I fondly named “The Mystery Wedding” .
Like many of the photographs in the album there were frustratingly no names on the back of the photo. That lead me to believe that the people in the photo were well known to my G Grandfather.  Like a dog with a bone I kept going back and looking at this photograph trying to get some clues .
One thing about the photo really struck me as interesting and that was the age of the couple on the far left. It really looked like they were Grandparents rather than parents.  This was indeed a clue as I knew that Pa’s niece Lucretia Jeanette Lennie had been brought up by her maternal grandparents.  Her mother having died when she was a child, and her father and brothers moved to Australia.
I  knew that Lucretia ( who was known as Jean) had married Charles Stanley Hawkey in 1913 and this coincided quite well with the fashions in the photograph, but still wasn't convincing enough  proof. 
I googled Charles Hawkey and found a few tidbits of information about him- he was a boot seller in Timaru but couldn't find any photographs of him . More searching on the name Hawkey though proved more fruitful, as I discovered that Charles’ father Tom Hawkey had been the Mayor of Timaru in 1913 right around the time of the wedding.
Google didn't furnish me with any photos of Tom though, so I wrote to the Timaru City Council asking if they had any photographs of previous councillors.
Within 24 hours I had a photo of Tom Hawkey, Mayor of Timaru which was evidence enough for me that this indeed was the wedding of Lucretia Jeanette Lennie to Charles Stanley Hawkey . Lucretia attended by her Grandparents Lucretia and Samuel Peake, and Charles by his parents.
Though we probably never will know who the bridesmaid and best man were, I suspect Charles was attended by one of his brothers as there is quite a resemblance between the men especially around the eye area.
Charles died in 1956, and soon after, Jean and Pa ( her uncle) became companions to each other in their twilight years. I wonder if they had always kept in contact or if they rediscovered each other late in life.

1 comment:

  1. Timaru Herald, 25 March 1913, Page 7 Wedding
    HAWKEY- LENNIE. A very pretty wedding took place in the Woodlands Street Methodist Church yesterday, when Mr C. S. Hawkey, second son of the Mayor of Timaru, was married to Miss L. J. Lennie, granddaughter of Mr and Mrs Peake, Arthur Street. The Rev. J. Featherston officiated at the ceremony. Mr Peake senr. the bride away, and Misses Mackay and Hawkey were bridesmaids. There was a large congregation to witness the ceremony, and photographs were taken of the party after the ceremony by Mr W. Ferrier on Mr Radcliffe's lawn. After the morning service at the Church on Sunday, the Rev. J. Featherston, on be-half Church and of appreciation of their services for the congregation. Mr Hawkey as a church officer and Miss Lennie as a Sunday School teacher.


    http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/woodlands.htm

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