Marriage - Charles Moore Stratton

Charles Moore Stratton and Bessie Boyce married in Penrith in 1904.  Bessie was the daughter of William Boyce and wife Elizabeth (nee Warren), while Charles was the son of James Stratton and Isabella (nee Malone) who are believed to be the older couple in the photograph at left.  The Stratton family were early residents of the Springwood area; James, a butcher, acquired land at Faulconbridge in 1869.  Today, Everton House (built by the Hon. John Meeks) and Faulconbridge Public School exist on the property. 



Pamela Smith
Ref: NSW Births, Deaths and Marriage Indexes
Blue Mountains City Council local studies collection image files.
The Making Of A Mountain Community: A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District, Springwood District. 

Marriage - Ethel Urquhart

Photographs are a wonderful resource of information and these portray the wedding day of Ethel Mary Isabel Urquhart, grand daughter of James Hunter Lawson -  and daughter of (the late) John Ferguson Urquhart of Aberdeenshire Scotland -  who married William Earl Blanchard Chadwick in 1914, in the Frazer Memorial Presbyterian Church Springwood. Chadwick was the son of Robert Chadwick of Glenbrook, while James Hunter Lawson, who gave his grand daughter away,  lived in the cottage Glen Lawson at Springwood. The ceremony was conducted by Rev. J. McKee assisted by Rev. Ernest Ferguson. 

The bride wore her grandmother's Limerick lace wedding veil over a gown of 'dull soft ivory satin' and Limerick lace with sprays of orange blossom. Chief bridesmaid was Miss Eileen Lawson who wore a shell-pink brocaded ninon and a mob cap.  The other bridesmaids were the Misses Lennox; Olga, Jean and Sheila Lawson, and Glennie Chadwick, who wore gold brooches and carried floral crooks the gift of the bridegroom.  William Chadwick, cousin of the groom was the best man.  The guests adjorned to Braemar after the ceremony where the wedding breakfast was served.  The newly married couple motored to the South Coast for their honeymoon.

Pamela Smith

Ref:

Blue Mountains City Council local studies collection image file.

Sydney Morning Herald 17th October, 1914, p. 8. 

Marriage - Changing Ones name

The following article is interesting especially since women are now being written back into history and now that family history is recognised as an important component of Public History.

Have you ever considered why you gave up your maiden name and happily adopted your husband's family name, forever more being known as Mrs "husband's name?"  

As family historians we relentlessly and enthusiastically research our own family name (and sometimes our husband's, especially if he has noble connections) so why don't we keep our own name at the time of marriage?  

The following column from the Nepean Times newspaper of 23rd December 1899, might provide some food for thought.

       

The practice of women changing their names at marriage is very ancient.  Ladies of ancient Rome were known by their husband's names, thus the consorts of Pompey and Cicero were spoken of as Julia of Pompey and Octavia of Cicero; and women in most countries signed their names in the same way, but after a time omitted the 'of.'  This fashion came into use in Britain after the Roman occcupation, but at the beginning of the seventeenth century the custom seems doubtful, for  Catherine Parr so signed her name even after her second marriage, and we always read of Lady Jane Grey (not Dudley), and Arabella Stuart (not Seymour).  Some people consider the custom of women taking her husband's  name as originating  in the teaching of the Bible that 'they twain shall be one flesh.'  

Shirley Evans