Friends at the Wedding

As I mentioned in last week's post [Friends Like Family] because our ancestors' friends don't appear on the family tree, we're often unaware of their existence, let alone understand their significance in our ancestors' lives.

It occurred to me, however, that we do usually know about our parents' friends but probably don't think too much about them when researching or writing about our family. So unless we record that information, future generations might see a name of a witness at a wedding or see a photograph (as I did last week) but not have any way of identifying the person or finding out anything about them.

Browsing through my collection of wedding certificates, I noticed one of the witnesses at my parents' wedding was one of the bridesmaids. Two of Mum's bridesmaids - the older of the three - were called Doreen and I knew both of them while I was growing up.

The signatory on the marriage certificate (left in the photograph above) had a most appropriate name as a wedding witness - she was called Doreen Lovewell.

Doreen was born in the same year as my mum (pictured in the left hand photo below, standing beside Doreen) and their birthdays were both in May, only eight days apart.

Doreen married a few years after my parents and we occasionally went to visit her and her husband at their delightfully sounding address in Billy Bunns Lane!

I knew the other Doreen very well. Her birthday was the same day as mine. She and Mum had known each other since primary school, and would walk to school together every morning.

Before Doreen married she spent some time working in the US and when she came home, she brought me back a dress, which I'm wearing in the photograph on the right. It had a fabulous flared skirt and I loved it. It was always known as my "America Dress".

As children, we'd often visit Doreen and her family as her daughters were a similar age to me and my sister.

Now... I just need to dig a bit deeper and see if I can remember the name of the youngest bridesmaid.... it's on the tip of my tongue... 🤔

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