Friday 22 November 2013

Sepia Saturday – 50th Anniversaries

My husband's parents' wedding
The Sepia Saturday prompt this week is related to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. A date when big history and small history collide. A date where you can remember what you were doing at the time.

I’m diverging from this prompt a little to celebrate 50th wedding anniversaries.

Both mine and Mr Jax’s parents achieved this milestone: 
Mine are at 54 years and still counting, and 
My in-laws were married for 58 years.

Only one set of our collective grandparents were married for over 50 years: 
My husband’s maternal grandparents were married for 55 years. 
Pelegrinus VAN WINSEN and Jitske JURNA were married in Nov 1911 in the Netherlands. Pelegrinus died in Jan 1967, aged 82.

I didn’t expect to find many others going back as life expectancy was much shorter.

My parents' wedding
I went back a few generations and found 7 more direct ancestors who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries.

Interestingly, in all 7 it was the husband who died first.

And sadly, I don’t have wedding photos for any of them.

So in this post, I celebrate all those who achieved this milestone:

Great grandparents:
Edward LONG and Sarah STONEHOUSE were married in Jan 1900 in Mortlake, Victoria. 
Edward died in Oct 1951, aged 79.

Great great grandparents:
William STONEHOUSE and Elizabeth MCVEY were married in Mar 1850 in Port Fairy, Victoria. William died in May 1904, aged 77.
&
William FRANCIS and Anna COLLIER were married in Sep 1860 in Tythegston, Glamorgan, Wales. William died in Jan 1915, aged 79.

3x great grandparents:
My husband's maternal grandparents
Thomas BROOKS and Jane CONDELL were married in Jan 1844 in New Norfolk, Tasmania. Thomas died in Jul 1894, aged 84.
&
Thomas COLLIER and Ann POWELL were married in May 1835 in Newcastle, Glamorgan, Wales. Thomas died in 1894, aged 85.
&
Thomas FRANCIS and Ann DAVIES were married in Aug 1825 in Newcastle, Glamorgan, Wales. Thomas died in Sep 1880 in his late 70s.

And one I really didn’t expect to find:

4x great grandparents:
Thomas SPEAR and Mary COCK married in May 1816 in Little Petherick, Cornwall, England. Thomas died in Aug 1867, aged 83.

My great grandparents, Edward Long and Sarah Stonehouse
shortly before they were married
.
William Francis
Anna Francis nee Collier
Elizabeth Stonehouse nee McVey

12 comments:

  1. What a good alternative approach, wish I'd thought of it, as I have a couple of good 50th anniversary celebration photos for one couple. Your ancestors and relatives must have good genes!

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  2. That's a lot of 50th anniversaries!

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  3. Congratulations and happy many more for you too. What a treasure of great photos you have as well!

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  4. Oboy, these are just GREAT photos...may you reach your 50th yourself!

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  5. Wonderful! Great to read about happy 50th Anniversaries!

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  6. Some handsome people in those photos. Nice things have their 50th anniversaries too.

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  7. Great take on the theme. I wish I'd thought of it first:)

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  8. As far as I know my wife and I are the only couple in our families to have passed the 50 year mark, Looking back through my family's past it seems the men have all died before their wives.

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  9. WOW that is amazing to be able to track those ancestors.

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  10. A good take on the prompt and some really wonderful photos.

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  11. Lovely photographs and a fine entry of 50-year celebrations of marriage. With so many in your family, it seems you should be well on your way to matching them. A very nice different take on the theme.

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  12. I like this theme! Now I want to check my own ancestors to see how many might have been married 50 years.

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