Hello,
I am stuck with a photo of a mystery family wedding. Highly likely as it has the surname DIGBY on the reverse, and was in with my grandmother's photos. BUT I have run out of weddings that it could possibly be and now don't know what to do.
The photo shows a wedding scene outside the church in Wandsworth, London that was used for the other siblings at that time. It has a distinctive door frame.
I've had the photo dated by an expert as early to mid 1930s: no earlier, they say. Perhaps later - due to the fact that people had to borrow wedding outfits during the late 1930s and during WW2. But I don't have any weddings in the siblings that it could be.
Nobody alive in my family recognises the bride and groom....but then my newly-found cousins didn't know their grandparents and have no photos to compare them to. One cousin says the groom looks just like her Dad....which is a clue but then a lot of the family have the same Digby look about them.
The bride and groom are on the steps of the church with only a few other people; and all of them are the Digby family; the proud Digby mum is right next to the groom, and two Digby sisters are bridesmaids and one Digby brother is next to the bride.
BUT I have been doing the family tree and have literally run out of weddings it could be.
I know you guys are fantastic at helping so thought I would post and ask and see if anyone stumbles on a wedding that I have not found yet.
Surname:DIGBY
Parents: Walter b1870 d 1934 and Helen Pidgeon Howlett b1870 d 1946.
Lived at peasbody Buildings, Pimlico, St George Hanover Sq district of London from around 1898 onwards.
SHE is in the mystery photo but he is not. He died 1934 so there is a clue.
The siblings: and I have checked and cannot find any others on any census or 1939 reg.
Walter - died aged one day (I have death cert)
Cecil - died WW1 - I have the records from his regiment of date and place of death in 1918.
Sydney - he married Mary Ann Curd in 1926 = too early and my aunt lived with Sydney and says the groom is not him
ELSIE- the most likely suspect. Married George Meredith in 1924. It is their son Derek who my second cousin says looks a lot like the groom. But the marriage is too early for the fashion AND my grandad is in the mystery photo and he would have only been 13 in 1924. And he's way older than that in the photo...he's at the very least 28 and he was born in 1909 so that takes us to an earliest possible wedding date of 1937.
Her husband died in 1934 and she re-married in 1950: Elsie Meredith m Ernest Trickett.
Alice - married Arthur Daniel Acland in 1928. The date is too early for the fashion and my grandad is not 19 in the mystery photo. Alice stayed married to Mr Acland all her life, confirmed by her family.
Frederick Charles. My other prime suspect. Married Minnie Hardingham in 1931. My aunt gave me a photo of their wedding. Minnie died of cancer, my aunt says and he brought up their child alone. My aunt remembers him and says now he did not re-marry. She says Fred is not the groom in the mystery photo. 1939 reg has Fred and Minnie living together. Minnie died 1944. There is another wedding in 1940 to a different Frederick Charles Digby and I have checked - there are two Frederick Charles Digbys on the 1911 census and 1939 reg in Wandsworth.
Beatrice - I have her marriage cert. It's in 1970 and states she changed her name to Lacey by deed poll. She could not marry as her fella was already married and they had to wait four decades until the first wife died until they could marry. I have not been able to find any other marriages for her and nor has anyone else on this thread.
Mabel - I have her first marriage cert. She married Samuel White/ Weitz in 1940 at the jewish synagogue. I have her wedding photo and it's definitely not them in the mystery photo; wrong colour hair as well and different woman. She then dicvorced and sailed to New York and married her second husband in the USA and the mystery photo is not them either.
Harold - he's not the groom. He's already in the photo.
Dora - she's one of the bridesmaids.
And that's it. I have run out of weddings.
Has anyone any bright ideas pls as to how I can solve this mystery?
Thank you in advance.
