Recently a friend asked me to have a look at a couple of old family photos that she had but had been unable to identify the people in them apart from two guests.

She wondered if I could help her as she really wanted to know who the three brides and grooms were. They must be part of the Nineham family she thought as her sons Great Great Grandfather Samuel Nineham was in the photo (Far left) and also her sons Great Grandfather, another Nineham she recognised but she hadn’t a clue about the rest of the people. She knew that the photos were taken in 1906 and were very likely to have been taken in Sway, Hampshire as the family lived in that area, but that was it.

Fabulous photo isn’t it! The three couples are quite clear with each of the grooms wearing military uniforms, one Army and two Navy. That would definitely help me to identify them I hope.

As you can see the photo below is one of the couples, on the left, in the larger one above and once again Samuel is in the photo sitting next to the bride. Which I would have to say means that he was likely to be her father?

Because there were so many people in the photo I decided to focus firstly on building up the family tree. That would then hopefully enable me to identify the people in the photo as I added husbands, wives and children. I needed to establish birth dates, death dates and of course Wedding dates.

So starting the tree on Ancestry with Samuel Nineham I added his dates from Bea’s print out then added his son Hubert and his dates, also from the printout.

I then started building the family, I prefer to compile a tree myself rather than just copying someone else’s work, that way I learn about the family I’m researching and get to know them as I am adding to their lives, where they were born, lived and worked. It always helps when you are going through the record’s to be able to spot any possibilities of a match that way I find.

So when I had got the family group of Samuel and his wife Ann Newton (Bridle) then the five children including Hubert, I added Samuel’s parents and siblings. Because if I couldn’t find any matches in Samuel’s children then I might find a match of any children of his siblings. I also did exactly the same with Samuel’s wife Ann. I added her siblings.

Now to add the husbands and wives to Samuel and Ann’s children and of course their dates especially Weddings! The couple had five children Beatrice Annie, Albert James, Walter Edward, Daisy Newton and Hubert John.

Goodness, how lucky to find that two of the children Albert James and Daisy Newton married in the same summer quarter in 1906! Registered in Lymington, Hampshire and they are very likely to be two of the couples. More on them later. Because I still had the puzzle of who the third couple could be.

Going to the record page there were just 4 Nineham’s married in that quarter listed, so no extra information there. These are the four.

Sarah Nineham married Mr W G Waghorn in Maidstone, Kent.

💕Albert James Nineham married Edith Huxter in Lymington, Hampshire💕

💕Daisy Newton Nineham married Edward Borley in Lymington, Hampshire💕

Lastly, George Nineham married Ellen Jennings in St Pancras, London.

So I likely had 2 of the couples, Samuel and Ann Nineham’s son and daughter identified, but who was the third couple? Were they cousins, that would surely be the most likely? But I had an idea to look at the records of the two I had found and the reference for them both which was Lymington, Hampshire Vol 2b Page 1469. So I thought it was likely that the other couple would be either on the same page or the page before or after. So I looked at all Weddings for 1906 in Lymington, 201 possibilities, 100 couples. Not too bad I’ve had longer list’s to search through.

The great thing when you’re looking for something like this on Ancestry is if you are looking via a PC you only have to hover over the record and it pops up in front of you, saving a bit of time not having to open each record. There were no other matches on Vol 2b Page 1469. On Vol 2B Page 1468 was Charles Torah married to Alice Phillips. After a little research, I found he was a Wheelwright & Carpenter, not in the Military like our 3 Grooms in the 1901 census. So they seemed unlikely.

The other couple I found were William White who married Frances Mary Hyde Vol 2 Page 1470. So after a little research on this couple, I found he was a Military man as on his son’s Baptism record in 1910 he was in the RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps. I also found another Military record confirming he had been in the Army for a few years.

But it wasn’t William that was ringing bells with me but his wife Frances Mary, I’m sure that while I was building the family tree I had seen the name Hyde somewhere, but where? So I started with Samuel Nineham looking at the different census records I had added to their family and woo hoo guess what, a family called Hyde lived right next door to the Nineham family in Sway and Daisy Nineham and Frances Hyde were the same age, one-year-old in the 1881 census, and obviously knew each other very well. So best friends getting married on the same day? I started a separate tree on Ancestry for the couple to see if they had any children. Also to add their parents.

But something was bugging me, I’m sure there was more to find. Maybe they are family after all. The most likely thing is that they would be cousins.

So I first went to Samuel’s siblings to add their husbands and wives. No sign of any Hyde family members. Then next to his wife Ann Newton Bridle to add her siblings and their husbands and wives. Oh my goodness one of her sisters Frances married Charles Hyde in 1873! I was thrilled! I added their children and Frances Mary Hyde was one of their daughters. So I have my three couples now, a brother and sister and a first cousin all had a joint Wedding.

The strange thing is that I have found nothing in the Newspaper Archives at all using all possible search words. You would have thought it would have hit the local headlines.

After chatting to my friend I ordered the three Marriage Certificates, which would also give me not only the date of the Wedding but the witnesses and also the Fathers of the couples, just to be absolutely sure. I also needed a father’s name for William White as there were a couple of possibilities for his family so hopefully, the details on the certificate would enable me to complete his family.

Yay, they arrived this morning! Albert and Edith are far right in the photo. Edward and Daisy are far left with their cousin Frances and Groom William in the centre.

Now we have confirmation of the bride’s and groom’s my friend can try and work out who’s who of all the guests present.

Photographer. When I was adding Edith Alice Huxter’s family I discovered that her brother in the 1901 census was an Assistant Press Photographer. By 1911 he was a Press Photographer. He married himself in 1912. I’m thinking that as none of the families was well off at all, could Edith’s brother Percy have taken these photos of the Weddings? Be lovely to think that he did.

I also found some victorian family photos on Ancestry public trees that I was able to add to their tree, a good place to find those elusive Ancestors.

Job done and now the family has all the details added to their family tree, they also very kindly gave me permission to share with you all here.

This is the Church the three couples married in on 18 August 1906:

Till next time then…….