What a lovely old Wedding photo. I bought this among many other old photos, not just postcards, from the Exeter Postcard Fair on Saturday 12th May.

Exeter Postcard Fair is a popular vintage collectables event held at Clyst St. Mary Village Hall (EX5 1AA). It runs from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm with free admission (voluntary charity donations accepted).

The next upcoming dates for 2026 are Saturday, October 17th, and Saturday, December 12th.

A big bonus to have all this information on the back.

Reginald Sharrock married a lady called Muriel in New Zealand. J.Filmer was the Best Man, and M.Hunt was the Bridesmaid.

I found that J. Filmer (John Edward Thomas Filmer) was married to Eileen, Reginald’s sister. So he was Reginald’s brother in law. They had married in 1953.

After looking for potential marriages I found just the one in 1954, between Reginald Leslie Sharrock and Muriel Mary Bell in New Zealand (on a public family tree).

A good starting point for my family tree. But this one is definitely a bit different to the usual families I research, for two reasons.

Firstly, the excellent public family tree on Ancestry I found, that looks as though it may have been compiled by their son; the couple had a son and daughter.

Secondly, looking at the information he has on his family tree, it says that Muriel was adopted as a baby by a lovely couple that he has photos of, and he has also traced his biological family through DNA.

But interestingly, he doesn’t seem to have a photo of their Wedding day on his tree.

Although he has many wonderful old photos of his ancestors on his tree. So before I compile a family tree, duplicating his, I decided to contact him.

I’m continuing to write this a week later as I’ve just heard back from Keith in New Zealand.

In the last week, I decided that I would compile a small family tree of the Bride and Groom in my photo, but with the Bride’s adopted family, not the biological one.

I felt that at the time this beautiful wedding photo was taken, the bride’s family were her family and are in the photo as proud parents standing just behind the Best Man in the archway. Next to the Bride’s father is the groom’s father.

They were no different back then from any other parents on the child’s wedding day. Also, the fact that she never knew that she was adopted meant that her adopted parents’ families were also her family for all her life.

She never knew any other family, so that is really so important, as she very likely knew her grandparents fairly well and was probably told stories of her grandparents and aunts and uncles as a lot of us were, of our own families growing up.

Before I continue with the family story, I must say a huge thank you to Keith, their son in New Zealand, for very generously letting me share some photos of the family with you all from his public family tree.

Here is Keith’s Family Tree on Ancestry that shows his biological family and also his adopted family: Sharrock-Andre Family Tree

A New Zealand Bride: The Story of Muriel Mary Bell and Reginald Leslie Sharrock

The marriage of Muriel Mary Bell and Reginald Leslie Sharrock in New Zealand in 1954 brought together two families whose earlier generations had travelled remarkable distances from their British beginnings.

Their story stretches from Scotland and England into the developing communities of New Zealand, and ultimately to the home that Muriel and Reginald made together.

Yet Muriel’s story has another, more unexpected dimension.

The Bell family into which she was adopted was not her biological family, although it was the only family she ever knew. She lived her entire life believing that Charles and Ann Bell were her parents.

It was only many years after her death that DNA research by her family revealed the truth of her adoption and showed that Muriel was not biologically related to the Bell family.

For Muriel herself, however, the Bells were her family.

They had taken her into their home when she was only a few weeks old, raised her, gave her their name and remained her parents throughout her lifetime.

Muriel Mary Bell, a child called Edna.

Muriel Mary Bell was born on 22 November 1920 in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. The records identify her parents as Charles Dick Bell, aged 31, and Ann McIntosh Lusk, aged 35.

But behind that entry lies the first important discovery in Muriel’s story.

She had actually been born and named Edna. On 17 January 1921, when she was not yet two months old, she was adopted by Charles and Ann Bell in Linwood, Christchurch.

The adoption took place through Mrs Evans Nursing Home, 9 Suffolk Street, Linwood, where she had been born.

From that moment, Edna became Muriel Mary Bell.

There was no later revelation during Muriel’s lifetime. She did not know that she had been adopted.

Charles and Ann Bell were her parents in every sense that mattered to the little girl they brought home, and the Bell family became the family in which Muriel grew up.

It is only through the work of her descendants and modern DNA testing that the hidden part of her story has come to light. Muriel’s children discovered through DNA that she was not the biological daughter of Charles and Ann Bell.

She was actually the biological child of George Todd Finlay Forbes and Constance Rachel Shirreffs.

That discovery does not erase the Bell family from Muriel’s story. Quite the opposite: it makes their role in her life all the more significant.

They were the people who raised her, and the family she knew from infancy until her death.

The Bell family. From the Scottish Highlands to New Zealand.

Muriel’s adoptive father, Charles Dick Bell, belonged to a Scottish family.

Charles was born in 1889 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, the son of Lachlan McDougall Bell and Mary Reid Dick.

His father, Lachlan McDougall Bell, had been born in 1848 at Glenorchy in Argyllshire, Scotland. He and Mary Reid Dick had a family in Glasgow, including Susan, Duncan, Robert and Charles.

Mary Reid Dick was born in 1850 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Before her relationship with Lachlan, she had married Montgomerie Jamieson on 21 March 1870 at Hamilton.

She subsequently became the mother of children with Lachlan Bell. She died in 1932, aged 82.

Thus, generations before Muriel’s birth, the Bell story was firmly rooted in Scotland, in Argyll, Hamilton and Glasgow.

Charles grew up in Glasgow. He was recorded there in 1891 and 1901, and in 1900 his occupation was given as storekeeper.

If you look carefully at the above record, you will see the bottom name is Chas (for Charles) Bell, above him is the Lusk Family including his future wife Ann.

Charles and the Lusks made the enormous journey from Scotland to New Zealand, leaving London on 23 May 1912. By 1913, he was living there, and that year he was married to Ann McIntosh Lusk. Both families lived in Glasgow so they may have known each other before travelling.

Ann McIntosh Lusk, another Scottish family.

Ann had also been born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, in 1885. Her parents were William Lusk and Mary Susannah McIntosh.

William Lusk was born in Glasgow in 1861, the son of Robert Lusk and Isabella Hannah.

He married Mary Susannah McIntosh and they had five children between 1885 and 1897. William died in Glasgow on 3 August 1907, aged only 46.

Ann’s mother, Mary Susannah McIntosh, was born on 28 January 1863 in Milton, Glasgow. Her parents were William McIntosh and Ann. She had several brothers, including Robert, Thomas and Andrew.

Ann herself grew up in Scotland before eventually making the journey on 23 May 1912, with her Mum and siblings to New Zealand.

In 1913, at the age of 28, she married Charles Dick Bell there. Their marriage brought together two Scottish families who had crossed the world and established new lives in New Zealand.

In 1917, Charles and Ann were living in Wellington, where he was recorded on the Reserve Roll. By 1920, the couple were in Christchurch, New Zealand.

And it was there that Muriel entered their lives.

Muriel’s childhood in the Bell family.

Muriel was born in Christchurch on 22 November 1920 and adopted by Charles and Ann less than two months later.

The adoption meant that Muriel grew up as a Bell, surrounded by the family history of the couple who had taken her into their home.

Charles and Ann were not her biological parents, but they were her parents throughout the life she knew.

Charles and Ann remained together for many years. They had been married for 44 years when Ann died in 1957 in Wellington, aged 72. Charles died five years later, in 1962 at Napier, Hawke’s Bay, aged 73.

Muriel therefore lost the parents she had known in her late thirties and early forties, without ever knowing that they had adopted her.

Reginald Leslie Sharrock, an English and New Zealand heritage.

While Muriel’s adoptive family had deep Scottish roots, the story of the man she would marry followed a different route.

Reginald Leslie Sharrock was born on 11 January 1919 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Leslie John Sharrock and Annie Lena Mildred Weller.

His father, Leslie John Sharrock, had been born in New Zealand on 12 May 1893. But the generation before him had British origins.

Leslie’s father, John Henry Sharrock, was born in 1870 at Durham, County Durham, England. His parents were John Sharrock and Elizabeth. The 1871 census found the young John Henry, only one year old, living in Wigan, Lancashire.

John Henry sailed with his parents and siblings, from London on 2 February 1876, and arrived in Lyttelton, South Island, New Zealand on 29 April 1976.

In 1890, John Henry married Annie Elizabeth Simmons.

Annie herself represented another English branch of the family. She was born on 3 October 1868 at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, the daughter of James Simmons and Emma Elizabeth.

She was baptised there on 10 January 1869 before eventually making her way with her family to New Zealand before 1885.

John Henry and Annie had ten children, including Leslie John. John Henry died at Stratford, Taranaki, on 4 October 1930, aged 60, and Annie died in Taranaki on 12 April 1942, aged 73.

So on Reginald’s paternal side, the family’s story led back to Durham, Wigan and Buckinghamshire, before continuing in New Zealand.

The Weller family, Walton-on-Thames to New Zealand.

Reginald’s mother, Annie Lena Mildred Weller, brought yet another English connection.

She was born in 1891 at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, the daughter of William George Weller and Annie Merrick.

Her father, William George Weller, had been born in July 1857 at Walton, Surrey, the son of William Henry Weller and Elizabeth Weller. In 1881 he was living at Walton-on-Thames and working as a clerk in the wine trade.

He married Annie Merrick on 12 April 1888. Annie had been born in July 1856 at Staines, Middlesex.

William and Annie had three children, including Annie Lena Mildred. William later became a wine merchant in Walton-on-Thames. His wife died in 1912, aged 56, and William himself died on 16 November 1913, aged 56.

He was buried at Walton-on-Thames on 19 November 1913, with probate following in London on 9 January 1914.

Their daughter Annie Lena Mildred eventually crossed paths with the New Zealand branch of the Sharrock family.

A wedding in Walton-on-Thames.

The meeting of these two family lines was not entirely a New Zealand event.

On 11 August 1917, Annie Lena Mildred Weller married Leslie John Sharrock at St Mary’s Church, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Leslie was 24 and Annie was 26.

The marriage united an English bride from Surrey with a New Zealand-born groom whose own father had been born in Durham.

This report above shows that Leslie was living in New Zealand and came back to marry Annie, known as Pops.

Keith has kindly given me some extra information about Leslie: ‘Leslie did not make a special trip to England in 1917 to get married. He was already there, having been serving in the Wellington Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during WWI’.

‘He survived Gallipolli, unlike many of his comrades, and was then sent to the Western Front, where he was gassed.

I believe (but am not certain) that he met his future wife Annie while convalescing back in England. After getting married, in 1918 he rose to the impressive rank of Sergeant-Major of the Wellington Regiment‘.

They then continued their married lives in New Zealand.

Their son Reginald Leslie Sharrock was born in Wellington on 11 January 1919.

Reginald grew up in New Zealand with his sisters and brother. His sister Lena Nancy was born at Hawera on 8 November 1922, Eileen Margaret at Hawera on 2 March 1926, and Arthur John in New Zealand on 27 April 1932. There had also been a stillborn sibling in 1921.

By 1941, Reginald was living in Auckland, working as a clerk with the State Advances Corporation.

In 1943 he was living at 2 Hineao Avenue, Epsom. By 1946 he was living at 45 Anzac Street with his sister Lena and was still working as a clerk.

In 1949 he was a civil servant, living at 31 Third Avenue.

His mother Annie died in Auckland on 20 October 1953, aged 62.

1954. Two family histories meet in New Zealand.

Info from Keith: ‘The couple met through both being chorus members of various Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in Wellington’.

‘Their engagement was extended by Muriel going with her best friend Florence Wilby on a long-planned cycling tour of the UK, timed to coincide with the Queen’s coronation‘.

‘They travelled to and from UK by sea, on the R.M.S. Rangitane‘.

On 27 November 1953, Muriel left England, arriving back in Auckland in January 1954.

By the end of 1954, she and Reginald were together in New Zealand, and married. Muriel was 34 and Reginald was 35.

Their marriage is especially interesting when viewed against the journeys of their ancestors.

Muriel’s adoptive family represented generations of Scottish ancestry, particularly the Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Argyll areas.

Charles Bell had been born in Glasgow, while Ann Lusk was also from Glasgow.

Reginald’s family, meanwhile, brought together several English locations, Durham, Wigan, Newport Pagnell, Walton-on-Thames and Staines, before those family lines became established in New Zealand.

And then, in the middle of the twentieth century, these different British family histories came together in New Zealand.

It is a wonderful example of how migration transformed family history. The families had travelled from different parts of Britain, crossed oceans and established themselves in a new country, where their descendants eventually met.

Married life.

After their marriage, Reginald and Muriel made their home in Waikato, Upper North Island, New Zealand.

In 1954, Reginald was a clerk and the couple were living at 28 Selkirk Street, Hamilton, very likely their first home together.

By 1957 they were living at 348 Great South Road, Beerescourt, still working as a clerk. The same address appears again in 1960.

By 1963, the couple were living at 16 Fleming Crescent, Napier, and by 1966 they had moved to 1 Menin Road, Napier, where they remained through to at least 1969.

By 1972 they were back in Hamilton East, living at 18 Scott Avenue. Reginald was still a clerk, while Muriel was recorded as a housewife. The same address appears in 1975 and 1978.

Together, Muriel and Reginald had two children. Their family represented another generation born from the meeting of people whose ancestors had come from very different parts of Britain.

The later years.

Muriel’s adoptive mother, Ann, died in Wellington in 1957, aged 72. Her adoptive father Charles died in Napier in 1962, aged 73.

Reginald’s father, Leslie John Sharrock, died in Auckland on 16 May 1959, aged 66, and was buried at Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium on 19 May.

Reginald himself eventually retired. In 1987, he was living at 18 Scott Avenue in Hamilton East and was recorded as a retiree.

Muriel died on 4 July 1989 in Hamilton, Waikato, aged 68, and was buried there.

Reginald survived his wife by almost four years. He died on 7 April 1993 in Hamilton, aged 74, and was also buried there.

They had been married for 35 years.

The family secret discovered by DNA.

For Muriel, the story ended without her ever knowing that she had been adopted.

She lived her entire life as Muriel Mary Bell, daughter of Charles Dick Bell and Ann McIntosh Lusk. She knew no other parents, and the Bell family was not merely the family recorded on paper; it was the family that raised her from infancy.

Only after her death did DNA provide her children with a different piece of the puzzle.

The DNA evidence revealed that Muriel was not the biological daughter of Charles and Ann Bell, confirming that the little girl born as Edna had indeed been adopted into the Bell family in January 1921.

There is something deeply poignant about that discovery.

Modern genealogy can reveal facts that were completely unknown to the people who lived the lives we are researching.

It can open doors that were closed for generations and uncover biological relationships that nobody ever suspected.

But DNA does not change Muriel’s lived experience.

Charles and Ann Bell were her parents.

They took her home when she was less than two months old. They gave her the name Muriel Mary Bell. They raised her. She grew up knowing them as her mother and father, and she continued to regard them as such throughout her life.

So although modern research has revealed another biological story, the Bell family remains an essential and very real part of Muriel’s family history.

Two journeys, one marriage.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Muriel and Reginald’s story is the geographical journey behind their marriage.

Muriel’s adoptive ancestry led back to Scotland, to Argyll, Hamilton and Glasgow. Her adoptive father Charles Bell was born in Glasgow, as was her adoptive mother Ann Lusk.

Reginald’s ancestry led in different directions across England. The Sharrocks were connected with Durham and Wigan, while the Simmons family came from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire. His mother’s Weller family was rooted around Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, with Annie Merrick born at Staines in Middlesex.

Yet generations later, their descendants were living in New Zealand.

And in 1954, in that country so far from the villages, towns and cities where their ancestors had been born, Muriel Mary Bell and Reginald Leslie Sharrock married.

Their story is therefore not simply one of a marriage. It is a story of migration, adoption, family, belonging and discovery.

It reminds us that family history is not always a straightforward line from parent to child.

Sometimes there are journeys across oceans.

Sometimes there are families formed by adoption rather than biology.

Sometimes the truth is hidden for an entire lifetime and only becomes visible through the science of a later generation.

Muriel never knew that she was adopted. She knew only that she was Muriel Bell, daughter of Charles and Ann, and that was her truth throughout her life.

Her children, through DNA, eventually discovered another truth.

Both stories can exist together.

This is my small tree I have compiled on Ancestry with Muriel’s adoptive family: Bell/Sharrock Family Tree

The Bell family was the family who raised Muriel and shaped her life. The biological family is the family that modern DNA has begun to uncover. And between those two histories stands Muriel herself, the little girl born as Edna in Christchurch in November 1920, adopted into the Bell family in January 1921, and who, more than three decades later, married Reginald Sharrock in New Zealand.

Their marriage brought together two family histories that had begun thousands of miles apart, in different parts of Britain, but which ultimately found their meeting place in New Zealand.

Once again huge thanks to Keith for the photos and extra information about his family.

You can contact me either by commenting here or via email at lynnswaffles@gmail.com

Till next time then……..