Jane Betsy's granddaughter is married

29th August 1906 Jane Betsy's granddaughter,  May Gertrude, married Walter Harold. May Gertrude looks a bit fed up in the picture and Walter Harold, insurance Clerk with the United Kingdom Provident Institution, in the Strand is taking his wedding very seriously. Directly behind May Gertrude is her father Joe. Mother, Emma Jane, is third from the left seated. Martha, Walter Harold's mother is third from the right, seated and Walter Henry his father stands behind Emma Jane.

   On both sides of the families, are many maiden aunts of various ages and they are the most difficult to track down. Cousin Lucy, may be at the left end of the row, seated. She became Mrs Lacroix and emigrated to Canada. She sent pictures to May Gertrude, which have been kept, of herself, her mother and her son Michael. Seated on the grass at the front is the groom's brother Bertram. Next to him, perhaps, is a Norfolk Skinner cousin, perhaps one of Arthur Skinner's children. Arthur was farming in Norfolk until he and his family all emigrated to New South Wales Australia, hoping for better prospects there. The bride's brother Albert is also seated at the front, with, perhaps, a girlfriend next to him. He was to emigrate to Australia with his family as well. His daughter Marian remembers the trip. Albert, had hoped to create an orchard in Australia, but was unable to succeed in this venture, due to debilitating arthritis. Albert and his family returned in 1929 after his mother, Emma Jane died.

    Jane Betsy died previous to May Gertrude and Walter Harold's wedding in April 1906. At the back of the picture, I like to think it could be Jane Betsy's sister Emma Neave, in a high hat, with her husband Alfred Neave. He had been Jane Betsy's executor. He had arranged the sale of the Bately properties five years earlier.

   Emma Jane's brother Harry may be somewhere in the picture.  He could be at the back between the friendly-faced lady, who could be Rebecca (Fabb) Skinner, widow of cousin Stephen Skinner. 

   There is a couple I can identify. Uncle John Barr and aunt Carrie. I have a photograph of them. My mother showed it to me and wrote their names on the back. I shall put it below. They are not relatives, she told me. They had no children and Mum and her sisters spent Christmas with them or, sometimes, they gave them a turkey at Christmas. Thanks to ancestry I have traced Uncle John and Aunt Carrie. She was Caroline Prince before she married. She is the sister of Martha Prince (Robinson) the groom's mother. She is auntie of the bridegroom. Her husband, John Barr ran a successful laundry business. 

   When Alfred Neave had distributed Jane Betsy's share of the Bately estates in 1906, Emma Jane and her family were able to buy a house in Stamford Hill. The question of what had happened to James Pollard Skinner's trust fund from 1871, was still a mystery to our branch of the family.