January 2nd

January the 2nd was a day for a couple of weddings in the family,  In 1875, January 2nd was a Saturday, and John Downie joined the family tree by marrying your 1st cousin 3x removed Mary Ann Walker.

The way you're related is that your 3xgreat grandparents, George Donald and Ann Matthew are Mary Ann's maternal grandparents.

Mary Ann is on grandma's side of the family - one of the Aberdeenshire folks.

The marriage took place in the Manse of Monquhitter according to the rules of the Established Church of Scotland.

Mary Ann was 17 years old and was a domestic servant.  Her groom, John Downie, was 19 and a farm servant.  While Mary Ann was of the parish of Monquhitter, John was from Millseat in the parish of King Edward which bordered Monquhitter to the north.

🎊 Happy 144th Anniversary Mary Ann and John!

The other marriage which took place on January 2nd is a little closer to home - in that I actually knew the bride and groom.  The groom was the man I called Uncle Campbell (his full name was William Campbell Glover)  He was the much older brother of my dad.  He married Vera Samsum on this date in 1943 in the Methodist Church in Shirehampton which is part of Bristol.  As you can see from the map, the locations of these two weddings couldn't have been much further apart!

At the time of their marriage, Campbell was 35 years old and Vera was 31.  I wondered for a long time how on earth they met.  She was from the Bristol area and he was in Newcastle.  But I discovered Mary, an aunt of Campbell's, was living down there and a couple of photos I found at Alan's house in Liverpool would suggest Campbell would probably have visited his Aunt Mary.

Uncle Campbell and Auntie Vera always lived in Shirehampton and I just saw them a couple of times in my life but despite this, they always loomed large in some way.  Auntie Vera was a bit of a battle axe.  (Even if we didn't see them often there were always letters back and forth).  Cousin Alan was more connected in real-time.  They didn't have any children.  Vera's sister, Grace, married a Walter Diamond and they had a son who lives in Canada - this is the Adrian Diamond I've been in touch with for the past few years.

(William) Campbell Glover was your great uncle because he was the brother of your grandfather.

🎊 Happy 76th Anniversary Campbell and Vera!