A Picture of the Past
If you read the April 12, 1928 copy of The Thompsonville Press you will find out that Miss Catherine Hogan became the bride of Mr. George Chappell on Monday, April 8, 1928. The ceremony was at nine o’clock in the morning at St. Patrick’s church. “The bride wore a gown of white satin with pearl trimmings and a full length tulle veil caught up with lilies of the valley. She carried a shower bouquet of bride roses.” The wedding breakfast was held at The Highland Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then the bridal couple left on a wedding trip to New York City and Philadelphia.
I grew up familiar with these facts because George and Catherine were my paternal grandparents and the wedding photo at the top of this post was in their dining room for as long as I can remember. What we didn’t know is what the headline of the newspaper article tells us: “Two Sisters Are Married On Same Day.”
Margaret Hogan married James McKenna at eight o’clock in the morning at St. Patrick’s Church. She wore a blue chiffon gown with silver trimmings, a picture hat to match, and carried a bouquet of white Ophelia roses. Their wedding breakfast was held at the Bridgway Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts and they also went on a wedding trip to New York City and Philadelphia.
Two sisters married on the same day, one right after the other. Two wedding breakfasts in two separate hotels. Two wedding trips to New York and Philadelphia. We are left with so many questions. Why did they both choose the same day but not make it a double wedding? How did the family decide which wedding breakfast to attend? Was there a family rift? Trouble with in-laws? Sisterly rivalry? We don’t know and now we will never know. So often we think we know family history but then find there are gaping holes in our knowledge.
Here is a little of what I know and remember about my grandparents. Grandpa was born in Manchester, England, and came to the U.S. when he was 18. Grandma was born in the U.S. to Irish immigrants. I remember being told that they met when he whistled at her as she walked by. They had five children and lived in the same house most of their lives. They rarely left town and Grandma was a homebody and didn’t travel. My cousin once took my grandfather to Epcot Center in Florida. I remember him talking, with what for him was great enthusiasm, about the authentic fish and chips he had at a pub in Epcot Center. He said he hadn’t had food like that since he left England.
They both had full heads of gorgeous, white hair. They both were very small. Grandpa’s immigration papers say he was 5’6″. Grandma loved to go bowling and had a shelf of bowling trophies. If we brought our school report cards she would give us $5.00. Grandpa was legally blind for many years but he managed to do a lot. I remember hearing about them wallpapering their kitchen with him up on the ladder and her directing where the paper should go.
We used to visit them on Saturday afternoons. Sometimes we would forget and arrive too early because they had gone to Mass. My Uncle Bruce would bring them home and they would settle into their chairs-always the same chairs- and the quiet, aimless conversation would begin. They were old even when I was small so they weren’t playful grandparents but we always knew they cared about us.
We used to wander around looking at family photos and playing with the knickknacks Grandma had covering every surface. Sometimes we went down into the basement to watch Grandpa shovel coal into the furnace. They had a coal furnace well into the ’80s and kept the house at an extremely toasty 85 degrees or so year-round. We always stopped in the pantry to see what snacks Grandma had. If we were particularly hungry she would make us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the grape jelly an inch thick and Entenmann’s cupcakes for dessert. We never left without a little sandwich bag each full of candy and cookies and other goodies.
They died within hours of each other on March 31, 2000 after 72 years of marriage.
I have a few photos and some dishes from Grandma’s vast collection. I have a china cabinet and a couple of bureaus. I have the trunk that my great-grandmother supposedly (probably apocryphally) brought over from Ireland. I don’t have enough. I want the stories. I want to know about the weddings but I also want all the little details of lives lived before my time. The joys, the sorrows, the way things worked, what they thought, how they felt, the little things that didn’t seem worth talking about but that flesh out lives and histories into reality. I want my picture of the past to come to life.
*Credit goes to my father and my cousin for these photos and the newspaper article I quoted from. Fun fact, my dad used to work for The Thompsonville Press.
16 Comments
Michelle Ann
What an interesting story. As you say, we never asked the right questions when people were alive, and now wish we could do so.
jllee656
I also assume I will remember the details of stories I have been told. Sadly, that isn’t true. I should start interviewing my relatives and writing things down.
Katrina
It is sad but somehow just perfect that they died within a few hours of each other after all those years together. We always want to know more, too late, but you know such a lot really, but what a mystery that wedding day is! My grandparents were all dead by the time I was 11 and there aren’t even photos of their younger days. I love that wedding photo, the short dress was so fashionable in 1928.
jllee656
Isn’t the dress gorgeous? I love it. I think no matter how much we know there are always little mysteries that appear. I am sure quite often the explanations are prosaic but I still would like to know!
Bronwen Jamison
Yes so many untold or lost stories. This was a lovely read.
jllee656
Thank you!
Brona
I love a good family history puzzle. Do you know any of grandchildren from the sisters marriage? Ancestry.com might find you a couple of distant cousins who may know the other side of the story??
jllee656
I don’t know them at all. I think my cousin is trying to get information from a distant relative. It is interesting, isn’t it?
Joan Kyler
We never ask enough questions when we can, do we? My late mother and I went through a shoebox of photos and labelled them all. I’m very glad we did that because their identities would have been lost. She told me that one of our relatives always wanted a pair of red shoes. That’s the sort of thing you don’t find in genealogical records.
jllee656
Yes, it is the little details that make lives and personalities come into focus. I am partial to a pair of red shoes myself!
Wendy @ Falconer's Library
Do you think the photo is of both couples? The “matching picture hat” and “white Ophelia roses” could certainly be the standing woman’s.
jllee656
I don’t think so but that is interesting. I’ll have to check with my dad.
Tanja/The Red Phone Box travels
what an intrigue! such beautiful photo.
jllee656
It is probably a perfectly simple explanation but it does provide a lot of scope for the imagination!
Lucinda
Gorgeous photo and postcards. How amazing yor grandmother never mentioned her sister’s wedding. I so want to hear the reasons. Did your father know his aunt? No mention of the size of the wedding party in the paper? I wonder if the blue chiffon gown suggests anything? As in not white? But hten she got married in the church so maybe not. Who picked the date first? Was the sister’s wedding rushed? The Bridgeway does not look as flash as the Highland?
The bridesmaid’s bonnet is a corker!!!
jllee656
My dad did know his aunt. She used to visit periodically. She had four children including twin girls. Her marriage didn’t last. I don’t think the color of the dress indicates anything because, as you said, it was a church wedding. Isn’t it fascinating? I would love to know the answers. And yes, that is quite the bonnet! I do love my grandma’s dress though.