Remember the books on my top shelf? I shared them on the eve of Squares. Well here’s a page inside one of those books. Can you guess which book this is out of?

Bible in sunshine

The book was the Holy Bible, and it belonged to my Great Great grandparents, William Preece and Jane Jones. It would seem they were given it as a wedding present, as they recorded the date and place of their marriage in it. Two years later they began to record the births of their children. This page is page two and at the top of the page is my Great Great Aunt Harriette. She was their fifth child, born on this day – Tuesday 28 April -in 1868. I know how amazing is that! 152 years ago the 28th April was also a Tuesday. Bible square

William and Jane, were Herefordshire farmers and hauliers, and, with the exception of one period, seemed to be at the top of their profession. Their family life cannot be described as top rate though. Their eldest son John spent all of his adult life in an asylum, and died at the young age of 24 years. Their eldest daughter, Helen, became a nurse, studying and working at St Thomas’s in London. Unfortunately though she also died young, and of the same condition as her brother, tuberculosis. The next two sons – Charles and William – have proved to be rather elusive. I believe, they emigrated to north America. William was still alive in 1943 as he is mentioned in Howard’s, their younger brother, will and probate records. However I have nothing more on him or Charles.
20200324_144350

Harriette, married William Carless, a domestic gardener. She was in her 40s when they married, and had no children. Two of the other daughters – Julia and the youngest, Kate – never married. Both of them spent most of their adult lives living and working at home, first with their parents and then later their brother, Howard. It was Howard, the fourth son, with the help of his youngest brother George, who took over the family business. Neither of them married either, however Howard was obviously also at the top of his game as when he died in 1943 his estate was worth over £4,000.

Edith Clara, my great grandmother and William and Jane’s eighth child and fifth daughter, married local builder and carpenter, Harry Walker in 1901. If you look again at the first two squares you can see the record of her birth. Interestingly, well to me anyway, her entry and her younger siblings are in a different penmanship to their older siblings. Did William write some and Jane the rest?

My great grandparents, Edith and Harry lived and worked in Herefordshire too. As far as I know she was the only one to have any children. Edith is pictured below, with Harry. The occasion is a happy one – the wedding of their middle daughter, Gladys (my grandmother). They are surrounded by their five adult children. The sixth adult is their new son in law William and the child is their eldest granddaughter. Margaret was the daughter of their youngest daughter, Elsie, who had married 4 years earlier.

Gladys and William on their wedding day

Now my puzzle for you today is can you work out which two are the bride and groom?! 

Update: Thank you to you all for your fabulous guesses. A few of you got it right! It is not the most obvious couple in the picture. Click here to see Gladys and William sitting down in between her parents, Edith and Harry and a few extra wedding guests. 

142 thoughts

    1. Love your cranes today . . been wondering what it was all looking like. You should have done a photo a day and then created a progress video!

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      1. A bit boring I think because sometimes you don’t see a difference. I’ll do a before and after. 🙂 🙂 Margaret was asking about ‘cranes’. We don’t get them down here, do we? I’ve never seen one.

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        1. You are right they are not in the Algarve, although they were nesting in the Baixo Guadiana in the 19th century, so they might return one day.

          We’ve seen them in Alentejo though – I’ll find Margaret’s comment and add the link 🙂

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    2. PS The couple you love with the smiles were brother sister – Elsie and Howard. I never met them unfortunately. For the bride and groom I’ve added a link with the answer. have a look if you have time!

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    2. PS You were right on one of them!! The link with the complete answer has been added to the post. have a look if you have time!

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  11. What a treasure this family bible is. My guess is that the groom is the man in the middle back row because it looks like he has flowers in his lapel. His bride is standing in front of him, slightly to his right. He has his hand resting gently on her shoulder.

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        5. No need to seal, the link with the answer is now there. have a look if you have time! If not then the man you thought was cheeky was my Great Uncle Harold, so not my grandfather and not the groom!

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  14. The pair on the upper left-back. Also, she’s the only person wearing a white dress in the crowd AND in old photographs, the focal couple was almost always posed upper left in a group setting, but always dead centry in a formal portrait. Garry has pictures like this of his mom and dad’s wedding.

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  15. Lovely piece of family history. My father has a family bible that belonged to his grandparents, that also has all the birthdates of the children recorded.

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  19. Normally, you would expect the bride and groom to be in the middle, surrounded by family. But I think the bride and groom are on the far left. I guessed this because her dress looks more bridal than any of the other women. But wedding fashions do change, so let me know if I’m correct or not!

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    1. Thanks for your guesses, i will reveal all tomorrow or possibly even this evening by adding a link to a photo of the happy couple

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  20. Hey. Charles Preece did move to the US in 1894. He was married to a Lizzie Wagner in Montana in 1907, He died in Montana in 1952. In his will, he disinherited any legal heirs. I can copy the documents that are available on Ancestry.com when I get home and send them to you. He had at least one daughter that died. Hope this helps fill in some blanks.

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    1. Oops. the daughter belongs to another Charles Preece in Pennsylvania. He is the one who arrived in 1894. Still looking for your Charles in early census records. He is the one in Montana.

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      1. His marriage 1907 license lists his age as 42 (no dob) and parents William Preece and Jane Jones. His death certificate lists his birth as August 16, 1865 and his parents as William and Jane. He died August 2, 1952 in a rest home in Montana. The 1920 census lists him as a widower and he is rooming with another family. He left this family money in his will. The 1930 census shows he arrive in the US in 1895, I haven’t found him in the 1910 census but his name could be incorrectly transcribed. He never became a US citizen and had no social security number when he died. I haven’t found any information on his wife, when she died, etc. The marriage certificate says she was born in Wisconsin. Love searching for this kind of information so will see if I can find anything else.

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        1. OMG it must be him – I have his dob as 16 Aug 1864 rather than 1865, but this must be him. I’ve not looked at ancestry for years, but clearly need to! You are amazing Marie 🙂 this is so exciting

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        2. Just sent all of this to Mum . . . . can’t wait to look at ancestry myself. have a busy two days workwise tomorrow and Thursday, but on Friday i will go into Ancestry 🙂

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        3. I found his wife’s death certificate. She died in February 1908 so they weren’t married a year before she died. She died without a will so Charles had to file paperwork for her estate (some bank accounts).

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