Alice's Wedding Day

It's been such a delight to see additional pictures of the family I first met by a chance encounter through an antique shop's old photo albums. Thankfully, there were enough details in that family keepsake to help me figure out just who that family might have been. Now that we've connected with Heather, a direct descendant of the family featured in that album—the Hawkes and Reid family from County Cork, Ireland—we have the opportunity to learn more.

Yesterday, I shared a photograph Heather sent me, showing her great grandmother, Sarah Susanna Ruby Hawkes, sitting sidesaddle on her horse. That provided a nice contrast to the later photograph we've already seen of Mrs. Hawkes in 1936.

After my introductory phone conversation with her, Heather provided another photograph which included Sarah on the day of her daughter Alice's wedding. The date was October 13, 1927, and the event was held at Bride Park House, which we've also seen, thanks to the family's photograph album.

At that earlier date, Sarah's husband, John Pim Penrose Hawkes, was still alive, providing us now with the only likeness we've seen of him. In addition, having Heather confirm the wedding date allowed me to find the digitized version of the marriage record for the couple we met as Harry and Alice. Harry, apparently, was formally known as Henry, but likely because he was son of another Henry Reid,  he informally was known by this nickname.

What is interesting to note, on this marriage record, was the listing of the witnesses to the ceremony. The person listed as J. P. P. Hawkes was likely Alice's brother, who himself was named after his own father, John Pim Penrose Hawkes. After the listing of the second witness—what looks like P. L. Ruby, doubtless a cousin to Alice from her mother's side of the family—there is another name listed: H. O'Malley.

We've seen that O'Malley surname before, in a couple entries in the 1936 photo album. As it turns out, Heather has provided some additional hints that there were some O'Malley relatives, so the few mentions in various photographs may well have been referring to family members.

Above: Pictured, on the day of Alice Hawkes' marriage to Harry Reid, were her mother, Sarah Susanna Ruby Hawkes, Alice, and her father, John Pim Penrose Hawkes. Setting of the photograph was in front of Bride Park House in County Cork, Ireland. Photograph, from the private collection of a member of the Hawkes and Reid families, used by permission.