OrnaVerum
v 7.00.00
23 Jan 2024
updated 23 Jan 2024

One must straight away admire the richness of the wedding dress and the studio setting itself!

However, Aunt Jessie's annotations on the reverse of this picture are less helpful than usual – extremely ambiguous in fact - and the first thing to establish is that this is the bride's second marriage.

I'd say, that at the time this picture was taken, Anne was née Findlay, and devenue Stevenson, but not yet devenue Reece.

I'd also cavil at the colour of her wedding dress, given that she was a widowed mother, as white was traditionally reserved for brides of unimpeachable virginity. Perhaps the Church sensibly observed the spirit rather than the letter of the law in these instances!

There are two other things to query – firstly, who was Nancy Reece (answer: Nancy was a pet name for Anne in those days) – and secondly, what was the significance of 11 May 1900 (answer: maybe just the date of Aunt Jessie's annotations).