Monday, May 23, 2016

A Ngaruawahia Wedding Elinor Moffitt- Charles Bowie

Ive missed a few weeks of my "Ancestor a week" self- challenge however Im back with another Goodwin family layout today after receiving a great photo of a family wedding from another Goodwin cousin a few days ago. Fortunately many names were notated on the back of the photo, however I was hoping to find a description of the wedding in one of the local papers of the time, however it would appear that either this wedding didnt make the papers, or else if it did, the paper has not yet been digitised by the National Library.
I did find an announcement of the wedding in the New Zealand Herald dated February 15th 1915, but no detailed description, which might help identify the few remaining people I have not yet been able to identify.

On January 6th 1915 at the Methodist Church Ngaruawahia Elinor Moffitt of Ngaruawahia married Charles Bowie of Te Aroha.  The wedding party shown in this photo demonstrates the close connection between the various branches of the Goodwin family. Elinor Moffitt was the younger daughter of Edward John Moffitt and his wife Sarah Ann. Sarah Ann's parents were William Henry and Jane Goodwin (nee Boyt), both of whom had died just a few years before this wedding.
Sarah Ann is seated on the far right of this photo, and her husband Edward on the far left.
According to the notations on the back of the photograph, there are several other Goodwin family members in attendance. Of note are Sarah Ann’s brother Joseph Goodwin who is the tall rather handsome man with dark hair and moustache standing in the back row, just right of centre. Joseph was Sarah Ann’s youngest brother, born in 1868. Just in front of him on his right is Phillip Goodwin, my Great Grandfather (sporting a moustache for the first time in any photograph of him we have seen) Phillip, being the son of Sarah Ann’s brother James was one of the bride’s first cousins.  Standing just behind Sarah Ann is Mary Ann Goodwin, Phillips mother in a resplendent hat).
The brides sister Eliza Annie (known as Annie) is standing beside Phillip and her husband Roland Garlick is standing to the left of the bridesmaid whose identity at this point is unknown.
There are two other younger men in the photograph, one standing to the left of Roland Garlick and one on the far right beside Mary Ann.  The photograph indicates the man on the left is Henry Moffitt, however this would appear to be incorrect. Edward and Sarah Ann had 2 sons, James Henry and Edward John Jr. James Henry died in a drowning accident in 1895 so I suspect the man on the left is Edward John Jr, however another nephew of Sarah Ann (Francis Henry) listed her as his next of kin on his World War One attestation, so perhaps one of the two young men may be him.  I imagine the older woman standing behind the brides father is in fact the Grooms mother Margaret Bowie, a widow.
There is no indication of who the small girl in the front of the photograph could be. Perhaps she is a niece of the groom, or perhaps the daughter of one of the brides many cousins.