THE face that stared out at Ann Stokes, as she delved through a box of old photographs, stopped her in her tracks.

Though it was dated from a century earlier, it was like looking in a mirror for the Darwen arts and crafts tutor, now retired.

The features that Ann knew so well were those of her great grandmother Edith Bury, nee Place, born in 1864 — and they set her on a mission to research her family tree and discover her roots.

So when this photograph appeared in Bygones a couple of weeks ago, she knew exactly what it was, for it showed many of her ancestors.

She identified it immediately as the wedding, in 1902, of Edith’s younger sister Helen Place, 28, to William Briggs Whewell, 29, a brewer and wine and spirit merchant — his father Thomas Whewell owned the Victoria Brewery in Adelaide Street, Blackburn. And there was Edith, the third woman standing on the left, with dark flowers in her light coloured hat.

The couple, who were married at The Belgrave Square Meeting House, in Darwen, on Wednesday, April 16, later posed with guests in the garden of High Lawn where the two Place sisters had lived with their parents, John and Elizabeth.

According to the marriage certificate John, who is Ann’s great, great grandfather, was a colliery owner and sanitary pipe manufacturer — he is fourth from the right on the back row.

His younger brother, Col William Henry Place, is the tall chap with bristling moustache on the left of the back row.

Considered the doyenne of the Lancashire Volunteers Force, he lived at Ashleigh House, Whitehall until his death in 1919.

Ann’s maternal grandfather, Frederick Robinson Bury, the little chap with the dark sailor suit, is second on the right at the front. Ann has also traced a newspaper account of the marriage ceremony, which described it as a very pretty wedding which had aroused a great deal of interest in the town as the bride’s family were so well known.

The ceremony was conducted by the Rev David Brook, the bride’s uncle — he is on the extreme right of the back row — assisted by the Rev D Stewart, chapel minster.

After the wedding breakfast at High Lawn the couple, who were to live in Wyvill Place, Crosshill Road, Blackburn, left for a honeymoon in Paris.

A dance took place in the evening in the Industrial Hall for 130 people.

The report also listed the 120-plus weddings gifts received by the new Mr and Mrs Whewell which included much silverware and cut glass, as well as a Steinway piano, tea cosy, afternoon tea cloth, satin eiderdown, mounted birds, a revolving paper stand and an Indian table.

n Ann, who has traced this side of her family as far back as 1599, is a member of the Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society’s Blackburn and Darwen branch and a friend of both Darwen Library and Cemetery.

She said: “When I opened Bygones that day looking at me from the annals of time were some of my ancestors and it made me shed a silent tear.

“Since finding my great grandmother on that old family photograph, tracing my ancestors has become a passion and I have been able to meet up with different branches of the family.

“Perhaps some readers could add their own recollections to this narrative.”

You can contact her at ann.quill@yahoo.co.uk