A 1925 Wedding on Harris

It is the 21st January 1925 and we are at Scarista, Harris to witness a wedding 'after banns according to the forms of the Church of Scotland'.

The groom is a 31 year-old labourer, Angus Kerr of Leverburgh, and his bride is Mary Cameron Macmaster, a 24 year-old Domestic Servant who was born in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire but whose current abode is indecipherable on the feint copy of the original certificate that I have before me.

His father was Roderick Kerr, a Fisherman, and his mother is Peggy Kerr, MS Maclennan. Her father, Duncan Macmaster, is a Gamekeeper, and her mother is Maggie Macmaster, MS Ellis.

Unfortunately, the best that I can discern for the two witnesses is 'J Morrison(?), Kentulavig' and 'Angus Campbell, West(?) Tarbert', but what makes this particular certificate special, apart from the fact that the groom was my 'Half 1st Cousin twice removed', is the name and location of the Minister: John Kerr, The Manse of Harris.

This is our old friend, the 'Ayatollah' of Finlay J Macdonald's 'Crowdie and Cream', found officiating for the one and only time at the wedding of one of his island relatives.

Not an event of great historical significance but a relatively unusual and, hopefully, interesting one!

Note: Angus Kerr's father, Roderick, was the son of my great, great grandfather, Malcolm Kerr, from his first marriage. Roderick (who's mother may have died giving birth to him, but certainly was dead within 2 or three years of having done so) was brought-up by his grandparents, a service that Malcolm repeated with my own grandfather.