Society Pages Surprises

I love how years ago the local newspapers would list the coming and goings of people.   Which distant cousins were coming for a visit,  who was getting engaged, and even who had a bridal shower.  I would expect to see this in small town newspapers, but I did not expect to see this in the Montreal Gazette.


I have just recently uploaded a few more images from the Montreal Gazette but there was one that stuck out big time.  This was found in Friday June 27, 1952 on page 19.

I am really surprised that these two men knew one another to spend time together.  Granted they are cousins but they were born an ocean apart and there is 30 years between them! 

Do I have the right people?   Then I found in The Montreal Gazette on Aug 8, 1953

Sure enough I have the right people.  I feel like there is a story here but I am just not sure where to go with this.  How do they know one another?   Was that branch of the family really that close?

Benjamin AP Dobson, born in Lancashire England,  married in Montreal to a Montreal girl in 1929.  They were returning to England to make their home there.  There was not any mention of the Coghlins present at the wedding, but to be fair the newspaper article below only mentioned the out of town guests including Philip Coles Palin and daughter.

But wait, did you see it?   In the above wedding announcement, it lists the bridesmaids.
  Mrs. Leonard D Palmer, who acted as her sister's matron of honour, and the bridal attendants, Mrs John C Webster, cousin of the bride; Miss Felicity Dobson of Elverston, Lancashire, sister of the Bridegroom and Miss Constantce Walcott were gowned alike in frocks of pale apricot georgette.... 
Mrs John C Webster was born Dorothy Ailsie Jean Coghlin, daughter of Bernard W P Coghlin!!!

Dorothy Ailsie Jean Coghlin and the bride were cousins!  Dorothy's mother was Louise Jane Dawes.  Louise's older sister Winifred Dawes married George Carrington Smith and they were parents to the bride, Marion Smith! 

And yet Dorothy was also cousin to the groom!     

I just had a funny thought.   Perhaps Benjamin AP Dobson and Bernard WP Coghlin did not really know one another and had only met at the wedding.  Were they shocked to find that they shared the same third name of Palin and then deduced that they were first cousins twice removed?  Priceless!  Or were they totally unaware?   Or is that how Benjamin AP Dobson met his bride, through his cousin? 

What a small world!