This wedding photo is of Minnie Frances Ventura (seated) and Jose “Joe P. Smith” Pacheco (standing on the right). The two others in this photo are Eva (Ventura) Nunes and Frank Ventura, Minnie’s sister and brother.
Minnie was born in 1902 on Kauai, HI. She was the daughter of Francisco de Boa Ventura, of Sao Jose, Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel Island, Azores, and Guilhermina Clement, of Magdalena do Mar, Funchal, Madeira. Jose was born in 1896 in Kilauea, Kauai, HI. He was the son of Theodoro Pacheco of Achada, Nordeste and Maria de Braga, of Maia, Ribeira Grande–both from the island of Sao Miguel.
I’m not sure of the exact date of their marriage, but it was after Jose had returned from WWI. It was probably around 1922. They were married in Salinas, Monterey Co., CA.
In the 1990s, I had the opportunity to exchange letters with Eva, who is in this photo. She told me she was just a teenager when Minnie was married–about 13 or 14. Frank was older than both Minnie and Eva. He was in his mid-20s.
I remember that Eva remarked about the fashion of the day. Shorter dress length was in style, so she and Minnie were very fashionable.
She also told me that weddings were handled different back in the 1920s. Families did not cater the event. They did not rent a hall. No one placed an order at the local bakery for a wedding cake. Everything was provided by the family of the bride.
Eva’s mother never saw any of her daughters get married. This was because the burden of preparing all the food fell on her shoulders. While Guilhermina and other female relatives were cooking and baking enough food to feed everyone (think 9 of the Ventura children, their spouses, the other side, and cousins, lots of cousins), the rest of the family was getting married. By the time the wedding party returned, she was probably too exhausted to enjoy any of the feast that she had prepared.
Each generation did things in their one way. I’m glad that I was able to correspond with Eva to learn this little bit of history.
