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My object concerns the family wedding, in 1829 in the Scottish Highlands, of George Anderson and Marjorie May Macdonald - my great-great grandparents on my mother's side. The story came to my attention when I was doing some family history research a few years ago. I found a document - my object - which recorded the wedding in glorious detail. It was an article in the Inverness Courier of 6 September 1929 which re-printed an original item published 100 years earlier, in 1829.

The article despairs of the "insipidity of most modern marriages" but confirms that they manage the affair "much better in the Highlands." and goes on to enthusiastically describe the wedding between George, a local blacksmith, and Marjorie May - "a decent young damsel".

400 guests attended festivities - from "Tuesday until Saturday night" - and consumed vast quantities of food and drink in the process. Dancing continued day and night with hardly a break.

During my research I realised the wedding took place 137 years after the infamous Glencoe massacre, 83 years after Culloden and during the Highland Clearances. I am proud to be descended from a clan that could survive such times and still celebrate in style