Hello to the fine folks of The Downhome magazine!

I am writing you this evening to let you know of a magnificent wedding taking place this summer in Ivanhoe, Ireland’s Eye, Trinity Bay. Ivanhoe is one of several communities on the island of Ireland’s Eye that was resettled during the government's resettlement in the 1960’s. The residents of Ivanhoe in fact moved in 1964.

This is going to be such a glorious event due to the reality that the last recorded wedding in Ivanhoe was in May 1962, 50 years ago when James and Avises Watton were married! And this coming summer my fiancé and I will be married on the very land that was settled in 1870 by John and Patience Ivany, the first settlers in Ivanhoe. This land still holds the cellar and well that was constructed by John Ivany in 1870 with wooden forms still intact as the day they were placed in the well, 140 years ago!

Through searching for my own Ivany family roots I stumbled upon Mabel Kean (Ivany) and asked the dreaded questioned regarding purchasing a portion of land. To our surprise, her answer was ‘yes’. She holds the unique Queen’s Grant dated 1892, in the original envelope! 13 acres was purchased for $4.15! We met Mabel on June 21st 2011 and had the transfer completed. The following weekend we started construction of our wharf. Since then we have built a beautiful cabin, still under construction, to be finished by July…. For our wedding!

We have shared many, many emails with Mabel and several visits over the past year and we have developed an astonishing friendship. Mabel was born in Ivanhoe in 1928 and is now 84 years old and ‘Come hook or by crook’ she will be at our wedding! She left Ivanhoe in 1945 to pursue a teaching career.

I will be following up with pictures and articles of our day and thought you would be interested in this story.

Thank you for your time,
Marie Crawford & Boyce Smith
Petley, Random Island, NL

The attached picture is one that Mabel gave me and I edited it with names and home owners.   Submitted By: Marie Crawford