A future Duchess named Consuelo was the reason William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith got together. Not their daughter Consuelo, who became the Duchess of Marlborough. It was Alva’s friend, Consuelo Yznaga, later to become Duchess of Manchester, who introduced her to “Willie.” Alva’s family was well-to-do but hardly on the Vanderbilts’ level, while Consuelo’s family was very wealthy and established in New York society. To have a friend like Consuelo was a major advantage in Alva’s effort to climb the social ladder. William and Alva married on this date, April 20, 1875, after a courtship that has been described as Alva leading him “on a merry chase.” Their daughter, born in 1877, was named after her mother’s friend who had made the marriage possible. The Yznaga name is also remembered in Newport. Yznaga Avenue is a tiny side street off Bellevue Avenue, named for Consuelo’s father, Antonio Yznaga Del Vaille, who owned a cottage there named Reef Point. (L to R: Consuelo Mont...