After completing my final assigment - a research proposal for anything I pleased (well, within in reason and the 'history' field), I am now eager to complete the proposed research. As I mentioned in an earlier blog it is a biographical study about my Great Grandmother Amuri Russell, and in particular her time serving as a volunteer in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) during the Second World War. After undertaking preliminary research about her life and her service in the WAAAF, it has made me even more interested in her life and achievements.
Apart from the fact that I feel that you are all so eager for me to write down my discoveries and interests in this blog for you (all) to read, the first thought of all of this came when I was rustling through artefacts and photos of my ancestors that we found in my grandmother's house. In the piles of documents and much junk we found photo albums and diaries of Amuri's travels abroad in 1909-1911. What fascinated me was that I had the exact same photos taken 100 years later. Here are some of the discoveries I have made along the way.
Travels abroad
In 1909 Andrew and Emily Rutherford, accompanied by three of their daughters, Emily, Ethel and Amuri left New Zealand for a grand adventure abroad. They first set off for Sydney to spend several months in Australia. Andrew and his siblings had been born in Australia after his parents George and Isabel migrated to Australia from Scotland in about 1839. After 17 years in Australia, the Rutherford family re-settled in the Canterbury region of New Zealand to the property 'Leslie Hills', which is today, still owned and occupied by the Rutherford family.It was during this time in Australia when Amuri met her future husband, my great grandfather, Eric Russell.
From Australia the Rutherfords made their way to Europe on the Otranto liner. They toured widely through England, and visited Scotland so as Andrew could see the graves of his descendants. The family also visited France, Italy and Germany.
Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy c. 1910.
Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy, 2011.
Throughout their travels Andrew had regular published correspondace in the local New Zealand newspapers, where he wrote of the things they saw, the people the met and the disappointments they faced in several European cities, "the people in Italy were not clean; the German's ate too much". Andrew was not the only writer in the family with Amuri also having much of her writing published in the Domion Newspaper in New Zealand, as well as a small book publised called 'Observations' and letters sent home to her family. Family members would send the correspondance around town to her aunts, uncles and cousins boasting of the time they were having.
Nice, France, c. 1910 (left) and 2011 (below).
After galavanting around Europe the family sailed on to New York, and then to Montreal and caught the rail to Vancouver, before travelling home via Honolulu, Fanning Island, Fiji and Sydney.
The family had seen and experienced extraordinary things on their two year journey, including the Coronation of King George and Queen Mary in London and a Thanksgiving service at St Pauls Cathedral, where Andrew had a particularly good view of the Royal couple.
For Amuri the homecoming also coincided with the announcement of her engagament to Australian Eric Russell, whom she would marry in December the following year (1912). For Ethel, she had found love in Canada and opposition in her parents, for they did not approve of the match. It took 5 years before Andrew and Emily gave her their blessing.
To this day, a large majority of the Rutherford family still reside in New Zealand. And as far as I know, there are still descendants in Canada and, of course, Australia. For a large family, they have not ventured far.
It fascinates me to think about how extravegant the Rutherford's travels would have been in the early 20th Century and time it would have taken for them to venture so far from New Zealand. And luckily for me, we still hold the diaries and photographs of this time and can therefore try to begin to grasp what a wonderful adventure it must have been.
Phoebe.
Sources cited:
Holm, Janet, Nothing But Grass and Wind: The Rutherfords of Cantury, Hazard Press, Christchurch, 1992.
Papers Past, various.
Russell, Amuri, Observations, The Christchurch Press Company, Christchurch, 1912.