Getting a bit of Kulcha !

culture

/ˈkʌltʃə/

noun

1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.

2. the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

All over the world we are all living quite different lives compared to last week, last month, last year.

Many people who only ever dreamed of being able to work from home, are working at home. Parents have become home-school teachers – now that is something I always wished I had been able to do. There is a lot of adjusting to do when your home becomes your office, school and still needs to be home as well. It will take a while before everyone establishes a routine and feels comfortable in their new environment. But it will happen.

If it wasn’t for the added requirement to be socially distant from our families, friends, neighbours and communities I would have loved to be able to offer parents some respite – allow them to focus on their work for a bit. But in reality that isn’t going to happen and once everyone has worked through all the little challenges – what a great opportunity to spend more time with your kids; help them with their study, find different ways to learn things, find different things to learn. Learning isn’t all about textbooks and math (thank goodness). Every cloud has a silver lining.

But when you need a break from school work and work work – what do you do ? Jump on the trampoline in the backyard, play a bit of cricket or chase, you could go for a walk around the park or along the river – but not in big groups. Read a book, do a jigsaw, crossword, sudoku, test your quiz skills at www.sporcle.com .Even go to the museum, art gallery, walk around a garden, take a guided your of a palace – virtually of course.

How wonderful is this ? Has your holiday or vacation been cancelled or impacted by our current situation ? Don’t let that stop you. Look where you can go ! No admission charges either. Perfect.

MelbourneMuseum 

Get aSTEM fix at Science Works 

ImmigrationMuseum 

Check out the collections held by Museums Victoria 

Explore the National Gallery of Victoria, they have exhibitions, collections e-books and kids activities too 

And it isn’t just Victoria either – travel the country; a city or state at a time. Travel the world !

There is the British Museum in London 

The Louvre in Paris 

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam 

The National Art Gallery of USA in Washington DC 

The Guggenheim in New York 

You can tour Buckingham Palace 

or the Palace de Versailles 

World travel has never been more affordable – and from the comfort of your lounge, bed, dining room table, study, back yard.

Get travelling people – it’s amazing. My bucket list is growing !

#52Ancestors, Week 28, Travel

Travel. It has to be number one on my list of things I like to do. If only I had a bottomless pit of money to go with my passport. I’d be off.

Where did this restlessness and curiosity come from ?

In my recent history, I guess you could say I come from travellers. Not travellers like gypsies – but that could be an interesting twist in the tree – travellers like migrants.

Less than 200 years ago, my ancestors took opportunities offered to them by the British government to set sail for the other side of the planet, to a place they had never seen. A place I imagine many of them had never heard of. For what ? To be pioneers in a new land, where everyone was equal, where class wasn’t as limiting – to be British in another land; building the Commonwealth.

What a giant step they all took. Most of them came from families who had lived in the same hamlets and parishes for generations. They came from different backgrounds; glovers, sailmakers, frame knitters, agricultural labourers, millers, bakers, military, domestic service, farmers and landowners. There must have been other factors, not just the lure of new opportunity.

This migratory, adventure seeking behaviour has found it’s way in to my DNA. My most recent ancestor to leave England was my grandmother in 1929. Her family were travellers too. One grandfather and his brother left the rural agricultural life and joined the railways as they were exploding across Britain and offering opportunities of employments and travel to not just the upper and middle classes. Her other grandfather left the a similar rural life and moved north finding employment as a jaunting car driver or car man. A career path followed by his youngest son who was a coachman and taxi driver as the automobile industry was just beginning.

In New Zealand, too, automobiles were becoming popular and many holidays were taken exploring the countryside, by my great grandparents, grandparents and parents.

When we were little, our holidays too involved cars and travel; to the beach, the lake, three trips to South Island for the summer holidays covering every corner, others to the east Cape, Northland, Coromandel and Taranaki. Don’t leave the country until you have seen it all !

Even in the 1960’s there was international travel; my grandparents travelled to Australia to visit, my aunt too with a friend from work, my other grandmother took cruises to the islands and around the world.

In the 1970’s my grandmother and her sister travelled back to England, plus a bit of Europe. Mum and Dad travelled to Australia and on their second trip took us along too. Then they were off to the UK and Europe, reconnecting with family and exploring. Crazy Kiwis driving all that way in ONE day !

Australia, Fiji, England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, USA….plenty more places I have left to see or revisit.

Is all of this why a love of a road trip has manifested itself in me ? I was never much interested in driving when I was young – but now, I love it.

Jump in the car at any opportunity, go exploring, discover where you live, what’s just down the road, find the interesting places, not always the popular crowded places. See your country like a tourist does. Sometimes just drive for three or four hours to visit people or have lunch in a different city.

Because you can.

And why not ?

#52Ancestors, Week 21, Military

Army, Navy, Airforce…I don’t have a lot of military folk in my tree. I recently wrote about a soldier for my Families at War unit and my diploma, but I posted that already on ANZAC Day.

So I am going way outside the box with this one and writing about someone who joined a different Army.

My great great grandparents Julius Fuller & Maria Ann Horskins married in Newington, Surrey on Boxing Day 1859.[1] Less than two months later, they boarded the Gananoque at Gravesend and sailed for New Zealand.[2]

I’m not sure my great great grandfather was too worried about leaving his family behind. He has buried his tracks pretty well and from all accounts never spoke about family. My great great grandmother has been a little easier to research and left three brothers and two sisters in England as well as numerous cousins. Whether they stayed in touch is hard to know, I hope they did at least until her death in 1878.[3]

They must have been missed by her family though, shortly after their departure Maria’s youngest brother named two of his children for them. This is where the Army comes in.

As a twelve year old, Julius Horskins began attending Salvation Army meetings near his home in Notting Hill, London in the mid 1870’s.[4] On Sundays he would rise at 4am to be ensure he arrived on time for knee-drill, even when he had often not finished work as a Grocer’s assistant until midnight.[5] He devoted his life to the Army. His sisters Maria and Annie also joined, though I am unsure whether his parents and elder brother did.[6]

Julius, already a member of his local Notting Hill Corps, became one of the first “soldiers” and dedicated his life to God and the Army in about 1881.[7] After an initial training period in London he went, as Lieutenant, to Birmingham and then on to Leith, Heckmondwike and Leeds.[8] While in Leeds he was promoted to Captain, and moved on to Beverley and Bradford.[9] When he married Selina Fenton in 1884, both he and she were Captains stationed in Bradford, Yorkshire.[10] I was surprised to see a report of their marriage in the Clare Valley Argus – in South Australia.[11] I wonder why. Was there a relative there who I am yet to discover ? Perhaps John Gore and Edward Saunders the commissioned officers recently arrived in South Australia from England were friends of the happy couple.[12]

After their marriage Julius and Selina went to Halifax and Bristol followed by Camberwell,  Hull and Castleford where he was promoted again to Staff-Captain.[13] In late 1887 they received orders to proceed to South Africa as acting chief secretaries.[14] Their eldest son was born there about 1888.[15]

By December 1889 though, Julius had been promoted to Major and they are documented in newspapers in Ballarat and Bendigo, Victoria as having arrived from Africa.[16]

In January 1890 they had relocated to Bathurst, New South Wales where their second son was born in August.[17] Nothing is forever though, the work of the Army just marches on. In September and October 1891 they are again in Ballarat, but by January 1892 they are established in Newtown, New South Wales.[18] Their third son is born there the following year, but shortly afterward they relocated yet again, this time to Adelaide, South Australia.[19]

Both Selina and Julius travel about the State attending meetings, including chaperoning a tour group from New Zealand throughout their stay there.[20] Their only daughter is born in Adelaide in 1896.[21] In 1897 they moved to Geelong and then to Melbourne.[22]

In December of 1897 Julius was appointed Field Secretary.[23] In May 1898 they arrived in Queensland where, as Brigadier, Julius was installed as Commandant of Toowoomba and Brisbane.[24] By 1901 they have returned to Melbourne when their two youngest sons are born in 1901 and 1905.[25]

They travelled back and forth to London between 1901 and 1909 spending time in Australia in Fremantle, Albany, Melbourne and Sydney as well as a number of visits to New Zealand.[26] Julius’ elder sister Maria, herself an officer with the Salvation Army, spent some time in Western Australia as well before returning to London.[27]

In 1910 they travelled from Fremantle to Colombo, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon).[28] By 1911 he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.[29] They had travelled back to Britain at some point after this as passenger lists record them leaving Liverpool for Montreal, Canada in July 1914.[30] They travelled across Canada and arrived back in Sydney after sailing from Vancouver in September 1914.[31]

They seem to have been fairly settled throughout the war or perhaps I just haven’t found all the newspaper articles and shipping records. In 1919 they are recorded in the Who’s Who in Jamaica.[32] Julius and Selina attended a service in Wellington in 1920 en route to Jamaica.[33] They can be found on passenger lists travelling back and forth between Limon, Costa Rica, Kingston, Jamaica, New Orleans, USA and Bristol, England in 1920 and 1921.[34]  

They departed from Glasgow, Scotland in October 1921 for Mumbai, India (then known as Bombay).[35] Newspaper reports 1929 regarding the plans for the Annual Congress of the Salvation Army, which was to be held in Wellington, New Zealand Julius was described as “lately in command of the Army’s operations in Western India.”[36] In an interview near the time of the Congress, his rank now Commissioner, he remarked that India had been his favourite mission and that he hoped to return for three or four years before he retired.[37]

I wonder if Julius knew he had cousins living in New Zealand and whether he met with them on any of his visits ?

Selina died unexpectedly in 1931 in Melbourne and Julius in 1949.[38] Their children settled in Victoria and South Australia.

His life was certainly one much travelled.

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[1] Marriage Certificate of Julius Fuller and Maria Ann Horskins, married 26 December 1859, General Register Office, United Kingdom.

[2] ‘Shipping News’, Lyttelton Times, 12 May 1860, p.4.

[3] Death Certificate of Maria Ann Fuller, died 19 March 1878, Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand.

[4] John Larsen, Spiritual Breakthrough, The Holy Spirit and Ourselves, London, The General of the Salvation Army, 1983, p.44.

[5] Larsen, Spiritual Breakthrough, The Holy Spirit and Ourselves, p.44.

[6] Carole Powell to Claire Becker, email, 10 February 2009, original in author’s possession.

[7] Larsen, Spiritual Breakthrough, The Holy Spirit and Ourselves.; The Salvation Army, Brisbane Courier, 28 April 1898, p.3.

[8] ‘The Salvation Army’, Brisbane Courier, p.3.

[9] ‘The Salvation Army’, Brisbane Courier, p.3.

[10] ‘A Salvation Army Wedding’, Northern Argus, 2 December 1884, p.4.

[11] ‘A Salvation Army Wedding’, Northern Argus, p.4.

[12] Kingsley Sampson, “Opening Fire: A brief analysis of the Salvation Army’s  first decade in New Zealand”, The Australasian Journal of Salvation Army History, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2016, p.132.

[13] ‘The Salvation Army’, Brisbane Courier, p.3.

[14] ‘The Salvation Army’, Brisbane Courier, p.3.

[15] Betty Horskins to Les Davys, letter, 16 March 1996, original in author’s possession.

[16] ‘Sermons, Lectures, &c.’, Bendigo Advertiser, 14 December 1889, p.6.

[17] ‘Government Gazette’, Evening News, 8 January 1890, p.7., Birth Certificate for Victor Bramwell Horskins, born 2 August 1890, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, 6438/1890.

[18] ‘Ballarat City Council’, Ballarat Star, 15 September 1891, p.4.; ‘The Visit of General Booth to Ballarat’, Ballarat Star, 3 October 1891, p.2.; ‘Registrar General’s Office’, Government Gazette, 18 January 1892, p.435.

[19] ‘The Marriage Acts’, South Australia Register, 23 February 1894, p.3.

[20] ‘Maori Salvation Meeting’, Narracoorte Herald, 25 February 1896, p.2.

[21] Horskins to Davys, letter, 16 March 1996.

[22] ‘The Salvation Army’, Advertiser, 20 April 1897, p.6.; ‘Salvation Army Rescue Demonstration’, Geelong Advertiser, 21 Jun 1897, p.3.

[23] ‘Salvation Army’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 1897, p.7.

[24] ‘The Salvation Army’, Brisbane Courier, p.3.

[25] Horskins to Davys, letter, 16 March 1996

[26] Ancestry, Passenger list Julius Horskins, ‘Inward passenger manifests for ships and aircraft arriving at Fremantle, Perth Airport and Western Australian outports from 1897-1963’, Series Number: K 269; Reel Number: 62., National Archives of Australia; Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600. Accessed 8 June 2018.; Ancestry, Passenger list Julius Horskins, ‘Western Australia, Australia, Crew and Passenger Lists, 1852-1930’,  SRO of Western Australia; Albany Inwards from Freemantle 1873 -1929; Accession: 108; Item: 7; Roll: 93. Accessed 8 June 2018.; ‘The Salvation Army’, Otago Daily Times, 17 January 1903, p.8., ‘Commissioner M’Kie’s Visit’, Wanganui Chronicle, 3 April 1906, p.2.; ‘The Salvation Army’, New Zealand Herald, 5 March 1908, p.6.

[27] Horskins to Davys, letter, 16 March 1996.

[28] Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins, ‘Western Australia, Australia, Crew and Passenger Lists, 1852-1930’, SRO of Western Australia; Freemantle Outwards Sep 1900 - Dec 1915; Accession: 457; Item: 43; Roll: 148. Accessed 8 June 2018.

[29] ‘Salvation Army Congress’, Express and Telegraph, 23 March 1911, p.3.

[30] Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins.

[31] Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins.

[32] Who’s Who in Jamaica 1919, ‘Additional Careers’, http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/w/who19_10.htm, Accessed 8 June 2018.

[33] ‘Salvation Army’, Evening Post, 31 January 1920, p.7.

[34] Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins, ‘UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960’, Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Outwards Passenger Lists. BT27. Records of the Commercial, Companies, Labour, Railways and Statistics Departments. Records of the Board of Trade and of successor and related bodies. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England. Accessed 8 June 2018.; Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins, ‘UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960’, Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Class: BT26; Piece: 687. The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England; Accessed 8 June 2018.; Ancestry, Passenger list Julius Horskins, ‘New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963’,Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1903-1945; NAI Number: 4492741; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85, The National Archives at Washington, D.C. Accessed 8 June 2018.

[35] Ancestry, Passenger list for Julius Horskins.

[36] ‘Salvation Army’, Evening Post, 11 January 1929, p.3.; Salvation Army’, Evening Post, 15 April 1929, p.5.

[37] ‘A Salvation Army Veteran’, Press, 22 April 1929, p.2.

[38] ‘Obituary’, Weekly Times, 3 October 1931, p.8.; ‘Obituary’, Argus, 19 May 1949, p.5.

#52Stories, Week 35, What future destinations are on your vacation wish list ? Which of them do you truly believe you will see in your lifetime ?

England – all the unexplored spots and all the special places to return to

Ireland

Scotland – refer England

Wales – as above

USA – only seen 4 States, so plenty more to see there and in different seasons too

Germany,

France,

Italy,

Belgium

Netherlands,

Switzerland,

Greece,

Sweden,

Norway,

Iceland

Canada

Australia – still 2 States and a Territory to tick off the list

Fiji – it is a l-o-n-g time since I was there

Perhaps India, Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan in the spring…

I would like to think I could see half of them, but I think with careful planning and time management I might be able to see them all.

#52Stories, Week 34, What was the longest continuous vacation of your life ? How long were you gone ? Do you remember how much it cost ?

Well.

This would have to be the UK trip in 2014. It wasn’t going to be a vacation. It was intended to be a whole new life plan – for two years, maybe more. But ! Sometimes things just don’t turn out how you think.

Not sure what went wrong, probably planning and bad communication, different expectations – and all that. Nevertheless, we had a 3 month vacation in the end.

We explored almost every nook and cranny on that island. Coming from our own island nation we got a little thrill each time we crossed a border from England to Wales or Scotland to England. It just seemed so weird – no planes involved and no passports either. So unlike things on this end of the planet.

We met family members – some we had never met before. We explored villages and hamlets and churchyards and stepped in the footsteps of our forebears.

There weren’t many places we visited which we would not return to; and there were plenty we missed which are being saved for a return visit. One day.

Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Wiltshire, Powys, Montgomeryshire, Flintshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire, Essex, Berkshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Kent, Monmouthshire, Denbighshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Glamorgan, Leicestershire, Suffolk, Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Argyllshire, Inverness-shire, Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire, Dumfriesshire, Peeblesshire, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland…some we just drove through, others we lingered for longer. Even more we wished we had had a better plan.

Still, we made some great memories and now there is the goal to get back and revisit, rediscover and just explore.