Living in a material world: Hutt City Libraries Celebrates Te Marama Hītori ā-whānau | Family History Month:

Heritage resources are available for the public to access via the Heritage Centre in Petone and through resources on the library website. Hutt City Libraries also hold a range of resources for those interested in researching their family and the history of Lower Hutt. For those interested in researching their family and the history of Lower Hutt, Libraries hold a range of resources including Ancestry.com, Find my past and The British Newspaper Archive.

As part of the Family History Month celebrations, War Memorial Neighbourhood Hub has a special piece of family heritage on display belonging to Lower Hutt resident and former librarian, Catherine Croucher.

The piece is a handmade quilt named ‘The quilt about Annie Fotheringham’ made from second-hand cotton clothing and new-bought cotton fabric. It’s hanging above the main desk on the ground floor of the War Memorial Neighbourhood Hub with a presence that’s hard to miss.

Catherine often makes quilts using text as a visual element, including poems, song lyrics and quotations. However, a poignant story discovered in the Ashburton Guardian newspaper from 1900 was the inspiration for this quilt. The elegant and empathetic writing in the article inspired Catherine to celebrate a surprise connection to her husband Patrick.

Fairfield resident Patrick Fotheringham (Catherine’s husband) became interested in family history when he inherited his family’s old photo albums. He got to grips with online family research tools, including those provided via his Hutt Libraries membership. Searching in the National Library database, he was both excited and saddened to find a newspaper story about his great-grandfather and family.

The text of the article found in the Ashburton Guardian newspaper via the eResource Papers Past (available through Hutt City Libraries) reads as follows:

The following further particulars are given by the Southland Times of Monday. Last Sunday afternoon a singularly painful fatality occurred at Woodstock, about a mile and a half from Dacre. Three children of Archibald Fotheringham, farmer, were playing around a waterhole about 5 feet in depth and 15 feet square, when a boy, six years of age, fell in. One of his sisters, eight years of age, ran to the house, a distance of about three chains, for help, and her father and Annie, aged sixteen, hurried to the spot. The latter, who reached it first, jumped into the water, crying to her brother, “Don’t drown, Johnny.” Mr. Fotheringham followed but stuck in the mud at the bottom, and his little daughter on the bank handed him a pole with which he could extricate himself. He then got the boy out, but in the meantime, Annie had sunk in the soft mud till nothing but her hair floating on the surface of the water was seen. Her father at once re-entered the water and brought her out, but life was extinct. The coroner did not deem an inquest necessary. Ashburton Guardian, vol. xxi, no. 5079, 2 April 1900 p.1

Patrick and his siblings had not known the sad story. But he did know the resourceful child who fetched the pole to aid in the rescue as his late Great-Aunt Peg. One day when Patrick was at the Naenae Post Office, the person behind the counter asked him if he was related to a Marist father Fotheringham who served many years in Samoa. Indeed, he is related. The priest was John Fotheringham - the Johnny in the story who was rescued by his father.

When asked how she feels about having her family heritage inspired quilt hanging in her prior workplace, Catherine says, it’s interesting to have something essentially private displayed in such a public place, “more public even than a quilt exhibition”.

“By private I mean both the Fotheringham family story but also the relatively intimate use for which a quilt is intended – someone will probably sleep under it eventually.

“For me as a retired reference librarian, it’s very pleasing that the quilt illustrates the value of family history research. Well done to my old library school friend Ruth Harland, current War Memorial Library employee, for making the connection and asking to borrow it!”

Catherine also noted she was grateful that her husband Patrick agreed to her putting his family story to good use.

Hutt City Libraries has a Heritage Centre located in the Petone Neighbourhood Hub. Specialist staff are available to assist with local and family history enquiries. Contact Petone Library or email heritage@huttcity.govt.nz