Studying a diary which was written in 1884 has brought Dunedin teacher and researcher Deirdre Cooper closer to her then 14-year-old great-great- grandmother Julia Blackwood.
Mrs Cooper has not only spent a year carefully studying the diary, but has also written a book, titled Plymouth to Port Chalmers and published early this year, which includes the diary of Mrs Blackwood (nee Edmonds). Mrs Cooper said the "beautiful hand-written diary" had been written in 1884, as Mrs Blackwood travelled aboard the sailing ship Victory from Plymouth, England, to Wellington, New Zealand, as she migrated with family members.
The diary entries discussed the trip from London’s East End, where Mrs Blackwood grew up, down to barracks at Plymouth, and travelling by tender to the ship.
It tells of arriving in Wellington, and later travelling via Christchurch to Port Chalmers. The 42-page diary had been misplaced for some time, but, as "something of a researcher and writer", she decided "this was too valuable not to do some thing with for posterity", Mrs Cooper said.
Although Mrs Blackwood had lived in Dunedin, she provided an Otago family connection with the "sure to rise" Edmonds extended family, well- known for its baking links.
Julia Ann Elizabeth Edmonds, the daughter of Henry Alfred Edmonds and Fanny Duke, was born on May 30, 1870, in London’s East End, and died on May 6, 1946, at the age of 75, in Dunedin Hospital.
Mrs Blackwood had helped run a large grocery and bakery store owned by her husband, William Blackwood, in upper Caversham, Mrs Cooper said.
Studying Mrs Blackwood’s diary had brought her closer to her great-great-grandmother, and had also reinforced the importance of Dunedin and Otago geography in her own life.
"That feeling of geography is probably more important to me now."
Mrs Blackwood had contributed strongly to the life of her family and of Caversham, and, like the relatives of other people still living in the city, had also contributed to the later continuing success of Dunedin, she said.
