The Brehaut-Rutherford Extended Family
We're so pleased you dropped in to visit us.
This site focuses on the family created from the marriage of Judd Brehaut (1915 – 1980) and Betty Rutherford (1919 – 2013). Here we intend to catalog and present all of the existing family documentation preserved by Judd and Betty as well as the results of our own research. The line goes forward as well as back, for one day our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be where we are today. This is for them.
Some of what we present here will seem like trivia, may even be trivial, but what we might think of as trivia today might well be the insight into our lives that someone in a future generation treasures beyond measure.
Be a part of the journey: not only keep visiting, but if you have anything to share, please contribute.
About 8-10 generations ago, in 1806, our paternal ancestors emigrated to Canada from Guernsey, Channel Islands. While we are still not a large family, the descendants of this original family are now spread all over Canada (and the United States, perhaps even Australia). And we are dispersed to the extent that we no longer even know, or know of, all the members carrying our name, let alone those who through female descent may have had to give up the name but never gave up belonging.
Henry Brehaut, the father of the family, was a cooper in St. Peter Port, the main city there. In February 1806, he sold his business and, with his family, sailed on the Neptune to take up farming on Prince Edward Island, on a homestead near Guernsey Cove.
On the other side, Betty Rutherford came to Canada with her family when she was twelve years old, in 1931. Her father, Ernest Rutherford, had requested a transfer to Canada, where he had been briefly twice before. They settled in Montreal where he joined the head office of the Bank of Montreal.
We are a well-established Canadian family as well as primarily first and second generation Canadians. From this we can understand both perspectives. We hope to bring this inclusiveness to what we present here.
Our family seems to have been blessed (or encumbered) with a sense of history. Judd was always curious about the earliest instances of the name, even finding reference to a Brehaut de l'Isle in the early 1700s Quebec. Betty was a voracious hoarder of memorabilia, so we have boxes of school report cards, greeting cards from Judd, awards and recognitions of all sorts. We too hold on to much trivia, which is only to be expected for the generation that came up with the many versions of Trivial Pursuit! Will future generations hold on to such things? We can only hope.
It has been said that the generation born in the late nineteenth century has experienced the most change. But the pace of change has accelerated today and what life was like in the mid to late twentieth century and early twenty-first century may also be a different world to those who come after us.
We've given ourselves two challenges with this site then. Not only do we want to compile as much of the history of our family, learning as much as we can about how previous generations fared or lived (our histories), we also want to preserve for our grandchildren and great grandchildren what our lives have been like, something like oral histories (our stories). In other words, our memories of our lives will be history for our grandchildren. And so on down the generations. So we encourage everyone in our family to contribute documents, photos, memories and thoughts about your parents and grandparents, yourself and your children, even of siblings or other relatives -- every little tidbit helps to make the family experience, the family history, come alive and preserve an understanding of a way of life that may not last.
There are a few different types of information on this site and it may not be easy to find what you are...
Quick links to lists of our "oral histories" collected by families. We start with our common family of origin, the family of Judd and Betty, where our common memories are shared. Here we learn more about what life was like in the "good old days", that is, the two decades between the mid-1940s and the mid-1960s. The following links take up the story at that point and introduce you to the life that each of Judd and Betty's children have experienced, where they and/or their own family members share stories of their lives or their more individual reminiscences intended for future generations.
Write us about any of the content on our site or simply with your experience using our site. We appreciate all comments, but may not reply.
Any letters to the editor with new information or a different perspective on one of our stories, documents or photos, may be posted on our letters page with links to the appropriate story or document.
Please Note: Letters to the Editor, if posted on this site, are public by default. We respect all requests to not share letters or designated portions of letters. We reserve the right to edit letters we share for length and relevance.
...in our family tree so far!
We are always looking for new information, but we are careful about documenting the research to be presented here. If you have something to contribute, whether a document, a photo, or a story, please contact the editors. --- Jon
