Isabella was the first child of Mary and Thomas, born about 1864 (birth certificate number 1864/7778) in the Kaipara area.

Isabella Russell in later life.

Not much is known of her childhood or early life but we could assume it was much the same as children at that time.

She married Tika (Richard) Maynard in 1890 (marriage certificate number 1890/2138) at the age of about 23. The surname of Johnson appears on the marriage certificate.

I am not sure if Isabella or Richard knew that they were related, sharing the same Grandfather (John James Stanaway), or it may be how they met in the first place. The relationship though is legal.

They had three children Charles Sydney (1891), Lionel Richard (1893/4) and Mary Lenore (Girlie) (1896).

Richard dies in January 1897 of typhoid fever aged 29, leaving Isabella with three young children, after only 7 years of marriage.

In 1899 Isabella marries Frederick Mitchell Stanaway at the Registrar’s Office in Dargaville (Certificate number 1899/443).

Not only does Frederick take on Isabella’s first three children, Frederick and Isabella go on to have six children of their own, Frederick Edmond (1899/5046), William Henry (1901/3211), Harold Vane (1902/13357), Irene Mavis (1904/5533), Ida Maude (1906/8699) and Freda Edna (1908/12578).

Again I am not sure if Isabella or Frederick knew that they were related, again sharing the same Grandfather (John James Stanaway), or it may be how they met in the first place. The relationship again is legal.

Isabella lives in Aratapu up until about 1920, when they move to Ponsonby in Auckland.

On 15 August 1920 Frederick dies of Pneumonia – suffering for about 5 days followed by cardiac failure, at the Auckland Hospital, another victim of the “Spanish flue”.

We have no information on Isabella and her life other than she remains in Auckland and does not remarry.

Isabella passes away on 4 December 1948 aged 85. She is buried in the Waikaraka Cemetery in Area 5 Block A lot number 843. (The cemetery records state her age as 82, but the birth was only listed as “about”).

Isabella’s plot at Waikaraka Cemetery.