A Russian Ballerina and a famous Swiss Family

[Muggins in Sussex]

John (Jack) Silas Rathbone (b. Sheffield 1878) emigrated to Nairobi after WW1

It is his wives that intrigue me - according to a transcription of his obituary (in which he is named as John Sylvanus Rathbone) his wives were:-

1. Emma Brenner "of the famous Swiss family",

2. Olga Alferova (marriage in 1950 in South Africa) "from a very old Russian family - A ballet dancer with the Russian ballet in Paris. She never returned to Russia after the revolution".

I'd love to find out more about these ladies.

Can anyone help, please?

Thanks

[kiterunner]

Did you post this up, Joan:
http://cousinconnect.com/d/a/112827

I can't see how you contact the person who posted it, if it's not you!

(It says Sylvanus rather than Syvanus, if that helps anyone searching)

[Muggins in Sussex]

It wasn't me Kite - but thank you very, very much :) - It's lovely to see the actual obit, rather than a transcription :) - I have corrected my spelling in earlier post.

I can't see how to contact the poster either :confused:

Edit - I think I can!!

[Muggins in Sussex]

I've managed to reply :) - although the original message was posted in 2006 so I won't hold my breath :d - the poster seems to be asking exactly the same question as me! - so I can't answer his/her query - but have offered to share two letters I have written by John from Nairobi in the 1950s.

Thank you again Kite - it is lovely to see the actual obit and a photo :)

[Merry]

2. Olga Alferova (marriage in 1950 in South Africa) "from a very old Russian family - A ballet dancer with the Russian ballet in Paris. She never returned to Russia after the revolution".


The above sounds very close to the sort of thing written about my ballet teacher in the 1940's....... "Madame X, a Russian refugee, has made her home in England having fled her homeland during the war" is how she is described in a school brochure in 1946. She always went by a Russian name, and gave people the impression she was born there in the 1890s. In actual fact she was born in Hampstead in 1906 and had a very English birth name! Having said that, her background was Jewish and it would seem her family mainly arrived in England about four generations before she was born and so I spuppose she was descended from Russian refugees (and Polish ones!). All the knowledge I had of her dancing career turned out to be correct, except that for only part of it did she use her Russian name; the rest of the time she used her real forename with a corrcption of her father's forname as a surname. All very difficult!

I'm not saying the story about Olga isn't true at all (I see she has the surname Jackson on one Ancestry tree!), but it's possible elements of it won't turn out to be as you expect, so you have to keep an open mind! (sound familiar??!)

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thanks Merry

I will be cautious!

The tree you found on ancestry may well be mine! :d I have been racking my brains all afternoon as to why I have her as Olga Jackson - I have no idea!:(

[kiterunner]

Aah, there is another John Rathbone in your tree who married an Olga Jackson - Jack John Whitman Rathbone born 1905. Does that help at all?

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thanks, Kite - ithink it may well help - guess I went wrong again - seems a bit strange having two Johns who married Olgas - I'll have another look

Edit - the first John married Rose Jackson, not Olga Jackson - no idea why I put Olga!

[Muggins in Sussex]

Ooh - just realized I had this e-mailed to me years ago - Jack and Olga!:)

Have attempted to erase children's faces in case they are still alive

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/djangocrystal/Jack20Rath__Olga2020Dorothy20Bor-7.jpg

[Merry]

Pity there's nothing on the incoming passenger lists for John and Olga (that I can see, anyway). I saw John and Emma arriving in Southampton from Kenya in 1932, but I guess you have seen that already.

Don't worry if you think Olga doesn't look like a ballet dancer - in the era she would have danced they were not looking for tall and willowy!

[Muggins in Sussex]

Pity there's nothing on the incoming passenger lists for John and Olga (that I can see, anyway). I saw John and Emma arriving in Southampton from Kenya in 1932, but I guess you have seen that already.

Don't worry if you think Olga doesn't look like a ballet dancer - in the era she would have danced they were not looking for tall and willowy!

Thanks for looking Merry :) I hadn't seen John and Emma, but I have only just started looking into this and can only access world Ancestry during my lunch hour at work - that's if I get a lunch hour! :(

I was told that Jack & Emma's two children were

--Alan RATHBONE d 16.12.1928 Kenya and
--Joseph RATHBONE
but have no idea how accurate that information is.

That is just what I was thinking about Olga LOL!! :d

Thank you

[Muggins in Sussex]

Oooh - I've just found this

http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/93/371/253


Looks like Alan's death

[Kit]

Accidentally shot himself or suicide. Either way not a good way to die.

[Muggins in Sussex]

Yes, very sad, Toni.

I am going to try to get the book out of the library as I have been told that John is mentioned in it too.