Thankful Thursday - Two heads are better than one

I am extremely thankful for my family members who are fellow researchers.  


Not that they have two heads of course.


It is so rewarding when two heads (or more) get together and solve a family mystery.


I am very lucky to have a few wonderful rellies who I can research with, toss ideas around with, argue with,  ask questions of and they all have their own areas of expertise.


Some are "Google masters"


Some have that "gut feeling" about a person we are researching and that gut feeling is nearly always right.


Some can find a story or document in the most improbable places.


Some can decipher the most illegible scribblings on documents


Some know instinctively when "that photo" was taken or can assess every aspect of a photo and give it a very accurate date within a year or two.


Some are great with dates and others can tell an awesome story.


I am also extremely thankful for the family historians who have gone before me and done such a power of research.


Building on the information already found is one hugely rewarding aspect of family history.


One example of this sort of teamwork that really sticks in my mind was the finding of information for my Great Grand Uncle, George Adams junior.


Christine is my fellow family researcher of the Adams line and we only had a birth year for George jnr. 


He was born in North Melbourne in 1856; the second child and first born son of George Adams and Catherine nee Barry.


From his father's death certificate in 1921 we knew he was already deceased and wondered how he had died so young.


Anyone who has ever tried to find information on a George Adams in Australia will know that you first of all have to claw your way past all the TATTERSALLS information!


I had gone through the Vic BMD indexes endless times searching for Geo Adams deaths in those years.  We left it, deciding he would show up one day somehow.  Every so often it was re-visited.


Christine was searching the newspaper archives and found an article about the death of a young labourer named George Adams.  This death took place at Dookie, way North of where they lived at the time.  We just sat on that for ages.  Then one day I decided out of the blue, as I do, to have another search through the Vic Indexes.  I narrowed down date, ages etc and was left with only a couple of Adams that could fit.  
Interestingly one of these was a Page Adams.  Weird name!   With father George and mother Catherine.  

Death certificate for Page Adams

The date of this death registration was the same year as an Inquest was held for a George Adams.  1876 not only tied in with how old our George jnr would be but it also tied in with the newspaper article that Christine had found ages ago.

From The Melbourne Argus 18th January 1876

With team work we had found our George junior.   A relative we could relate to as being a fun loving Aussie Larrikin.  I would love to have known him.


Now we just have to find his brother DAVID ADAMS ............ arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!