New family photos

Recently I have had the excitement of new contact with the son of my Dad's first cousin, Grace Delbridge nee Adams.  

Warren replied to a message I posted 7 years ago on the genealogy forum rootschat.com where I had asked about any living descendants of my grandmother's eldest brother John "Jack" Adams.

Jack was the eldest living son of John Adams and Mary Agnes Morgan. 

Mary Morgan's parents had owned the original Cross Keys Hotel in Essendon.

My grandmother, Brenda Forsyth nee Adams, was the second youngest child of John Adams and Mary Agnes Morgan.

Jack Adams and May McGee married in 1915 at Ascot Vale, Victoria.

May Adams nee McGee

From the Australian records, I had found Jack Adam's birth in Sydney in 1889.   His marriage to May Maude McGee in Ascot Vale, Victoria in 1915, and his death in 1983 at Tullamarine, Victoria.

I was later able to find birth, marriage and death information for his 3 children but that was as far as I was able to go at that time.

Grace, born in 1915, was their first child and only daughter.
  Two years later her brother Morgan John Adams was born in 1917 and then in 1919 came their youngest brother Leonard.

Jack Adams was a woolworker and a storeman and the young family lived at Ascot Vale, then Flemington and later Brunswick West.  

Grace Francesca, Morgan John, and Leonard Adams. 

Otherwise known as Gugg, Apps or Apples and Woo.

Grace attended the Flemington Training school where she was one of the 5 best spellers.

Grace is front right in this photo

Morgan and Len 1934

Lenore Frost and Alex Bragiola worked on pinpointing the location of the school using the buildings in this photo.  Lenore has written about it in her post LITTLE ZION CHAPEL, FLEMINGTON

Grace Francesca Delbridge formerly Taylor nee Adams. 

In 1940 Grace married Geoffrey Francis Taylor who was very sadly killed in WW2 on the 14th of April 1941. It took Grace a long time to come to terms with his death. By 1943 Grace had moved to New South Wales, living at Cremorne and working as a textile worker. In 1947 Grace married Jack Albert Delbridge at Waverley in New South Wales. Jack was a RAAF Officer in the war. Jack Delbridge After the war, Jack was a real estate agent and they lived for many years at 15 O'Connell Street, Brighton -Le- Sands, which I think is now the suburb of Monterey. I am fairly sure this would be the house at 15 O'Connell Street. Image capture from Google street view 2017. Grace and Jack had two sons, Warren and Geoff. Morgan married Monica Gibbs. L-R Grace, May, Monica and Morgan. L - R Rona wife of Len,  Len Adams and Grace. Jack Adams died at Tullamarine in 1983 May Adams nee McGee died in Sydney in 1968. Grace Delbridge nee Adams died in 2009 I think at Narooma, New South Wales her husband Jack had predeceased her in 2000. Morgan John Adams died in Melbourne in 1996, his wife Monica in 1999. Leonard Adams died at Frankston in March 2010, his wife Rona just a couple of months later in June 2010. I can't thank Warren and Geoff enough for sharing the above photos with me.

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In memoriam - John "Jack" Adams

Today is the anniversary of the passing of my paternal grandmother's older brother John "Jack" Adams.

I don't think she knew her brother well as there were 16 years age difference and I think he had left home by the time she would have been old enough to have memories of him.

Back in 2012, I wrote about my search for Jack and the results on my blog post X is ..... An Unknown Quantity

Jack was born on the 9th of November 1889 at 21 Chippen Street, Chippendale, Sydney to parents John Adams and Mary Agnes nee Morgan.

He married May Maude McGee at Ascot Vale, Victoria in 1915.  

They had 3 children

Grace Francesca Adams (1915-2009)

Morgan John Adams (1917-1996)

Leonard Adams (1919-2010)

X is ..... An Unknown Quantity

and genealogy has so many unknown quantities.  

The main one that I have faced over the years is the Unknown quantity of what information I will get from Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates.

I'm sure every researcher has sat  pondering over an index entry saying to themselves  "is this him/her/them?"  "will I take the gamble?"

It happens to me all the time and  because I don't have spare cash to spend on too many certificates I have to weigh up heavily how much I really need this or that one, how much information it may give me or even if it is who I am looking for in the first place.  

In the excitement of the hunt it is not hard to get carried away but I'm a bit lucky in that I have only purchased one or two over the years that have not been "the one".


My Dad asked me about 6 years ago if, in the course of my research, I had ever come across his maternal Uncle.  
All he knew was that his name was Jack Adams and he was ten years older than my grandmother.  She had little memory of him as he had left home before she was  old enough to get to know him.

One day, sometime in the 1980s, Dad said his mother received a phone call saying her brother, who was in his 90s,  was in a Melbourne nursing home and not expected to live much longer.  Dad asked her if she wanted to go and see him.  She declined as she was told he had dementia so he wouldn't even know who she was and she didn't really know him anyway.  
Nana was in her 80s so it would have been a big trip to Melbourne for her.

So when Dad asked the question I decided to search the indexes for a John "Jack" Adams who would fit.  No search using his parents names showed any results.  The only John Adams who would fit died in 1983 at Tullamarine but had "parents unknown"  .............................. "will I  or won't I, will I or won't I?"

I put it on the back burner and procrastinated for 5 years before curiosity finally got the better of me!  I purchased the certificate and knew it was him even though parents were unknown.  Listed on the certificate was a son named Morgan Adams - obviously named after his own younger brother who had died in 1923 after returning ill from WW1.

That had me on a roll then.  The certificate gave me his wife's name (she had died earlier) so I then purchased their marriage certificate and his parents fitted!

The certificates also said he was born in Sydney.  Another unknown quantity!  Looking for a John Adams born in NSW to a John and Mary Adams I thought was a bit of a tall order.  But there was one!
Again I procrastinated until I found Marilyn Rowan's NSW transcription service   Marilyn has specials from time to time and a transcription was going to cost me less than half of the actual certificate so I went for it and again it was the correct one!  

I was able to piece together more of Jack's life once armed with names and dates.  I was thrilled.

So now I am searching for any living descendants of his children Grace Francesca, Morgan John and Leonard Adams.  Grace married a Geoffrey Taylor who died in WW2 then later a Jack Albert Delbridge in Sydney.

This post is my contribution to the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge issued by Alona of Gould's.

 My family history through the alphabet list