(Kevin get’s Paternal Ancestors)
In 1985 Lorna Brady and her husband Alan
went on month’s tour of Europe and Great Britain. It had been a dream of Lorna’s to travel for
many years but a conversation way back in 1949 had cast doubts on the likelihood
of Lorna and Alan ever travelling overseas.
In June 1949 Lorna Powell was in the late
preparations for her wedding that was to occur on July 2nd. Her
fiancée, Alan Brady, work at the same company (Fauldings) as a storeman. In fact it was due to his constant visits to
the office area, where she worked, to “buy stamps” and repeatedly asking her
out on a date that had brought them together.
Now with less than a fortnight before the wedding ceremony all was in
place and arranged.
One afternoon after work Alan started a
conversation. He stated that they could
not get married. Lorna was
devastated. Alan said that it was due to
the fact that his name really wasn’t Alan Brady. He said that he had run away from home when
young and changed his name. He was
worried that when they would go to visit the minister to sign the papers prior
to marrying that all this would come out and they would not be allowed to
marry.
Alan told Lorna that he was born
illegitimate and that although his parents married later, he had had a very
rough childhood and ran away from home when he was 13 and had changed his name
so that they, his family, could not find him.
Lorna sat there listening to Alan tell her
about his childhood and she made a decision. She wanted to marry Alan Brady and nothing was
going to stop her. She told Alan that
when the minister asks Alan his father’s name, he was only to say the Christian
names.
On June 29th, 3 days before they
were to be married Alan and Lorna went to the presbytery of St. Andrew’s Church
in Sans Souci to sign the marriage declaration.
The minster asked Alan what his name was, and he replied Alan
Brady. The minister then asked if he had
a middle name and Alan replied Louis.
This was true, but Alan had not used it nearly 15 years. The minister then asked what his father’s
names were and Alan replied, Theodore William.
The minister recorded on the declaration, Theodore William Brady. He then asked Alan what his mother’s name
was, and Alan replied Mary Agatha Price.
The minister asked if his parents were alive Alan honestly stated they
were deceased.
After Lorna gave her details both her and
Alan signed the declaration. Lorna afterwards
told Alan they had not lied, as the minister had not asked what Alan what his
father’s surname was.
3 days later they were married.
July 2, 1949
Now that they were married Lorna decided
that Alan needed to legally change his name to Alan Brady. Alan had told her his name was Frank, and he
had been known as Frank Vetter, but that he thought his mum’s maiden name was
Price. And this would have been the name he had at birth. Lorna wrote off to the South Australian
Births, Deaths & Marriages registry asking for a copy of the birth of Frank
Louis Price, son of Mary Agatha Price.
She got a return letter stating there was no such birth recorded.
Lorna now decided that they didn’t need to
worry about legally changing Alan’s name, as they now had two pieces of paper
stating he was Alan Brady, their marriage certificate and Alan’s discharge
papers from the army. There were more
important things like starting a family.
Around 1975 Alan received a letter from the
Red Cross stating that someone was trying to contact him. This person stated they had lost contact with
Alan during the war. It was Alan’s
sister Mary. Alan had last had contact
with Mary during the war when his father had died in 1943.
When Mary and her husband visited Alan and
Lorna at their home in Greenacre one of the first things they asked her was,
what was Alan’s mother’s name? Mary told
them it was Mary May Brice.
The dream of going overseas had been
Lorna’s for some time and by the early 1980’s it was now within sight – her
children were all married, and she was soon to make the final payment on their
home loan.
Lorna now started to put in place the
groundwork for her going overseas. Alan
and her needed passports, and to get passports you needed birth certificates.
Hers would be easily obtained but Alan’s
would show the different name. Lorna again wrote away to the South Australian
Births, Deaths and Marriages for a birth certificate for a Frank Louis Brice. What came back was a birth certificate for
Lewis Frank Brice, born October 22, 1916 in Flinders Street, Kenttown, South
Australia.
Lorna now decided that Alan needed to
legally change his name. On July 6, 1982
Lorna and Alan went into Sydney to the Registrar-General’s office. Alan was to make a Statuary Declaration stating
that he had been using the name of Alan Brady since the 1930’s. He had to say in the declaration that he
abandon his birth name and he assumed the name of Alan Louis Brady, and this
was to be used for “myself, my wife and issue”.
Alan had to sign the declaration in both
names, once as A L Brady and once as L F Brice.
Most likely the only time the two names were ever listed together.
There was one witness to the declaration –
Lorna! In fact the original document,
stamped and sealed by the Registrar-General’s Office is completely in Lorna’s
handwriting.
With the Statuary Declaration and Alan’s
Birth Certificate in her hand Lorna now had all the paper work needed to get
Alan a passport.
On April 30th, 1985 Alan
recorded the following:-
We
arrived at Heathrow Airport about 7-15 in the morning. We were advised to wait until most of the
passengers got off the plane. The plane
crew managed to get me a wheel chair and in it we reached the custom area
nearly ½ mile where we got of the plane.
We sailed through customs and picked up our cases without being looked at
and on a special air bus for London in a couple of minutes. The trip took about ½ hour and we arrived at
the Royal Kensington Hotel and settled in.
I was tired with Jet Lag. But
Lorna a genuine Tourist decided to hop on a bus and see London town straight
away.
When Lorna, my mum, made a decision to do
something, there was really nothing that would stop her from achieving it. Alan, my dad, on the other hand was more of an
“if happens it happens, if it doesn’t it doesn’t” type of guy. But their love for one another was incredibly
strong and got them through many trials during their life together and this one
I’ve just describe is a perfect example, it was always the two of them
together, no matter what!
Sydney
Airport April 29, 1985
A postscript to this story:- in 1983 on a visit to Sydney I went to the
Registrar-General’s Office to look for Certificate of Titles on some of my ancestor's properties. I walked in to the
building and asked the lady at reception where I could look up the
indexes. She pointed me towards a row of
filing draws. Unfortunately she had made
a mistake and sent me across to the general indexes. I looked for "Brady, Kevin" and could not find
anything. I then looked for "Brady, Alan" and I found the reference for Dad’s Statuary Declaration of three years
before. I’ve been on a journey of
researching my father’s family ever since and I thank mum daily, for if it
wasn’t for her wish to go overseas I would never have known about my father’s
name and his ancestors.
Kevin R. Brady
August 23, 2014
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