Knowing Theodore

When I was about 13 I started becoming interested in my family history. I had 2 grandparents, Grandfather and Grandma, who were my mum's parents. There was never any mention of my dad's parents. They were dead, had died many years before I was born. According to my parents wedding certificate, their names were Theodore William Brady and Mary Agatha Price.

Tracing my mum's family was simple, my grandfather provided initial names, and with that I went off and discovered so much, 6 convicts ancestors, upstanding citizens in Newcastle, Mittagong, Berrima & Young. Leaders of the community.

My maternal grandfather said one thing to me, "be careful of what you go looking for you might not like what you find". I told my mother this and she said that it was nothing.

My dad was born in Adelaide, so knowing his date of birth and the names of his parents I wrote of to the South Australia Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, for his birth certificate. I got back a "No Record". This didn't stop me, so I wrote off for a marriage certificate of a Theodore William Brady and Mary Agatha Price, "No Record."

I gave up, and continued with my mum's family for the next few years.

In 1975 my dad was contacted by the Red Cross. They had a letter from someone trying to get in contact with him. It was his sister Mary, who he said he had not seen since before the war.

Contact was made, and Mary and her husband, Bob Morris, visited our home at Greenacre, but none of us children met them then.

Knowing I now had an aunty, I decided to write for her birth certificate. The reply was again "No record."

My interest in family history fell away and I left it all packed under my bed.

By 1984 I was now married and the father of 2, and had just bought a house in Casino. I wanted to know who owned the house and how old it was, so on a visit to Sydney that year I went into the Registrar-General's Office in Sydney to look up the Title Deeds.

I was sent to the wrong indexes and did not find my title deed, but there was a reference there that caught my eye.

Brady, Alan Louis - see Brice, Lewis Frank.

There were no other details, just a reference number. I quickly went and asked to view the document.

It was a statuary declaration dated July 6, 1982 saying that since 1930 dad had been using the name Alan Louis Brady, but that his actual birth name was Lewis Frank Brice.

I immediately wrote of to get his birth certificate and at last a certificate was returned.

It stated that his mother's name was May May Brice and that the father's name was unknown. The informant was the matron of the hospital where he was born.

I then wrote off for dad's sister's certificate. A certificate was returned. Again mother Mary May Brice, father unknown.

There was a difference - the informant was T.W. Vetter, Employer.

This was my 1st connection with the man who 25 years later would finally be confirmed as my paternal grandfather.