My Paternal grandmother's family
My grandmother, Mavis was born in Botany Bay NSW in 1914. Her parents were Jessie McIntosh Simpson and Henry Gardiner. At the time of my grandmothers birth, Jessie was an unmarried woman who had a child to a married man, Henry. It was only a few months after her birth that Henry's wife gave birth to a boy, my grandmothers brother Cecil. There is little information I can find on Jessie, I in fact did not think she was relevant in my grandmothers life, there is no record of her besides a birth record and her name being listed on my grandmothers birth certificate. For some time I actually thought that my great great grandparents Isabella and Frederick Simpson were my grandmothers parents. I did see other trees stating that Jessie was, but I dismissed it as there was no evidence. That is till my cousin found our grandmothers birth certificate. Things started to fall into place.. there was no father listed. I said to my cousin that our grandmother has an unusual middle name of Gardiner, maybe that could be his last name... Then my DNA results come in. I had a match with a second cousin whose tree had the surname Gardiner. I checked it out and I thought I could safely assume that Henry Gardiner was the father of my grandmother. I have recently just found and have verified that Jessie left her daughter to be bought up by her parents and married a George Fletcher in 1918. I have found two census records with her and George living in King St Rockdale New South Wales. Mavis was brought up by her grandparents Isabella and Frederick, living in the Beauchamp house in Botany Bay until she met Aubrey Shearer and moved in with his family....