Biography

This little boy's father, George Anderson Adams, was born 15 May 1862 at Forfar, Angus, Scotland. He emigrated to Australia, arriving in Brisbane on 29 December 1883. He met and married Norah Regan in Cairns on 10 August 1889 (Marriage Registration 1889/C/329). She was baptised 29 November 1862 at Drinagh, County Cork, Ireland and is believed to have arrived in Queensland in the mid 1880s.

John James Jeremiah Adams was the youngest of their six children. The other children were Mary Isabella, born 22 October 1889 (Birth Registration 1889/C/11487); Catherine Anderson, born 3 March 1892 (Birth Registration 1892/C/2048); Grace, born 17 April 1895 (Birth Registration 1895/C/1813); Norah, born 21 May 1897 (Birth Registration 1897/C/1670); and Charles George, born 29 September 1900 (Birth Registration 1900/C/1823).

In April 1902 Norah filed a matrimonial petition for Judicial Separation in the Queensland Supreme Court . This occurred after she suffered a prolonged period of physical and verbal assault for which, on several occasions, George Adams was jailed.

It was reported that on 17 February 1899, that George Adams, on remand, was charged with assaulting his wife, Norah Adams, licensee of the Red-Lynch Hotel.  After Norah Adams and Constable O'Dea had given evidence of an assault of an aggravated nature, the presiding magistrate said that this was the third or fourth time that accused had been before the Bench on similar charges, and he would sentence him to six months' imprisonment in Townsville gaol with hard labor.

On 21 March 1903 Norah and her remaining five children (Charles George died 16 January 1902) left Cairns for Fremantle, arriving on the Paroo on 7 April 1903. From there they made their way to the prosperous gold mining town of Kookynie.

There is strong evidence to suggest that Norah had established a relationship with a Jeremiah Moran while still living in Redlynch, near Cairns. She and her children joined Jeremiah in Kookynie and from then on, she became known as Norah Moran. 

Sadly, on 6 October 1903, just 6 months after arriving in Kookynie, John James Jeremiah died. One of the witnesses to his burial was Jeremiah Moran and it is highly probable that he was the real father of the young John James Jeremiah. Records suggest that during the period that John was likely conceived, Moran was working in or around the Cairns area. Even more persuasive is the fact that during that period, police records show that George Adams was serving a 3-month prison sentence.

The little boy died of a quite unusual ailment called dentition collapse, often called Facial Collapse, which is when the jaw bone begins to shrink after a tooth is lost. Chewing forces are transmitted down the teeth into the bone. The chewing forces stimulate and preserve bone levels. When teeth are missing the bone is no longer needed to support the teeth. Therefore, the bone will start to disappear.  The details of this little boy's case are not known but, given his age, the cause of death certainly seems unusual.

Jeremiah and Norah went on to have another child in 1905, also named John. The family lived in various mining locations in the Northern Goldfields, and at one stage they ran a boarding house in Desdemona. Jeremiah was killed in a mining accident on 18 June 1914, and Norah died in Perth on 20 July 1925. George Adams died in Innisfail, North Queensland on 24 April 1923.

John's older sister, Grace, died in 1908 and is buried in the Malcolm Cemetery at Lake Raeside, Shire of Leonora. John’s stepfather (or perhaps father), Jeremiah, is buried in the Malcolm Cemetery (Kookynie Road). Their stories also appear in this website.