#G4 GRAY, Joseph Albert and #G5 PUBLICOVER, Ada Mary
Joseph and Ada Gray
50th Wedding Anniversary (1934)
Joseph Albert Gray (AFN:47QT:7J)*
Born: 8 Feb 1858 in Sambro, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Died: 5 Jul 1946 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
Father: Josiah John GRAY #G8 (16 Jul 1813-31 Jul 1876).
Mother: Catharine SMITH #G9 (7 Nov 1817-?).
Married: 9 Sep 1884 in Blandford, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to Ada Mary PUBLICOVER
(1 May 1861-17 Apr 1950) #G5. They had seven children.
Ada Mary Publicover (AFN:47QT-9P)*
Born: 1 May 1861 in Blandford, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Died: 17 Apr 1950 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Buried: Inglewood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Father: James PUBLICOVER #G10 (6 Jul 1829-1911)
Mother: Louisa Elizabeth DORE #G11 (7Apr
1834-abt 1915)
Children:
1. Owen St. Clair GRAY (24 Aug 1885-?), m 14 Feb 1909 Margaret LITTLE.
2. Clement Wilbur GRAY (11 Aug 1886-16 May 1963), m 30 Jun 1927 Florence Ellen RUSSELL; m
5 Apr 1961 Ida May MILBURY.
3. Herbert Lesly GRAY (22 Aug 1888-?), m 3 Aug 1921 Dorothy STUBBS.
4. Lillian Ada Frances GRAY (11 Dec 1890-18 Mar 1936), m 14 Sep 1921 Arthur Edwin
MITCHELL.
5. Olive Catherine Louise GRAY (30 Aug 1892-abt 1980), m 27 Sep 1948 William Aloysius
BRYNE.
*6. Firman Carleton GRAY #G2 (29 Sep 1897-15 Aug 1982), m 25 Dec 1923
to Helen Esther BUNGARD #G3.
7. Helen Marjorie GRAY (17 May 1903-19 Mar 1974), m 31 May 1954 Carl A. BENSON.
* indicates direct line to Wallace F. Gray.
To locate person on Internet by AFN (Ancestral File Number): Go to http://familysearch.org and click Custom Search. Click Ancestral File. Scroll down to AFN. Type in the Ancestral File Number. Click Search.
Photo was taken when family was in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. From top: Herb, Clem, Owen,
Helen, Ada (mother), Lillian, Joseph (father),
Firman (on Joseph's lap), and Olive.
See photo below and family photo.
Joseph and one of his brothers owned the first lobster cannery in Nova Scotia. Great grandson Larry Gray visited Sambro in 1976 and met a lady who had worked for Joseph. She recalled how she went to "Joe’s house" once a week to get paid. It is not known if this was the same cannery as the one advertised in the Sambro Business Directory in 1865: "Hamblan, Baker & Co. Cannery as Dealers in Hermetically Sealed Oysters, lobsters, Beef, Poultry, Preserves, &c; also Fish of various kinds." It seems likely that it is because Joseph probably owned his cannery beginning in 1878 when he was 30 and he and his brother could have purchased the existing cannery.
Around 1903 the cannery was sold for an apparently good profit because Joseph’s son Firman [C. Gray] says that his father did not have to work much after that time. The family first moved to Halifax then to Vancouver, British Columbia. Joseph built some houses (in Kitsilina), ran a grocery store (in Fairview) and operated a boarding house (in Vancouver) to supplement the income from the sale of the cannery.
In the fall of 1921, Joseph, Ada and Firman moved to California. Joseph and Ada lived
at 7315 South Hobart St. in Los Angeles at the time I knew them. I always remember my
grandfather with a cane. He and Grandmother would drive to see us in Santa Monica and
Topanga. In 1936 my mother and father and I took a trip with Joseph and Ada to see the new
bridges in San Francisco.
It was a custom in our family for Joseph and Ada and my aunts Olive and
Helen along with my Aunt Lillian, Uncle Michael and their children to come to our house in
Santa Monica for Thanksgiving dinner. On Christmas afternoon those same families would
gather at Joseph and Ada's house in Los Angeles.
Other Information:
See Chapter One of Tres Robles: The Story of Firman and
Helen Gray.
Sources:
1. Birth dates and marriages of parents and children were listed in a
family Bible kept, mostly, by Joseph. I have personally recorded the dates and have the
copies on file.
2. Joseph’s birth date is also recorded in Public Archives of Nova
Scotia records of the Brunswick Street United Church Records, Book 3, Baptism Entry #3566.
Some information is based on interviews by my wife and myself with Firman C. Gray.
(Written by Wallace F. Gray)
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