Amelia (known as Milly) was the second daughter of Robert and Rose Adams. Rose’s parents were Edmund and Mary Ann Perrin who arrived in Wellington on the ‘Martha Ridgway’ in 1840.
In 1888 when she was 13, Amelia’s father died suddenly from a ruptured heart while on duty working as a warden at Wellington Hospital. Her mother was left a widow with eight children and twin sons born just a week after her husband’s death.
Amelia married James Thomas Kibblewhite in 1896 at Danniverke. James was from a pioneer family from the Wairarapa where his father was a well-known building contractor. Their children were Doris born 1896, Robert born 1898, James and Oswald born 1899.
Amelia died at her home in Beach Street Petone in November 1902. She was 27 years old. There was no death or funeral notice for Amelia. Her burial record entry and headstone are spelt ‘Kebblewhite’.
James remarried the following year to Lucy Short, perhaps out of practical necessity with four small children. He was widowed again in 1918. James died in 1945 and is buried at Taita Cemetery.
The headstone appears to have been arranged by Amelia’s mother Rose. Rose died in 1935 aged 85 at Palmerston North.
Plot: *Public/M/38
By Julia Kennedy.
