Marie Francoise Adelaide Serane

Marie Francoise Adelaide Serane, known as Adele, was the mother of Margaret Anne Moore, who married Donald Charles Cameron. This couple were the parents of Elizabeth Patricia Cameron, who married William Justin Beauchamp Cameron.

Adele was born in Guadeloupe in 1798, to French parents. According to family legend, she eloped from a convent in 1815, aged 17, to marry Peter Moore, an Irish/Dutch adventurer. Following is an extract from the Registre Public of the Isle of St Martin, where the marriage took place:

19 juin 1815. The marriage was celebrated between Peter Moore, the son of William Moore and Adrienne Heyliger his wife, both of the Island of St Eustacie, and Marie Francoise Adelaide Serane, daughter of the Sieur Joseph Serane and Henriette Bruce of the Island of Guadeloupe.

According to family records, there were nine children of the marriage: 1. Harriet Adriana, who married in 1839 Ewen Philip Cameron, medical degree from Edinburgh, a doctor in Berbice, British Guiana, and died at Talisker, Isle of Skye in 1862, 2. Eliza, who married Charles Sherlock in 1844 and moved to England, 3. William Henry, who died unmarried, 4. Margaret Anne, born 1819, who married on 8 May 1844 Donald Charles Cameron, Ewen's brother, 5. Jane, who died in infancy, 6. Maria Patricia, who married Robert H Bridges in 1846 and moved to England, 7. Philip, who died unmarried, 8. Seranette, who married an Adams, 9. a son who died in infancy.

Adele's husband died while on an exploring trip in the South American jungle, apparently before the marriage of Harriet and Ewen. In the late 1840s she moved to England, where she is found on the 1851 census living in Liverpool with her daughter, Eliza Sherlock, and Eliza's four children, Evan, Adele, James and Charles. It appears that Eliza may have been widowed at this stage, and it is possible that Adele moved to England to help her daughter, left with four young children. Eliza may even have been ill and thus desperately in need of help, for it seems likely that she died in the 1850s.

In 1861, Adele was a boarder in a house in St Pancras, London, and is shown as "house proprietor, Guadeloupe". The head of the household and two other members were Bridges, sisters and a brother of her son-in-law Robert H Bridges. With her were three of her Sherlock grandchildren, Adele, Charles and Eliza, and a relative Adriana Hagart, described as "fund holder, Berbice, West Indies". Adriana was Adele's cousin, a daughter of Peter Moore's sister Ann Patricia Moore and Robert Hagart, a merchant in the West Indies. Robert seems to have been Scottish, as towards the end of his life he returned to live in Edinburgh with his family. Following her parents' deaths, Adriana came to live with her cousin in London: she was still with her in 1871 and 1881.

In 1871, Adele was living in London as head of household. Living with her were her daughter Patricia Bridges (widowed) and grandsons Evan and Charles, and she had a number of visitors, including her daughter Seranette Adams, also widowed, described as "landed proprietress, West Indies".

In 1881, Adele was still in London, with her daughter Patricia Bridges still with her, and several boarders. The 1871 and 1881 households had servants, so Adele must have been reasonably well off.

Adele Moore died in Islington, London, in the April quarter of 1885, aged 87. Her daughter and companion Patricia later came to Australia, where she lived with her sister Margaret Anne Cameron, also by that stage widowed, at Margaret's home "Fairholme", in Toowoomba, Queensland.