This Family Tree has, as its root, the union of Jeffrey James Bruer and Ada Kate Southouse Greene, and considers the growth and spread of their family within Australia.

However, there is another branch of Jeffrey's family with an Australian link . . . a link with a tragic and untimely ending.

Jeffrey's mother and father had at least two children: Jeffrey and Alice Emily. There may have been other children but to this date, no evidence of this has been found. Alice's branch of the tree was as follows:

JOSEPH BRUER Elizabeth Marianne Jones |
| JEFFREY JAMES 1855-1936 etc.		| ALICE EMILY 1864-1899 George Burgess 1860-1899 | DORA ALICE 1896-1899 STANLEY GEORGE 1897-1899 EDNA 1891 -1917 ALFREDA 1884 - 1958 m Reginald Watson

Alice and her parents arrived in Melbourne from England in October 1879 on board the "Afghan". They subsequently settled in the Adelaide suburb of York (near Kilkenny) where Alice eventually married George Burgess and had four children.

In 1899 in circumstances unknown, George murdered Alice and their two youngest children and then cut his own throat. According to a police report the tragedy occurred during "a fit of temporary insanity".

It is believed Alice's mother, Elizabeth, was living in the residence at the time and was in another room with the older daughters Edna and Alfreda when the murders occurred. Elizabeth was 99 years of age when she died in 1922.