Family legends that turn out to be nonsense

[LizzieW]

My Mum, the only one in her mostly red-headed family to be born with jet black hair, was told she must have inherited her hair colour from her Spanish ggg-grandmother.   (This is one of the reasons I started researching my family history.)   Well, the Spanish grandmother turned out to be an Italian great-grandfather - a rogue who fathered her grandmother out of wedlock!  I would never have found him if she hadn’t helpfully named him on her marriage certificate.
   
He was one of my more interesting ancestors.  After arriving in England as a mariner, he became a boarding house keeper, then a pawnbroker, and finally a ship owner, who had amassed a fortune by the time of his death at age 91, outliving three wives - and at least one mistress.
 
It goes to show that these family stories are worth checking out!

Arkay

There isn't a Wright or a Da Costa amongst that lot is there?  The story is very similar to mine, but for the life of me I can't find anything out about g.grandfather.

[LizzieW]

Another story was that one of my 2 x g.grandfather's drank all his wife's fortune and then died.  The story goes that the eldest children all had private education (we're talking first half of 1800s here) but after his drinking away the money, the other children didn't get a good education which was why the first children spoke very well, and the others didn't. 

Well he did die of Congestive apoplexy caused by excessive drinking, so that part's correct, but there is no suggestion some of his children were privately educated.  I think what is more probable, is that the first 4 children who were born in London and Hampshire, spoke with a southern accent and although the others were born in Leicester, they were very young when their father died, so when the family moved to Manchester, the young ones picked up a northern accent.  So to northern cousins the older children would have sounded "posh".

[arkay]

No, sorry Lizzie - Mine were Benussi and Evans.

[Roecoyle]

My granny Maggie McKay was orphaned by the time she was 5 years old and family
legend has her mother and father being killed in a horse and trap accident and
Maggie being raised by a bishop in Ilse of Sky or Avoc in the Black Ilse, on checking
records it transpires that her father William died in 1887 with a medical condition
and her mother Ann died in 1888 also with  a medical condition and Maggie being
raised by an old lady called Ann Smith in New Pitsligo Aberdeen.!
It makes me wonder where these stories originate from.

[snaptoo]

Like "snap" best, if that's OK for the future? 
Great username, either way 
(By the way, have ancestors from Weston-super-Mare, around 1900-1920, maybe we should compare notes?!)

HI Mrs T! Sorry, I forgot all about this thread until yesterday then, when I had almost finished typing reply my internet went down

snap is fine by me, the only one that I do not like is snappy but I will answer to anything else - within reason of course My user name comes from my love of photography!

snaptoo

[HughC]

Nonsense? 
There's often a grain of truth somewhere, but it can take some finding.

My GGGGmother was an Abbott, and it was handed down in several branches of the family that the first member of that family in Ireland was a brother of George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, who was sent to Dublin as Master of the Rolls.

My father's cousin investigated and found that no Abbot(t) has ever held that office.  She did find John Abbott, brewer and steward to the Inns of Court.  A master at rolling the barrels, perhaps?  I can imagine someone saying "your grandpapa had something to do with the law courts"; the story was then embellished with every retelling, John rising rapidly through the ranks until he reached the highest legal office in the land.

More recently I discovered there was a George Abbott brewery in Canterbury.  So it seems likely John was just carrying on the family business.  From "brewer, of Canterbury" to "Archbishop of Canterbury" is but a small step for a determined myth-maker.

[coombs]

I had a weightlifter in my family. Told by nan. Have never found such a fact.

[Marmalady]

My gran told several stories that turned out not to be true:

Story: Her father went out to China with the Sassoon family and was vet to the Imperial stables
Fact: Her father did go to China and was a vet. No connection found to the Sassoon family and certainly no connection to the Imperial stables which would have been in Peking not Shanghai where he was.

Story: He came in from work one day, and suddenly dropped down dead while ringing the bell for tea.
Fact: He came in drunk from work, had a row with his wife about his drinking & gambling habits, drank a bottle of poison - and then dropped down dead.

Story: On their return to England they lived in a big house where they often entertained the local Army Officers
Fact: On their return to England her mother helped out in the family pub next to the Army Barracks

[Hanford]

I was always told my great great grandfather either built or designed Kennington Oval and for his efforts he was invited for tea with the Duchy of Cornwall and had a walk around the gardens with the King.... 
He didn't  ... He built houses for the poor in Kensington, and as for the rest, probably not true either! Still, I like to believe it is 

His son was apparently Lord Mayor of Lambeth, but after asking the council to look into it they found no record of him at all