Author Topic: If it was possible to visit one ancestor tomorrow - would it be an easy choice?  (Read 7740 times)

Offline River Tyne Lass

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,472
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
If it was possible to time travel to meet just one ancestor or a family of ancestors - would it be an easy choice for you about who you would choose to visit?

Imagine if you could ask any questions and they would tell you the truth.

I would be torn between choosing one of two ancestors.  One would be my grt  x 2 Grandparents who were accused of murder in the mid 1800s.  They were acquitted on lack of sufficient evidence.  I would love to go back and ask if they had had any part in this or not.  However, I do really think they were innocent but would like to know for definite.

The other would be a great Grandmother - I would love to know who my unknown Great Grandfather was and more about what happened immediately in the years following the birth of her illegitimate daughter, - my Grandmother.

Conroy, Fitzpatrick, Watson, Miller, Davis/Davies, Brown, Senior, Dodds, Grieveson, Gamesby, Simpson, Rose, Gilboy, Malloy, Dalton, Young, Saint, Anderson, Allen, McKetterick, McCabe, Drummond, Parkinson, Armstrong, McCarroll, Innes, Marshall, Atkinson, Glendinning, Fenwick, Bonner

Offline jaybelnz

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,762
  • My Runaway Bride! Thanks to Paula Too!
    • View Profile
I would really love to meet my 4x Irish great grandfather, Henry Maxwell Mathews Esq. His wife was Saran Annie no-name!  I need to talk to him about his Sarah Annie and her family, as her maiden name doesn't appear ANYWHERE on any of the many records I have found about this family. I also need to ask him who his own parents were!

She was mother to another Sarah Annie Mathews, Phoebe Mathews, Richard Mathews, and John Gibbons Mathews (my 3rd G Grandfather, but is also not named on any of her children's marriage records!

I would also like to talk to Mary Jane Fleming, my 3rd G Grandmother, who married John Gibbons Mathews in Dublin in 1845! Her father is named on Cert. as David Fleming, an Officer in Royal Irish Artillery, but again no mother is named.  These women, Sarah Annie no-name, and Mary Jane Fleming's no-name mother, have over many years, proven to be my biggest brick walls EVER!!  GRRR!
"We analyse the evidence to draw a conclusion. The better the sources and information, the stronger the evidence, which leads to a reliable conclusion!" Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

MATHEWS, Ireland, England, USA & Canada, NZ
FLEMING,   Ireland
DUNNELL,  England
PAULSON,  England
DOUGLAS, Scotland, Ireland, NZ
WALKER,   Scotland
WATSON,  England, Ayrshire, Scotland, NZ
McAUGHTRIE, Ayrshire, Scotland, NZ
MASON,     Scotland, England, NZ
& Connections

Offline River Tyne Lass

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,472
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
I see you seem to be like me in finding it difficult to choose just one ancestor to time travel to and question.

It would be great if someone sees this post of yours either now or in the future who may have the answers for you.  I would love to see these brick walls of yours come tumbling down.   :)
Conroy, Fitzpatrick, Watson, Miller, Davis/Davies, Brown, Senior, Dodds, Grieveson, Gamesby, Simpson, Rose, Gilboy, Malloy, Dalton, Young, Saint, Anderson, Allen, McKetterick, McCabe, Drummond, Parkinson, Armstrong, McCarroll, Innes, Marshall, Atkinson, Glendinning, Fenwick, Bonner

Offline jaybelnz

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,762
  • My Runaway Bride! Thanks to Paula Too!
    • View Profile
 ;D ;D. So would I RTL, it's been the bane of my life!!  😂😂😂
"We analyse the evidence to draw a conclusion. The better the sources and information, the stronger the evidence, which leads to a reliable conclusion!" Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

MATHEWS, Ireland, England, USA & Canada, NZ
FLEMING,   Ireland
DUNNELL,  England
PAULSON,  England
DOUGLAS, Scotland, Ireland, NZ
WALKER,   Scotland
WATSON,  England, Ayrshire, Scotland, NZ
McAUGHTRIE, Ayrshire, Scotland, NZ
MASON,     Scotland, England, NZ
& Connections


Offline carom

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 175
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
My 3x gt. grandfather Robert Porter who married in Sheffield in 1788, the only time I have found a record for him. I know he died before 1833, as on her death his wife was shown as a widow.
I think he was a builder /stonemason as his sons started out in this trade, so probably moved around for work.

Online coombs

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 7,425
  • Research the dead....forget the living.
    • View Profile
I'd probably be torn between that James Smith who died in 1849 in Oxford (not born in county in 1841) or Sarah Bradford, once Coombs, nee Unknown. Again she snuffed it in Feb 1851 in Marylebone, just weeks before the 1851 census and said she was not born in county in 1841.

I may be getting closer to finding out about James Smith so I may choose Sarah. She was married to George Coombs by 1812. He died in 1831.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Offline Deirdre784

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 4,017
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
My great great grandmother Hannah, born around 1821 in Alton, Staffordshire, married Thomas Cope in 1845. Widowed in Nov 1860 while pregnant with her 6th child who died as a a baby. Lived with her eldest daughter and family until 1881, then vanishes. Not buried with her husband and their daughter and son in law (in same grave). No apparent re-marriage. Would love to meet her and ask her what happened. 🤔😀
CARDIFF:Lord,Griffiths,Barry,Cope,Mahoney ~ PEMBROKESHIRE:Griffiths,Rees,Owen,Thomas ~ ESSEX:Lord,Foreman,Hatch ~ SOMERSET:Lord,Cox,Hockey,Linham,Bryant ~ STAFFORDSHIRE:Cope,Elks,Hackney,Gallimore,Davenport ~ SUFFOLK:Lord,Lockwood,Hatch,Rix,Foreman ~ IRELAND:Barry,Meany,Cummins,Grogan ~
PONTYPRIDD:Leigh,Brooks,Adams,Davies,Thomas ~ KENT:Leigh ~ CHESHIRE:Adams,Tudor,Illidge ~ DENBIGHSHIRE:Edwards,Bolas ~BRECON:Leigh,Thomas,Davies ~SOMERSET:Adams,Keitch,Bridge ~ABERGAVENNY:Minton ~ MERTHYR:.....

Offline philipsearching

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 4,090
  • I was a beautiful baby - what went wrong?
    • View Profile
It would be a difficult choice.

Unlike many other posters on this thread I wouldn't choose an ancestor who could provide missing information.  I would like to spend time with an ancestor who led an interesting life.  But which one?

A Member of Parliament who was detested by King James I?
An Irish carpetbagger who emigrated to the USA and met some interesting people in the 1860s and 1870s?
A Huguenot refugee silk weaver?
A labourer in Norwich who lost most of his relatives in a plague?
One of many Cornish tin miners?
One of the multitude of Ag Labs?

I would probably choose an ancestor who left no written records (except for BMD) just to see what his or her life was like.

Philip

Please help me to help you by citing sources for information.

Census information is Crown Copyright http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline iluleah

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,049
  • Zeya who has a plastic bag fetish
    • View Profile
My maternal great great grandmother who married her husband 1 month after 'their' first child ( my great grandfather) was born.
He was registered as their son, baptised as their son, lived with them until he was 11 months old, 'they' named him the given & surname of great great grandmothers brother in law plus added their own surname.
When child number two arrived he went to live with his maternal grandparents by the age of 10yr he was using his mothers maiden name and by the age of 20yrs he was using his 'middle' name ( which was the surname of his 'uncle')

Birth and baptism records & 1st census state who his parents are but I am not convinced his named father is his real father and I think he knew/found out he wasn't. He married twice and lied both both on 1st marriage he wrote his grandfather as his father on his 2nd marriage he wrote his mothers brother.
Great grandfather was parish clerk and ALL mention of his aunt in PRs are ink spotted/page torn/ water rubbed so you can't see her name at all I only found her via BTs ( which great grandfather didn't have access to)and when I found out she had left the area and the name of who she married it all made sense....
I never felt 'related' when researching his recorded fathers family they just didn't seem to be 'mine' however once I found his aunt and uncle and started researching him, he 'felt' like 'mine' not  that I 'wanted' him as he was a rogue who ended up in prison.
Then I made contact with someone related to him and it shocked me how much he looked like my uncle, my grandfather and the photo of my great grandfather.

So it would be nice to ask great great grandmother who her first born father really was as I can then have one paternal line of ancestry from him and not the two I have.
Leicestershire:Chamberlain, Dakin, Wilkinson, Moss, Cook, Welland, Dobson, Roper,Palfreman, Squires, Hames, Goddard, Topliss, Twells,Bacon.
Northamps:Sykes, Harris, Rice,Knowles.
Rutland:Clements, Dalby, Osbourne, Durance, Smith,Christian, Royce, Richardson,Oakham, Dewey,Newbold,Cox,Chamberlaine,Brow, Cooper, Bloodworth,Clarke
Durham/Yorks:Woodend, Watson,Parker, Dowser
Suffolk/Norfolk:Groom, Coleman, Kemp, Barnard, Alden,Blomfield,Smith,Howes,Knight,Kett,Fryston
Lincolnshire:Clements, Woodend