RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: sirius on Wednesday 05 April 06 21:29 BST (UK)
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I wondered how many rumours that you hear when starting your family history turn
out to be true, ours is that the family came from Denmark, but have not found any
evidence yet.What about anybody else on Rootschat.
Sirius
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Quite a few have turned out to be a bit off ;)
But they all have had a grain of truth in them.
For example, my Dad always said that his paternal line were slate quarriers and came from Maentwrog, Merionethshire. I have found out that before his grandfather became a coal miner in Chirk, Denbighshire, the male line were agricultural labourers and came from Merionethshire via Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog and Llansilin, Denbighshire. His grandfather's mother's line were, however, slate quarriers and came from Llangynog, Montgomeryshire. Before that one line came from Llangor on the southern shores of Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid), Merionethshire.....
So nearly right I suppose ;)
Gadget
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My grandmother would never talk about why her mother had been brought up by an aunt. We thought we were going to uncover some great scandal. It turns out that her mother died just giving birth to my grandmothers brother when she was 3, so with 5 others to care for she went to live with her aunt and uncle. No scandal there then!!!
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I haven't found out yet, but at one of our daughters wedding about 15 yrs, ago, an old friend of my mother asked me if i'd ever been in touch with my step brother in Denmark, this was news to me, but shouldn't have been, my old man was married at least four times plus a few friends on the side, apparently whilst in the RAF at the end of the war he was stationed in Denmark, met another "friend", so hence my new relation, . Any suggestions on how one would check the story ?. Bodger
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My gran always told me we were related to Mad Jack Fuller, great British eccentric. Well yes one of her family did marry a Fuller but as to relationship - not found yet!
She also always said that her father was Italian. May not be true as her mum didn't meet her Italian husband, until my gran was 5 years old at the end of the 1WW. Possible but...
Kerry
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I also thought we were descended from Robert Burns. No luck yet!!!
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Hi Linda
My grt grts were a Robert and Jean from that part of Scotland - before I found out more, I always had a romantic idea that it was Robert Burns and his wife Jean ::)
It turned out to be a Robert Wilson and Jean Burgess - still that line has kept me happily involved since I was 8 ;D
Gadget
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After I had discovered a previously unknown about first marriage of my grandmother it seemed to nudge my cousin's memory of a conversation she overheard gran and her daughter talking and she said "they said he should never have asked me to marry him". Well cousin thought they must have been discussing an old boyfriend, but putting two and two together assume now that they were discussing the first husband. Of course she wishes she had taken more notice of the conversation as she thinks there was something behind that statement, such as ........ maybe he was gay! Well they were married at least five years with no children to show for it!
Mary
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Hi Gadget,
My aunt had some work done by a professional genealogist who told her we were descended from Gilbert Burns, Roberts brother. I havnt found any link at all. I think he was a con artist and just told my aunt what she wanted to hear.
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Hi All,
There were two rumours in my family both on my mothers side of the family, the first rumour was that a family line originated in Switzerland, however the reality was that they came from Germany!
Secondly the same family as above were Master Bootmakers and the family rumour was that they had had a Royal Warrant to supply boots and or shoes to royalty! Again, not quite, no royal warrant but my Gt Gt Grandfather's occupation on his death certificate in 1921 was given as "retired court bootmaker" so maybe he made and/or supplied footwear to the royal court! So possibly a grain of truth this time around!
You never know!!
Regards
David
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Hi Gadget,
My aunt had some work done by a professional genealogist who told her we were descended from Gilbert Burns, Roberts brother. I havnt found any link at all. I think he was a con artist and just told my aunt what she wanted to hear.
I've got some stuff on him somewhere - remind me next week ;)
Gadget
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My mother always stated strongly that she was descended from the family of Captain James Cook, navigator extraordinaire!
Unfortunately I have pretty well disproved it. There was an Eleanor Cook way back in the lines (unrelated) and a seafaring strain, but nothing to do with the good Captain! :( :( Would have been nice! 8)
Other family stories mostly have been pretty right.
MarieC
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Thanks Gadget.
Linda.
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my father always told me he had two rich aunts that owned Maples furniture store . i found he had two rich aunts that married the owners of fox furniture factory in staples corner, not too far off for a poor paddington boy bought up in an orphanage from the age of two. i have always found a grain of truth in the family stories so i wish i had listened more as a youngester. my Nana always said she was Spanish . we never believed her as Spain seemed so unlikely to us kiwis . and all of rootschat will know my Spanish story was true. frederickay
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I also thought we were descended from Robert Burns. No luck yet!!!
I've also been told this by my relatives. Never got round to looking yet though!
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My mother insists that we are descended from Grace Darling. However, as far as I can make out we have no-one called Darling in our tree, and I don't think that Grace Darling married or had children to be descended from.
Having said all that, most of the stories that my mother has come out with have had some truth in them. We aren't descended from a famous railway engineer called Luke Wanless (he wasn't that famous) - but from one of his sisters. Christopher Rowntree didn't own a shop in Bishop Auckland called Duff and Rowntree, but the Rowntree involved in that may have been his cousin.
I just wish she'd write it all down so that I can have a real good look at it, but as is often the case with older people, she comes out with those "of course, you know that..." kind of comments that are just not quite enough to be going on with!
Wotty
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Most of my dear old Mum's stories have been proved one way or another...except the one about....
One of the rellies was a policeman involved in the Sydney Street Siege in London.
Haven't come to grips with that one yet...there again maybe he was one of the terrorists :P
Sylvia
PS anyone know if there are lists for those involved anywhere?
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When I started looking, it was to find my Russian great-grandfather Karl Wiliski. He was apparently a carpenter who came over to England, changed his name to Charles Willis and settled here.
Or so the story as told by my nan went......
However, after a short bit of research, I found:
- No Russians in any line.
- Charles was born in Brighton, so was his dad, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his g-g-grandfather was a Londoner!
- He wasn't a carpenter, but his dad was.
- The Russian connection was simply down to my nan having red hair and being called Russian Red
So, the story was accurate in every detail apart from the facts!
Glen
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Most of my dear old Mum's stories have been proved one way or another...except the one about....
One of the rellies was a policeman involved in the Sydney Street Siege in London.
Haven't come to grips with that one yet...there again maybe he was one of the terrorists :P
Sylvia
PS anyone know if there are lists for those involved anywhere?
Talking of Russians ...... it sounds like the Russians are at it again !!
Can't find names of the policemen but heres a snippet I found !!
The Siege of Sidney Street, E1 on 3 January 1911 was one of the most famous incidents in East End history. The robbery of Harris's Jewellery Shop in Houndsditch by a Russian Anarchist group intending to raise funds went seriously wrong. The gang dispersed to lodgings in the surrounding streets, one of which was 100 Sidney Street. Two of the gang members, Fritz Svaars and `Josef' died in the house when it burned down in the much publicised shoot out with the police and military. A third member Peter Piatkov, nicknamed `Peter the Painter' miraculously escaped
Annie ::) ::) ::) ::)
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According to my mother, her mother always said that her family were related to the one which owned Morton Old Hall in Cheshire. I have found that her g-g mother came from Church Lawton, so there may have been an element of truth.
Also, my grandfather always told my mother that there was a lost tribe living on Biddulph Moor. Recently she heard a Radio 4 programme which told about a family there which had distinct ethnic differences and perhaps had some Saracen connection. She had always thought it was a story which her father had told to amuse them as children. She said she longed to be able to tell him that he was right after all, but as he died in 1953 .......
Ellen
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Hi, :)
My Mum and Aunt recently told me that someone in the family was from a wealthy French family and she ran off with an Irish groom called Quinn and was disowned.
I set out to disprove the story and was doing quite well until I could not find my GG Grandmother's birth. I have now! Well I'm claiming her as there are too many coincidences.
My GG Grandmother was called Amelia Quinn nee Morgan she was born in Liverpool 1843 but that is where I got stuck. Whilst trying soundex and wildcards I found Mesilia Morjeanstern born same year and place. In 1851 she was called Mosely (I think a family pet name) Morjeanstern, her mother was Mary Morjeanstern born Ireland 1811 and father was George Morjeanstern born Fra British Subject 1791 confectioner.
Are you still with me! ;)
The family changed their name to Morgan by 1861 and Mesilia to Amelia. She then had already had an illegitimate child called George and her parents had separated. Amelia then married a John Quinn Blacksmith. On Amelia's marriage cert 1863 her father was George Morgan confectioner deceased.
There were other dates that matched the families, but I cannot guarantee that Mesilia and Amelia are one and the same. So the rumors look like they are true. I have found mum's cousins who she has not spoken to for twenty years whilst searching and they also had the same story.
Sorry if that was too long! ::)
Pipkim :) :)
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So far all the family rumours on my fathers side seem to be just that - rumours, a load of old codswallop actually. Wish I could find just one thing that was true!!!
Barbara 8)
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I was told that we were descended from fishermen and farmers. Grandfather turned out to be a fishmonger, and G Grandfather an Ag Lab. Then further back - Ag Labs generation after generation.
meles
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Our biggest family rumour [to date] is that my great-grandfather left his wife and children to go and fight with the Germans in WWI :o
Well, he definitely left his family c.1914 and wasn't seen again for 30-odd years but I'm not convinced he was fighting for anybody, I have found no trace of any service records or any clues at all.
I suspect he went to either Australia or the USA as he had family who had emigrated to both countries. When he did turn up back in England none of his sons/daughters would give him the time of day so they were obviously convinced that he was a bad lot.
Steph.
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Yes and No! My grandmother said we were descended from "a French lady". Knowing what family rumours can be, I never expected to find it was true but it is - we have a strong strain of French Huguenot - the Noquet family who were silk weavers and dyers. There was another family tradition that my great great grandfather Charles Giesen was "of German extraction" and that his father was "Henry William Giesen". He had put this on his marriage certificate in 1885 and that his father had been an accountant. Well it turned out that he was the illegitimate son of a Norfolk maidservant named Fanny Layton Culling, and that he had been informally adopted by his natural aunt, Martha, and her second husband William Henry Giesen (not Henry William). I wonder if Charles really believed he was their son or if he ever knew he was actually illegitimate. I think no-one else in the family knew because I'm certain my grandmother would have kept very tight-lipped about anything to do with the family history, had she known. I did once ask her, on having trouble finding a marriage "Are you sure they were married?" and she replied "Don't be disgusting!"
When I had trouble tracing Charles' birth I was told that on the outbreak of WWI he'd been so worried about "being German" that he'd "gone out and covered his tracks". He didn't change his name though, and his name at birth had been Charles Winchester Green Culling.
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Please let me know if you find a link Mrs Lizzy.
Linda.
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Do you mean if I'm able to prove Charles was the natural son of Josiah Green? I've been wondering if there might be bastardy orders somewhere - the mother, Fanny Layton Culling, had four or five illegitimate children all apparently by the same father. Personally I think she should have taken up some other hobby, like embroidery for example.
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Sorry, I was talking about Robbie Burns. I missed a few posts.
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That's OK love! Sorry, no Scottish ancestry yet. And no Welsh to my surprise and disappointment. I'm a fabulous singer you see, though I say so as shouldn't, so thought I must have Welsh blood! ;D
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What do you sing Mrs Lizzy?
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That's OK love! Sorry, no Scottish ancestry yet. And no Welsh to my surprise and disappointment. I'm a fabulous singer you see, though I say so as shouldn't, so thought I must have Welsh blood! ;D
I'm Welsh - can sing in tune when I try very hard :) My greatest saddness :'( :'( :'(
My mother, of Scottish descent had a beautiful voice.
Gadget
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Never mind Gadget I'll come and sing at you. :-\
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My mother always stated strongly that she was descended from the family of Captain James Cook, navigator extraordinaire!
Unfortunately I have pretty well disproved it. There was an Eleanor Cook way back in the lines (unrelated) and a seafaring strain, but nothing to do with the good Captain! :( :( Would have been nice! 8)
Other family stories mostly have been pretty right.
MarieC
Hi Marie C
My wife and I were married in the same church as Captain Cook, Saint Margaret's in Barking.
Sirius
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I've been there. Nice church. Bit happy clappy sometimes but ok otherwise.
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Hi Mrslizzy
Have not been back for some years as moved away, Church was very old lots
of history.
Many interesting stories on this post. Iam sure the Denmark rumour is true
as my wife and I have found relatives we never knew about and have been in contact
with them, the same rumour exists.
Sirius
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Last time I was there was several years ago - I used to be in the choir of St Mary the Virgin, Great Ilford under the baton of Mr Gorman. We never used to play HIM up, I can tell you! :o
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Hi Ladybird,
Unfortunately don't know anything about lists of policemen, but my Gt Gt Grandmother's brother (my Gt Gt Uncle I suppose that makes him!) was involved in the Sidney Street Seige, in fact if I remember correctly he was the policeman in charge of the situation! Unfortunately I found this out from distant rellies so don't know how to find out, unless there's anything at the National archives!
Regards,
David
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I also thought we were descended from Robert Burns. No luck yet!!!
Our family also has the rumour that we were descended from Robbie Burns - and it's looking good -well, sorta OK - oh well - possibly maybe likely - well, someone's name was Burns/Burness and they do appear on Robbie Burns tree - under the heading of NOT PROVED - darn!!
I have found that there is a small element of truth in each family rumour - you just have to prove which part is the truth ???
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My family rumour had it that one lot were lacemakers to the King from Nottingham.
All I've found are a whole lot of upholsterers! :D :D :D
But ... there's something there, or why else would our only heirloom be a rather tacky Victorian (I think) painting of the family crest? (See avatar.) However, I have decided that one of that line, who was a bit of an opportunist, had it painted to impress fellow colonists out in NZ!
:)
Koromo
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Family crests eh? My dad is convinced that a particular Phillips crest is "our" family crest. I must have told him 100 times that so far there is no proof we're even remotely connected to any armorial Phillips family, and even if we were it wouldn't have to mean we were entitled to that crest - but will the old sweetheart listen? No, in case you were wondering! ;D
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When I first started family research, I was told by two
aunts that their Irish g.grandfather was a wealthy saddle
- harness maker.
Found him on the 1851 census - rag + bone gatherer!
Jackie.
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As you all have said, I have been able to somewhat prove all those family stories. Some were a bit of an exaggeration andothers it was untangling which family members actually were part of the story.
My grandma always said the family farmed land in Central Park in New York City. Well, 5 years of hunting and the last family line I thought it would be, I found she was correct, they owned a farm over looking the place that was to be Central Park.
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Hi All,
My family rumour was that somewhat had shot someone's lover and then gone to Australia - which I have just the other day proved to be correct!!
My Aunt had an affair - told her husband who went round to the bloke and fired 16 bullets into him - killed him of course!!
Got away with 5 years and then they both left for Oz 10 years later - 1937-1947 era
Even got a cheap trip out there - wonder if they asked about his passed record - or cared?
Cheers
Keith
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I contstantly wrack my brains trying to remember things that my Gran told me about her family - everything so far has turned out to be true.
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Thanks DavidJP
I've googled furiously on the Sidney St seige and read everything there is to read, but like you have found no lists of those involved.
A pity really, would have been nice to have "someone" in the family..sort of..famous ;D
Sylvia
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Great grandfather told the story of an ancestor from France, who after his wife died, came to Australia with two children, dumped them, and went on to New Zealand. The wife was a "dancer" and my mother grew up convinced she had prima ballerina in her genes.
Truth: They were Belgian (French-speaking) and both husband and wife came to Australia with two children. The wife died in Melbourne a year after giving birth to the third child. The father put one child in an orphanage, one with a Minister's family and the baby disappeared, but apparently he hung around long enough to raise some money for their educations. The "dancer" died of haemmorhage in an alleyway in Melbourne notorious for its ladies of the night. The husband had been disowned by his own family in Belgium for marrying "beneath himself" and that is why they came to Australia. Just as "exotic dancer" is today a euphemism for stripper, I think our prima ballerina may have been something a little more salubrious!! My mother is most disappointed. I'm thrilled.
Most of the problems with family stories passed down is that each generation likes to add a bit of their own spice, as well as cleaning it up a bit, and of course there are also misunderstandings as well. I think my ggrandfather did well, considering he was close to 90 when he told Mum the tale, and he was actually talking about the ancestors of his first wife, who had been dead for more than 20 years!
Every time I speak to other researchers on my husband's side, they have found some amazing link to royalty/nobility/criminal masterminds, etc, usually due to surname only i.e. if there was a Nelson in the family, well all of a sudden gggggguncle Horatio pops up. It's all crap, of course, but anything to relieve the tedium of 8 generations of Ag Labs!
Did have a very sad rumour confirmed by a very sprightly great aunt a couple of years ago, though. One sister had an affair with another sister's husband, and the resulting child was born with Down Syndrome. The whole family split as a result. The child was raised by the father and his wife, but eventually institutionalised, and we found out of his existence just two short years after he died - if we'd known he'd existed ....
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We have something similar: my mother's father left when she was 6 weeks old and she never saw him again. Mum had a very unhappy, abusive childhood, and she was always told her father had been killed in 1953 in the Korean war. All photos of him were destroyed and her mother wouldn't answer any questions about him, apparently hating the very mention of his name. Years later we found out he'd actually died in Nottingham in 1985. If only we'd known, maybe my mum could have met her father. As far as we know, he never remarried or had any other children. My mum has always felt "rootless" and that she didn't belong to anyone. I was told her parents split because of an argument over whether she ought to be baptised and brought up Catholic (her dad) or not (her mum). :(
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My Mum is still convinced that her Father's, Mother's family owned some land in a nearby village - I have done very little research into this side of the family and have no idea how I would find out if this is true or not!
Sue B
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If you're talking about a village the UK, then I believe you can do an address search in the 1901 census; alternatively, I would think the Land Registry would have the answer but it might be expensive as I think you'd really need to have at least a rough idea of what/where the land was. If you think you know roughly where it was, it does only cost a few pounds to do a Land Registry search and you can even do it online.
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I have just caused a big scandal in the family, and I wish I had kept my mouth shut!
My grandmother had a child in 1960, and she died, my Grandmother told us she died of cot death, but I have just discovered through a family member this was not the case, my Grandmother had fallen asleep with the baby on the sofa, rolled on her in her sleep and smothered her.
I told my Mother, and she went mad, saying it was a lie, but this family member was there the night it happened.
Anyway I sent off for the death cert, and it was true.
My mother and her siblings were gobsmacked, cos they had always been told by their mother she died of cot death, and it has opened up alot of old wounds.
Big mistake saying anything.
Colleen
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That's sad, Colleen, but it's happened, and I think the important thing to remember is that grandmother didn't mean to do it. It wasn't her fault, any more than it would have been if the baby really had died of cot death. My aunt lost a much loved baby to cot death in the early 90s and she blamed herself, thinking she hadn't taken enough care of her baby. I also read about a man who fell asleep in a chair with his baby daughter on his chest. When he woke up, his baby had died of cold - she had nothing covering her little head and apparently 70% of our body heat is lost through the top of the head. That poor man probably blamed himself for the rest of his life. Your poor grandmother probably did as well, and she obviously didn't feel she could really unburden herself. I hope both she and her baby are now at peace.
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If you're talking about a village the UK, then I believe you can do an address search in the 1901 census; alternatively, I would think the Land Registry would have the answer but it might be expensive as I think you'd really need to have at least a rough idea of what/where the land was. If you think you know roughly where it was, it does only cost a few pounds to do a Land Registry search and you can even do it online.
Thanks I will have a chat with my Mum and see what she knows.
Sue B
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I also thought we were descended from Robert Burns. No luck yet!!!
We've had that one as well Linmey though no chance once we found out that our Burns came to Scotland from Ireland in the 1850's. Also had william wallace pop up as well but about 400 years too late
The best story we had was from my Dad's mum. She always said that her Grandmother Elizabeth Price came from a wealthy family who worked for Walkers Whiskey and were involved with Walkers Gallery in Liverpool as well. They were supposed to be very famous in Liverpool and had disowned Elizabeth for marrying below her status.
Once I started researching I contacted the walker gallery as well as walkers Whiskey but had no luck. For someone who was well known and well off he couldn't be found at all. Eventually after a lot of searching, emails, letters and visits to various places we found the family.
The Walker name was true but upgraded a bit through the family
True Story: Elizabeth Price's family came from west derby where he was a Clerk for a brewery. By 1891 he was a general manager for them. In 1881 they did live in a big house in Litherland Park (Rose Villa) but in 1891 he was in Wavertree and eventually died in Toxteth Park in 1904.
Elizabeth wasn't disowned because she had married below her status - she was pregnant before she married but had the child (my Great Grandmother) after she married.
As for the Walker link - well the brewery he worked for was Cain's Brewery who were taken over by Walkers of Warrington in the 1890's so that is where she got the Walker link
So I always check and double check all family stories now. Never got to tell my Gran the true story before she died but I'm sure she has already found out anyway
Carol
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Mrs Lizzy - my dad's dad left my grandmother when she was 6 months pregnant. It caused her to have a nervous breakdown and she never spoke about it.
My Dad grew up feeling totally abandoned and not knowing where he fit in in life. He always knew there was a "dirty little secret" attached to him but no-one really sat him down and explained it to him. He always felt there was a man out there who simply didn't care.
When he met my mother, my grandparents (my grandmother and the man she married when Dad was four) told her immediately of the story and also that Dad's biological father died in 1953, when Dad was three. They had never bothered to tell Dad. He grew up, as I said, thinking the man was somewhere out there not bothering with him, when actually he died at 27 of a heart defect. It would have made a huge difference to my Dad to know that the reason he was never contacted by his biological father was because he had died, and that he actually did visit Dad as a toddler before he died, but was sent away by my great grandparents (another thing they told my Mum, but never bothered to tell Dad). He ended up having a nervous breakdown of his own over it.
These stories are real sad. There's a lot to be said for honesty and openness. I do not think any less of my grandmother because her larrikin husband, who knew he was dying, abandoned her. It wasn't her fault, but the "morals" of the day caused it to be a shameful scandal.
And there's no use trying to hide anything anymore, because us genealogists always manage to root out the truth anyway!
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Hi All,
Do you get any points for starting rumours ????
When Lady Diana and Prince Charles got engaged, I used to say she was my relative. (Tongue firmly in cheek) Don't think anyone believed me, but we do have Spencers. Still trying to prove the connection, and my husband's uncle was Prince Phillip's chauffeur. and he remembers going to the Mews to visit him. Does anyone know how I could get hold of his service records at Buck Palace?.
My husband also lived next door to Reggie Dwight (before he was Elton John). He used to take the hat around for him at the local pub. Also my husband's mother is related to the last witch to be hung. (have not started on that lot yet).
My mother used to call me Madam when I was young!!!!! Does that count?
We have a ship wreck, but was always told it was the Equetta which sank off the coast of Nth Queensland. When I looked it up in 1987, there were no matching suvivors. Instead its the Taroba which sank in the Red Sea, 1890.
Still looking for my trophy convict, and for the Aussies distantly related to John Farhnam.
Mostly ag labourers but found a"Higgler" today.
Any ideas what a Higgler does?
Cheers for now Dale
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Hi Dale
Try this link
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-hig2.htm
It is a pedlar or itinerant dealer
Carol
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Hi Carol,
Thanks for the reply and site. Can't thank all you lovely people out there enough. Have finally found my "passion" in life and genealogy is it. Besides my family of course. Cheers Dale
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Blimey, Dale, you have got an interesting tree! As one who comes from a long, long line of Ag Labs, I am jealous!
meles
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My Mum is still convinced that her Father's, Mother's family owned some land in a nearby village - I have done very little research into this side of the family and have no idea how I would find out if this is true or not!
Sue B
What a load of rubbish !!! We have just been to visit the gravestone that my Mother said was her Grandfathers, yeah right Mum, this bloke died in 1847 and as her father wasn't born until 1910 I think she may be wrong. Just because the surname was Farmer, Mum assumed that it was her relative! - I will now only listen to my 92 year old Grandmother as she remembers far more than my 65 year old mother ;D ;D
But it does go to show you need to check out the names etc given to you as not all is corrext - even when they insist. ;D
Sue B
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my husband's uncle was Prince Phillip's chauffeur. and he remembers going to the Mews to visit him. Does anyone know how I could get hold of his service records at Buck Palace?.
Still looking for my trophy convict, and for the Aussies distantly related to John Farhnam.
Hi Oz - I doubt you could see his service records as I don't think they would be available for many years yet.
I am sure Bill Bryson told his readers in his fabulous book Down Under that it is not tactful to mention the word "convicts" to Aussies as if I remember rightly Bill says they lose all sense of humour! ;D ;D
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My Mum is still convinced that her Father's, Mother's family owned some land in a nearby village - I have done very little research into this side of the family and have no idea how I would find out if this is true or not!
Sue B
What a load of rubbish !!! We have just been to visit the gravestone that my Mother said was her Grandfathers, yeah right Mum, this bloke died in 1847 and as her father wasn't born until 1910 I think she may be wrong. Just because the surname was Farmer, Mum assumed that it was her relative! - I will now only listen to my 92 year old Grandmother as she remembers far more than my 65 year old mother ;D ;D
But it does go to show you need to check out the names etc given to you as not all is corrext - even when they insist. ;D
Sue B
It's amazing the daft mistakes people make on such flimsy evidence. Lemme tell you a story! I was about 20 and working in London for the oldest bank in England - C Hoare & Co. I had mentioned this to my long distance boyfriend who lived in Dorset. I was puzzled when he stated that he "had seen one of our branches up here in Dorset" and I pointed out to him that the bank had only two branches, both in London. He insisted I must be wrong because he knew he had seen one of our branches. Next time I visited, we were on a bus and he pointed out this branch of C Hoare & Co. Not only did the fascia proclaim that it was "R J Hoare Stonemasons", the premises were covered with gravestones and other memorials. He was quite incensed when I suggested that this ought to have been enough of a clue that it was not a bank, even if the initials had not been wrong. Thank God I didn't marry him eh - how thick would our kids have been - especially if they'd inherited his looks AND his brains! ;D ;D ;D
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I am sure Bill Bryson told his readers in his fabulous book Down Under that it is not tactful to mention the word "convicts" to Aussies as if I remember rightly Bill says they lose all sense of humour! ;D ;D
Just shows you shouldn't believe everything you read, even if it is Bill Bryson!!!
We Aussies love to find a convict or two in our ancestry. I am personally quite chuffed that a cousin has found two in the lines she is researching! There is a First Fleeters society here which is exclusive and sought after - you can only be a member if an ancestor came on the First Fleet, soldier, sailor or convict!
MarieC
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Love, love, love Bill Bryson, but yep, it's pretty cool to have a convict in the tree somewhere.
Years ago, it was something to be ashamed of, and it was called "the stain" if you had one in your family. Awful.
Now most people realise that most of the convicts were people who were transported for very minor reasons, and often they stole simply to feed themselves and their families.
I'm very proud to have 4 convict ancestors - 3 were women, 2 were pregnant, and one of those was a 16 year old Romany who arrived in 1792. She married a crew member from the ship that transported her, had another 13 children and established and ran a pub with her son until she died in her eighties. All of them, from pretty nasty beginnings, managed to end up with jobs, homes and families.
I think sometimes the English etc use the term as an insult (usually when we beat them at cricket ;)) but in Australia it's pretty cool.
Kez :)
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Spot on with everything you said, Kez!!!! ;D ;D ;D
You've got some interesting convict ancestors there!!
MarieC
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Love, love, love Bill Bryson
Kez :)
Mmmmn - funniest man alive, I think. I like the sequence in Down Under where he's being shown around by two Aussies named (I think) Darlene and Shane. They say they're taking him for a go at some water activity in the ocean and he gets nervous, asking about sharks. So Shane reassures him, saying [puts on Aussie accent, which Mrs Lizzy flatters self is pretty good!] "Sharks hardly ever bother you. Darlene, how long has it been since someone was taken by a shark?" Darlene considers and then replies "Must be two months, at least." Hysterical. Love it. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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LOL! :D
As a Kiwi, I felt pretty smug because we didn't get any convicts. But I've got Aussie one, damn it! :o
:)
K.
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just seen something on the internet, on a site about Great White Sharks. It's a bit rude about Aussies, I'm afraid. Apparently Jacques Cousteau built this swimming machine, disguised as a great white shark, so it could mingle freely with the other great white sharks and gather information. Mr C has this to say about the other sharks' apparent attitude towards his "shark" which was named Troy.
Since Troy cannot respond in a sophisticated, sharklike manner, Cousteau decided that while the great whites do buy that he's a shark, they consider him more like a "retarded cousin from Australia."
Not very nice, eh??
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they consider him more like a "retarded cousin from Australia." [/i]
Not very nice, eh??
. . . . . . . . they fail to mention the 'Retarded Cousin' was an immigrant to Australia - originally from France!
Barbara 8)
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Good shot back there Tephra lol
Carol
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Good shot back there Tephra lol
Carol
Thank you - thank you ver' much. Oooops, sorry that's Gracelands line isn't it!! :D
Barbara 8)
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My gran always told me we were related to Mad Jack Fuller, great British eccentric.
That's interesting, 'cause I am distantly related to Mad Jack. Very distantly...I've got to go back to my 12xgreat-grandfather before I find a common ancestor, but it's a relation nonetheless. :P
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I'm still yet to prove that we are related to Jack Fuller and it is strictly through marriage anyway. I've not managed to find the common ancestor yet. Mind you saying that, I haven't had time to look!!
Kerry
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My mother insists that we are descended from Grace Darling. However, as far as I can make out we have no-one called Darling in our tree, and I don't think that Grace Darling married or had children to be descended from.
Wotty
My Leith born grandmother more or less said the same thing, but her words were she was 'related to Grace Darling'. I recently found her grandmother had a Thomas Darling as her father. Unfortunately can't find appropriate birth and marriage records - a thing Leith was famous for. Unless there was a sailor from the Borders involved I have found a Thos Darling in one of the local villages who did have a legitimate daughter called Grace born more or less the same time as the famous Grace Darling :-))
Rena in Lancashire.
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LOL! I'm meant to be related to Grace Darling too!
A Gr-gr-gr-grandfather of mine is a David Darling born in Dunbar, 1792-ish. I've never found him on any of the Grace Darling family trees I've come across:
eg. http://freespace.virgin.net/john.elkin/darling001.htm#grace
:)
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My Dad always said that his Dad had paid to have the family tree drawn up professionally about 20 years ago. When he received the tree he read it and ripped it up, my Dad claimed it was because someone on the tree had been hanged for stealing a pig!!!!
Of course this caused much amusement and annoyance for many years. But I think I have found the real reason, or reasons for the ripping up.........Illegitimate children and a CONVICT!
One Peter Appleyard, my 4x gt grandfather, was sent to Tasmania in 1835 after being convicted with poaching four ducks, he had previously been jailed for 1 month for stealing fowls and then again fined 2 pounds for poaching.
On my Mum's side the rumours of a Saggar Makers Bottom Knocker has been substantiated, along with many other pottery related jobs. ;D
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On my Mum's side the rumours of a Saggar Makers Bottom Knocker has been substantiated, along with many other pottery related jobs. ;D
RLucyG,
!!!! ;D ;D ??? ::)
Please enlighten me - what is a Saggar Makers Bottom Knocker?? The mind is boggling!!
A pity that people in previous ages were so ashamed of convicts and illegitimacy that they didn't want to know. I love finding that sort of thing - adds a bit of colour to the tree!!!!
MarieC
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Don't boggle Marie, it's bad for the digestion!!
Saggar is a fireclay container usually oval or round, used to protect pottery from marking by flames and smoke during firing in a bottle oven.
The Saggarmaker is a skilled man producing the finished saggar
The Bottomknocker made the base of the saggar from a lump of fireclay which he knocked into a metal ring using a wooden mallet.
Any wiser?? Me neither :D
Barbara 8)
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Well if family rumour is to be believed:
I am apparently related to the Duke of Bedford (no idea which one though!) via a son/grandson who married beneath him (who hasn't heard that one before ::) ). I know my great-grandmother was in service - my great-grandfather worked for Great Eastern Railways - only connection I can find with the Duke of Bedford is the surname Russell ... although my Nan's nickname was Duchess, and she does remember as a very young child there was a 'lady in a coach' who came to visit one day. :-\
On the Blogg family we are supposed to be related to Henry Blogg the famous lifeboatman - only trouble with that is I can't get my Blogg line out of London yet and I'm back to early 1800s. I think any connection would have to be further back than that (although I have had a potential lead the other day that would need checking out).
Oh, and my husband is rumoured to be descended from Baronet Summers' (Somers?) daughter - although I'm having trouble finding any connection there either.
On the other hand I can prove several ag labs, silk workers, and a Huguenot !
Won't be buying the tiara any day soon ;D
Helen
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You lucky thing Helen. It all sounds very exciting.
Linda.
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Mostly True rumours
Douglases were watchmakers, who were originally Scottish.
Well there were three generations of watchmakers, don't know aobut the scottish bit.
Grandmother's aunt Mary Jane hung herself. Not found.
Grandmother's uncle went to Armidale in Australia and became mayor, his brother followed him there
True
Mother's maternal grandfather and family campaigned for the Conservatives in a pony and trap, and would pull down liberal posters if they found them.
(How do you verify that)
We are descended from Rev George Boyce of Winkfield
True, though he was only a curate- was curate of the parish for 49 years, quite a few priests in the family.
There were some mentions of Great Uncle Seth on my mother's side, being wealthy - I have never found any Seth.
Definitley not a rumour, but hard to trace is my my mother's late uncle George
He died in ww1, leaving a pregnant fiancee.
My mother has pictures of the girl and her mother, I just can't trace them, I don't know the surname
Bob
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Saggar is a fireclay container usually oval or round, used to protect pottery from marking by flames and smoke during firing in a bottle oven.
The Saggarmaker is a skilled man producing the finished saggar
The Bottomknocker made the base of the saggar from a lump of fireclay which he knocked into a metal ring using a wooden mallet.
Any wiser?? Me neither :D
Barbara 8)
Thanks Barbara!! I'll put that in the mental trivial file - just in case I ever need to show off about my extensive knowledge of past English pursuits!!! ;D ;D
MarieC
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As a young child my mother told me that some of her family came from Scotland, I have just recently found out that my greatgrandmothers family were from Scotland, although it is thought that she herself may have been born in England.
My father's family are from Ireland, and I have been told that my 2x great grandmother family were very wealthy, and that my greatgrandmother married below her class to my greatgrandfather who was the gardener and considerably much older than his wife. Apparently it is thought that my 2x greatgrandparents have a French connection to the de villar Family, but as yet I've not found any connection what so ever.
jericho
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Saggar is a fireclay container usually oval or round, used to protect pottery from marking by flames and smoke during firing in a bottle oven.
The Saggarmaker is a skilled man producing the finished saggar
The Bottomknocker made the base of the saggar from a lump of fireclay which he knocked into a metal ring using a wooden mallet.
Any wiser?? Me neither :D
Barbara 8)
Thanks Barbara!! I'll put that in the mental trivial file - just in case I ever need to show off about my extensive knowledge of past English pursuits!!! ;D ;D
MarieC
We'll be having a pop quiz at the mini meet Marie :D
Barbara 8)
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What an interesting lot on here! well mines pretty boring.
Dad was told as a child that his grandfather was a came from Cornwall, so thats where we started looking it turned out that a story had gone round the family for years and in fact dads grandfather didnt come from Cornwall he came from Durham, was born and bred there.
I was told that cos I was dark my grandmother was spanish, that turned out not true as she was born and bred in Bishop Auckland Durham.
The only story that is true is that nan told all of the family that her eldest daughter was her own but she was the only child with ginger hair when all the family were dark haired, it wasnt until the daughter died that we find out that she was a half sister. And the way gran use to go on about women having children out of wedlock, the cheek of it. Dad always said she wasnt a Harrison.
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There was a mention of illigitemacy.. turns out my grandmothers grandfather has no registered father but am still looking into that one cos on his marraige cert a father is listed with the same surname as his mother ???
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Not sure if this has been covered before, but I thought I'd ask anyway! :)
What stories have been passed down through your family history, and have you been able to disprove/prove any of them?
There's a few in my family. The biggest one, which I have been able to disprove (unfortunately) was that there was a direct link to Napoleon Bonaparte. Others include , an ancestor helped deliver Charles Dickens, and that the house he was reputed to have been born in, actually wasn't. That's because where he was really born was in a very dodgy area of Portsmouth. I've yet to look into this, but I do know that my G. G. Grandfather sold a lot of Dickens first editions when he emigrated to Canada. Another one is that the same grandfather knew Conan Doyle very well. Apparently when Conan Doyle was a penniless Dr in Portsmouth my grandfather, who was a master joiner, built a load of cabinets for him in return for some medical treatments. They supposedly became friends and my grandfather used to be shown early versions of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I have investigated this, to the extent of reading Conan Doyle's autobiography. It does mention that he used to barter his trade for local goods, so there might be an element of truth to this story, but it doesn't mention my grandfather by name.
I've got a few others as well, but finding out if they're true is another matter. How have all of you gone about proving or disproving your stories?
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Uuummm interesting one. Family legend has it that Great Aunt Veronelli was jilted at the Altar by a certain Mr Colman, who embezzled all her money & ran off to start a mustard factory.....Now of course it would be nice to know WHICH Great Aunt Veronelli....I have pinned it down to one very likely suspect, but the timing is way out to be connected to THE Colmans. I've read about the history of the founding of their business & it's just not feasible. Apart from anything else, The Veronelli's were very poor, so where did she get any money??? But how did this story come about? It's been infuriating trying to sort it out...but then Genealogy wouldn't be so much fun if it was easy, would it?
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Oh yes! 2xgt grandfather James was a tailor in business with a Mr Burton. Unfortunately James gambled all his money away and the partnership split. Mr Burton went onto open his famous chain of menswear shops........
To date, this has neither been proved nor disproved!
Sallysmum
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I think I mentioned this on another thread somewhere ... lost in the mists of RC time I think ... but as a child, Granny used to take me to the South Kensington museums ... and we always went to see Stephensons Rocket, because 'Grandad's GR GR GR GR grandfather built it/ drove it/invented it ??' .. I'd love to be able to prove or disprove this ... but my Durham ancestors are proving to be a difficult lot !
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My grandmother always said that the family was related to Lord Archibald Fenner Brockway - yet to prove that one!
......dee ;D ;D ;D
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My grandpa always said that his father was from a wealthy, Russian Jewish family but as he never married gtgrandma and is hiding on 1901 census.........who knows! Counting the days until I can look for him in 1911.
Nanny Jan
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My cousin insists that our Grandpa died in 1925 when he fell off his bike and a handlebar punctured his lung.....gruesome!
I have Grandpa's death cert and he died of pneumonia......
I suppose it may have been caused when he fell off his bike and punctured his lung!
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I've got loads! ;D
Best one was from my Nana, who got it from her mum. great-gran's parents were well-to-do, her two grandfathers owned diamond mines in the Transvaal and railways in the USA, and tea plantations in Ceylon. Daughter of diamond miner went to finishing school in Switzerland, father died while she was there, she came home to find evil stepmother had diddled her out of everything she was supposed to inherit. Penniless and destitute she turned to the son of the tea merchant who married her and they started a school together.
Actually....great-gran's mum was the illegitimate daughter of a woman who later married the so-called "diamond miner" (obviously Nana and great-gran didn't know about the illegitimacy) - he was actually a warehouse man. great-gran's dad was the no-hoper son of a teacher. Together, great-gran's parents had 9 children, with her mum dying with the 9th child when great-gran was 17 years old. Children went to orphanages and relatives.
I think great-gran made up the stories - either consciously or not - to ease the pain of memories of a very hard life growing up.
As nana got older and older, the stories became more and more elaborate every time they were retold! When I first found out that the Tea Merchant was actually a Teacher, I told Nana, but she wouldn't believe it, so I chose not to tell her any further discoveries! ;D Let her have her happy fantasies till the day she passed away :)
Prue
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[Indiapaleale wrote:My cousin insists that our Grandpa died in 1925 when he fell off his bike and a handlebar punctured his lung.....gruesome!
My great Grandad died in a bicycle- related tragedy too- he was walking home from his shop in 1935 when he was struck from behind by a hit-and-run errand boy on a bike. He died a few days later from an internal injury. Unlikely but true, and it was only a few hundred yards from where I am now. :'(
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Dee ... I probably ought to know, but I don't ... who is/was Lord Archibald Fenner Brockway ?
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I have a couple of myths which I am still trying to prove or disprove.
The body of a maternal g grandfather was found floating in a river. My grandmother always said that he had been beaten and robbed and his body thrown in the river. What I have found out is he really liked alcohol and his occupation at the time of death was as a chef on a lake freighter. I think he probably fell overboard but as yet it remains unproven.
Per family writings and diaries a paternal ggg grandfather was supposedly a boatswain on the HMS Victory and was killed with Admiral Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar. I have since found that he didn't even serve on the HMS Victory and I still haven't found him listed as killed in action during the Battle of Trafalgar.
yn9man
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Following on from yn9man, my grandmother was always told that her great grandfather John Nelson (born circa 1815) was distantly related to Admiral Nelson. I have to admit, I have not tried to prove or disprove this, as I expect all Nelsons at the time imagined a family connection! My John Nelson has proved notoriously difficult to trace back any further though, so who knows?!
In the same family line - grandmother's sister married into the Courtold (not sure about spelling) nylon family, and lived in South Africa from the 1930s - not too exciting, but then again, the furthest any of my other ancestors got was the Isle of Man!!
Julie
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I used to always think I could be related to Lord Stanley, being Canadian and the most treasured trophy I was happy with my last name, but when I got older and realized my name really wasn't Stanley and I don't come from any Stanley's. Seems my gr-grandfather wanted a more WASP sounding name when he came to Canada ::)
I do though, still try to pull the wool over people's eyes with being related to Lord Stanley ;D
I did have my picture taken with the Stanley Cup :)
Karen
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My grandfather's grandfather's father was a sea captain and I was told he drowned at sea. Turns out he did drown- in the well out back the house!
Another story was that my great-uncle (by marriage) harry was related to Richard Nixon, U.S. President. Both families were Quakers and lived in Whittier, California. Sounded reasonable- although the connection wasn't mentioned again after Watergate. A few years ago I was able to trace uncle harry's family and there was no Nixon connection but just recently came across more details and it's possible, but not proven, that uncle harry's sister married a connection of Nixon family. May be where that story started.
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My Paternal 3xG grandmother was a Romany. No she wasn't, she was an ag lab in Wellington, Herefordshire.
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My family always said that we were related to the late Mr Justice Stables. When I started doing the family tree in the late 1980's my late sister even wrote to the family ( his sons are also judges) and was upset because she got no reply.
I have been able to confirm that we are not connected. His family are STABLE (no S) and come from Essex originally.
Plus my name McGURN was nicked out of a Chicago phonebook in the 1930's by one of Al Capones henchmen to become 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn. :(
Oh well maybe there is someone famous somewhere in the family tree.
Jean
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Dee ... I probably ought to know, but I don't ... who is/was Lord Archibald Fenner Brockway ?
Lydart,
http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FFEBR
gives a brief description of who he was.
....dee
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My Dad always said there was an ancestor who was on the boat that took Napoleon to exile - which ancestor, which boat or even which exile were not stated!! I have an idea which ancestor it may have been but more work needed there!
There is also one that the ancestors were thrown out of Salisbury because they were protestant! Now that must have been so long ago I don't think I have a chance of finding the truth or otherwise!
Helen
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Hi
I was doing some checking for a friend of mine, her family story was that 4 members of the same family died in a train crash going to France.
It turns out that it was 3 murders and a suicide!
Thank goodness it was over 150yrs ago. Still very sad all the same.
regards
Jayne
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I think that sometimes families put 2 and 2 together and get 6, wanting to have a famous ancestor!
It is rather sad when you disprove stories. I have mentioned this elsewhere, but my mum always assured me that she was descended from a connection of Captain James Cook. It isn't so. She may have reached this conclusion because there are Cooks in our ancestry who were mariners, and her own grandfather was a sea captain. Who knows?
Other very romantic stories seem to be wrong also. My French ggggrandmother, born in the West Indies, was said to have eloped from a convent aged 17 to marry her dashing adventurer Irish-Dutch husband. The age is right, but since she married with her guardian's approval, it doesn't sound like an elopement. Also, her father was said to be a Marquis and Admiral of the Ancien Regime who fled from the French Revolution to the island of Guadeloupe, W Indies. He seems to have been middle class, a lawyer. Not sure where the stories came from...
MarieC
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Firstly we were supposed to have a link to Mad Jack Fuller, Sussex eccentric, MP and entrepeuneur.
Well one of the Harmer's married a Fuller but her son was illegitimate born some 10 years before her marriage!
Kerry
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What a fun topic. I think everyone has these stories. We, like many, have a bunch. My dad always said we were related to HG Wells. I have since found not true. There's also the story that my gg grandfather McCluskey came from Ireland, the sole survivor of the potato famine after being involved in some "rebel event". That one I haven't been able to prove, although the sole survivor thing could be true.
I just received some material in the mail stating that my ggg grandfather Murphy was a sea captain from Ireland and that his oldest went to university at McGill in Montreal and ran newspapers up there. My Carlow Murphy was far from a sea captain (probably never saw the ocean until he emigrated) and his oldest son was a police officer in NYC and died of cirrhosis of the liver. His son however was a rather prominent Catholic priest who did his first training in Montreal. So there is some truth in there.
My uncle loved to make things up about the family -- famous furniture family, war heroes, etc -- but none have proven true.
Many more. Wouldn't this make a fun book project.
Kath
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Wouldn't this make a fun book project.
Kath
You're right, Kath!! We should do a Rootschat Anthology - Great Family Stories that Ought to be True but Aren't, or some such thing!
MarieC
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Right, it's come back to me now, when I posted my earlier message I had two stories and I couldn't for the life of me remember what the second one was!! ::) ::)
Now I've remembered. My gran always used to say that her uncles were a very unlucky bunch. I have now found what she meant!
Her grandfather James Harmer had 6 sons, 1 died as a baby, 1 died at the Somme a couple of months before the end of WW1 and 1 died a few months after he married when a cart he was driving ran away down a steep hill and threw him out. :'( :'(
Kerry
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I think it could make for interesting reading.
I didn't even cover my husband's side: Supposedly his gr gr grandmother ran a brothel in the Ukraine. What a great story. I think the truth lies pretty close. It's been narrowed down to she supplied women to sailors. :o She was supposedly also a witch. Hmmm!
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My grandmother always claimed she was related (in some way I can no longer remember) to Captain Oates from the Scott Arctic Expedition.
Even a visit to Kew has failed to find anything that links his family to mine.
Thudders
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Well supposidly two of my ancestors were hung for sheep rustling but have not been able to prove that yet, they were farmers but no sign of sheep rustling.
Althought that may have been back in the midst of time where internet records do not stretch!
acceber
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I think it could make for interesting reading.
I didn't even cover my husband's side: Supposedly his gr gr grandmother ran a brothel in the Ukraine. What a great story. I think the truth lies pretty close. It's been narrowed down to she supplied women to sailors. :o She was supposedly also a witch. Hmmm!
Oooooooh Kath !
I love that one !! ;D ;D were you able to follow up at all ??
Annie :)
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Dee ... thanks for that ... good to hear he was involved in womens suffrage, as was my grandmother. She even named my mother Millicent after Millicent Garret Fawcett, whom she admired so much !
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My grandmother always claimed she was related (in some way I can no longer remember) to Captain Oates from the Scott Arctic Expedition.
Even a visit to Kew has failed to find anything that links his family to mine.
Thudders
Here's a book Thudders that may give some answers !! :)
Captain Oates : soldier and explorer by Sue Limb and P ANF Biography and Family History
You never know !! :) :)
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Theres not too many of these rumours in my family, although my great aunt thinks that her grandfather James Clitheroe Scowcroft was Scottish, even though his mother was from Suffolk and his father was half Irish and half Lancashire, and he was born in Preston.
Stephen :)
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I've been able to turn up that she provided herbal remedies for people and I think that's where the witch thing came into play. Providing women for sailors, makes for an interesting story, but I am not sure I can prove that.
There's also the Jewish gr grandmother who fell in love with the Polish aristocrat. He supposedly gave her jewels that she buried under a tree somewhere in Poland, because she couldn't let her father see them. Because they knew the family wouldn't understand, she ended up marrying a nice Jewish boy and they emigrated first to Belgium and then America.
And my father-in-law swears they were related to Al Schacht, the clown prince of baseball. If you were to see a picture of my father-in-law, his father, and Al, you would agree there was a relationship, but I am having a hard time finding that one.
Kath
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Theres not too many of these rumours in my family, although my great aunt thinks that her grandfather James Clitheroe Scowcroft was Scottish, even though his mother was from Suffolk and his father was half Irish and half Lancashire, and he was born in Preston.
Stephen :)
I am not even allowed to talk about my English background to my uncle. In his eyes, we are all Irish, although the English background is so very interesting: architects, involvment in Coventry silk weaver riots, and Shakespeare's lawyer.
Kath
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I feel Left Out! ::)
The Only 'Tale' I have is that I am a Decendant (9th Generation) of John & James HARDMAN of Allerton Hall!
Their story was the Inpiration for 'Great Expectations'!
I (only!) have to go back another 2-3 generations in My research to find the Facts!
P.S.
I think that I will find a connection! ;)
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Pegasuss,
Let us know when you do. The tales are fun, but it great to find the truth in them.
Kath
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I've been able to turn up that she provided herbal remedies for people and I think that's where the witch thing came into play. Providing women for sailors, makes for an interesting story, but I am not sure I can prove that.
There's also the Jewish gr grandmother who fell in love with the Polish aristocrat. He supposedly gave her jewels that she buried under a tree somewhere in Poland, because she couldn't let her father see them. Because they knew the family wouldn't understand, she ended up marrying a nice Jewish boy and they emigrated first to Belgium and then America.
And my father-in-law swears they were related to Al Schacht, the clown prince of baseball. If you were to see a picture of my father-in-law, his father, and Al, you would agree there was a relationship, but I am having a hard time finding that one.
Kath
Wonder if there is anything in here to give you a clue Kath !! ;D ;D
MY OWN PARTICULAR SCREWBALL: AN INFORMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY. " Schacht, Al". VG+, Doubleday, 1955. First Edition, Hardcover, 5.75 X 8.5, NDJ. 254 Pages. Al Schacht was the "Clown Prince of Baseball".
http://members.aol.com/jewxword/12000.html
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My granddad kept a silver dollar in his sideboard. He said it was payment from Al Capone for transporting alcohol from Canada to the USA.
He also said that there was a family of leprechauns living in his kitchen cupboard but that I'd have to look a lot faster if I wanted to see them. ::)
Interestingly, I have recently found a person of the right name and age on a ship to Quebec at the right time - and his father and two of his brothers were crossing the border from Canada to Detroit with suspicious regularity at the same time......
Wonder what happened to those leprechauns?
Wotty.
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Annie,
We have that book and I have poured over it. There are some of the same first names in the family, which could be a clue. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the family, and I will have to try again when I get back to this side. The problem is that my husband's surname was changed and my husband seems to remember it had nothing to do with Stahl (like Stahlberg, Stahlstein, etc). No one seems to know what it was though. His gr grandfather was in England for a few years as Harris Stahl, and he had siblings over here I believe, who used the same name. Maybe it was originally Schacht. My father-in-law's sister thinks Al and her father were maybe second cousins or something. My FIL remembered Al coming to the house one day in Brooklyn to visit his dad and what a thrill that was. I will have to scan in pictures and show the resemblance. It is uncanny. I would love to find the connection.
Kath
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Wotty,
Funny, we always had a leperchaun living in our attic: Mr. Doolittle. He didn't like it when we got noisy. That's what my mom used to (try) to keep us quiet. And that's the story her grandmother told her. I wonder how many generations back that went?
I grew up on the Canadian border and there are some great stories of the bootleggers crossing the St. Lawrence River and how they knew when it was safe to come.
Kath
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I've thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories.
My fathers mother was quite a snob. She told us that her father William Boa, was a famous lawyer in Edinburgh. I wrote the University to enquire and discovered that while he was indeed a student, he never finished his education. So much for that! (I think he was a law clerk instead)
She also told my father that his second cousin was Gary Cooper, the actor. From Census returns I have learned that Gary's mother lived on the street over from my great grandmother, but no ties yet uncovered. Maybe it was "second street" and not "second cousin" Another great story though.
From my mothers side I grew up believing we were related to John and Pricilla Alden of Mayflower fame. So far it looks like "my" Aldens were Agricultural Labourers instead.
And one last one...
I heard that my mothers "Aldens" were police constables in Yorkshire. This turns out to be true. And my great grandfather Alden was a member of the North West Mounted Police, known now as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. At least that story was true.
TQB
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For years my father insisted that my grandfather was on the first boat to land on Gallipoli and managed to survive. This piqued my interest when I first started doing my family research years ago and I decided to find out if it was true. Years later I have my Grandfathers testation papers and I can firmly prove he was not on the first boat to land on Gallipoli. His battalion (20th Battalion, 5th Brigade, AIF) in fact did not land on Gallipoli until late August 1915. However, further research proved that his battalion was the very last to be evacuated from Russell's Nek in December 1915 so I now wonder if he was in fact on the last boat to leave Gallopoli? Sometimes disproving a family myth leads to an equally interesting truth! ;)
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8)
Have enjoyed reading all these. Mine rumour was not really a rumour, more a fact. We had a relative who was not brought up with the rest of her family and my gran always said that she was sent away from the family when she was 9 as her mother could not cope with all the children.
We found postcards sent from her brothers and sisters with messages on the back telling her they had got married, but they hadn't invited her to the wedding. She was even informed of the birth of new brothers and sisters this way.
I have been researching her family and came across a census entry which has her living with her grandfather when she was 3, and her grandfather's daughter who was 17. The other thing was, her second christian name was also a surname.
I got out my deerstalker and magnifying glass and started to delve and sure enough, just up the road was an entry for a family with the same surname as her middle name and their youngest son was 18 at the time of the census.
I may be putting 2+2 together but it does seem a bit of a coincidence. Also, I also found out that her original family had a farm of significant size and servants!
Sad that she was kept from everyone though. :(
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when i got in touch with my father last yar i was asking him about the family history ect well my grandfather died in 2002 age 62 my grandmother on that side died in 1998 aged 48 they were travelers and divorced in about 1970.
i asketd my father why his parents divorced and he told me my grandfather came home to the caravan drunk one night after going to work he spent all of his wages on drink.
on my grandmas side they werent travelers and my grandmas mum and grandma lived together in a house the other side of the town.
my grandad arived back at the caravan and found my gran had gone out and he was that drunk he went mad.
he stormed across the town with his brothers and kicked down the door to his mother inlaws house then he waited outside and shouted JEAN ! (my grandma ) she came outside to see what was wrong and my grandad started shouting at her.
when my grandmas grandma came out to see what was wrong she had a go at my grandad calling him a discrace he grabbed her head and threw it into the concrete she was about 70 at the time and her face was coverd in blood.
1 week later after returning home she died from gangrene infection.
well no wonder my gran divoced my grandfather and the worst thing was everyone was too scared to say anything against him because of all the family so he never even went to court everyone said my gt gt gran tripped over the door step !
i didnt believe it untill my mum and me were talking the other day and i thought i would mention it to ther and she said thats strange come to think of it i remember your gt grandma telling me that your grandad killed her mum.
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Gosh!!!!
That's really dramatic, Wileman!! ::) ::) ::)
MarieC
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i know i was really confused when i found out i thought my loving grandad the person that used to sit me on his knee and tell me stories did that :-[
i suppose i can order my gt gt grandmas death cert and see if there is any truth to it that she died from gangrene infection
however i am in touch with my grandad's mum and dad my gt grandparents and i said to her one day i am thinking of putting an ad in the local paper where you live ask for information on the wileman family and she was adimant that i didnt like she is trying to hide something but i am not going to tell her i know as it might upset her.
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You've got a real dilemma there, Wileman!! ::) ::) ::)
Do you wait till you ggrandparents are dead, and then do some more digging? Or do you do it now and just keep it quiet? I bet you are really keen to find out more!
MarieC
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My grandmothers boasts were one of the main reasons for me starting on researching my family history. Needless to say all have proved to be false although there's some extremely tenuous connections. I presume its some sort of snobbery, to try and elevate your stations by claiming one thing or another.
My GGGrandfather was supposed to be a crowned bard in the Welsh Eisteddfod, Editor of the Herald Cymraeg and had paintings hung in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
However, he was from North Wales and coloured b/w photographs in Liverpool.
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Didn't they come out with some real porkers . . . . you wouldn't make it up yourself would you!!!
Barbara 8)
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I know MarieC i am not sure what to do i dont think i will ask my gt grandparents as i dont want to upset them and i think i will quietly research my grandads crime behind my gt grandparents back so i will hopefully have some solid evidence.
however my only problem is finding my gt gt grandmas death i cant find it anywhere i think she would have died between 1968 and 1973 and her name was Hilda Gilliver she would have died in Nuneaton and she IS buried in nuneaton acording to my father but that is where my gt grandparents live 119 miles away
regards Jason
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My father in law has always maintained that his side of the family were descended from William the Conquerer! There are several family trees for his side, some recent and some drawn up in the 1850s, none of which shed any light on the rumour. Just recently I was contacted by a distant relative on his side telling me that he had found some old papers and trees dating from the early 1800s. A letter stated that the lineage had been proved and mentioned various names, marriages and dates. Of course I immediately checked these out, starting with familysearch, though not expecting any success. Lo and behold, a huge tree, going back to William the Conquerer and beyond to French aristocracy, Charlemagne etc. I have found other evidence to corroborate this and altough the link is through marriages it was lovely to be able to show my father in law the information.
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My G-Grandfather was supposed to have lied about his age to get in the army for ww1, apparently he was sixteen but claimed to be eighteen. Unfortunately this theory was blown out of the water when we found he was 28 when the war started.
Erin
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I really do think that a lot of these family rumours and tales have some truth in them and so shouldn't be taken lightly.
They can be very frustrating though - when it comes to trying to substantiate them.
3 examples:-
1. Auntie says her father/grandfather were in a circus.
No definitive proof, but birth certificates with 'born in a caravan' and ' born at Bradford Fairground' would seem to go some way to substantiating it! :)
2. Auntie says her grandfather Edward Gibson was Scottish. She remembers the strong accent.
He wasn't! He was born in West Yorkshire. However, his stepfather was Scottish, from Glasgow - and stepfather married mother when Edward was only 3. :)
3. Auntie says her grandfather Edward Gibson married an Irish woman from Blackrock in Dublin.
He didn't! She was from Huddersfield. This is the only one I'm at a complete loss to substantiate. I've gone back a few more generations and there's no sign of any Irish connections. :(
However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of these days I stumble on some proof that Blackrock features in my family somewhere along the line!! ???
Jill
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Not a family rumour but when I was at school I used to go round telling people I was born in Glasgow. Course I had got it wrong because I came from GARSTON. ;D
Well I was only 7 or 8 at the time I was told about my birth ;D ;D
Jean
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My sister in law has started to do her tree. Apparently her father had done it sometime ago, but has got lost over the eons of time. However she did recollect that there were said to be royalty or nobility in the tree. She has made rather good progress but alas, she says no nobility within the family. They were all agriculturists she told me. I'm sorry, I said, not sure what you mean. Agriculturists - agricultural labourers she explained. I nearly choked on my coffee!
Sallysmum
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Didn't they come out with some real porkers . . . . you wouldn't make it up yourself would you!!!
Barbara 8)
I don't know Barbara. I like to tell the story of how my grandmother saved Babe Ruth's life. She was a nurse when he was admitted to hospital.
My kids know I am joking. She was a nurse on duty one day when he was admitted for eating too many hot dogs and drinking too much beer (really bad indigestion), but maybe one day these rumors will grow in the family lore. Maybe I'd better stop?! ???
Kath
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Hi there
What a great subject.
Well, we had a family rumour that my Great Grandfather had killed himself by commiting suicide on a bridge in either Sydney or New York when my Grandfather was around three or four. (My grandfather had never seen him) So when I began to get interested in my Family Tree and started searching for him, the first place that I looked were the Shipping Lists for USA and Australia without any success at all. Just could not understand it.
After sitting in my local library for a few hours searching through Deaths for the Years 1904 onwards (Year my grandfather was born) I suddenly found his Death in Salisbury which was wierd because the family lived in Battersea London on the 1901 Census. So I had visions that perhaps he had had an affair and ran away (like you do) but was shocked when I received the Death Certificate and found he had infact died in a Lunatic Asylum of General Paralysis at the age of 40. This is obviously why the story was told as it was such a dreadful stigma then.
I then managed to obtain the medical records and found he had been sent there by his wife who had four small children and could not afford to keep him. He was at the Asylum from July 1904 until his Death in 1907 and it dosnt look like he received any visitors. I have recently transcribed the records and they are tragic reading.
So our family rumour didnt turn out to be true and the truth was even more tragic than we first thought
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Ragna,
That is such a sad story. How, though, did you get the medical records? That would be an incredible find for research.
Kath
P.S. I love the picture. She was beautiful.
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:'(
I thought my story was quite sad but yours...it must have been quite a shock. Well done for working hard at the research though. let's hope your next finds turn out to be much happier ones. Jane
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Ragna ... has anyone welcomed you to RootsChat ? You'll find we are an odd lot, but very friendly and helpful to each other !
What a beautiful picture ... and an unusual name too. Can I ask what its origins are ?
And that story ... what a find, and so sad too ...
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A bit like Jean McGurn's story this one, about a young member of our family imagining something that he wasn't...
Aged about 4 or 5 years old, my brother, who knew his initials were M.T.G.- the G. standing for his grandmother's surname GURNER - had to tell the rest of his infant class what his full name was, presumably on his first day there.
He very proudly announced himself as "Marcus Timothy Grandma Sherwood"...
keith
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Thank you so much for all your replies.
KathMc - I actually found this information in 2004 and from as far as i remember I got the information from the Salisbury Health Authority (pretty sure) I do know that i had to write to the relevant health authority explaining why I wanted the Records and I was lucky because it was just under the 100 years but they agreed to send it. The Form it came in was a copy of what appears to be like a book and its taken me several years to decide to completely transcribe it. Here is a snippet..
Physical Condition : Patient is a strong well nourished man of dark complexion and dull melancholy aspect. Hair black : face clean shaven : Eyes hazel : Pupils equal, both irregular in hue and both react very slightly to light & accommodation. Tongue, large, tremulous well marked fibrilary tremor, slightly furred teeth. Regular to fair condition. Pulse 66, regular good force and volume, tension moderate. Heart appears displaced downwards - apex to left of Easiform Cartilage. Lungs and abdominal organs appear healthy. Knee jerks absent. Scars - right side of neck from old abscesses : a few small scars on legs & tattoo marks left forearm. Denies any Venereal Disease.
Ragna Margrethe Soeter was my Great Grandmother and who i was named after, she died aged 29 when my grandmother was a few months old.
Janescroft - Yes it was a dreadful shock to us all, and it was only last week that i realised that he had died of Syphliss which explains now why noone had anything to do with him.
Lydart- Thank you. I have been overwhelmed by how helpful and what lovely people you all are. I have posted on other sites but have never had many replies and never found everyone so friendly.
The Picture is of my Great Grandmother My fathers mothers mother. She came from Slovanger (think its spelt like that) in Norway. My Grandmother was a nanny for the Prince of Norway and came over to England and met an Englishman. I have some wonderful Norweigan Photo albums with some wonderful and haunting photos.
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:)
You sound like a very interesting person Ragna. Have you posted any other queries yet... on a name search for instance? Try logging in late at night. You find people with a great sense of humour on the graveyard shift!
Jane
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Ranga,
Well, absolutely welcome. And amazing information you have. Fascinating and sad.
Kath
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My grandmother always said an easter cactus plant we all have a piece of was brought to the US by an ancestor from England, but during the American Revoluntion they had to flee to Canada to escape a tarring and feathering as they were loyalists. They remembered to bring the plant with them. They returned to NY a few years after the war with this plant and it has remained in the family for two hundred years. I have a piece of it now or so I think.
Well, after years of research, the best I can figure is the family came from Germany in 1860 and Scotland in 1868. I am not sure who was trying to tar and feather them!!! The American Revolution was in 1776. ;D
I think she drank too many gin and tonics! :D
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Nutkin.
We must All have a Fairytale or three in Our Files somewhere? ::)
Mine is one that I was a bit skeptical about form the start:
Not long after I first started Searching for My Roots, a relative Spun Me a Yarn to Try and convince Me:
That Our Ancestors came from Austria!
They had been in the service of Crown Prince Rudolph, & had been with Him at Myerling (where He was Murdered).
They got to England (from Myerling) via Rome! (where they were supposed to have gone on a secret mission to get the Popes blessing to Rudophs Divorce)!
A Few Months (or was it Weeks?) later I found My Ancestors 1851 Census Entry, which says they came from Germany, a bit later I found their 1881 Census which says 'Prussea')! ;)
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Great stuff,as mentioned a book would be a good idea.Lot,s of let down,s,some winner,s,but no one throwing in the towel!
Just the same here,lot,s of station,s in life,lot,s of tale,s,some true,some assumption,s that were skewed yet not entirely wrong.
What a lovely way to fritter away one,s family fortune!!
Goggy. ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Cristeen
What an interesting story - where did you find this massive family tree?
And Ragna - what a tragic tale! I'm sure this happened a lot and probably some of our missing ancestors might have similar tales to tell!
MarieC
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Oh Ragna, so sad !
Isn't it amazing, how many of us on RC are living in other countries, or have roots in other countries from where we live now ? I find all these stories and those on other threads really interesting. We are truly an international people ...
Me ... well, my roots are firmly in ag. lab. rural England ... so far; ... I'd better dig deeper !
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Ragna -
First, welcome to Rootschat.
What a tragic story and so sad.
yn9man
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My great grandmother claimed that her Mother and two sons were drowned in a boating accident at Cowes and that her Mothers father was a baronet.
I have researched this claim and found:-
her Mothers father was a journeyman Tanner in Bermondsey no record of title.
Her Mother died along with one son of Typhus in Bermondsey within one week of each other in 1855
I can find no record of any other son.
Great Grandmother was a long way from Bermondsey living is South Australia with her Husband incapacitated with paralysis from a stroke for some twenty years.
So I guess her fantasies were some comfort in adversity
My aunt was always searching for a link to Royalty :-
This story was the spur to my continuing interest in my Genealogy
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This is such an interesting thread!
Who will write the book? It might be less of a gargantuan task for one of us (I dare to call myself "us" now) to make an article or two for one of the FH magazines? Or several of these great stories could make up a monthly column?
I start my (yet another) creative writing course in February.
My father told me various family stories. Unfortunately he died before I became properly involved with family history. I did start in his last couple of years, but we knew his time was limited and I felt guilty about appearing to pick his brains because I knew he was on the way out.
A selection of the rumours:-
His Cornish mother was one of the last Cornish speakers and had second sight, read the tea-leaves. The latter was true, and a relative I found through the Cleveland FHS says her part of the family claimed this as well. But I am not sure how likely it is that she spoke Cornish.
We were related by marriage to Abraham Lincoln. In the fifties there were letters in the Burton family bible to prove this but they disappeared when my father's aunt died whilst he was abroad. It turns out that my Dad's maternal grandmother had the maiden name LINCOLN. But they seem to have come from NRY and Durham, and Abe seems to have been thoroughly traced to early emigrants from Norfolk. So not sure if that was true about the US President. My great-uncle Newark BURTON went to the USA and became a Judge. He called himself Newark Lincoln Burton in the latter part of his time there. Was this because of a real relationship, or just to sound good?
Other BURTONS and BENNETTS from N Yorkshire emigrated to the USA late 19th and early 20th century. One was a judge in Philadelpia. My grandparents had a ticket to ride, but my grandmother (of second sight fame) got as far as Liverpool but refused to get on the boat which sank.[/i] This all intrigues me, but I am brickwalled and of course it may not be true.
But what fun it all is!
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8)
I think the idea of articles in the FHmag is a great idea,pjbuk007!
Are you volunteering? I'm sure others would contribute.
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Not really, but I put that in because I am SOOOO lazy about writing and ought to try harder.
Thinking about it, I am not quite sure how to go about it anyway.
Ideas welcome!
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His Cornish mother was one of the last Cornish speakers
I think the last was one Dolly Pentreath (or Poltreath ?) from Mousehole ?? Its a vague memory of something I read when last in Cornwall ! She died about 1780 or 1800 ?
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We always had a romour that Gg grandma was a Nightingale Nurse. Well she was a Mrs Baker FACT The nearest on eon the list of Nurses held by the Florence Nigthingale Musuem was a Mrs Barker (Well it could be a Mrs Baker it's transcribed none too clearly) . Her first husband she claimed on her first sons birth certificate to be a Private in the 7th Dragoon Guards FACT The 7th Dragoon guards didn't go the the Crimea FACT when she married him in Manchester (although he's from a Birmingham family) he is down as a labourer. Next turns up in 1861 claiming to be a widow.Needless to say no sign of a death certificate. I don't think she was one! And the house she gives for address for her marriage in 1853 doesn't exist in either 1851 or 1861!
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Lydart
Yes, I think I read something like that about when Cornish died out. But if so, how come there is such a resurgence in the Cornish language now? Someone must have remembered it!
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No doubt scholars remembered it. Lots of languages have been dead for centuries, but a numbers of academics learn them. After all, it was only in the last couple of years that they dropped Anglo Saxon as being a compulsory part of english courses at Oxford...and Anglo Saxon hasn't been spoken since the 12th century!
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... and theologians often learn New Testament Greek, which isn't like modern spoken Greek AT ALL !
Welsh was on its way to becoming a dead language until 20 ? 50 ? years ago, when it was suddenly the in thing to be truly Welsh and speak the mother tongue ... even if it wasn't, in fact, your mother's tongue !
Nowadays we get all our bills here in both languages (at HUGE cost to us tax payers); all the road signs are in both; you phone the local museum or council office and always get greeted in Welsh, and then they continue in English ... and what I personally have a grouch about, is that kids in school have to learn Welsh as their second language, and if they can manage a third foreign language, they then go on to learn French or some other 'useful' language. Grouch, grumble ...
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I always question why they bother making forms and things bi-lingual. I used to work in student finance dealing with student loan application forms, which have a Welsh side and an English side. Over the course of 10-weeks, we must have had a good few hundreds forms in. You know how many students filled in the Welsh side? Not a single one! Not even the ones studying Welsh filled in the Welsh side! ::) It's a waste of taxpayers money that would be better spent doing something a lot more useful...could start on improving the health service or the police force.
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My gran used to tell us that my Gt gran (grandads mum) was a French lady and a teacher (Caroline Berenger Cooper) and PrueM's gran told her that Caroline was the daughter of a wealthy merchant who remarried after her mothers death and when she was away at school (I think in Switzerland???) her father died and the step mum took the family fortune!!
The reality is Caroline was illegitimate, born Caroline Berenger Bigg, her mother (also Caroline) married a Cooper later on .... the French thing is there though, her sister in laws were born in France and were teachers................... so a tiny bit of truth but BIG Chinese whispers included ;D
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We were always told that Great grandad was the result of a fling involving the local lord and an ag-labs wife; every Xmas, a pig would be delivered to their cottage from an anonymous benefactor who came from a place called Kingston.
Once again, it's half true. In fact the mother was a labourer's widow who caught the eye of a local farmer from Kingston in Dorset, he DID look after the boy, but married the mother so it all appears to be above board.
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I was told by my father that his great grandfather had brothers called Tom,Dick and Harry.
I discoverd Tom and Dick and thanks to Rootschat found Henry (Harry) ;D So a family myth proved. ;D ;D
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Hello,
Have enjoyed reading this thread. There's a few rumours in my family ... mostly which have been wrong. But they have been amusing. Some may have originated when the families came to Australia to 'dress up' their UK past.
1. My maternal Grandmother says she accidently met her future husband's grandfather in Sunderland prior to immigrating to Australia. This would be difficult as she was born in 1914, and he died in 1906.
2. My gt-grandmother had an illegitimate girl in Britain around 1912, prior to marrying and moving to Australia. According to family rumour the 'girl' was reportedly given to an aunt to raise. However it was a boy! He was born in 1908 (when gt-granny was 16) but he appears to have been raised by the family of a cousin (Lovatts of Belvedere, Kent).
3. Some politicans in the family. Some truth in this. Poynton family had one Australian Senator and two lord mayors in Australia. None so far in the UK.
4. Unusual rumour... there's lots of engineers in the Hedley family. One part of the family is supposedly related to William Hedley who invented a steam train, the Puffing Billy. So far unproven, must be a very loose connection. But found theres lots of mariners and marine-related professions from Sunderland.
5. According to rumour, my Gt Uncle came to Australia to learn how to run a cattle property in Queensland. It seems the family paid to send him to Australia for training after he got a household maid pregnant.
But there have been a few family details which were proven correct... a maternal Gt-Granny in Sunderland inheritated money from a wealthy aunt who she lived with for a while, a maternal Gt-grandfather managed Speedings tent making company, then estalished a similar tent production firm in Australia, and a paternal Gt-Grandmother (former shopkeeper) told my mother that her toddler son (my brother) was good with money. This last one still causes much amusement in the family. Her prediction was correct... He became an accountant.
Cheers CJ Thorpe
Canberra Australia
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Gt-Grandmother (former shopkeeper) told my mother that her toddler son (my brother) was good with money. This last one still causes much amusement in the family. Her prediction was correct... He became an accountant.
Are you sure?
What have the two in common!! ;D ;D
Keith
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Giggle! :D
Sorry Cheshire Cat/Keith, I think it is more of an insiders family joke!
I was fascinated gt-granny's prediction came true ... Perhaps it was as a result of a tough life and a knowledge of lots of things. The older generation still refer to my brother as 'canny' and seek him out at family functions for tax, retirement, and financial advice.
Does the nickname Cheshire Cat mean you have a large grin and a good sense of humor?
Cheers CJ Thorpe
Canberra, Australia
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Does the nickname Cheshire Cat mean you have a large grin and a good sense of humor?
Cheers CJ Thorpe
Canberra, Australia
It means all that - plus I was born and "dragged up" in Cheshire!! ;D
And with family history you need a sense of humour - especially when some most of the relations are prone to tell fibs lie!! ;) :o
Cheers
Keith ;D
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CJ
you are right ... Keith has a great sense of humour and Cheshire Cat suits him ;D ;D ;D
Cal 8)
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I supposedly have an ancestor who was hung as a horse thief in Yorkshire. His name was "Ratty" Nixon as he was a rat catcher by trade. Have yet to find him. Only one rat catcher found so far and he poisoned himself by taking horse medicine for his rheumatism. Would love to find the truth in this tale!
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I'm sticking to and following the family rumours, they haven't let me down so far ;D
Yeah yeah Keith 'dragged up in Cheshire' .......
I knew you were part of the Cheshire set ;) ;D :D
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My mother always wondered if my father's mother was of French descent, based on her maiden name on my father's birth certificate.
Turns out that was not her real maiden name: it was the surnname of the relatives who raised her and their family was originally from Ireland.
The funny bit is that her real maiden name is French!
Regards,
Josephine
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I was told we had Japanese, Gypsy & Prostitute connections on my father's side.
Japanese is true and possibly the prostitute. I haven't yet found a gypsy connection,
unless my auntie Elsie, maiden name 'Pike' counts.
Pilly
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Not in my family - but a close friend's!
There was a "rumour" of someone being shipwrecked on an island (in the South pacific, I believe) sometime in the late 1800's. Apparently word got home that he had survived and could not get home to his family - he was apparently made "king" of the island by the natives (probably another inducement to stay and leave his wife and children abandoned at home in the UK!)
Just last summer, out of the blue, my friend received some correspondance from this missing relative's "island" decendents, along with copies of photos of the miscreant in his latter years - which bore a close resemblance to existing photos my friends family already had!
So now a "reunion" is being planned.....I shall have to remember to curtsey to my friend, given her "royal" connections!
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stoney,
Wow, what an exciting family reunion that will be for your friend! Please fill us in on the details when you learn them.
Regards,
Josephine
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Hi All
My dad always said that his g grandmother was Spanish (probably true as her name was Da Costa), but he said that he was descended from the Carreras tobacco family and that his descendant was the black sheep of the family and fled to England! As I haven't so far traced the Da Costa lady, I can't confirm that but I suspect my dad made it up.
The other rumour comes from my mother, she always said that we were related to Emma Hamilton, Nelson's mistress. I have recently read 2 biographies about her and in both it is stated that she was born Amy Lyon on 26 April 1765, in Ness on the Wirral, Cheshire, which at the time was a huddle of thirty or so miners' hovels. Her mother was called Mary Kidd and she moved to Ness from Hawarden, a village outside Chester, to look after her newly born nephew. (Men out numbered women 5 to 1 in Ness!). I do have lots of descendants from a different part of Cheshire, but they were, like lots of others, agricultural labourers/farmers/butchers, but lived a long way from the Wirral. If there is a connection, I have yet to find it and I am back to 1740 with the largest branch of the family.
Liz
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My Dad remembers being told as a child that his family came from Turkey - across the water. Try as I might, I couldn't find any relatives from Turkey and have managed to get back to the early 1700s.
Several years ago, I moved to a small village and was amazed to find that the particular relatives in question also came from this village some 100 years earlier.
Whilst driving home one evening, I noticed a sign for 'Turkey Farm'. Turkey Farm certainly was 'across the water'. My grandparents lived in a village the other side of the river!
Whilst I can't be certain, I think its more likely this was the 'Turkey' my Dad was told about!! ;D
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;D ;D ;D
KPM, that gave me a good chuckle!
Prue
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KPM,
I think I would vote yours the funniest rumor/outcome on the list so far. ;D ;D ;D
Kath
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KPM - and how nice of us that no-one has mentioned bird flu... ;)
meles
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KPM
You are not looking for Matthews I hope ???
Fabulous story ;D
Cal 8)
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Hi All
Glad it made you chuckle. I had a little laugh for days afterwards when I thought about it - bit embarrassing in Safeways though, I got some very strange looks!!
Sadly, it wasn't the Matthews family I was looking for, but wouldn't that have made the story even funnier!!!
and finally - yes... thank you all for not mentioning the dreaded b*** flu!!! ;D ;D ;D
Anne-Marie (KPM)
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Excuse me if this sounds ridiculous but I read this thread directly after reading the one about "Psychic Roots"...
CJ Thorpe. I looked at your family rumours and was struck by the one about the Great Uncle who was sent to Oz by his family after his flirtation with the housemaid. Just humour me will you, and tell me where he came from?
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What do you sing Mrs Lizzy?
Do beg your pardon, Linmey. I never answered this. Opera and oratorio. Sorry for the delay! :)
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I was always told by my Grandmother that there was Japanese in our family, and my sister had pallow skin and slanted eye's. I havn't found anythingso far. So I have to assume that the milkman was Japanese ::)
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;D you dont know how long I have just spent looking for this post, I started reading it yesterday and laughed till I cryed, thanks! I am new to this board so will have to figure out how I can save a post...my family story I just put up on the cheshire site..it is this
what is supposed to of happened is the servant girl being had by the lord and married off and the child provided for...my mother was sure it was the 7th earl of stamford, and although he was a rouge and had strange taste in women I don't think it was him, I thought it was the H G who became the 8th earl...before he was sent away to south Africa for bringing shame on his family by being a drunk and a wasterall...that would of made it a Sarah Jane jackson who worked as a servant for them and Alfred Cooke who she was married off too and even though they had 12 children I might add I can find no record of them ever being married and for some strange reason all 11 kids were baptized but the first one George w...never was, but I have come across a book that puts the Cooke's working for the earls of Stamford back when the 5th earl was alive and that George Cooke died and left a lot of money back to the Grey family..the author of the book implied he might of stolen it but why would you leave money to the family you stole from...no looking at the bit of will she has in the book I think he was the Cooke born out of wedlock and taken on as steward..the money he left would of been to his half brothers etc...so the story seems to be a lot older then I had first thought. but I have no doubt somewhere the truth is in there.
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Oooooh, Harewoodhouse,
Thats one family myth/legend I would love to sink my teeth into. :o How intruiging! Love to know if you find any truth behind the myth some time.
Bron
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::) well cybermouse if you can figure it out you are more then welcome to try...I have been up against a brick wall for years,I have looked high and low and cannot find away around it, my mother and grandfather were determined to figure it out and they never did before they died ,after my mother passed and I found photos etc that she had left of herself at dunham Massey (the family estate) and I found out that the place was in the hands of the national trust it wasn't hard to find that all the papers had been sent to ryland uni so I wrote to them and got a nice reply saying that he had heard there were rumours but not the type of thing a family would right down and only the really old papers were given to the uni not the time frame we would be looking at if it was Sarah, and as I say I now think it was an older story but still something very fishy with Sarah's" marriage" , also I know at one point my grandfather had written to the Grey family and had gotten a reply that he said he would show me when I got older and that they were a lovely family...I had totally forgotten about it until I cleared up my mothers papers and by then my grandfathers things were long gone.
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Hello Everyone - I have enjoyed reading the stories on this thread.
I have recently finished reading a delightful book written by Humphrey Lyttleton - It Just Occurred To Me - pub.2006.
In this he says :-
It matters not if stories of our quirks and foibles pass, through repetition and embroidery, from fact into fiction.
They are, after all, the stuff of immortality..........
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Most of my dear old Mum's stories have been proved one way or another...except the one about....
One of the rellies was a policeman involved in the Sydney Street Siege in London.
Haven't come to grips with that one yet...there again maybe he was one of the terrorists :P
Sylvia
PS anyone know if there are lists for those involved anywhere?
Some of the names that I have come across during research on the above, which may be of interest are: -
Police Officers who died or were injured in original raid at Houndsditch -
Died - Sergeant Bentley, Sergeant Thomas Tucker and PC Choat
Injured - PC Woodhams and Sergeant Bryant
Some of the Police Officers involved in the Sidney Street siege: -
Chief Superintendent John Stark
Superintents John Mulvaney and John Ottaway
Detective Inspectors Wensley, Willis, Collinson and Newall
Detective Sergeants Leeson and James Thurlow
Inspectors Frank Hallam and Thomas Wheeler
Inspector Quinn - Scotland Yard
PC Albert Burridge
Firemen - Station Officer A. E. Edmunds, W.H. Wilks and Walter Herbert Drew
As there were over 50 attending officers to begin with, followed by 200 additional Metropolitan and City of London Police Officers, detachment of foot guards from the Tower and a section of Royal Horse Artillery from St John's Wood Barracks, these names are just a few of the many involved.
justmej
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My mother insists that we are descended from Grace Darling. However, as far as I can make out we have no-one called Darling in our tree, and I don't think that Grace Darling married or had children to be descended from.
Having said all that, most of the stories that my mother has come out with have had some truth in them. We aren't descended from a famous railway engineer called Luke Wanless (he wasn't that famous) - but from one of his sisters. Christopher Rowntree didn't own a shop in Bishop Auckland called Duff and Rowntree, but the Rowntree involved in that may have been his cousin.
I just wish she'd write it all down so that I can have a real good look at it, but as is often the case with older people, she comes out with those "of course, you know that..." kind of comments that are just not quite enough to be going on with!
Wotty
Hello Wotty
Just a thought I have just been to Souter Light house in Marsden South Sheilds Tyne and Wear and Robert Darling who was Grace Darlings nephew worked and lived there for 24 years, maybe you are descended from him, but then as you say you have not come across any Darlings as yet in you tree. :)
cherry berry
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Just picking up on Wotty's comments and the Grace Darling element in this thread
"My mother insists that we are descended from Grace Darling. However, as far as I can make out we have no-one called Darling in our tree, and I don't think that Grace Darling married or had children to be descended from".
When I was at primary school we had to write items about famous Britons, one of whom was Grace Darling. My mother seemed to know a lot about Grace and it turned out to be because my ggggrandmother was, according to her, Grace Darling's cousin; a term which I have come to realise can mean almost anything.
Grace didn't marry and have children so any descent from Grace tends to be indirect and it certainly hasn't been easy to establish the link but I have just about done it and the link seems to be through Grace Darling's brother, William Brooks Darling, and his wife, Jane Downey. Jane's mother, Margaret Swan, I think was my gggggrandmother's sister.......you see what I mean about descents being indirect!!!
The story was to some extent bolsterd up by the fact that my family has some artefacts allegedly given by the Forfarshire survivors to Grace who passed them on to my ggggrandmother(Euphemia Wallace ms Young).
So this story I think is true but I don't know about leprachauns in cupboards/attics. My grandfather used to tell me that if you unscrewed your belly button your legs would fall off so maybe not everything that grandparents say should be believed. ;)
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It has bee suggested in the families of some of the family history contacts with shared ancestry that we are descended from Milton the poet
I do indeed have Miltons in the tree
The furthest I have got back is William Milton, who started having children in Warfield, Berks in 1682
Milton's ancestors were it seems from Stanton St John in Oxfordshire
So no connection
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This has been going for a while now, nice to see it back. :)
Looking back at my contribution back on page six (3 years ago!) I've still yet to prove any of my family rumours. However last year I set about trying to find an elusive 2 x Great Uncle who, according to another family rumour had jumped ship in America, and everyone (in the family) was very ashamed. Well having found someone with the same name serving in the Navy in the 1871 census I managed to trace his Naval career. It turned out to be the right person and yes, he jumped ship in Halifax, Canada. So far so good, I then found an article on his marriage in Massachusetts in our local newspaper put in by his parents, which I thought was a bit strange considered he was a deserter. From the marriage I managed to trace his descendants right up to the mid 1990s, but the trail ran cold. But, last week, in an unrelated search I came across someone looking for information on my navy deserter, and I have now discovered a new (distant) cousin and information on an elusive line in my tree! ;D
It does pay to keep digging into those rumours!
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Well done, MarkyP! You must feel so chuffed! :D You've certainly demonstrated the importance of checking out rumours!
MarieC
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...and the importance of checking out four year old threads on RC !
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My late mother in law always said her ggg grandmother came from the West Indies and we thought it was a far fetched story until I started doing my husbands tree and I found her married in England in 1826 died in Scotland in 1857 the daughter of a sugar plantation owner from Barbados I couldn't believe it when I saw her death certificate.
Ann
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I have been told that a Male Mann was carpenter on HMS Vistory and is depicted in the back right corner of a famous painting of Nelson dying. Story comes from Gt x n grandmother always putting a Union Jack on a picture of HMS Victory on Trafalgar day!
I have yet to make the connection and my source for the story passed away last Nov.
Spark
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Well I found out the rumour was true yesterday that they came from Denmark.
Sirius
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I knew we had 'money' way back due to family rumours .... Finaly found out where this came from// my ggg grand father was a stock broker .. in 1814 he was giving away 500 pounds here and a 1000 of pounds there ... blimey he was wealthy.. how ever his descendants left nothing ........................
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I've heard many family rumors, but a lot of them have been either false or not yet proven true.
I've heard that my great-great-grandmother was a full blooded Native American. But disproved it once I found out her grandmother's ancestors were all from England.
I also heard that my great-great-great-grandfather was Native American, and he was an alcoholic so they sent him to a rehabilitation center. My grandmother had told me that she thinks from the gist of how it was told, that he died when his daughter (my great-great-grandmother) was in her teens. At the beginning, I just believed it because I couldn't find anything for him past 1880. But sure enough, not that long ago I found his death certificate and some more census records. He lived to be 84. But he did live in institutions since the 1890's until his death.
I heard that my great-great-great-great-grandmother was a full-blooded Native American. She was a medicine woman for the Mashpee Wampanoag Native American tribe and her name was Rowena Pearl. Well, so far I have found that her name was Elizabeth (Maiden Name: Hall) Pearl. Still can't find anything with the name Rowena or anything to do with the Mashpee Native American's...but still searching!!!
Seems most of my rumors surround those Native Americans!
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Hi, I find this very interesting as I am also trying to find out which of grace darlings brothers I am related to!
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Interesting thread.
Supposedly my great-grandfather had a second family during his years in Peru. I'd love to meet some peruvian half-cousins. I think proving that one would be a challenge!
My other maternal great-grandfather on the other hand was easy. I am descended from the second family! :)
I don't know where all the womanizing charm went.
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In high school, my Gran* told me that my Pop* was a descendant of Anne Boleyn.
She even had a book detailing the history of his family. (Although it was published before he was born.)
Turns out, in a way, she was correct. My Pop is a Shelton and is a direct descendant of Sir John Shelton and LADY Anne Boleyn, Queen Anne's aunt.
*My mom was raised by a first cousin and her husband, so while I am blood-kin to my Gran, she is actually my first cousin once removed (I think that's right), and I'm not blood-related (that I am aware of) to my Pop. So I personally cannot claim to be a descendant of Sir John Shelton and Lady Anne.
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Well, I wasn't really told any family stories (complicated reasons as to why). My mom did once tell me we were part Italian, though I have found no proof of that whatsoever. Smiths are a nortoriously difficult bunch to trace anywhere in the world.
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Internet research produced two Cherokee 6th greatgrandfathers. One one my mother's side (Tommy Ellis) and one on my father's side (Vincent Tanner). I've done the DNA thing and my understanding is it can fairly accurately tell you what percentage of European, African and Asian (which includes Native American) you are, within 5 generations.
So it's just shy of my "Cherokee" ancestors, however, I came back as 0% Asian and .27% African. Point-27 is just about the right amount for one 6th ggf.
So it seems that one was flat out lying and the other was of African descent passing as a Cherokee.
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My father was a tale-teller, especially after a pint or two.
1, His grandfather was a pirate. (My g-mother had pieces of silk which were supposed to have come from spoils.) That there had been a fall-out over division of booty, it was taken to Court, and the lot was lost. This sounds more like a "privateer" tale, but the time- scale is all wrong anyway.
2. His g-father, (same one?) once took a bowl of soup up to a corpse on a gibbet, the cadaver belonging to someone hanged for sheep-stealing. Once again out of time.
Although we have a detailed tree going back many generations, I cannot see any way of finding links to these, unless there is a "Fairy" out there.
We did think that we had a link to the first, when my son found a man of the same name on a ship of Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar, but that turned out to be no more than a transcription error!
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Love this thread!!! Most of our rumours have been slightly based on a true event and just exagerated over the years. Would just like to say though that I am now inflicting this "exageration" on my daughter.
Near us there is an aerospace museum (Cosford) and there is a plane on display there that my Grandad welded some part for back in the sixties. When we visited Cosford this fact became dramatised into "Grandad Roy made that plane!!!" ;)
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Hi
this thread is great I have found no evidence for some rumors like my great grandmother was from a rich Jewish family, She has a Jewish name but as I have found baptism records for her ancestors I doubt that be I am still going back maybe its in there somewhere ;D
But I did have a story from my grandad he told me an aunt owned a big stately home that he visited as a kid, my cousin recalls the same story but he never seemed to have told it to his own kids, they put it down to grandad pulling our leg, lol. there was very little money in there family and seenmed unlikely.
but as it turns out a completely true story!!! she was born into a fairly poor family, through very lucky circumstances and a few marriages ;D started her own company and made millions brought a near derelict stately home did it up, needless to say she liked spending and died in a modest London house on her own leaving almost nothing, she did however keep two large stone lions from the big house in her garden at London, they must have looked hilarious, excentric doesn't begin to describe her!!!
I took my children to the house a couple of years back it was amazing. ;D
Helen.
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Hi
I was always remonded of Aunt Maggie (my faher's aunt) she died of flu when she was 19. I had trouble finding her death and when i did find it she was 23 when she died in 1919. The story had just got a little twisted.
Ian
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My mum remembers more family stories than anyone else in the family. Her side must have been much more inventive than my dad's side.
It was her story that we are descended from George Marsh - St. George the Martyr - which got me looking into family history in the first place. "There's always a George in each generation" turned out to be a blatant lie, and I have yet to find a link in the saint's direction other than the parish in which the family lived for at least 200 years.
One of her grandfathers was born in Lancaster, but not at the castle as she had been told.
Her other grandfather was not the "seventh son of a seventh son" as she had been informed, bit the warts were successfully charmed away nevertheless.
She has been the source of many stories of life in the 1930s and 1940s which seem invented for some television programme or other, but I BELIEVE HER.
A sample:
A fruit loaf had been forgotten in the oven of the range for over a day and had the texture of a brick. She and her sister carefully wrapped it in brown paper and left it on the wall by the tram stop as though it had been forgotten by someone getting on.
They sat inside and watched through the front window.
Someone got off a tram from town and saw the parcel. They picked it up and immediately got on the tram heading back towards town. I wonder what they though when the parcel was unwrapped?
Another:
Being on the outskirts of town, it seems they became known for providing hospitality for tramps, common in the 30s. Bear in mind that her father died when she was 8, and the family had very little.
A chap knocked on the door and asked for a drink of water. They invited him in, brewed up and made him a sandwich. A corner of the table was laid so he could sit down and feel civilised as he ate and drank.
As the chap was leaving, they pressed on him the fourpence fare for the tram to take him on to Westhoughton.
When they returned to clear the table, they found a half crown under the tablecloth.
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I don't know about true but I have plenty of family rumours that have kept the family guessing and my interest in dispelling them even greater. ;D
Two of the tales concern police officers within the family. The first is that we are related to the policeman who was shot in the arm and then arrested the notorius Victorian criminal Charlie Peace.....how true this connection is will be hard to say but the surname of the police officer involved, the time frame & location tends to fit in with what I have been told but I can not find the link. The other relates to Jack the Ripper and a policeman being dressed up to the nines in women's clothing in an attempt to catch him (bet that went down well in the police canteen when they asked for a volunteer ;D ). True, my family were living within the area at the time of the murders (in fact only a few streets away in the case of one of victims) but again there is no real evidence found that the "copper in drag" would be a relation if indeed it really happened.
My mother always said that we were related to Robert the Bruce somewhere along the line and also to Gypsy Rose Lee (never knew if she meant the stripper or the fortune teller ;D ). Its true that we have Lee's in the family but they came from the eastend of London - and were said to be near neighbours of the Kray's- but so far no strippers or card & palm readers have turned up, and as for the mighty Bruce hmmmmmmm well the jury is out on that one.
On my fathers side there are tales that centre mainly around my grandfather who we, as children, were led to believe had left the family home and travelled across the pond to join up in the mounties and tales of him trudging through deep snow drifts to apprehend the wanted captivated the imagination of a dreamy nine year old. True my grandfather did leave the family to travel across the pond but as a fireman/stoker on merchant ships between Glasgow-Halifax N.S. and New York. It is also true that he served in Canada but not with the mounties. He jumped ship in Halifax (another story yet to be confirmed) and joined the Royal Canadian Regiment and returned with them to fight in Europe from 1917, this after being discharged from the Highland Light Infantry after being wounded and no longer fit for active service (him serving in the HLI also explains why the family are supposed to be true Highlanders when in fact they were lowlanders but hey why spoil a good story with some truths & geographical facts ;D ). It was he that was also said of ..."he was part of a party who attempted to save Nurse Cavell from the Germans but failed and because of their failure the men in the party turned down a medal..." hmmmm again a bit stretched in the truth department but he was awarded the Military Medal for something as yet undiscovered.
OR
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I am intrigued by the absence of a family story. There are quite a few of Douglas, Hodgson, Walker (nineteenth century St Helens), some are probably true, some probably untrue, others plausible but unproven (e.g - a bareback rider in the family - I found someone in a circus, tho what she did is not given in censuses - I judge that one unproven but plausible). But why did it not come down thru only two or three generations that the Douglas's were Irish immigrants? After all, there were many Irish migrants in the mid 19th century, and many living in St. H. - very odd, I think.
Harlemswife
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But why did it not come down thru only two or three generations that the Douglas's were Irish immigrants? After all, there were many Irish migrants in the mid 19th century, and many living in St. H.
Not that unusual really. My grandmother's McLeod ancestors in Canada 'came from the Isle of Skye' without a mention of 2/3 generations stop in Ulster (ironically not that far from where her husband's parents came from).
My grandfather's sister married a man from Scotland and apparently called herself 'Scottish' totally ignoring her Ulster roots.
On the other hand my grandfather's family were 'German' despite arriving in America in 1700s.
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Hmmmm - concealed Irish ancestry, eh? I suppose what I am thinking now is - why have certain stories persisted? Why are some embellished? Why were some made up? I think I want the provenance of stories.
My Uncle clearly remembers his mother telling him there were angels seen at the Battle of Mons. My Father said her brother, his Uncle, had seen an angel at Mons. Now - whether we think anyone at all saw angels at Mons is one thing - what is certain is that Mons was early in WW1 and none of my Grandmother's brothers were there at the time - that's clear from their medal cards. But - it is said that my Grandma dabbled in spiritualism, and I now think that she needed to believe in angels at Mons for her own peace of mind. This might be a fanciful conclusion, but it tells me something about her. I don't know for certain what she believed, but it's plausible that she believed in angels at Mons.
These days the folks on here, and other like-minded friends we might talk to about genealogy, tend to be proud of their ancestors' achievements. I need to stretch my brain a bit to begin to think what it must be like to want to conceal your ancestry. It's impossible to know what the experience of the Irish migrant might have been, but in these cases it doesn't seem to hav e been Irish pride.
Harlemswife
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My uncle (Indirect) was told when he was young that he was decended from one of the Leiths of Leith Hall. This story came from a branch of his family in Dundee. After some time digging, I finally found a birth record of his 4th great grandfather being recorded as "James Leith of Leith Hall" who went on to be Sir James Leith, governor of Barbados.
I was told when I was a child that I was decended from the Whytes, of Whytes and MacKay distillers.
Alas, no "proof"
Regards
Malky
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Hmmmm - concealed Irish ancestry, eh? ... I need to stretch my brain a bit to begin to think what it must be like to want to conceal your ancestry. It's impossible to know what the experience of the Irish migrant might have been, but in these cases it doesn't seem to hav e been Irish pride.
I never said my relatives were trying to conceal thier Irish ancestry. The McLeods were very proud of their Scottish background and whilst they often gave their ethnic origin as Scottish they equally gave it as Irish in official records and the family Bible clearly listed where they lived in Ireland.
My grandfather's family called themselves 'Scottish from the North of Ireland' (more commonly known today as Ulster Scots) and since my great-aunt married a man born in Scotland she probably identified more with the Scottish (mainly Protestant community) rather than the Irish Catholics in the area.
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When I was a little girl my father would often come out with the phrase "when we lived at the castle" to which my mother always retorted "you mean when you were on your barge".
Mum was so right - my father's grandmother was indeed the daughter of a Waterman ;D
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On my mother's side we are supposed to be descended from General Fairfax (one of Cromwell's generals) the proof being a silver spoon in the possession of my grandmother. The story was that Fairfax's son stole the family silver but was drowned crossing a river while making his getaway. The silver was recovered and thereafter it was always passed down the female line of the family
Unfortunately, none of it is true -- we have no Fairfax ancestors, and Genreal Fairfax had no daughters to inherit and pass the silver down
My other family story is more recent and on my fathers side. My grandmother always asserted that her father went out to China with the Sassoon family and was a vet in the Imperial Stables. One day he came home from work, rang the bell for tea and fell down dead.
Truth -- he was a vet and went out to China -- but certainly not to the Imperial court. We can find no evidence of any Sassoon connection, although the captain of the cargo ship his wife & baby went out to join him on was a Capt Gassoon.
As for his death -- according to the coroner's report he came home drunk on day, had a row with his wife over his drinking & gambling habits and then grabbed a bottle from the mantelpiece and drank its contents. He then said "i have taken poison" but his wife did not at first believe him. Unfortunately this was true and within half an hour he was dead.
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My family "tale" was that we were somehow supposed to be of French origin!
Closest I have found is G-G-Grandfather who was born on Jersey - but his family were only there for 5 years or so! ;D
A modern tale that may well be passed on:
My twin brother used to work at BAC in Filton, Bristol - where they made Concorde?
We told younger brother's girlfriend that he glued the noses on Concorde - because he was the only small enough to fit!!
She believed us!! ;D ;D
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I don't have any romantic legends in my family, but there were two particular rumours
One was that my cousin had been asked to do the family history as he was the first son of the first son of the first son of the first son of our celebrated (well, to us!) ancestor John Pay. He passed the details of the history to me only reluctantly, as his only child was a daughter and couldn't continue this pattern.
He was really distressed when I found that our mutual great great grandfather was not the first son, but the third son of his father John Pay. And even worse, it turned out that the celebrated John Pay himself was illegitimate!
And the second rumour, from the other side of the family, was that my great grandfather, my mother's grandfather, (originally from Belgium) had left his wife and young family, stealing the money his wife had saved to return to visit her family in Belgium, using it to go the the US to make his fortune.
He failed miserably, and came back home again penniless but his wife refused to take him back, and he used to hang about the street and try and get money from my grandmother when she came out of work at the cigar factory (shades of Carmen, here!!). The abandoned family had to be supported by the nuns, and my aunt reported that her grandmother (the abandoned wife) henceforth hated nuns, and the whole family abandoned the Catholic faith.
I investigated this as much as I could. The whole family, including great grandfather, were together in the censuses including the 1901, so if it were true, the story must be after then.
However, my grandmother was married in 1902 and would at that time have given up work and not be coming home from the cigar factory (she did indeed work there) to be approached by her destitute father.
The other "children" of the family in 1901 were Mary (aged 30 and married with children), John (aged 25 and married), my grandmother (23 and just about to be married), Henry (20 and employed), George (17 and employed) and finally William (13, the only one still at school). So scarcely a "young family".
I couldn't find any record of a trip to the US by my great grandfather Victor Desire Van Steenhoven, or a return.
However, he was in the workhouse in the 1911 census and I can't find my great grandmother and her remaining unmarried children anywhere in the Census, so it does look as if they were living apart.
Perhaps it did happen, probably after 1901, and he begged from his married children. And perhaps my great grandmother wanted support from the Church just for her youngest son and herself. Perhaps he didn't go to the US but somewhere outside London.
And the whole family does seem to have moved away from Catholicism - my great grandparents' marriage was definitely in a Catholic church, but none of the other children remained Catholic so far as I know. Indeed for my mother the Catholic faith was something quite alien (quite a common attitude for non-Catholics of her generation).
Why didn't I ask more questions when the relevant relations were alive? >:(
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Aghadowey - I am sorry I misunderstood your earlier message. I still think it is interesting what does and does not get passed down, and I am enjoying everybody's stories.
harlemswife
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An aunt mentioned in her journal some gossip her mum (born 1878) had passed on to her about an uncle born 1845 being married but his wife had left him.
Each census year noted this uncle as single and lodging with different people, even at one time with this aunts mum and she still noted him as single ???
It wasn't until the 1911 census that I could find a possible wife for him , the certificate proving all along that he was a married man.
Ambers
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One of the more amusing tales is that you hear of an ancestor/relative who has 'done' the family tree
In my case, my dad's uncle Bert who lived in Rhodesia and South Africa, retired quite young was supposed to have done this, however there was never any sign of a tree, and I recently met his only grandson who also had no details.
When you think in that era when most parish registers were still at the churches, it would've been a mighty difficult job.
I found a few scribbled trees that my paternal grandfather outlined, this had the same error on as what I was told (maiden name of my 3 x gt grandmother)
I was told that one of the Douglas watchmakers came from Scotland
well I am back to James Douglass born about 1730-1733 - don't know where he was born, I know his father was John.
It does not look likely that I will identify his father and get further back. Judging by the tree, my grandfather did not know.
Bob Douglas
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My mother used to say that my Dad who died when I was small had a relative who worked at Dartmoor prison.Today I was doing some searching for my Great grandmother's brother George Newey.I found him on the 1871 census in Dartmoor prison,I now want to find out what he did to end up there.
Barb
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My brother-in-law's parents are both in Broadmoor on the 1911 census..... they were prison warders :)
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We were told that my Great Grand Father went to sea. Yes he did backwards and forwards between his two families. One in Ireland and the other in Liverpool.
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Some have grain of truth, some fanciful.
One Branch rumour placed origins in Cornwall/Devon in mining - is true and recently knocked out a brick wall by using tiny snippet of info within the family "story"
Another branch was "best not to look into" - found the hidden convict!
Branch 3 had a story about a Spanish connection to explain "one off" dark olive complexions ... Can't find any truth in this story. Same branch had another story for the reason my ancestor came to Oz.... To hook up electricity to the cities! Can't find any link here either, although he did have a patented invention for letter boxes with lights, sirens and whistles. Didn't seem to take off though ....
Branch 4 family story all pretty much true - dirt poor, enormous family in uk who came to oz, worked hard and covered the country with offspring
Cocksie
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My Dad always said that his Dad had paid to have the family tree drawn up professionally about 20 years ago. When he received the tree he read it and ripped it up, my Dad claimed it was because someone on the tree had been hanged for stealing a pig!!!!
Of course this caused much amusement and annoyance for many years. But I think I have found the real reason, or reasons for the ripping up.........Illegitimate children and a CONVICT!
One Peter Appleyard, my 4x gt grandfather, was sent to Tasmania in 1835 after being convicted with poaching four ducks, he had previously been jailed for 1 month for stealing fowls and then again fined 2 pounds for poaching.
On my Mum's side the rumours of a Saggar Makers Bottom Knocker has been substantiated, along with many other pottery related jobs. ;D
Trying to find out if this Peter Appleyard also appears on my family tree. My 4x great grandmother was an Abiah Appleyard who married a Joseph Robinson Ellis. Were Peter's parents Samuel Appleyard and Elizabeth Wood or have I got the wrong Peter. I do hope not as I could do with some excitement on my tree.
Thanks in advance, Carrie xx ??? ;D
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I haven't found out yet, but at one of our daughters wedding about 15 yrs, ago, an old friend of my mother asked me if i'd ever been in touch with my step brother in Denmark, this was news to me, but shouldn't have been, my old man was married at least four times plus a few friends on the side, apparently whilst in the RAF at the end of the war he was stationed in Denmark, met another "friend", so hence my new relation, . Any suggestions on how one would check the story ?. Bodger
I've got quite a similar story. (It was actually surprising enough that I wrote about it on hubpages.)
On my 17th birthday, my Mom told me that I was old enough to know my dad had once told her that he was illegitimate. (Till then the family story was that our surname was a common one and Babcia "just happened" to marry a guy with the same last name. She had disagreed with Dad's desire to keep it secret.) On the back of the photo she showed me was the very wacky spelling of his name. Drzewuszewski. (Thank the gods I didn't have to carry THAT surname around as a child!)
Years later I mentioned this to my brother. One day while researching our family history, my brother posted on Ancestry.com with (our only) photo of our grandfather (the spitting image of Dad) and his last name. Then he got a response from our half uncle, all the heck the way in Poland. Also a genealogy enthusiast. He had a copy of the exact same photo.
80 years from my father's birth, our family is reunited, at least online.
You might also try the notices section in the newspaper from town your family comes from, or local social media. Who knows? You might get a hit!
Much luck!
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I also thought we were descended from Robert Burns. No luck yet!!!
I'm a distant cousin of Willa Cather.
The story since my childhood was that there was some huge splinter that drove one half of the family to drop the "s" on the end of our name. Our family is NOTORIOUS for big family splits. (Not sure what's with that other than we tend toward flaming Irish/Scots/Viking/Gypsy tempers!) This is at least one of 3 I've documented THUS FAR.
Okay one split was over a divorce. Another was because my grandparents became Communists in the 20s/30s. But we still haven't figured out the Cather/s spit.
At some point my Mom contacted one of Willa's branch and confirmed they had the same rumor. Far as I know they didn't stay in touch.
Couldn't hurt to contact known Burns descendants and see if they have any info to help.
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When I started looking, it was to find my Russian great-grandfather Karl Wiliski. He was apparently a carpenter who came over to England, changed his name to Charles Willis and settled here.
Or so the story as told by my nan went......
However, after a short bit of research, I found:
- No Russians in any line.
- Charles was born in Brighton, so was his dad, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his g-g-grandfather was a Londoner!
- He wasn't a carpenter, but his dad was.
- The Russian connection was simply down to my nan having red hair and being called Russian Red
So, the story was accurate in every detail apart from the facts!
Glen
And sometimes family members just pure lie, for reasons of their weird own.
As a kid I was told my grandparents "just happened" to have the same last name before they married. When confronted with my grandpa's REAL last name, my father insisted he was a family friend. (He was actually a bastard of an illicit romance.) Grandma also denied Gypsy ancestry, even though it's VERY obvious, both from her looks and the little research on her we've dug up. (Shame how many records got destroyed in WW2!)
How any of this info might have been an issue in the "modern" world I grew up in is beyond me, but Babcia and Dad always wanted to "keep up appearances" even to their own spawn.
Silly and wasteful of energy in my mind.
And so stupid secretive that I didn't receive a letter to me from my godmother/great aunt in Poland until TEN years after she'd sent it, when I went through my Dad's belongings after his death and a few years after hers.
(ETA:)
Damn...this post makes me blink. When my sister was dying, and even before, I'd started writing her life story. AFTER her death the story suddenly changed, with accusations from her former husbands and her kids possibly putting the whole story into a new twist where my sister was the culprit and not the victim. (But considering all my nieces are heroin addicts...) I'll have to figurre a way to tell the story, and perhaps get past the doubts they planted.