RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Mart 'n' Al on Tuesday 12 June 18 19:05 BST (UK)
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How do you enthusiastically slip the subjects of your research into everyday conversation?
As my GGG GF was a purveyor of meat in a small Northumberland village, I tell people I am descended from The Butcher of Bedlington. I also say, deadpan, that the butcher's dog was called Elvis.
Martin
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How do you enthusiastically slip the subjects of your research into everyday conversation?
As my GGG GF was a purveyor of meat in a small Northumberland village, I tell people I am descended from The Butcher of Bedlington. I also say, deadpan, that the butcher's dog was called Elvis.
Martin
and I bet Elvis was a Bedlington terrier..... ;)
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not easy... usual reaction is glazing over of the eyes... feet edging towards the door... gosh is that the time...must go..
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Jed59,..... hold on.... don't go..... I haven't told you about my great great grandfather second removed's illegitimate adopted fostered half cousin's cousin.
Martin
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and what was his [hound]dog called? ;)
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Tillypeg, you are naughty, you didn't read my original comment, did you!!??
Martin
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There's no easy way unless they think you have someone famous as I discovered!
My daughter has no interest in FH but when Charlotte Crosby (Geordie Shore) was on TV, I told my daughter we had connections with Northumberland areas with surnames Crosby & Gascoigne & she was keen to know if we could be related to either Charlotte or Paul!!!
Needless to say I don't think so nor have I tried to find out as the surnames are distant on my tree ::)
So, pick a name which relates to a surname & area of someone famous then drop in your real ancestor (who may be related) ;D
Annie
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not easy... usual reaction is glazing over of the eyes... feet edging towards the door... gosh is that the time...must go..
;D ;D ;D
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Seriously, :) you comment on their family name ... focus on them ... oh ... is that one of the famous xyz ... was she from abc ... have you got family from THERE WOW ...
:)
JM
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I sometimes do this by asking someone about their hobbies .. and then wham
.. I start talking about my passion .. GENEALOGY! :D. They can hardly refuse to listen to me when I have just listened to them for quarter of an hour. ;D.
Or you can ask, someone what they have done this week and then when it's your turn to speak you can just say something like "Well, I just found out this week on RootsChat that Great Grandfather's cousin twice removed died by a bolt of lightning! ..."
You can tell they are not interested if their eyes glaze over and they say "How fascinating" in a monotone voice. I remember my Dad once said to me after observing me and my then teenage friends "Everybody wants to talk but nobody wants to listen!"
However, I really like it when I am talking too another enthusiast and I see the look of pure joy on their face when I impart new information to them about where to find useful stuff. This happened last week when I was able to tell someone of a record I discovered at the archives which gives causes of death for many local ancestors (this saving money on death certificates). :). I suppose only a fellow genealogist could get as excited as me about such stuff. ;D
I would just add that if you show a high level of tolerance towards crazy people who like to talk about things like football then they might show more willingness to listen to more fascinating lines of conversation .. GENEALOGY! :D ;D
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I have worked out by peoples intial reactions to the mention of anything genealogical whether or not they're likely to be interested.
I started my g/sons paternal line the other day with help from his paternal g/mother who gave me plenty of up-to-date info. on BMDs to save buying full price certs.
I arrived at paternal g/mothers g/father who would be my g/sons 2 x g g/father.
I found his Attestation Papers & when I told my g/sons half sister, her words...
"It's amazing what you find on the internet", no questions about 2 x g g/father i.e. I think it speaks for itself?
This man apparently 'jumped ship' in Canada but I need to quiz paternal g/mother on the circumstances as I'm unsure exactly what was meant by him 'jumping ship' at this stage?
I believe I've narrowed down his disappearance to between 1930 - 1935 when he disappears from the Valuation Rolls from the houses/area they lived in 1913 (after marriage) until 1930?
I know paternal g/mother is interested as she gave me lots of valuable info. & snippets.
Annie
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Like most of you I have had various reactions when I mention my hobby/obcession to people. Some interested others downright rude (usually the ones who prefer football and a good bevy.)
A few years ago I was discussing geneology and where I search for records with my daughter within earshot of my grandson who was around 8 year old.
Later I heard him telling his older brother that granny found dead people on the internet and there was a big building up the town (Scotlands People Centre) that had dead people in it too. ;D ;D
Well at least he was interested :-\ :-\
Dorrie
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When people talk to me about football and other sport I do zone out. It goes in one ear and out of the other. But they may be the same with me going on about my 4xgreat grandad's coachman journies around London.
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My Sil always changed the subject when I talked about my family research to her and she would say that she didn't have the time to take it up, and that if she did, she would probably soon lose interest after a little while. She lost her Father recently who was a great hoarder and whilst clearing out his bungalow she found a pile of letters from her Great-grandmother to her son who was in the army and they were dated 1881/82. There was also numerous BMD certs of her ancestors, photographs and a couple of old wills. She enlisted my help to start her off on researching her Family and now I'm the one doing all the listening about her latest discovery ;D
Carol
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The object of any conversation is to see how quickly you can get around to discussing Mornington Crescent! It always helps if you do have relatives who came from there.
Martin
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I pretend to listen to their football chats, like they may say a very short "very good" reply to a genealogy brickwall you have just demolished and am acting like you won the lottery.
When a chatty FB friend sends me another chat request, and I get a chat pop up, I then think "Time I was not here" and pretend I have not seen the message and log out or just stay logged in but not go on FB for a bit. I do think "I dont really wanna chat online right now" but would not go as far to block/unfriend them. It is like when you say "i dont mind Harry Potter" and they think you love it, and lend you their books, you are too polite to say no, so they sit on your worktop unread, you return them a month later and say "i really enjoyed reading them" but when they ask what was your fave story, you struggle, and cannot tell them that you have not read them as you are nowhere near as interested as they thought you were.
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Mornington Cres, Maida Vale area?
Not far from where I was born in W10, not so far away but what is the significance of Mornington Cres
Louisa Muad
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Louisa, read this for an explanation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)
Martin
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OK Martin, missed that one, perhaps a bit early !!!
My husbands aged aunts always said they were related to a much better side of the family with the same surname, not "working class", 2 Sirs, so having gone to Carlisle to research this wealthy side I discovered they were not related, so now the aged aunts don't ask and if I mention anything I just watch the glazed look and then I switch off.
Louisa Maud
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Louisa, I never understand snobbishness in ancestry. It's only a chance of birth after all, isn't it? I like all the black sheep I've unearthed. My favourite, not a black sheep, is a Victorian lamplighter in Marylebone. I think that is special.
Martin
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Martin
I am inclined to think if anyone does a decent days work and earns a reasonable living in hard times I commend them, my father was always partially blind till he was finally registered blind when he was about 48 ish I think, he worked till he was 70 with only 2 years off after he was made redundant in 1958 from the United dairies, they mechanized and had no need for a groom, they sadly had to let him go after 6 weeks as there wasn't a suitable job for him, he had a glowing reference
Have unearthed some fascinating things which sometimes have given lots of people something to talk about and I always tell them if they are shocked that we cannot change history, we have to accept warts and all as they say
LM
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One relative have sneered at the Scottish line in the family, saying that has worn off by now. Sorry but it hasn't. It makes up part of your DNA no matter how far back. I also have French Huguenot ancestry and love the fact some of my ancestors were from the continent, and long, long after 1066. One came over in 1752, among the last of the Huguenots to arrive.
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I tell them my gran was "boarded-out" by her mother at age 7yrs, never saw her again. My research found out why? My great grandmother was a prostitute - and a good one, running a brothel at age 22yrs, despite being from a decent background. She was in Duke Street Women's Prison in the 1911 census, and went to Canada in 1922 where she continued her profession. My gran died long before I started my family history, from having no family to over 100 direct descendants.
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Welcome to Rootschat hell o,
Interesting post you have put on and I am sure this would be a good conversation starter on the topic of family history research. After a time, it is certainly fascinating to discover 'colourful ancestors' when doing family history. I certainly have my share of these too. My most 'colourful' story is of two blood-line ancestors who were charged with the murder of their landlady. This story was covered in lots of local and national newspapers of the time 1855-1856 and was referred to as the 'Matfen Murder'. However, fortunately they were acquitted after always declaring their innocence. I believe they were innocent too.
I also have a Grandmother who died early middle age before I or any of her other now numerous descendants were born.
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My sister's husband recently announced he was a cousin of Dixon of Dock Green. I researched it and came to the conclusion that he couldn't be, if the trees online for the actor are correct. I assume his family thought as they had the same surname they must be related.
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Does she mean related to Jack Warner, the actor who played Sgt Dixon?
I used to love DoDG, straight after Dr Who on Saturday evenings.
As my surname is WATSON I was delighted to find that my GGF, James Sedcole Watson, had a brother, William Holmes Watson. I loved the Holmes-Watson joke, until I realised that it was just a bizarre coincidence as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was only nine when William was born.
Martin
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The object of any conversation is to see how quickly you can get around to discussing Mornington Crescent! It always helps if you do have relatives who came from there.
Martin
I like an "in", so using the above I could say "My second cousin twice removed was called Mornington Mansell, his sister, Margaret, married my husbands great uncle Horace, and the couple were my late father in laws god parents"
I bet some of you have glazed over after that.
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I mark people who've disappeared as "DISAPPEARED" on the tree as a suffix to their surname; when I'm bored I can randomly pick one and have another look.
Today I looked and found an ANC tree had them on .... so I peeked. The tree had a bit of incest with a brother and a son "Ello!" I thought, "bet that's wrong....". While I appreciate it went on, I just didn't think this lot were right .... so I dug around and found that the ANC tree was entirely off the mark. *sighs* ... shame as her brother's marked as "DISAPPEARED" on my tree too and this'd have tied them up nicely as to where to ... and a "why?" ....
I'd have slid that story in anywhere/everywhere if it were proven!
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Introduced your family history into everyday conversation? I have done so, when someone says they are from an area of the country where my ancestors came from. I say I have ancestors from there but they lose interest when I say they were living there in the nineteenth century. Unless you are into genealogy I don't think people know anything beyond their grandparents. But it's worth mentioning, for the conversation that might arise, and you never know, you might be talking to a distant cousin you didn't know about.
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... it's worth mentioning, for the conversation that might arise, and you never know, you might be talking to a distant cousin you didn't know about.
My aunt was gardening in her front garden one day when a couple walked past; they were on holiday and it was a "hello" nodding moment as they stopped to say how nice the garden looked ... which lead onto where they were from and their holiday "we're here for family history reasons...", my aunt's passion ... and it turned out they were related :)
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You see what I mean! It hasn't happened to me btw.
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Well, my discovery that my wife's family were my family's servants has provided me with an excellent conversation-piece; and if my interlocutor is not remotely interested in family history research then no worry, as that particular conversation can head off in no end of different directions ...
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Finding a new ancestral line to me is like winning the jackpot, like they think that when their fave football team wins a game. Sometimes it can be hard to even feign interest.
Yesterday I found yet another Essex line that came from Suffolk, and it has given me a new bunch of ancestors to research.