RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: IgorStrav on Sunday 02 September 18 20:30 BST (UK)
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After doing my Ancestry DNA and finding it more difficult than I thought to find connections who might help with my research, I've been looking at the other people's Family Tree hints attached to my ancestors more closely to see if any of them have done DNA tests and we are connected as the matching people might suggest.
And last night whilst paging through those trees (which generally don't have any backup sources) I recognised the name of a Tree Owner who also had one of my rellies on their tree.
Most of their tree was Private, so I had to do a bit of guesswork and digging, but I've finally calculated that I am 4th cousin once removed to a young actor who's featured extensively on a BBC show.
Quite excited - not sure why! - but I'm sure other people also feel a thrill of excitement when a familiar name comes up on an extended family tree search, and you wonder whether a work colleague, or a school mate, or a friend could actually be related to you.
Not mentioning the name of the (slightly) famous actor - he's MINE ;) ;D
Although of course he's not shown as a DNA match. That's of course because he's not done the test ;)
Should I write to him and offer to share my tree which has a lot more interesting information about one of my most researched and difficult-to-find families?
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Well you could write and receive one of a possible three responses:-
1. No reply at all
2. A thanks but no thanks
3. A yes please tell me more.
Depends on whether he actually sees your letter or whether his post is filtered through other people.
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OR - you could send it to WDYTYA as a suggestion for a future programme
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OR - you could send it to WDYTYA as a suggestion for a future programme
Well.....
I have to confess that did cross my mind :)
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Great news, Igor - I love to find interesting connections in the FT!
I am reminded of a friend who was at school with someone in the 1950s who subsequently became Incredibly Famous in the world of theatre. During their time at school together, the two of them were best mates, and in the school's productions of Shakespeare, my friend invariably played one of the male leads, whereas his friend was generally Third Spear Carrier.
Years passed and they lost contact. And then my friend happened to be within spitting distance of the theatre where his erstwhile friend was working, so he phoned, spoke to someone explaining that he and - let us call him T - had been best mates at school, and he wondered whether they could meet. The person on the other end of the phone put my friend on hold, then after some minutes waiting, my friend was told, coldly, "I am afraid that T has never heard of you."
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my friend happened to be within spitting distance of the theatre where his erstwhile friend was working, so he phoned, spoke to someone explaining that he and - let us call him T - had been best mates at school, and he wondered whether they could meet. The person on the other end of the phone put my friend on hold, then after some minutes waiting, my friend was told, coldly, "I am afraid that T has never heard of you."
I've heard of this happening & not only with 'famous' people which seems to be when they 'climb the ladder' the people who helped get them there are forgot about conveniently ::)
Annie
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My claim to fame is my 1C1R Edwin Beverley, (Vincent). He was apparently a quite well known supporting actor in the early 1900's and spent much of his life touring the theatres. I think his claim to fame should be his exploits during WW1.
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My mums brothers first wife died aged 39 in 1963 from a heart attack, 2 weeks before her daughters wedding, she had known heart trouble medical history and guess the pressure of the build up of prep of the coming wedding was the cause of her attack. Anyway ! my uncle married his 2nd wife in 1964 who was related to an actor, dance man, music hall compare of the TV show 'Sunday night at the London palladium' Dickie Henderson of the 1960's years. That's my famous 'in law' indirect ancestor (For what its worth ???)
I got more of a kick out :D of a middle aged daughters hand written account for an inquest 1868 of the morning her fathers ( My 4 Gt granddad) death from him having his breakfast, he was a shoemaker and ferryman. A man shouted for the ferryboat from the other side the river, while making the first trip across the river my GT granddad got caught in a strong current in the river, fell from his boat and found drowned in a weir down stream.
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My claim to gain is my fourth cousin a well known ice hockey player and coach in Canada his mum and my great aunts we're brought up to believe they were cousins and his father and my great uncle were friends as young men before they emigrated to Canada
Also my 3rd cousin 2xremoved is Herbert Ross co founder of Red Hackle Whisky who also had a wing at Erskine Hospital named after him
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I discovered my hubby is directly related to Ronald MacDonald......
he's his Great Grandfather
no not the burger guy, the crofter in the Highlands ;D
only time my kids ever showed a nano seconds interest in their family history ::)
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I have a famous Australian in my tree (well he was at the time). He was known by the name Archer Russell. I think he is a cousin thrice removed. A very interesting character from what I've read about him on trove
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I absolutely agree that remoter rellies don't have to be famous to be interesting - I've been taken off on many a tangent when occupations/families/living places have seized my enthusiasm.
It was just that finding someone actually related who is relatively well known was very exciting. As I said, not sure quite why! ;) Except I did quietly wonder if he'd looked at his family tree because the WDYTYA researchers had asked him to....... wouldn't that be just great if they focused their expertise on a line I've had some difficulty in pinning down :D
I have decided that I will contact him via Ancestry, where he's got a tree (though he's not been on the site for more than a year), and tell him just a bit about our shared ancestors.
They are a fascinating bunch (bigamy, unmarried cohabitation, transportation, other criminality, death by smoking in bed......)
Who'd not be glad to hear about all of that. ;)
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over 7000 and nope -- not a star in sight.. ha ha.
lots and lots and lots of interesting characters.
xin
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Well, I've written via Ancestry messaging.
Will keep you posted if he replies, but not banking on it.
;D
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The suspense is killing me Igor. A clue at least please? What TV show/s was he in?
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The suspense is killing me Igor. A clue at least please? What TV show/s was he in?
well..........
Highly celebrated family saga featuring parents and three vocal children, who improvised much of the dialogue.
May also help that his Ancestry profile is his real name, which I recognised.
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Is it a comedy? Quite a few years old?
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Yes.
Recently revisited with a 'special'
The actor concerned has done a number of other things, including an interesting historical programme.
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If it is the one I am thinking of, I am aware of the TV series but never really watched it.
Did he feature in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
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The person that comes to mind was in WDYTYA Series 9, about 4 years ago.
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The person that comes to mind was in WDYTYA Series 9, about 4 years ago.
oooh, I think I might be on the wrong track in that case. :-\
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If it is the one I am thinking of, I am aware of the TV series but never really watched it.
Did he feature in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
No, never in WDYTYA as far as google tells me. I would be straight on it if he had been, to see if the researchers had found out more about our mutual line, which has featured extensively here on the Kent board with very helpful Rootschatters.
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Oh that's disappointing. i thought I had nailed it. ;)
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Have you heard of Andy Hamilton?
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Your names :) IGOR
is that Barwell the PLACE/village or Barwell as a surname.. just passing through again..
xin
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Your names :) IGOR
is that Barwell the PLACE/village or Barwell as a surname.. just passing through again..
xin
Barwell the surname, xin.
Northamptonshire/Rutlandshire - millions of Barwells, most of them slaters.
Some of them married other Barwells.......I think they loved to confuse. ;)
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OK For a minute there we could have been KIN ha ha
xin
dont know Andy Hamilton but do know diddy David Hamilton.. :)
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Have you heard of Andy Hamilton?
I don't know the name, but will google as I might recognize the face. :)
Added: Yes, I do recognize him.
(I was thinking Robert Lindsay and the TV series was My Family. ) Who did you think Igor was referring to Arthur?
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I guessed wrongly. I was thinking of the father of the children. The one who's co-presenter of "The Now Show" on BBC Radio 4.
Did Andy write the series? (1st name terms as he's your rellie.) He writes and appears in radio comedy shows. 2 of his memorable characters are a British soldier in America prior to War of Independence and Satan. A regular on "The News Quiz" (Radio 4).
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Have you heard of Andy Hamilton?
Who did you think Igor was referring to Arthur?
Same as Maiden Stone (though I had to look up The Now Show):
I guessed wrongly. I was thinking of the father of the children. The one who's co-presenter of "The Now Show" on BBC Radio 4.
Did Andy write the series? (1st name terms as he's your rellie.)
Yes.
(Would you like me to keep you guessing about the name I thought of, or shall I tell you?)
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Phew Igor - four pages of suspense! I didn't recognise the name, but certainly recognise the face.
I have absolutely no link to anyone famous, but know beyond a doubt that my mother looked the spitting image of Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother and my father (when slim) was the spitting image of Philip Duke of Edinburgh ;D
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According to an online tree I'm 40 something degrees away from an internationally famous actor and a bit further removed from HM QE. So I trump Igor. ;D However, when I looked into it, the alleged connection, a brother of my 4xGGM, wasn't him at all, but a man with same name who'd lived in same town around same time, whose dates had been confused with my chap. The two men were probably distantly related to each other, very likely several times over. Maybe I'm 140 degrees cubed away from the famous actor. I can't remember actor's name.
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Have you heard of Andy Hamilton?
Who did you think Igor was referring to Arthur?
Same as Maiden Stone (though I had to look up The Now Show):
I guessed wrongly. I was thinking of the father of the children. The one who's co-presenter of "The Now Show" on BBC Radio 4.
Did Andy write the series? (1st name terms as he's your rellie.)
Yes.
(Would you like me to keep you guessing about the name I thought of, or shall I tell you?)
Out with it (please) Arthur! :)
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Hugh Dennis
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Hugh Dennis
That's who I thought it was at first. I couldn't remember his name. He's on a tv panel show. (Most of them are.)
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Hugh Dennis
That's who I thought it was at first. I couldn't remember his name. He's on a tv panel show. (Most of them are.)
No, it's not either Hugh Dennis or Andy Hamilton, but you're getting warm.
If it helps at all, the person in question used his own name as his Ancestry User Name and I noticed it......
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No, it's not either Hugh Dennis or Andy Hamilton, but you're getting warm.
If it helps at all, the person in question used his own name as his Ancestry User Name and I noticed it......
So it's one of the children, then?
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"Highly celebrated family saga featuring parents and three vocal children, who improvised much of the dialogue.
May also help that his Ancestry profile is his real name, which I recognised."
It's the last sentence which is the real clue.....
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"Highly celebrated family saga featuring parents and three vocal children, who improvised much of the dialogue.
May also help that his Ancestry profile is his real name, which I recognised."
It's the last sentence which is the real clue.....
So I thought, but looking in the member directory brought up a few names matching the actor who played one of the sons, of whom 2 or 3 had tiny trees which didn't appear to have any surnames matching the ones in your signature. However, from your description I suspect it's the actor who played the other son, and I couldn't see any user names matching his.
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Well you've obviously found the one with the particularly memorable name. Once seen, never forgotten, eh?
He popped up with his tree when I was following through the family of my greatx2 uncle. He had one of the daughters (my first cousin 3 times removed) only under her married name - which I'd previously discovered.
Whilst the surname wasn't that unusual, her combination of first names certainly was, so I knew the marriage was correct and had followed her through.
Most of the rest of his tree was -as you say - private.
But with a bit of guesswork, GRO births with MMN (how useful is that facility, especially when it's an unusual surname ;D), I was able to add in the missing bits and find out how our tree connect.
No reply from my ancestry message, but as I said in the first place, it's just exciting to find a connection.
Many of my family are also in the performing business in various ways, so they were all thrilled too - especially as we like his work.
Sorry that following my clues didn't enable you to check what you'd found linked in with my surname interests. He's a Cork and Cooley from Kent connection
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I didn't consider the children.
First and last of his several real names appear to be from his mother.
His father also has a memorable professional name! Borrowed from a "Carry On" character? ;D
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I didn't consider the children.
First and last of his several real names appear to be from his mother.
His father also has a memorable professional name! Borrowed from a "Carry On" character? ;D
Very interesting background indeed! ;)
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Hugh Dennis
Ah ha. :)
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I didn't consider the children.
First and last of his several real names appear to be from his mother.
His father also has a memorable professional name! Borrowed from a "Carry On" character? ;D
Very interesting background indeed! ;)
Many of my family are also in the performing business in various ways, so they were all thrilled too - especially as we like his work.
I trust not in the same sector of the performing arts as the father with the droll professional name. ;)
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I agree, Maiden Stone, that the stage name lacks subtlety. Or appeal.
My family are musicians and actors, not in that end of the business. (see what I did there?)
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;D
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Phew Igor - four pages of suspense! I didn't recognise the name, but certainly recognise the face.
I have absolutely no link to anyone famous, but know beyond a doubt that my mother looked the spitting image of Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother and my father (when slim) was the spitting image of Philip Duke of Edinburgh ;D
I spoke too soon. I've spent the last decade with my sights firmly fixed on trying to clear the mists hiding irish and Scottish paternal lines. I was clearing up my desktop this weekend and opened a forgotten screenshot of an ancestral line. My mother's maternal grandmother was Lucy Speight a lass from West Yorkshire, born in the 1850s. A hundred years earlier one of her Yorkshire ancestors had been a farrier in the Light Dragoons and had brought a southern born bride back home with him. The bride was from farming stock and I've got a couple of 18th century wills together with baptism documents going back to the beginning of the 17th century. After a few fathers named Robert, one early father is named as Mr. Radulphi Wells, with a title like that he was obviously considered a gentleman. and probably a land owner - and with a surname like that it was obviously a (quite common) place name. Well, Welles,WELL! - you could have hit me with la plume de ma tante; who would have thought I'd find a couple of genealogists had researched and written books on the family's history right back to the earliest days of Normandy diners on frogs legs! I checked with my kissing cousin on GenesReunited who shared my tree and discovered they'd already found that the Wells' line went back to Chateau Vallibus in Vaux, Normandy. The earliest economic arrivals were gifted land by the King. When the family expanded, the father shared his estate between his sons and one child was gifted land in Wells - hence the new surname.
I'm leaving my tree as it is and won't be spending any of my pension doing my own research. It's enough for me to know that due to the Vaux's marriage connections with the House of Orange and other well to do European personages, there is a likelihood that my mother and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon could well have shared a few genes.
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Gosh, Rena - shall we call you ma'am? :) ;D
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Gosh, Rena - shall we call you ma'am? :) ;D
You can call me whatever you like - just as long as you either bow or curtsy when you're saying it ;D
Have a good week.
Rena
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WELL would you believe it..
Just discovered my 14th g.g. albeit illegitimate oh dear me was the son of James Lord Hamilton or something similar.. still checking it all out..
cos this James has a close contact with the Royalty via a 2nd marriage or something... it is so complicated.. and very difficult not to follow the millions of trees that have latched on to almost being a descendant of a certain ... uhm uhm I dont know someone who played with spiders if I remember right.. :) :) ha ha.. so
if you want some fun:
I was tracing my line back from :
definates are:
on pg 2 pic and the larger one are the maybe possibly with no certs or docs as yet... only source good old TREES / Hints.. I will NOT take anything on larger pic for granted.
xin
funny thing is I never kill spiders :) ha ha
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Years ago in Coronation Street, Vera Duckworth was told by her putative father that his grandad was the illegitimate son of Edward 7th. She believed the story and for years she referred to Prince Charles as "cousin Charles". Only a TV show I know but "Vee" as Jack called her did have delusions of grandeur after that.
I spoke to one genealogist the other day who said they'd rather descend from the riff raff than nobility.
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Yes that research was just fun and 'playtime' -- It did make me stop and triple triple check my certs etc. and because I can find NO certification that my Janet Duncan is the daughter of Jean CRAWFORD --- then it is NOT my line.. but it just shows how easy it can be to follow a line as there is so much 'information' or mis information out there these days..
Me I am ONE cert and One family at a time ... proove as much as I can within that group.. before I move on..
except lately I go from paternal to maternal and back again and wonder what on earth I am doing some days }
xin