What is the biggest mystery in your tree?

[Erato]

Maybe for religious reasons.

[Bill749]

That's the favoured theory - that his wife converted to Mormon

[johnnyboy]

Hello all:

There are not capital letters large enough nor grimacing smileys unhappy enough (I need ten crying smileys dripping streams of tears from both eyes) for me to talk about the mystery of my Scottish great-grandfather Robert Hendry.

He apparently never existed in Scotland, though the records he left in the U.S. say that he was born there--someplace--in October 1856 and lived there 25 years. Scotlandspeople never heard of him. FamilySearch.org never heard of him.

Rather he materialized in Massachusetts one day in 1882, married a woman from Glasgow a month after he arrived (she had traveled to the U.S a year earlier, accompanied by a Mary or Margaret Hendry--how's that for coincidence), brought five daughters and one son into the world, appeared in three U.S. censuses, worked an entire career for the same textile mill, moved 22 times in 15 years in a city that is thirty-six square miles in area--always one step ahead of me.

Oh yeah, his parents (as attested by two different sources) were Robert Hendry and Agnes Patterson. Scotlandspeople never heard of them either. Ditto with FamilySearch.org.

I still am offering a free meal in New York City (as much as you can eat at one sitting and carry out of the restaurant in your backpack or purse, but air fare is UNincluded; you have to fly yourself over, in other words) to anyone who provides me with incontrovertible evidence of my great-grandfather's existence.

The worst thing is that I think I have a picture of him taken at his place of employment in 1913. He is posed with crowd of co-workers. I have no proof that it's him, but it's his department and his face just jumped out at me. he looks like his granddaughters (my mother and her sisters) and one of my cousins.

That's my little mystery. Every so often, as when Liverpool Annie, sends me a link to topics like this, I find myself thinking about him.

Did I mention that his obituary from 1916 names a brother David Hendry still alive in Scotland. Well, what are you waiting for? Go find him for me......please. 

Did I mention that I've been through this twice on the Scotland section fo Rootschat? That's still no reason for you not to find him.

Regards,
John
 
               

[joboy]

The mystery which has had me searching for many years is that of Ethel E.Bell.
I first heard of her existence when a photo/postcard of her turned up in a deceased estate.
The card was written sometime between 1900 and 1907 at the time when Australia was entering Federation.The stamp on the card was franked Victoria and no precise date visible.
She addressed the card to her aunt and uncle Charles and Louisa Bell in Sydney NSW.
Charles Bell arrived in NSW sometime after 1880.He was a mariner from Devonshire and as far as I can determine he arrived alone ... he married in 1883.
Where Ethel E.Bell fits (and she must fit somewhere) is mystifying indeed.
The writing on the card is attached and in her photo she looks to be in her early 20's
Joe

[Aulus]

I've had lots of little mysteries, some of which have been resolved, some of which (like the story of Florence, my avatar) have just had a couple of layers of veils peeled away, and some which remain perplexing.

Obviously there are lots of mysteries as to just who various g[...]g grandparents were and how some of them ended up where they did, but many are pretty trivial.

One that's been bugging me for a long time - because it should be solve-able - is just who one of the witnesses is on my parents' marriage certificate.  It was only in the early '60s.  One witness is my dad's cousin, the other Louisa Florence Hay.  My mum's long dead, so I can't ask her, and all my dad knows is that she was on my mum's side.

I remember my mother had an Aunt Lou.  Must be her.  It's not on her father's side as her parents were divorced and the father had nothing to do with them, and moreover Florence is a name on her mother's side.  My great grandmother was Rosetta Florence Palfreman (1889-1965), who married James William Collis (1887-1939).

But can I find a Louisa Florence Collis being born or marrying someone called Hay?  Oh, no, of course not.  Nor can I find a Louisa Florence Palfreman (in case it was  a great aunt, not an aunt).

I found a death of a Louisa Florence Hay in Milton Keynes in May 1989, but when I got the certificate there was nothing whatsoever that connected that lady to my family.

It's less than 50 years ago, which makes it so frustrating!

[Reiver]

This ones for Johnnyboy
Hi John
I tried ScotlandsPeople for Robert Hendry born in Scotland between 1855 and 1856 and I was told there were 10.   At the moment I'm out of credits so didn't look any further.

Does this change anything?  I hope it does anyway.

Regards
Reiver

[Willow 4873]

Hiya John (and Reiver)

There is one b 1857 Allbway, Ayrshire parents Robert and Grace (second marriage?) with a brother David all living in Glasgow

Willow x

[aghadowey]

Aulus- could 'Aunt Lou' be a more distant connection like an uncle's widow who married 2nd a Mr. Hay?

[johnnyboy]

Hiya John (and Reiver)
There is one b 1857 Allbway, Ayrshire parents Robert and Grace (second marriage?) with a brother David all living in Glasgow

Willow x

Hi Willow and Reiver: Liverpool Annie sent me a PM that I might have a winner of my offer posted above.

Willow, I wish it were true. But alas that Robert Hendry (born near where Robbie Burns came into the world) is not my great grandfather. I'm sure he appears in the 1891 Scottish census, when my great grandfather was in Massachusetts in the U.S. with his wife and five daughters.

Reiver: I went to ScotlandsPeople when it was still called Scots Origins and downloaded all of the Robert Hendry births I could find. It is possible that I'm staring right at him and not knowing it because the only records of his parents come from Robert Hendry on his marriage license in Massachusetts and by his family on his death certificate. There's no independent corroboration that mentions his parents.

The search continues.

John