How many Convicts are you descended from?

[WoodElf]

Somewhere along the lines my grandmother's family covered it up. (Well if you had 10 convicts in your history; you'd want to back then!) My grandmother obviously didn't know about the convicts because when she did find out she was as proud as punch..

..Elfie.. 

[JAP]

Funny old times, eh!

Obviously (from earlier posts) I'm totally deficient on convicts.

But, as for cover-ups ...

I've mentioned Henry HACKING, Quartermaster of the 'Sirius' of the 1st Fleet and said (family folklore) to be connected to my Liverpool HACKINGs who came in 1850 (absolutely not a smidgin of proof of this - and I'm sure that those who claimed him would have been shocked if they'd known what a rogue Henry was).  Henry returned to England and then returned to Aus - and was an absolute rogue (though obviously well-regarded by people of influence); twice sentenced to death, twice escaped the death penalty.

Anyway, true descendants of Henry (and his convict wife!) on one line played ducks and drakes with their ancestry - to the utter confusion of later descendants.  A granddaughter of Henry HACKING via his son Edward said that her grandfather was a Captain Henry AIKEN, captain of a ship on the First Fleet; that he subsequently came out on another ship that he owned; that the HACKINGs were terrible people; and that Port Hacking (most definitely named after the rogue Henry) should have been named Port Aiken ...

Ah, what a tangled web ...

JAP 

[trish251]

I've always thought it was just so easy for folks to cover up their history when they came to Australia in the 18th/19th centuries - as convicts or free folks. Every piece of family folklore I have investigated to date has been based on a lie!  Even my ever so respectable gg grandmother from Scotland lied about her age - when she married a man 10 years younger.

I doubt any of them had any idea that 100-200 years later, as if by magic, we would be discovering their true roots and family histories - sometimes I think they should have been allowed to bury their secrets.

But recently, my neighbour asked me to investigate a few of her family secrets/stories/folklore & everything she knew turned out to be true - what an honest group (despite there being a few convicts included) 

Trish

[JAP]

...  Every piece of family folklore I have investigated to date has been based on a lie!  ...  Trish

Trish, I hate to say this but every piece of my own family folklore that I have investigated to date (apart from the supposed silly connexion with Henry HACKING) has been based on fact!  Even down to the exact streets where my HACKINGs and BAYESs (who came in 1850) lived in Liverpool and their occupations ...  What a sad boring lot I have. 

JAP

[sparrett]

Well ,Jap,
Convicts aside for the moment, I have found my recent forbears to be very flexible  about the truth as recently as the 1920's if it meant things looking or sounding better at the right school.  How brazenly tragic

I really do  know and appreciate your enormous experience in this game, but just keep digging...... a litttle snobby lie will  surely  emerge

Sue

[JAP]

Dear Sue,

I'd love to find a lie that would lead back to something exciting - and naughty - about my own proven ancestors!  But I fear they are utterly and completely boring!

From the Liverpool HACKINGs/London BAYESs English side I have cabinetmakers-pub-owners/portmanteau makers (came to Aus from Liverpool 1850).

From the London SULLIVAN-SULLIVAN English (ex Irish) side who knows what they were - suggestions are army or pub-keepers (married in Aus 1852).

The Yorkshire TRIPPITs equally boring (Gran b 1873 and came to Aus via NZ ca 1890 and m Gpa SULLIVAN).  Oh yes, I think Gran TRIPPIT had an ex-nuptial child with Gpa SULLIVAN before they were married and before my father was born - but not really exciting.

From the Irish (Galway) STANTON-DONOGHUE side, Irish Ag Labs (came to Aus 1841).

From the Irish (Mayo) BURKE-RAFFERTY side, Irish pub or shopkeepers or whatever (in Aus in the 1850s/1860s).

From the Scots HALL (wherefrom? - a lettercarrier) - MCLAUSE (Stirlingshire masons) side (Jane Ann HALL married in Aus 1852) ...

From Jane Ann HALL's husband, James Christie ROBINSON's side (he perhaps a mariner - who knows)!  Born Exeter??

Boring, boring, boring ...

Obviously there were some of us who had no convicts and were totally and thoroughly boring, boring, boring ...

If only ...   

JAP

[tropicalj]

Well  now JAP 

That  is  one  term  that we could not attribute  to you... BORING ...never

regards JEnn

[JAP]

Hi Jenn,

Well, that's a very puzzling comment indeed 

But IF what you say is true (seems odd) what can I offer other than that I was talking about my unutterably boring forebears (not my equally boring self!) ...

All the verye best,

JAP (boring - and of the very boring forebears) ...

[MarieC]

JAP,

See if Lady Di will donate you one of her convicts!  She's got plenty and to spare! 

MarieC