Family legends that turn out to be nonsense

[a-l]

This is such a funny thread !  My favourite family legend is about a great aunt who was married to an Indian Rajah. She had two children with him but when he started amassing wives she left him.    He refused to allow their children to leave India so said great aunt returned to England alone. She remarried an Englishman and returned to India where they bought a tea plantation.                      I never believed this story as the person telling it was full of fantastic tales but her husband was

[a-l]

truthful and knew this great aunt.             When I asked about her he was crying with laughter and said " Rajah?" he was a private in the Indian army ! He left her with the children , never to be seen again.

[JAKnighton]

My grandmother said that she heard something about a relative marrying an American Indian, or at least was associated with them.

I was keen to find out if there was any truth to this, so it was one of my main goals when researching her ancestry.

It's important to keep in mind that my grandmother is the youngest child of the youngest child. By that I mean her parents were approaching forty when she was born, and her father was also born when his parents were approaching forty. So the generation gaps are much larger than normal. Which meant that even close relatives were distant memories to her.

I did discover that three of her aunts, who were all Glaswegians, married Italian immigrants. But she knew this already, and my grandmother actually has an Italian first name referencing that part of her family. But no American Indian connection was found.

Then I found out she had a cousin who became involved with the film industry, and married an actor who appeared in a couple of silent films. There were photographs, and in one film he portrayed an American Indian!

[vinpip]

Some times they turn out to be true as well - one of the tales in my family was of my grandma's brother who died young after falling into a vat of boiling liquid.
I've always taken it with a large pinch of salt, so I was surprised to find it actually true only a few weeks ago. Finding the report in a newspaper article, he did indeed come to his end this way 

[Mart 'n' Al]

Fifty years ago I was often told by my mother that her father in law, James Sedcole Watson had been on the Jarrow March.  Current research has shown me no evidence of this, although I suppose it is possible he wasn't one of the 200-odd original marchers, but joined in the following day, near Hartlepool where he lived.

[jasiain]

My gran always maintained her Campbells had a direct link to the Duke of Argylle,I cannot disprove this as I cannot get further back from the families Irish heritage in Fallahogy in Londonderry
As an aside one of the brothers of my ggg grandfather Campbell did stay in a beautiful mansion house and if anyone would like a smile they could check out Germiston House,its on The Glasgow Story web site.
My rellies had a distinct connection with the garden study.
 

[gaffy]

... My gran always maintained her Campbells had a direct link to the Duke of Argylle ...

That made me grin, it must be a Campbell thing, my mother's claim to be a 'direct descendant of the Duke of Argyll' is virtually a catchphrase in our family and even received a mention in her eulogy some years back!

Having been asked over the years to help out with the family trees of many friends, work colleagues etc., it no longer surprises me to encounter yet another family legend on the same basic theme.  For example, there is the one that involves being descended from nobility (usually through an illegitimate birth or a marriage that wasn't 'recognised').  However, my favourite is the one where the family was 'done out of ' some vast wealth, usually involving some shady goings-on with a will and more often than not in a foreign country.

I imagine that there can be an element of corruption ('send three and four-pence, we're going to a dance') in family lore and some measure of embellishment.  I sometimes wonder how often a simple opinion about someone in the past, such as 'so and so has done well for himself', just meaning that he has kept a job down and successfully raised a family, has ended up being passed down over time with a much grander storyline.   


 



 

[pharmaT]

... My gran always maintained her Campbells had a direct link to the Duke of Argylle ...

That made me grin, it must be a Campbell thing, my mother's claim to be a 'direct descendant of the Duke of Argyll' is virtually a catchphrase in our family and even received a mention in her eulogy some years back!

Having been asked over the years to help out with the family trees of many friends, work colleagues etc., it no longer surprises me to encounter yet another family legend on the same basic theme.  For example, there is the one that involves being descended from nobility (usually through an illegitimate birth or a marriage that wasn't 'recognised').  However, my favourite is the one where the family was 'done out of ' some vast wealth, usually involving some shady goings-on with a will and more often than not in a foreign country.

I imagine that there can be an element of corruption ('send three and four-pence, we're going to a dance') in family lore and some measure of embellishment.  I sometimes wonder how often a simple opinion about someone in the past, such as 'so and so has done well for himself', just meaning that he has kept a job down and successfully raised a family, has ended up being passed down over time with a much grander storyline.   


 



 

Growing up I was told "We could have been rich if we weren't from the wrong side of the bed sheets"  and "They even had titles".  We just all laughed.  Now it wouldn't have ensured that we would have been rich now but I have since proved that one of my Grt Grt grandfathers was illigitimate, he had an impoverished life dying aged 25 of TB.  His half siblings on his Dad's side had a very nice early life indeed.  His oldest half brother ended up with a  title and one of his half sisters married a man who later had a title. So it completely makes sense where the story came from.

[Polly Lynn]

Family legend?  One false and one true.

Several branches of my Harrison family tree were told we were related to the two U.S. presidents named Harrison.  As a teenager I donated money to the family house and was told I was not a relative and thank you for the donation.

Three of nine branches say we go back in Ireland to Oliver Cromwell who was there 1649-1650.  I did not believe it until this year we are doing DNA tests.  If we match any of the four test takers we will have traced back to a tax-paying farmer in 1662.  It is not long in time from 1662 Ireland to 1650.  Could be true.