I wouldn't be here if..........

[pharmaT]

 Inspired by my telling off on my Time Machine Thread and by a book I read last year that led to my daughter and I having a what if question I thought I'd start this thread. What events, if they hadn't happened could have lead to you not being here?  I'll start with a couple of examples.

I wouldn't be here if the Battle of Culloden hadn't happened because it led to the building of Fort George which allowed my 3x Grt Grandpa to be stationed there where he met my 3x grt grandmother from the local village.  They wouldn't have met otherwise as he was from 300miles away.



disclaimer: despite what people may think I 100% understand that people could have met other ways.  This is intended to be a bit of fun using what we've researched about our families and history in general.  Yes it sometimes involves a bit of tying yourself in knots but when my daughter and I did it that was part of the fun and we had a laugh.  It has also helper her remember some historical facts

[Finley 1]

My naughty Grandfather --- hadn't left his poor wife behind and met my Gran  - 

The story I was brought up with -- was that this poor lady was 'mad' and so he left her behind.. when he was gassed in the war..

The Truth I discovered  -- No sign of 'madness' on her part -- poor woman, he just had wandering genes..  it seems...  and so left her up there in Scotland - hoping I think she wouldn't find him.. BUT she did..    Sadly she still claimed to be his Wife/widow... when she died... which was after he did.

Anyhow me and many more are the result of that relationship --- and my actual Gran was a lovely gentle lady from all accounts...

xin

[pharmaT]

I have another one:

I wouldn't be here if the railways hadn't come to the Scottish Borders, the coming of the Railways triggered a big increase in the weaving industry in the area which created the job opportunity that one of my 3x grt grandfathers took advantage off where he met and married a local girl.

[Craclyn]

I wouldn’t be here if my great grandfather had not landed on the planet from nowhere in his mid-40s.
He would probably be horrified to know that I am gradually narrowing down who he was in his previous life by using DNA.

[IgorStrav]

I wouldn't be here if

my greatx2 grandparents, Ann Thorpe and Thomas Wade, and their family, which included my great grandfather William Thomas Wade, had succumbed to the cholera.

The disease carried off Ann's brother in law, William Buckle, who lived next door to them, with his own family, in St Peter Newington (South London) in the 1840's.

At the time nobody knew where the 'drinking' water was supplied from. 

Some was supplied by companies which sourced it directly from the Thames, which was where all the sewage was also directed; or it might be obtained from wells/pumps which could be contaminated from neighbouring drains.

[macwil]

If my mother hadn't hated being a nanny and joined the ATS to escape, posted to Chillwell, Nottinghamshire and met my father at a dance where he was playing clarinet.
Further back: if my Great Great grandmother hadn't been shipped from London (possibly Lambeth) to Farlow, Shropshire as an 8yr old female servant (I kid you not) in 1841 census and met her future husband whilst working on adjacent farms a few years later.

[Crumblie]

I would not be here if........

My paternal great grandfather had not allowed his 2 eldest children, both female, to remain in Scotland when he, his wife and their other 8 children emigrated to Australia between 1910 and 1920. My grandmother was the second eldest child.

[DavidG02]

The Old Bailey had carried out the hanging of my Maternal GGGgrandfather Richard Blackstone in 1813

[davidft]

I would not be here if William had not beaten Harold at a skirmish on Senlac Hill.