Tall tales or truth?

[pharmaT]

So far the tales I have managed to research have turned out to have a grain of truth in them.  Perhaps another generation removed than I had been told, or when money involved slight variation in the actual figure.

There are some stories that I have neither been able to confirm or disprove. For example the obituary of one ancestor claims that he was the second cousin of Thomas Carlyle.

[KGarrad]

I have been contacted by an American(?!) who was convinced he was the rightful King of Mann (i.e. The Isle of Man).
Had to point out that the title was changed to the Lord of Mann in 1504, by Edward Stanley 3rd Earl of Derby.
And that title was revested in the Crown of Great Britain in 1765.

Also had a long discussion with a gentleman in Ealing (I had a 3 month contract working there), who insisted that a Vicar of Ealing had married a Princess of the Isle of Man!
There has never been a "Princess" of the Isle of Man!

[mckha489]

And conversely what about the amazing things you discover that somehow didn’t make it into the oral history of the family!


The long sea voyages of my 3x G grandfather in the Royal Navy
His time as a smuggler
The huge tidal wave off the coast of South America

[Kiltpin]

There is a persistent tale in our family that we are directly descended from Florence Nightingale. The fact that no trace, nor connection, can be found and that Florence died unmarried and childless does not alter the conviction of my cousins. At my mother's funeral last year, some of them were bragging of such to others not in the family. 

Regards 

Chas

[Mvann]

I've checked one or two family stories out. Some are what you might call somewhat true. One was to do with my 2 gt grandmas family came from Manchester, which is only true in the sense that 2gt grandma was born there but her dad was born in cheadle, staffordshire. Also some relations mentioned are usually a generation out. In some cases, where aunt or uncle was used in a tale, they actually meant great aunt or great uncle. The only one I've checked that is completely wrong relation wise was to do with grandmas aunt Annie wright. Annie wright was actually grandmas grandma and it was Annie's aunt the tale was to do with.


Jon

[Ray T]

I've checked one or two family stories out. Some are what you might call somewhat true. One was to do with my 2 gt grandmas family came from Manchester, which is only true in the sense that 2gt grandma was born there but her dad was born in cheadle, staffordshire. Also some relations mentioned are usually a generation out. In some cases, where aunt or uncle was used in a tale, they actually meant great aunt or great uncle. The only one I've checked that is completely wrong relation wise was to do with grandmas aunt Annie wright. Annie wright was actually grandmas grandma and it was Annie's aunt the tale was to do with.


Jon

I can see how that arose. Cheadle; originally in Cheshire but now in Stockport, shares a fair bit of its boundary with Manchester.

Often confused, I was once walking down Cheadle high street when a chap in a lorry stopped and asked me For directions. I looked at the address and said that’s Cheadle, Staffordshire, this is Cheadle, Stockport. He let out an expletive and said that he’d just driven up from Birmingham!

[Mvann]

2 gt grandma was born in Manchester. Her dad was born cheadle staffordshire and, according to the census, her dads mother was born in newbold Leicestershire, but, as I haven't found her marriage yet, I can't confirm it. Also didn't realize there are 2 newbolds in Leicestershire. As it happens, 2gt grandma, her parents and siblings all moved to Leicester from Manchester.

[coombs]

Nan said there was a weightlifter in the family, never came across such a person. Her great grandfather however, was a cricketer in Oxford.

Also the tales that ancestors rarely moved more than 5 miles from their birthplace prior to around 1900, which is something that has been totally quashed.

Talking of Cheshire and Lancashire, and ancestors being more mobile than believed, my Sussex born ancestor wed in 1605 to a London girl, daughter of a merchant and once Mayor of King's Lynn in Norfolk, who I think came from Warrington in Lancashire (Now Cheshire) originally. You never know where in the country (or other countries) your direct line will take you.

[iluleah]

So far the tales I have managed to research have turned out to have a grain of truth in them.  Perhaps another generation removed than I had been told, or when money involved slight variation in the actual figure.

There are some stories that I have neither been able to confirm or disprove. For example the obituary of one ancestor claims that he was the second cousin of Thomas Carlyle.

I think you are correct with many family stories but just like the game of 'chinese whispers' they change as people forget or add something so the story changes to something unrecognisable to when it started...... or it is to hide something else ... a 'shame' that family at the time felt so a story was developed to remove/hide that shame.

One great aunt would tell me stories and when I repeated them asking my gran or mum they would both laugh and say " she has always had a vivid imagination"  and dismiss anything she said......... and I have to say she told me some stories that even as a child made me 'wonder' as they were very unbeleivable....  like a much older 1st cousin of my mothers who had a burn on his face " he got burned by one of his rockets that he made which misfired and exploded (and in a hushed voice) something secret for the Government/Navy" , my mother/gran told me "No, it was from a firework on bonfire night and he was never in the services"  when I eventually researched him finding his military file it was still sealed...30 yrs on researched again, some of the file were open but with lots  blacked out and still many papers sealed...reading the little I did read it does seem my great aunt was truthful....and lots of the other stories she told me on research I found to be true yet the rest of the family claimed something completly different and told me she was lying