Myths debunked when doing family histroy.

[Viktoria]

Oddly many members of my wife's family claim that their ancestor was Mary Seton, one of the four Mary's of Mary Queen of Scots fame.However the reality is that she died as a nun in France never having married. Our research has traced my wife's Seton line back to Fife with no connections to the nobility. Also Queen Mary wasn't exactly the most popular of monarchs so why even claim such a connection?

Well Queen Mary was a Roman Catholic and was it John Knox who so defamed her?
 She was a pawn in the hands of men from rotten Darnley to Bothwell.

“The Queen had four Marys,but now there are only three
Mary Seton, Mary Beaton ,Mary Carmichael and me ,(ie Mary Fleming. )
A lovely sad song.
Viktoria.

[Stanwix England]

One myth I've seen so many times is "So-and-so had a ticket to sail on the Titanic, but they didn't go because of x reason".

I've seen it so many times, it's a wonder anyone actually made it on board. 

I don't think I had many myths handed down in my own family, as there wasn't much knowledge about the family really at all. The big 'myths' have been the illegitimacies, which were usually open knowledge although hidden in at least one case. That required some debunking.

[Jackiemh]

My sister-in-law is convinced that we are an unusual family, having a variety of members who misbehaved; experienced everything from poverty to bankruptcy and so on whilst her family is squeaky clean.
I am trying very hard to dispel her perception of her family!
Jackie

[DianaCanada]

Henry Ford of automotive fame, is supposedly related to us.  My great-grandmother was a Ford from Yorkshire and her father deserted the family around 1860 and “went to America” so I think my uncle just decided to make up a connection.  I haven’t even bothered to look at Henry’s background.

My mother told me there was gypsy blood in her family, I had never found any connection to that until I began looking into her unknown father (with the help of DNA) and did find a family line that was supposedly Roma (Beaney) so perhaps she knew something about him or someone let something slip.

Years ago my father mentioned there was supposed to be French and German in our tree.  Unless it was a real stretch back to the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, I have no evidence of that either.

[KGarrad]

There was always a story in my father's family that we had "French blood".

Closest I can find is my 2nd Great Grandfather, Ascott James Vanstone, who was born in Jersey!
The family were in Jersey for just about 5 years.
There are births and deaths of siblings in Jersey from 1841 until 1846.
Other births and deaths in 1840 in North Devon and from 1847 in Bath.

[DianaCanada]

There was always a story in my father's family that we had "French blood".

Closest I can find is my 2nd Great Grandfather, Ascott James Vanstone, who was born in Jersey!
The family were in Jersey for just about 5 years.
There are births and deaths of siblings in Jersey from 1841 until 1846.
Other births and deaths in 1840 in North Devon and from 1847 in Bath.

Vanstone sounds Dutch!
I was born in Quebec but I can see generations from now someone thinking we must have been French Canadian, especially since our surname had a French equivalent. The fact that we were all baptized Anglican might give them a clue.  The perils of family history!😁

[KGarrad]

There was always a story in my father's family that we had "French blood".

Closest I can find is my 2nd Great Grandfather, Ascott James Vanstone, who was born in Jersey!
The family were in Jersey for just about 5 years.
There are births and deaths of siblings in Jersey from 1841 until 1846.
Other births and deaths in 1840 in North Devon and from 1847 in Bath.

Vanstone sounds Dutch!
I was born in Quebec but I can see generations from now someone thinking we must have been French Canadian, especially since our surname had a French equivalent. The fact that we were all baptized Anglican might give them a clue.  The perils of family history!😁

 

The Canadian side of the Vanstone family have made the same mistake over the years!
The Vanstone surname originally comes from the village of Faunstone in Cornwall.
No Dutch blood at all
And I speak as someone who lived in The Netherlands for 16 years!
Nothing on Dutch genealogy websites at all.

[Erato]

"thinking we must have been French"

And they'll think I must have African roots since my father was born in Angola.

[DianaCanada]

"thinking we must have been French"

And they'll think I must have African roots since my father was born in Angola.

People make assumptions before looking deeper into the family background.
But my DNA ethnic background on Ancestry gives my mother a lot of Scottish, and as far as I can tell almost all her lines go back in rural East Sussex to the 1700's and earlier (maybe west Kent too).  By that point the amount of Scottish indicated (I know, it's a broad range) would at least show up a Scots ancestor (most of these lines have DNA matches) in the 3rd of 4th generation back.  I kind of understand my father having some Scots ancestry, mixed in with his northern lot going back to who-knows-when, but the Sussex connection makes little sense.