Genealogy Chat

Nudging for more interesting facts.

Wheres Bren and Old Crone, they are the only ones who can rival Merrys lot.

I dont know if it is true or not. My late grandmother kept saying that UK prime minster William Pitt the Elder, first Earl of Chatham was my distant grandfather. I have not figure it out yet. My gggg grandfather was Benjamin Pitt from Shropshire.

Not very interesting but... I'm distantly related to several footballer's. One particular footballer would bring home half the team to visit my grt grt grandparents, my grt grt grandma wasn't happy when she was told to clean their kit. My grt grt grandfather went to Australia to find a place to settle in the hope that his young family would join later. Anyhow he got involved in various gangs (including, legend has it, Ned Kelly's), big fights, gambling and this inevitably led to him shooting someone. Needless to say he had to flee Australia and returned back to England. His family did settle...from one side of Nottingham to the other. I coulda been Australian, damn him!!! The most interesting person in my tree is my grandad. Had his own business and was the first male on his line to be born outside of Russia and Poland. I'm equally fascinated with my grt grandmother, who survived her husband by 40 years in a foreign country, and my gr gr aunt. I'm the first born female on my grandfather's line in over 100 years since my gr gr aunt.

Hi I really like this thread, it is very interesting, well apart from the ususal Ag lab, Gen lab, Tailors, weavers etc, I have a Royal Train driver.... My great Uncle Ted (Edward) used according to Newspaper reports drive the Royal Train when it came up North, He and his Wife were also Councillors for Manchester. He apparently died falling off a stationary train in Newton Heath sidings manchester, and there is a bit on him on the Times on Line about his death, but have other Newspaper entries. Plus my ex Husband has connections to the Allen Family who were Hangmen, and assistants to the Pierpoints Hangman family from Manchester, still to investigate that line but family rumour has it it is them. Sue

Don't want to make you even more jealous but I'm feeling mean so I will anyway!!! I've got a fairly recent proven link (younger sons of younger sons) into the Earls of Lincoln and their ancestors which take me via their various wives into a huge number of amazing ancestors. Lady Godiva (31x great granny), William the Conqueror is several times over my many times great grandfather as are King John and Henry I and Henry II. A spanish king with the delightful name of Alfonzo Fernandez IX aka the Slobberer. Saint Stephen of Hungary, El Cid and King Alfred. Also those Merovingian kings of France mentioned in the Da Vinci Code. The list goes on with royalty from all over Europe and my earliest proven ancestor so far was a Roman Consul who was alive in 381 AD. The really weird thing is that all these are my paternal grandfather's ancestors and he was an ag lab!!! It really amazed me when I learned of this just a few weeks ago. This had been the least promising looking bit of my family tree so there's hope for everyone! Keep hunting everyone! Best wishes Sue

I haven't, so far, found anyone that diabolical among mine - just a few cases of illegitimacy and a drunkard or two, no robbers or murderers or anything like that.

One of my Norfolk Quaker lot collected curios and exhibited them in a private museum in his house in Great Yarmouth, which he opened to the public in 1778. One of his exhibits was a nose flute, brought back from Tahiti on the Endeavor, by Captain Cook. (It's now in the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne.) He and his 2 brothers had coins/tokens made, which could be spent in their shops. Another relly worked in Odessa in the early 1870's, married a German lady and had a son born in Russia, at least 2 children born in Germany and another 2 born in London. He travelled to the Continent quite frequently and was out of the country for 1871, 1881 and 1891 census, which has made him difficult to trace. Luckily he was back in London for 1901. Loads of tenant farmers, ag labs, mariners and school teachers, not forgetting the dressmakers(!!) and gardeners. Jay

That nose flute..... did they play Colonel Bogey on it? Or maybe that Tom Jones classic - 'Snot Unusual?

My Grandmother's cousin 'invented' the motorway sign that we see on our roads. She is still alive today. She was a draughtswoman in the civil service.

My mum's uncle (great uncle?) supposedly designed the 'Morton Salt' girl. Then, when my mum was a little girl he painted a small picture of her holding their town newspaper in one hand and an umbrella in the other. I have the painting of my mum and proudly display it in our house. (Wish I knew if he actually did create the Morton design.) My mum's greatgrandfather was John Ovens. He could very well be the nephew of Major John Ovens, who explorered a bit of Australia and who was Governor Brisbane's private secretary. Don't have too many ag lab's, but we do have shop owners, a rope maker, carpenter, and one ancestor who kept getting fired from jobs because he was too hot-headed. He was a really sweet gentleman and had a lovely sense of humour -- he just had a wee bit of a problem controlling his tongue. At least he couldn't be accused of not being honest, eh?

No-one interesting on my direct bloodline, but once you start to move sideways a bit to siblings of my Gt.Gt grandparents, it does start to get a little more interesting, as my Gt. Gt. Aunt married into the family of the prominent Victorian royal physician Sir Morrell MacKenzie who attempted (unsuccesfully)to treat Kaiser Frederick III of Germany of cancer of the larynx. If the guy had actually lived and reigned for more than three months in 1888, his son Kaiser Wilhelm II wouldn't have come to power as soon, and we'd probably all have been spared World War One. Several other lines lead off from here by marriage into a number of other socially prominent Victorian and Edwardian families, making a nice change from my rather boring bunch of 'Ag Labs' - and they include a couple of cricketers, footballers (including one who scored the first ever goal in the FA cup final - now that's topical!!), architects and engineers, a director of the North Eastern Railway who died in a railway accident at Grantham in 1906, the third ever woman to become a Member of Parliament, a couple of other Victorian MPs, several 'Sirs', and a number of 'Earls' and 'Lords' which actually link back to the Spencer family and makes me very very distantly related by marriage to Princess Diana, and therefore all the Royal Families of Europe and ultimately William the Conquerer, though I daren't put all this up on GR!! Also, several times back and forth across the Atlantic up and down the generations apparently lies a link with ex-US president Richard Nixon, though this is a very long link that still needs to be proved, and frankly, this is one guy I don't really want to claim as mine anyway! My favourite relative of all is probably my 3x Gt Grandma. She somehow managed to have seven children (all of whom survived into adulthood - no mean achievement for Victorian England ) but there is no potential father (or fathers!) for any of her children anywhere to be seen in any of the censuses, birth certificates or baptism records, apart from one son who hated to see a blank space on his marriage certificate and invented a guy called 'Edmund'!!. I'd love to know how she did it and kept food on the table for her large brood, but alas, the old girl will probably remain a mystery. At least I have some people who actually left a bit of a paper trail behind them!

Chris Riggott, Middlesboro player!!!!!

Horatia, are u related to THE Nelson??

I'm jealous too!! I've only found Ag lab, cheesemonger, bootmaker, domestic servants, a wire frame knitter???, a pawn broker and lots of illegitimate children. There must be someone exciting in my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Rebekah, No, I'm not related to Nelson - HOWEVER, Nelson's father, the Reverend Edmund Nelson, married my great-great-great grandparents at All Saints Church, Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk in 1786. (Nelson was born and baptised in Burnham Thorpe). Cheers, Horatia Nelson :-)

Oooh I'm jealous - none of mine were very exciting. I'd love to find a gruesome murderer or a loony inventor amongst them. No such luck, not even many Ag Labs. Have got lots of bricklayers and master builders, a coach painter, a coach builder, a carpenter & joiner, a few tailors and seamstresses, a coal miner, a baker, a few charwomen and some laundresses, a v successful boat builder whose brother built a nice hotel on the Thames (original structure still stands), a horse whisperer, and a song writer who lived in his pj's all day (have yet to find more than one song published by him) and a receiver of the MBE. Oh, nearly forgot the liar - has 'postman' as occupation on Marr.cert. but checked with London Postal Workers and there is no record. He came from Mars and disappeared into thin air. The family don't talk about him as he was a thoroughly bad egg...so he's the very one I want to investigate - and can find NOTHING!!! I bet there's something on him, but the so-and-so is my brickwall.

Have noone famous but got a hero. He was a fisherman who went out fishing in a storm, in 1909 (very silly I know) but the other boat that went with them capsized. My ancester went to rescue them and he and the crew also capsized. All 6 were drowned. There is a memorial to their bravery in Flamborough which I finally got to see last year. Still looking for my connection to Royalty, I know it's there somewhere!!!!!!!

Interesting reading . . . My gtgramps when 26yrs old, (1872) in Dover, received a Bravery Award from 'The Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire' he saved 7 lives by putting the ladder on his shoulders to rescue the folks trapped on the roof of a burning hotel. (lots of newspaper coverage of story at the time) He then migrated to Australia as an engineer invited down under to build the country railway links. His father was a city councilor in Dover, and his father was a Freeman of the City of Dover. Then on my mums side I have 3 ancestors given death penalty for petty crimes in Old Bailey and commuted to life in the Aust. Have extracts from a radio interview gtgranma did in Sydney in 1939, telling how she assisted in the making of the mourning dresses for the mother, aunt and sister of the bush ranger Ned Kelly. She also speaks of her life with gtgramps living all around country towns in Aust when he was building the railway system. Most of my early Aust ancestors lived in remote country areas so their pioneer stories are all interesting - much respect for them all !! cheers Laurie

Teresa.... maybe she was the last of the O'Hicans?