General Chat

After finding out several years ago that I was a crack shot with a rifle I then found out that I am descended from a whole bunch of East End gunsmiths.

Has to be genetic!

Jill

Karen.
Thats a bit like Catherine Cookson the author who thought " our Kate" was her sister but she found out she was her mother

I found out my mum was born 14 months before her parents married which might explain why mum said her grandmother Margaret looked down on her daughter in law because she wasnt good enough.

I then found out Margaret was illegitimate herself. Double standards or perhaps Margaret didnt know

Very recently I discovered that my grandad's parents never married, or even stayed together. Perhaps his father was already married, I don't know.

Grandad's surname was his mother's surname, his middle name was his father's surname.
Grandad's birth is registered under his mother's name, and again, a separate registration under his father's name.
His Baptism certificate has only his mother's name and a dash where the father's name is required.

In the 1911 census grandad is 3 yrs old and living with his grandparents and their children. Yet the woman he called auntie Mary all his life was actually his real mother. As she had given birth to him at the age of 15, they covered up by using his grandmother's name as his mother. Bearing in mind this was a good Catholic family living in rural Ireland at the turn of the last century, they were left with little option other than to fib I suppose, yet felt they had to be honest in the census and declared him as grandson.

It's not an uncommon scenario, as we now know.
I wonder if my grandad knew, I certainly don't think he did. He called his mother auntie Mary until she died in 1985.

K

Sharon: LOL!!! I dont think theres been any major shocks in mine as I knew absolutely nothing to start with and every line has had a story. But my Gypsy great great great grandad hung himself at Edward Terrace in Sussex, the street is still there and I'd love to visit. Gypsies in my family had been stopping on the street for decades. Then his son, my gg grandad was badly injured in a horse race in Porthcawl and died at his home nearby. But I suppose one surprising thing was a row of 3 old, empty cottages near my father in law. I love the cottages so much and they're on a hill surrounded by sheep, no car access. Doing my daughters tree, I found out her great great grandmother was brought up in one of the cottages! Im now trying to find out who owns them so I can ask if I can look inside. Theyre tiny but the families had lots of kids, would have been a hard life.

I'm pretty new to family research (18 months)

My first OMG experience was to find that paternal grandfather was born 1921 but his parents didn't marry until 1927. Their marriage cert confirmed that his father was divorced.

I then tried to find children from 1st marriage and came to the conclution there were none.

Last Oct I visited Kew and was able to look at the divorce records which made emotional reading. There were 2 children from 1st marriage, 1 died in infancy and the other was being looked after by G GF's mother.

To date I've been uable to find out what happened to GF's half-brother.

I also discovered that GF had 6 siblings but only 2 names meant anything to my father. Now that FreeBDM has been updated I was able to estabish 3 died in infancy.

There can be great highs when researching but at the same time some sad lows.

Katie

my mum had 6 half brothers and sisters that she knew nothing about. They tried tracing her in the 60's before the age of the internet and received snail mail from my grandfather telling them not to bother us as we have all moved on!!!
I now have new aunts and uncles all over the world who I keep in touch with via the net. And I have countless cousins!!

Hi Have just found out that one of my ancestors, who I have been searching for was in fact hanged for breaking and entering the home of Catherine doweger duchess at Park Street London. His trial at the Old Bailey makes fascinating reading. I gather that he would have been buried under the paving at Newgate Prison which is now the site of the Old Bailey

Sad and scary really,though

If anyone is interested in checking if there ancestors had a similar fate the URL is http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

My surprise discovery was that 2 Grandfathers both died at the age of 37 years, 1 with Pneumonia and the other with Heart Failure and Exaustion, a 3rd Grandfather after 1 Grandmother remarried died of Drowning. Still looking for more surprises.

F.

Possibly the lady with the dead baby did not mention it because she had been told by the medical profession never to do so.
A dear lady I knew had given birth to a stillborn girl,it must have been in the early forties,after having three previous children.
Poor Alice was taken straight back on to the ward with the other mothers and their new babies and her husband was told never to mention it,which I believe he did.
Because of the way Alice reacted she was taken to the psychiatric hospital where electric shock treatment was administered.

My 'very proper' grandma married a month before my Uncle was born!

My other grandma's mother had her illegitimately and abandoned her at birth.

My husband's maternal Great grandparents eloped. And the Great Grandad was a nightmare to track down as he wasn't born in Northampton (when everyone else on that side of the family going back to the early 1800's was).

I've got numerous deaths that involved the Coroner, including 3 suicides (the most recent being my dad last year).

Great grandfather having left his wife, changed his surname to that of his mistress and started a second family whose living descendents knew nothing of his first family.

Grandma being adopted.

Another great grandfather illegally marrying his dead wife's sister.

Great great grandfather being widowed four times.

Two of my wife's great grandparents being killed in separate road accidents in the same town 18 months apart.

And so on ...................................

What a great threat thread with fascinating stories to read!!

My unexpected discovery was to find out that my Dad, an only child, had actually not quite been an only child. A sister was born some years before my Dad came along. She was a premature birth and she died at 1 day old.
But this had never ever been spoken of, so Dad didn't know.

I suppose my grandma never spoke about it, because, well, they just didn't in those days (1920), plus, as she had got married just after her 21st birthday, and 6 weeks before the birth, it appears this was the reason for getting married. A marriage which barely lasted a few years.

She must have thought she was taking the secret to her grave with her.

K

My quest now is to find where the baby is buried and visit the grave.

Margot, The Lindsay Family, I am just so envious of you. What a history, and Australian Icons.


Gail

Ifound out my grandmother had ababy girl before she married my grandfather,but on the birth cert her mother is the parent of the child and her father also,but i suppose him being church beadle it would not have gone down to well,but sadly the little one died age 5yrs old she was living with her mum at the time but the grandmother signed the death cert as the childs mother that was in 1892

My great grandfather killed his next door neighbour and got away with it!

This man had behaved 'inappropriately' with my great aunts (they were 9 and 11) and my great granddad, not surprisingly, lost his temper having consumed half a gallon of ale!

We have a number of failed marriages, too, where they simply separated.

A great uncle spent the last 23 years of his life in an Asylum and his notes make sad reading.

Not just the BMD's I expected to find when I first started all this over twenty years ago!

Birdi

My Dad always said that I was the first girl in 5 generations in his family,
(he had 3 daughters.) When I was investigating the passenger lists from UK to Australia,I found that there was a toddler in his family who was almost my namesake,who died from marasmus on the way out here in the 1850's,so I was in fact the first girl in 4 generations,not 5.In another branch of his family,I had grown up hearing Dad's stories about the Rev.
Thomas Williams,who took his 16 year old bride to Fiji to spread the word of Methodist Christianity to the natives.He was eaten by cannibals,and his family had to flee the island in a hurry.It's mostly true,except his bride was 22,not 16,he was not eaten by the natives but as he had insulted the chief of the tribes by daring to touch his head,there was a major uprising by the enraged tribes and he did,in fact,have to leave the island in a hurry with his family.His diaries make interesting reading!Then he settled down in Victoria and lived a relatively quiet life with his wife and 12 or 13 children.One of his daughters,Janey,married Dr. Robert Lindsay,from Creswick,near Ballarat,and they produced the famous Lindsay family of bohemian artists,painters,writers,sculptors etc.That is also true.

What a different world it all was... but how interesting were some people's lives!

Finding one great grandmother was a bigamist. Her father was even a witness at this supposed marriage. The first husband died 5 years after the supposed second marriage. Most of my family are catholic, which also inherited from this branch of the family. Did not divorce and was never caught or arrested for bigamy. The marriage was also in the same small town as the first.

Gail

My gr grand mother on my fathers side gave a false name on her marriage certificate, also gr grandad put down his father was in the army I have found no record of that, they got married in Halifax Nova Scotia. Prehaps thats where my grandad got the lies from.

lynn

My surprise and sadness was finding my 2gt grandparents on my fathers side died from smallpox 3 days apart

My 2x.gt grandmother on mums side died from burning when her clothes caught fire which was common I have been told. Imagine the worry with large families and crowded conditions keeping children safe.
No wonder they made them play outside