General Chat

I wondered why my 3x gt grandfather left my 3x gt grandmother leaving her with my 2x gt grandmother (who was just a little girl at the time) and then remarried and started a new life on the other side of the country. They both remarried bigamously I have to say....each declaring that their previous spouse was deceased on the certs.

It was only last year that I found a newspaper report on him and that he physically abused my 3x gt grandmother and was sent down for it. The report gave graphic details...so I have kind of disowned him.

Great thread!

Linda

Great thread! Makes good reading in the wee hours :-)

This IS a great thread.

Please can we have some more???!!!

Anyone?


K

I know of a man who went to war WW1 and didnt return. He didnt die he just didnt come back.
He left a wife and child in England and went to Australia and married there and they had 2 children.
A divorce didnt happen till the 1950s

I also heard of a man who came home to Australia after WW2 and never contacted his wife and two daughters. The family assumed he was missing although they were never informed. His daughter hoped to find his records but was informed that he was never declared missing so she looked for him via the Salvation Army. There he was living in Queensland with his "wife" and children and grandchildren. He met with her but begged her not to tell his wife and family that his marriage was bigamous. As her mother had passed away and her sister wasn't interested she decided not to say anything and has had no contact since.

This is a great thread - very interesting.

Sue xx

Just giving it a bump...

Wow supposed shipwrecks, second families, strongmen, pianola players, crack shooters...my life will seem very dull if some one researches mine years from now!

Glad everyone is enjoying this thread, I hope more people come across it and add to it!

Cheers

Rachelle

My oh had a framed certificate on the wall when I met him twenty years ago. It was very old and you could hardly make out what was written on it. He told me that his g grand father had won it along with a bronze medal for saving someone from drowning, from the royal humane society. I have kept it on the wall since he died, but would like to find out more about him. Have been on their site but has far has I can see the records only go back has far has 1891 and this happened in 1889

lynn

Linda.

Have you looked in the local newspaper. Im sure something like that would have been reported

My 3X Great Grandfather, Thomas married my 3x Great Grandmother, Jane in Wiltshire and they had 4 children. Their 2 boys were named William and John. In the 1861 census Jane and children were living in Wiltshire but Thomas was in Wales. In the 1871 census Jane was classed as a widow, and still living in Wilts. In 1875 Thomas married a Welsh woman and they had 3 children. The first 2 boys were named William and Thomas. The same names as their half brothers in Wiltshire. Also in 1875 Jane remarried. Whilst in Wales Thomas had added an H to the front of his surname.

The possibilty of a divorce for agr Labs/railway workers in those days was remote. Also communications between Wales and Wiltshire would have been scarce. So I am left wondering if Jane knew her husband was still alive when she stated she was a widow on census night and at her marriage in 1875. Thomas died in Wales in 1887 with his 2nd "wife" in attendance. He died of rapid cancer of the mouth and Jaw and exhaustion. I am not at all surprised after all those lies he must have told!

I am left with lots of unanswered questions and intrigued by this side of my family.

Lainey

these are fascinating stories to read,

the last one makes me chuckle,
about all the lies he told

It took me over 15 years to find my paternal grandfather and a trip down to Southampton Record Office from Birkenhead. When he married my grandmother in 1899 she was 6 months pregnant and he had added 2 first names and chopped 10 years off his age. She was 29 and he was 51. She never found out because she quoted his younger age and full name on his death certificate.

More stories please.

Found out on my tree that my grandmother had an affair while she was married and that my father was the result - i know this because she divorced her husband in 1947 and my father was born in 1945 - his father is listed as a local taxi driver and not the man she was married too

also, my fathers half sister (same mother, different father) married my fathers half brother (same father different mother), lol

stephanie

i am surprised by the infant mortality.

my gggrandfather had 10 children in sunderland, durham between 1857 and 1875 only 4 of them survived childhood. they died of such illnesses as failure to thrive

at a similar time another gggrandfather had 11 children in misterton , notts (farmers) between 1870 and1895. all of them survied through childhood.

just goes to show the towns were rather unhealthy places.

I was told by a cousin of my late Mum, that my Gt Grrandparents Michael & Bridget Brady had about 20 children but not all survived.

I took the info on board...as you do..but imagine my surprise when the 1911 Ireland census came out.

According to the 1911 Dublin City Census, they had 18 children born alive. 8 children still living.

12 births found…6 to find!

I can't imagine what it must have been like to lose 10 of your children.

It certainly made me shed a few tears.

Found none of my ancestors were sent out for stealing a loaf of bread or a hanky. Have one highway robber, an embezzler a court martial, house breaking, loads of theives and one felony, which was a woman. have a couple sent for life, and 3 death sentences then commuted to life in the colony.

Funny thing, not a word was ever stated about all these rouge ancestors.

Has made a very interesting tree.

Gail

My late father-in-law born 1912 always insisted that he wasan only child and orphaned at the age of 9.


NOT TRUE!

Since researching his family tree I have proved otherwise. His father died in 1936 and his mother died in 1961.

Not only that but he had an older sister too, Kathleen born in 1901.

Traced her marriage and discovered that my husband had 3 cousins that he never knew about as well.

One of the brothers had died but with an Electoral Roll look-up we traced the other 2 and met up with them a couple of months later.


The 2 brothers were delighted to meet us and know all about their uncle Jack who they hadn't seen since before WW2.

We then learned that they didn't know their grandmother either as the grandparents had split up back in the 1920's....but they didn't discover this until after their grandmother had died.

Why all the secrecy is beyond belief!

Just come across this thread whilst browsing during my lunch hour!
Yes its amazing just what can turn up ...

The 1911 census has shown me that my Grandmother had 5 children and not 4 as believed. The unknown child died before his first birthday - I now have the certificates, though no-one ever talked about him not even my Dads eldest sister or my Nan. Makes me wonder if my Dad ever knew.

Another surprise on the 1911 census was that my widowed Great grandmother (my Mums Nan) moved briefly to Lincolnshire from Croydon, London and was running a boarding house for railway workers. We knew she did run one whilst in London around 1910 and then ran another one over in Breconshire, Wales around 1914-1917 before moving her family back to Tottenham. All the family were surprised when I mentioned this. Even my Mum had no idea of the link with Lincolnshire, and she's the eldest suriving now.

You just never know what you are going to discover. Its fascinating.

With a father with no birth certificate, given out to a baby farm and later adopted and a mother whose own mother never married, my parents warned me I would be hard pushed to find any ancestors.
Dad said to go down the route of his adopted family, that was his wish, and mum said not to bother with her side because there was no one to find.
Well, they are both deceased now, and I hope that they have met up with some of their ancestors who include, Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. My mothers aunt married a Kipling.
Have also found, with the help of another GR sub that some relatives emigrated to Salt Lake and I have a whole line of Mormons, some with 5 wives and over 50 children., and
Kenny Wharram ( canadian) professional ice hockey player.
My son-in-law is the nephew of a famous musician, but as he is still living would not be right to name him.

Keep this thread going, makes very enjoyable reading.

SylviaG

I share a GGGGG grandad with Hilary Clinton, I'm descended from one of his daughters and she from another of his daughters!! oh heck!!

We always knew that Grandad had an unmarried sister, and a brother who had a family who Granny was in touch with. After Granny and her daughter had died and we cleared the family home, I found a handwritten will from Grandads mother naming those 3 children, plus another daughter who no one in the family knew anything about. Granny never talked about her, and she knew loads of family history. I found this daughters marriage soon after, then found in the 1911 census and freeBMD that they had children, she died in 1914, he apparently remarried and there were also grandchildren.