General Chat

Sorry ZZzzz, I'd like to tell you a really interesting story but I can't.

The photo was me with one of our dogs when I was only about 4, taken by a photographer but I have the photograph. Then about 25 years later it showed up in Woman's Weekly in an article about friendship, nobody knows how it got there. My Dad saw the photo purely by chance.

No I think not agingrocker, what were you in the Woman's Weekly for. :-)

Does it have to be an ancestor?

There was once a photograph of me in Woman's Weekly !!!

One of mine was on the stage and famous in the 1820s-1845 when he died. There are loads of newspaper reviews about him and his death was widely reported.

There was also a stabbing in a very distant branch of the family when a husband was charged with the attempted murder of his wife, found guilty and got 12 years. Even with no remission he should have been out of prison by 1887 but in the1891 census he is in Parkhurst so he sounds a bad lot all round.

There is one thing that doesn't really count as famous or infamous but did make the local paper and always makes me smile. A spinster ancestor of mine and another lady were sharing their home. My relative died suddenly aged 84 and there was an inquest at which her lady companion gave evidence. This is just a small part of the newspaper article:

(The elderly lady companion)...proved a somewhat eccentric witness, and informed the Coroner that if the deceased had stuck to whisky instead of drinking brandy she would be still living. Deceased asked for brandy, and witness gave it to her even though she saw it was going to kill her immediately she did so. Witness repeatedly impressed on the Coroner and jury the superior merits of whisky.

A lady after my own heart :-D

One of mine was a famous artist who has works in one of the London Galleries.

The rest of the family seem to have been Ag Labs. :-D :-D

One of mine is remembered in connection with the Gunpowder plot every year, so shall say no more ;-) ;-)

One of mine was tried for manslaughter at Gloucester Assizes, late 1800s. He was driving a horse and cart over a narrow bridge and an implement on the cart caught a young man who was standing on the bridge and pushed him under the wheels. There were 2 other carts in front, whose drivers were at their horses' heads, but my ancestor wasn't. However the judge at the trial directed the jury to find him not guilty as it was neither 'gross nor culpable' and therefore not homicide. Just found it an interesting glimpse into the era.

I've got a few.

I 'found' my granny in prison in the 1939 register :-S

I rummaged through newspapers on 'Find my Past' and there were a few newspaper articles. It appears, she drove with her lights on during the war. Had no dog licence - but apparently didn't need a licence for my dad's pet monkey!
She was in prison for going around town with a collection bucket for a charity for the 'destitute'. The destitute' were her and her 2 illegitimate children.
She would have got away with it, if she hadn't conned a huge cheque from the mayor.
Not only that - when she was charged, she gave four different surnames.

Having said that, she was a lovely lady.
I first met her when I was 10, and was left with her, my aunt and 2 cousins - who I'd also never met - or even knew of - before, for the duration of the Summer holidays.
My cousins had been living with gran, while their mum had been in prison for shooting their dad. She didn't kill him, and had just been released.
Gran had a 'smallholding' with cows, pigs and chickens. There was no electricity upstairs.

But - I can trace this 100% Cornish gran's lineage back to Brittany to a Duke of Dinan in the 13th century.,

Gervaise Hornicote, another ancestor, owned Tintagel, and sold it to Henry III's brother, Richard.
On the way there were a couple of Lord Carminows, Lord and Lady Killigrew - who lived at Arnewack and Pendennis castle - but were also pirates.

There were also quite a few of the biggest thieves around - MP's!

On my other gran's side, there was, allegedly, the heaviest an in England at the time, Henry Floyd (1842)(pictured) , and the first person to derail a train,in an attempt to thieve from it (John Prior) in 1851 - believe it or not, this was at Cheddington - the same place the 'Great train Robbery' of 1963 took place.


It's a lot easier to trace ancestors when they're ne'er do wells - or Lords and Ladies :-D
I haven't got very far on the Suffolk side.

Ggrandfather was a school headmaster and in a book about the village he is on the list of headmasters by date, for 16 years.

Further in the book, in the school history, it says that in one of those years ' the master then in charge had proved an unfortunate choice and had allowed standards to slip. He was required under threat of dismissal to pledge never to enter into a public house or beershop under any pretence, not to frequent sales unless having business there, and to be more diligent' ... (in school). He resigned 2 years later.

Auntie, his gdaughter, was so incensed by this she threw her book on the fire. Mum kept her copy which is now mine.

Infamous relatives! I wouldn’t like to say ;-) ;-)

Well mine were all squeaky clean........ NOT.

I have a couple of shifty characters in mine but nothing to shout about :-D :-D :-D

LaGooner have you looked hard enough? LOL.

Both in OH's tree :-D :-D :-D :-D

Not famous, but I was horrified to see an ancestor's name in the paper after she had been abused as a 6 years old child back in late 1800s.
The report was about the man who assaulted her, but did she have to be named and the name of her village stated too?

My great grandfather also made the local press for being drunk in the street. It didn't say what the fine was. That would have been in his teens 19th century.

And, very strange, just yesterday in Face book there was a photo of a news report early 20th century, I had not seen it before, it was the report of a daughter of that Great Grandfather's diamond wedding in Canada (I didn't even know they had gone to canada.). It was quite a long piece in the Portsmouth Evening News.

Yes it does :-D because it made the local press.

My great grandad was fined 5/- and 14/- costs for committing a nuisance in public - does that count? It was in the local newspaper :-D

Has anyone found anything like this in their family history? I haven't Yet. :-D