RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: mahees on Sunday 24 February 08 01:33 GMT (UK)
-
After all I've found out about my ancestors over the years, I still can't help but love my Great Grandfather, Frank Roby (1884-1923) who started my obsession with genealogy.
http://21st-battalion-8.tripod.com/roby_f.html
Who is your favourite ancestor and why?
Erin :)
-
My choice would be:
The Bessie Nute Gibson
Bessie born 1855 Cornwall
Marriage 1904 GIBSON JOHN NUTE BESSIE CATHCART
Dies..1928 NUTE BESSIE GIBSON
76 ST ROLLOX GLASGOW CITY/LANARK
She was the sister in law to my Great Grandfather Peter Shields and sister of his wife Ellen Nute..
We were lucky enough to find some good info on this generation and solve a little mystery....To me Bessie was an unmarried sister that stood by her sisters side with the family and her daughters and lived life with a huge heart....I can only imagine her being like a mother and soulmate to the families of different generations....A real supermom and best friend...A real pro.......
Seems she traveled from Cornwall to Glasgow unmarried until all the children of her sister and her daughter were grown and gone before she finally found someone and a life to herself.....Bessie married at age 49 to her next door neighbor a recent widower John Gibson.........She passed away in 1928....
Rest in Peace Bessie........I thank you for keeping the family together
Jason Shields
-
My favourite ancestor was Isabella Gunn, Born in Durness Sutherland in 1852 and died in Durness age 56.
She was variously described as an idiot or a lunatic, however, I feel she must have been a quiet gentle soul as after her parents died she went to live with her sister and brother in law and their children and several members of her family named their children Isabella or Isy.
The terminology in the 19th Century was pretty cruel.
wini
-
Mine is my gr grandmother, Elizabeth Ball (she's in my avatar with her children). She was born in Birmingham and came to Canada, she had somewhat of a rough life, losing 5 child at a young age and having her husband abandon her. She was a tough old girl.
I am so excited that next month I am going to visit her nieces who are in the late 80's and in Birmingham :)
Karen
-
I would have to say mine is my gg grandmother, Sarah Heintz Schmieg (1856-1927). Her mother died some time between her birth and 1860. By 1870, she she is in Queens, NY, some 400 miles from her father, and her brother and sister have died. And then by 1878 she is married with her first child. She had gone to live with her mother's childless sister and husband, and then was mistreated by the sister and her other aunts and uncles, only to come out on top. I think she must have been a strong lady and I am keen on finding out about the missing years.
Kath
-
Mine is my Great Gandma Annie Hopkins who had between 22 and 26 children. Each older child was allocated a younger child to be responsible for.
I had always fondly imagined her to be a very motherly, probably plump and gentle soul, however I am informed that she kept them all under control with a very sharp tongue and her Grandchildren were frightened of her! Also she was very small and trim.
The photo on the left shows some of the men in her family.
Elin
-
Um - which to choose...?
Well, I think my 5xGt Grandfather, John Hounam, had a bit of gumption about him when he stood up to Bonnie Prince Charlie's men!
Perhaps that should be "ran away"! Hearing that his livestock would be confiscated to feed BPC's army, he ran his sheep and cattle up a hill into woodland to hide it.
Even braver was the wife he left at home (still a-bed, having just given birth!) - when confronted with men brandishing swords and demanding to know where the menfolk (and the livestock!) were, she refused to tell - whereupon the soldiers (in a fit of pique!?) trashed the place and slashed at the furniture. There are still sword marks on the beams of what's left of the original dwelling.
Having thought about it, perhaps my 5xGt Grandmother Jean (Elliot) Hounam is my real favourite ancestor!
-
I find my husband's grandmother quite fascinating - probably for all the wrong reasons! ;D ;)
She slept with her twin sister's husband and had his baby, then (according to family legend) tried to poison another of her sisters ::)
-
My admiration goes out to my great grandma Annie Isabel Rice, Annie had a real tough life, loosing both parents before the age of 9, she was then placed in the workhouse, her brothers were sent on to live with relations. Annie eventually left the workhouse and married and settled in Middlesbrough, she sadly lost 3 babies, they are all buried together in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.
Annie sadly does the year before I was born, I would have loved to have known her, my mum says she was a very proud lady. God bless them all
Jane
-
Mine has to be my Grt grandmother Isabella Birnie McKenzie ( nee Watson )who married at the age of 16 in 1875
Sailed off to New Zealand with her husband Adam and baby Eleanor in Nov 1877 from Glasgow ,loosing her baby on the way at the age of 23 months ( poor little mite buried at sea somewhere ) She became pregnant on the journey with my granda ,He must have been in good health ,..she lost the next baby William again at 23 months old buried in New Zealand
Lost a girl after that another Eleanor then came home to Scotland with 3 of her children a widow
Re-married in 1894 had a little girl Ormuz 1895 only to loose her at the age of 15
I think she must have been a very strong lady
Elizabeth
-
my favourite ancestor is my mum's aunt
when mum was born her mother was to ill to look after her
so her sister took mum to live with them
a few years and a couple of children later her mum died aged 35
their father's family wanted to put the children into care but
Maw Nellie said over her dead body so between their father and
maw Nellie and her husband the three of them raised 7 children
she lived to 96 and buried 5 of those children and I never heard
her complain
Elaine
-
Thanks for all your answers,
The weird and wonderful stories we uncover as researchers are always fascinating ! :D
-
My Great Grandfather
Born on a farm in Wiltshire 1837
Migrated to South Australia at 20 years of age
One year as a mounted trooper policeman
Discharge with busted ankle
Married one of the Nurses at Royal Adelaide Hospital
Moved to Port Caroline in the South East of SA to teach School
got into trouble by letting his school be used for a Ball
After two years set sail for Japan with wife and two children
Master at Osaka Imperial College for seven years during which time survived three Typhoons
Twos sons and three daughters born in Japan
Returned to SA in 1878
Relieving Clerk of Country Courts
had s stroke that left him paralyzed on one side
Thirteen years in the Home for Incurables
died 1906
a Full ,Sad and Eventful life
But I am grateful for his life that enabled my creation
Alf
-
Mine would have to be my grandma - she was a really lovely person. :)
Rosina Mary Sawyer was born at 14 Hartley Street, Hougham (Dover) on 6 March 1885, the daughter of William Sawyer, labourer at the Oil Mills, and Elizabeth Graves Sawyer (nee Holmans). She was baptised at Christ Church, Hougham in Dover, on 29 April 1885.
She married William Thomas Beer on Christmas Day 1906 at the Congregational Church, Dover. They had six children: Lilian Rose, Ethel Maud, Alice Elizabeth (who died aged 8 months), Winifred May, William Alfred, and Doris Violet.
In December 1917 William was killed by a shell near Ypres; she brought up her children on her own with only a war-widow’s pension. :'(
She let out rooms (one bedroom and the front sitting room) in their tiny, 3-bedroom house to a lodger to help make ends meet; the youngest girl shared grandma's bed, dad had a small bed in her room, and the other three girls shared a bed in the third bedroom.
For the majority of her life she shared her home with her sister-in-law Rebecca Minnie Beer (Auntie Min) who was profoundly deaf and an inveterate nosey parker! ::)
After WW2 her eldest daughter moved back with her son to live with them in a flat above a shop in Folkestone. They later moved into a council house.
She had a hard life but I never knew her have a cross word for anyone. She adored children and we were always made welcome at her home in Folkestone, where she died in September 1970, shortly before we were married. I still miss her. :'(
Bill
-
my search started when we found a photo of a ww1 soldier after my grandma died, she had hidden it from my grandad as he had never seen it , i think it's because the boy had a middle name the same as my grandads surname but my reasearch hasn't revealed this as a family name any way.
the only ancestor of mine who stands out in a distant one who was on a hospital ship back home when it was topedoed and he was never found.
my least favourite is my g grandad (the brother of the soldier in the pic) who ran off and left granny with their 2 daughters. no one knows what happened to him.
-
the only ancestor of mine who stands out in a distant one who was on a hospital ship back home when it was topedoed and he was never found.
Would that ship be the Centaur, Marie?
My father was one of the few survivors from the Centaur.
Di
-
no, it was the Warlida
-
I find my husband's grandmother quite fascinating - probably for all the wrong reasons! ;D ;)
She slept with her twin sister's husband and had his baby, then (according to family legend) tried to poison another of her sisters ::)
Hmm. a very similar situation allegedly occurred in my family [except the sisters were not twins and no poisoning was involved]. My g grandmother was the resulting illegitimate child. How did you go about researching this? I am getting absolutely nowhere in confirming that this really happened in my family and so my g grandmother's ancestry has had to remain just a hypothetical.
-
My gr grandmother's brother Joseph Simpson.
Simply because there is a lot of information on him and I feel like I know him really well.
All kinds of things have turned up in a local paper, accused of arson, accidently blew off a finger whilst cleaning a gun, was a blacksmith then became a publican, a couple of horses that went missing. Lots of rivalry in the town and brilliant descriptions and conversations taken from court cases.
A real character and of novel material ;D
Margaret
-
Amelia Alice ( see photo), my maternal grandmother, whom I never met but who I believe had a pretty hard life. My mother says she was a hard woman but I suspect that being widowed in her early twenties, with two young children, then losing her second husband when she was still in her forties, with four more offspring to look after, isn't exactly a life designed for softness. She died herself before she was fifty. I think she was beautiful and I wish I had known her.
Jen
-
It's interesting that, with some exceptions, most people have gone for ancestors of their grt.grandparents generation.... and so have I!
I can't decide between my paternal grt.grandmother who (when her Mother died) left school at 8 to cook, clean and keep house for her Father and 4 older brothers (the youngest of whom was her senior by 20 years)
or
my Gran's aunt. Born in 1853 she went to Canada alone in 1871, stayed 2 years came back to the UK, married and had 5 children. In 1909 her eldest son, James, went to Australia and, when her husband died a year later, Grace went out to join James. There was a 'falling out', so Grace moved away from him. 10 years later (at the age of about 67) she returned to the UK, bought a 'farm' (smallholding) which she worked alone until she was in her 80s. By this time, she and James were back on speaking terms, so she went back to Aus. to live with him and his family. There was yet another falling out so, in 1946 she set off to spend 3 years in New Zealand where another son lived! Around 1950 (aged 93) she decided she 'wanted to die at home' and returned to the UK - just in time for my christening in June that year. My last photo of her shows her playing on my swing with me, in my grandparent's garden, 2 months before her death - in 1954!