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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Bellejazz on Wednesday 04 June 08 06:35 BST (UK)
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I want to hear all about the amazing things people have found out. The weird, the wonderful, the strange, the coincidental, the totally bizarre.
To start off here is my little tale ;)
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About 4 years ago, 3 years before I began my family history journey, my Husband and I moved 3000kms across Australia from Victoria to a tiny little town in outback Western Australia. When I say in my profile "the middle of nowhere" I really mean it, we are 900kms from Perth (the capital city of WA) and 250kms from the nearest town with more than 800 people, Kalgoorlie. There isn't much here except Gold mines, dust and flies. We are both in the Tourism Industry and we came here to run a Museum and B&B located in the original buildings of a mine company which existed here from 1897-1963. Our main focus is mining but we are also the guardians of much of the social history of the area.
Anyway last year when I started my family tree research I got in contact with lady in Victoria who is related to me through our mutual gg grandmother. After a flurry of emails and exchange of information she mentioned to me that she had lost track of 3 of our gg grandmothers brothers who had left Victoria in the late 1890's - early 1900's and gone to WA and that perhaps since I was already on this side of the country I might have more success in tracking them down.
I started my quest unsure what/if I would find anything. This progressed to amazement when, through the electoral rolls I found 1 of the brothers in Kalgoorlie only 250kms from where I now live 100 years later. This was an outstanding discovery in itself but what was to come had me dissolving into fits of stunned laughter and my Husband shaking his head in disbelief. Further exploration of the electoral rolls showed the 2 other brothers in another little mining town (which no longer exists) only 40kms away from our town! The next election showed they had moved, one had gone North and the other, lo and behold had came to the very little old town we now live in ourselves. This startling discovery sent me into our own records held at our museum and there it was in black and white print, in our own records, in our own Museum. One of the brothers worked in the very mine that our Museum is based around. He probably came to collect his paycheck from the office window that I now dust.
Totally unknown to myself 4 years ago I came all the way across Australia to work in a Museum that contains part of my very own family History.
So .... 3000kms and 100 years later and here I am, walking in the footsteps of my ancestors.
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Amazing story ... and how very satisfying !
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I want to hear all about the amazing things people have found out. The weird, the wonderful, the strange, the coincidental, the totally bizarre.
To start off here is my little tale ;)
[snip]
Great story and there are so many over the 30+ years i've been interested in genealogy that i've heard!
A couple of mine:
1989 i moved to a small settlement and while working away as i usually did on the trees, discovered my fathers first cousin living 4 km away in another small town...he was the local policeman. My dad and him had never met because both my dads mum and the policemans father (having shared the same mother of course) were fostered out within weeks of birth, but i had several visits with him.
The house i moved to in the settlement in 1989 was also very well known as it was built in the early 1870's and we were renovating it. My g g g aunt who was one of the original Canterbury (NZ) pilgrims arriving in 1850 had married and moved to the very same settlement in 1869 so at some stage i can almost guarantee she had entered the house i eventually owned :-)
Sarndra
www.sarndra.com
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My husband's great great grandfather was a Devon man, the son of a shoemaker, who spent some time in the navy. My great great great grandfather was a Yorkshire man, a tailor and the son of a publican. For some unknown reason the Devon shoemaker's son moved to Yorkshire and worked with my great great great grandfather. They were neither shoemakers, tailors nor sailors, but attendants in an asylum!
I've told my husband that our families were destined to become entwined. He says I'm a fruitcake!
Wotty
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It is a small world
My paternal great grandfather served on the same ship as my wife's maternal great grandfather in WW1, although the families were from different areas [England and Scotland]
Not really a personal one this, but I was researching for a friend and found [1881 census] that his great grandfather was a Boarder/Scholar at a school in Northants and his wife's great grandmother was a domestic servant at the same school.
Not that uncanny perhaps in the same area, but his ggf was born in and returned to Birmingham and her ggm married and emigrated to Canada.
My friend met his [Canadian] wife at University and they came to live in the same area, 6 miles from where the school used to be.
Like I said, a small world
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while researching family history, i found cousins in newcastle, nsw, and was informed we are relatedd to
prince rupert of hut river in western australia, he declared himself king of hut river province. he also printed h is own money with his picture on it,
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Well this doesn't relate to ancient family tree stuff but future family tree stuff ;D
My son is about to marry a lovely young lady that he met at university.
My son and his future wife recently bought a house. Of course all the parents were invited over for a preliminary inspection before the closing. We haven't really had much interaction with her parents and we were making the usual polite chit chat. Then the subject of neighbourhoods etc came up and lo and behold ....... :o It turns out that between the age of 5 and 10 I lived a few blocks away from my future DIL's father and he and his siblings and I went to the same school....a school that my mum taught at .....It is indeed a small world. This coincidence thingy is rather spooky..... ;D
mab
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When I was a small child I lived in a village and as I went round the village with my mother (who had lived in the village all her life) used to tell me I was related to this person and that person that we met until I thought I was related to everyone in the village. I presumed it was via her father who was one of 16 all born in the village but I have found my father's gt grandmother was from a very big village family.
As my family history has progressed I have discovered more and more people that I was related to and have recently 'proved' my memory wasn't incorrect in believing I was related to the formidable lady (not to me) who ran the grocers, confectioners, wine shop and cafe (all one shop- this was the 1940's). As she was a widow and an old lady when I was a child I'd no idea until last week how to 'prove' it when another old memory that their was a Bellringing connection (my father and I were both bellringers) and as I have recently been doing a lot of work on 'my Harrops' I remembeed their was a Harrop on a Peal board in the Ringing Room - I did a census search and found him and his family and their she was (I did remember she was called Hannah) and am waiting for her birth certificate and her parents marriage certificate to discover 'how she fits into the Harrop tree I have.
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My GG Grandfather was transported for stealing sheep"
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mab's coincidence moved me to tell my strange story.
I've been concentrating on my father's side of the family. Mum asked "What about my side?" so I started down there. She knew nothing about them, apart from her Dad's name and her Grandfather's name (which she got wrong!)
The family originally came from Hampshire, but moved to Lambeth, and when Mum married Dad and they found a flat in Wimbledon, an easy commute to where they worked. They moved from there shortly after I was born.
So I was rather surprised when I found in the 1881 census that her Great Grandfather's brother moved to Wimbledon. I showed Mum - "but that's the house where WE used to live!"
Spooky, huh?
meles
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Hi Jackeroo,
Have just been reading about Hutt River Province.
Their website is:www. principality-hutt-river.com
Interesting story!
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I found a distant cousin living right next door to my son.
My son was the "boy next door that played loud music" ::)
There have been many amazing coincidences turning up throughout my research, and I think it is fate that leads us to each other, in one way or another.
Margaret
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My G grandmother had 4 cousins once removed. 2 emigrated to St Kitts and 2 became lawyers in London.
Through a complete accident I was in correspondence with a St Kitts descendant in New York. He rang me out of the blue to see if I had any information on the 2 brothers in London. He gave me an address in Wood Street.I was working at the time in a building in Gresham Street, next door to Wood Street.
The Guildhall is just opposite. A quick reference to the directories of the time confirmed the address was just off of Wood Street. A visit to the map room showed that their house had been demolished to make way for the building of Gresham Street and the building I was working in was right on top of where they had lived.
Rog
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some amazing stories there
mines not nearly as good
my Nan orignally from Leicester evacuated to Sussex and evntually moved here
my OH came from Sussex and moved up to Leicester when he was 6 when his brother died,
his parents split up when he was 9 and he stayed in Leicester with his mum, his Dad moved back to Sussex and my OH came to live with him when he was 18.
when i say Sussex i mean a specific town.
isn't that strange
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I've mentioned a couple of times on here that my 4x great grandmother is also my husbands 5x g gran. I only realised a short while ago when I started his family tree.
We went to all the same schools throughout our childhood and lived about 200 yards from each other but we never once met until I paid him out on a winning horse ( I used to be a bookie) 10 years ago.
It is indeed a small world and almost seems like we are all meant to be around the same people in each generation.
I find it strange that our families lived in the same village and did the same things that we are doing with their descendants now.
Spooky stuff.
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I have been researching all 4 of my grandparents family trees. Each branch came from all over Scotland and Ireland. But for some strange reason around the 1850's all four branches lived and worked in Isle of Arran. If you don't know it, Arran is a small island they all must have known each other.
They had all left Arran by late 1870's and spread over south west Scotland but funny how my grandparents and ultimately my parents marriage almost 100 years later brought us all back together again.
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I think my favourite personal discovery was finding (with a lot of help)my great uncle's grave.
I knew he had died in Australia but I had no idea where. I found his WW1 records online and knew that at one point he had lived in Western Australia. I eventually sent off for his death certificate which told me he had died in Dumbleyung. I then contacted the Town council there and thanks to them I found his grave and also that he had been quite well known in the town and was mentioned in their records.
A distanct cousin who lived a few hours away very kindly offered to go there and take pictures which I have been able to give to the older folk of my family. The only sad thing is there is no headstone.
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Mine also involves graves, airdlass, and in both cases I had the very strange feeling the people wanted to be found! They were all Camerons - it's probably that Scottish clannishness extending beyond the grave! 8) 8)
I set out to find a ggrandfather's grave. All I knew was that he was buried in the bush, somewhere west of Quilpie - and there's an awful lot of empty country out there! Anyway, after many enquiries and much persistence, the Quilpie Shire Council finally found the relevant landowner. Two cousins came with me to visit him - one was the daughter of his son who was one of those who buried him there. Her dad has been gone for a long time, so it was very special for her! We travelled over 1000 kilometres each way, and things happened very smoothly - I'm sure the old boy was making sure that we got there! And it was very moving when we arrived at the grave, which was on a sloping hillside overlooking a creek.
The other instance was when I was in Fort William years ago. I idly went for a walk over the moors, and purely by chance, (?) came upon a remote little cemetery with a number of Camerons buried there. I noted some of the inscriptions, and when I came home and told Dad, he said that some of them were our ancestors. Because I had found the cemetery, he was able to pay a visit on his only trip to Scotland a few years later. This was before I was into family history - but I've always thought I was led there!
MarieC
PS Sadly, some of my English ancestors are absolutely the opposite - they definitely DO NOT WANT to be found! :'( :'(
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Diging through piles of papers found Great Grandmas gg Uncle was a merchant privateer 1641 {PIRATE} Very interesting ::) ::)
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That IS interesting, al b! Do you have any details of his voyages or activities??
MarieC
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There are some great stories here it just goes to show there is so much more to family history than meets the eye.
:)
- Belinda.
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I never stop been amazed by the things I fine out- sometimes I'm left shock,sad,surprised,laughting,enriched to find out more.Cheers Nipy
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ar ar ar Dont know a whole lot about him he died of natural causes didn't get shot ar walked the plank ::) ;D his name was Digory Gordge Google tells a little al b
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What happened every one quit???? :(
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Hello Wotty,
I just checked your interests and my wife's famil may be of interest.
She is descended on one side from the Pile/Pyle family of Northumberland and on the other from the Hopps family of N. Yorks/Durham. Two of her Hopps's moved to Yorkshire to work as nurses in a mental asylum.
Cheers!
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Sorry if I went a bit "off message" there but I do have a story to add.
One of my lot called John Milner was born in England in 1585. He sailed for the Virginia Colony and in 1639 at the age of 54 he married 21 year old Elizabeth Rolfe.
Elizabeth was one of the very first children born to settlers in the North American Colonies. She was the daughter of Captain John Rolfe and his third wife Jane Pierce of Jamestown. His second wife was a Native American girl, the daughter of a local chief; an Indian Princess.
Her name was Pocahontas.
Cheers,
John Milner Stubbs
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Not a story like any of the above, but what amazed me most was just how mobile people (not just the rich) were throughout the 19th century.
E.g. moving a family of 16 from Staffordshire to Furness (as one of mine did) in the 1860s must have been some undertaking. Okay, you'd probably do anything to get out of nailmaking, but what a journey and presumably without any real guarantee of employment at the other end.
Another family (somewhat better off, well at least until bankrupted!) seemed to think nothing of virtually commuting between Bury St Edmunds and London several times a month.
All, to use a modern term, non-trivial journeys then.
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One of my finest moments was discovering the grave of my g x 8 grandmother, Hester Craft, in Minsterworth churchyard. She died in 1746.
http://www.artus-familyhistory.com/source/Early%20Maps.html/images/Grave%20of%20Hester%201746.jpg
As a bonus, the name of her father was on the stone which helped me tremendously.
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My most amazing discovery is just how close I got to not being on this planet at all ! :)
I had often wondered how my grandmother met my grandfather, because she was born in Suffolk, and he was born in Somerset, and I really didn't think I would ever find out. Through talking to several family members, the facts have now been revealed. My grandfather's entire family moved from Somerset to Surrey, after my grandfather was involved in an indiscretion with a local girl, and with the family being church elders, they all had to move. At the same time, my grandmother got a job in service with a family close to where Heathrow Airport now stands. My grandfather was out looking for work one day, and happened to knock at the door of the house where my grandmother was working, and asked the owner if he wanted any odd jobs doing. The house owner invited him in and gave him some work. If the householder had turned him away, I would not be typing this, because I wouldn't be here !
In other parts of my tree I've seen examples of chance meetings which have also resulted in my existence. It just makes you realise how precarious life is. Well, it does me, anyway ;)
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Nick,
How right you are. My mind often boggles at the series of coincidences which resulted in me being here. My great grandfather, born in Brighlingsea, Essex, married a seventeen year old girl from Nairn in the North of Scotland. Ok, so he was a merchant sailor, as was her father, but I am still mystified as to what brought them together and even more puzzling is why did they marry in Caistor, Lincolnshire?
There is a rumour in the family that she was a fairly intrepid traveller and went with her husband on many of his voyages ( up and down the coast I think) and she was heavily pregnant when they married. I think there is a romantic novel in there somewhere!
Jen
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Well, if we're going down the how we got here route ... ;D
I owe my existence to Adolf Hitler. My mum was evacuated from the East End to Lancashire where she met my father, while they were both children. They were both idle gits and/or socially inept, so didn't bother playing the field when they were older and married each other.
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Suspect Mr Hitler was responsible for an awful lot of us. My mother worked in the kitchens of the Merchant Navy hotel which was run by my father's parents. He was de-mobbed, came home and bingo!
I have already said this on another thread but if my dad's younger brother hadn't run away to sea at the age of fifteen and been blown up at sixteen, my dad wouldn't have joined up at all. He had a place at university and was under no obligation to join the navy. But he felt guilty over his brother's death so gave up his place at uni and went off to sea. The saddest thing was that he never went back to studying and I suspect regretted that for the rest of his life.
So - if uncle Peter hadn't died, I would never have been born! Weird.
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My most amazing discovery was about 25 years after my mother made a throwaway comment that her grandfather had been born in China. When I asked why she said she didn't know, nor could she remember if she had ever known the reason - it was all so long ago. Her grandparents had died before her parents were married, and she was second youngest of a reasonably large family, so I guess she can be forgiven for not knowing.
When I eventually retired and found time to do some research, I discovered that her grandfather, rather than being the son of a British merchant, missionary (or mercenary) as we had automatically assumed, was actually Chinese, had come to Australia pre-gold and married an English girl. None of the family had any Chinese characteristics (not even my grandfather, and he was the youngest son) apart from black hair with blue highlights in the sunlight, and some of them had absolutely gorgeous skin. Because my grandfather was a very quiet person I guess nothing was ever discussed about origins. Also, with a very very English surname the question of Asian beginnings would never even have been considered.
The crazy thing is that in my home town (in Western Queensland), where my cousin still lives, were other descendants from this same family that we never knew were related. My cousin's best friend - and they have always, for more than 40 years, called each other cousin - is actually related.
This discovery is probably the most magic of all so far and even beats the discovery of 4 convicts in the maternal side of the same branch of the family.;D My only regret is that by the time I found out, only my uncle was left (and he really appreciated the news) and so I wasn't able to tell my mother what I'd discovered.
All I have to do now is get beyond the English surname and try to find evidence of the true Chinese name!!!!!!!! ::)
Hope my ration of magic hasn't run out yet.
Philippa
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A few years ago we had a family day out with my grandmother to take her back to the village where she spent time as a child visiting her grandparents.
We drove around for ages trying to find a small lane with houses that she remembered her grandparents living in but without any luck.
Eventually we stopped at the church and saw a couple who were tending a grave, and, obviously assuming they were locals, decided to ask them if they knew of any small lanes which could fit the bill.
They told us that they weren't local, but had come down for the day to help tidy up a grave for the gents mother, who had been born in the village and still lived there. He suggested we drop round to his mothers house, as she may have an idea which lane we were looking for.
We stopped by and had a chat, and yes the lady did know the lane. Not only did she know the lane, but she had lived there as a child. She had lived next door to my grandmothers grandparents nearly 90 years previously! Spooky.
She gave lots of information about GG-granddad which would have been totally lost, but for a lucky meeting with two strangers in a churchyard
Glen
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My most amazing discovery was about 25 years after my mother made a throwaway comment that her grandfather had been born in China.
Made me think of something a little similar. Apparently my mum's father always talked of emigrating to South Africa which at the time got me wondering if he got the idea from his father who was a jobbing soldier - -maybe he had served in South Africa at the time of the Boer war? I never researched it as I wasn't interested in FH then.
Time passed and I did get interested in FH after my mother died. My first clue to him being in South Africa was when I accessed the first census with his name on it. Grandad was one of 7 children all of whom had been born at various places that gt grandfather had been stationed - Aldershot, Pembroke Docks, Chatham etc. Then came Charles. The transcriber had 'read' his birth place as Prebimanty, hamps After a lot of peering with a magnifying glass and getting sallysdad's opinion, we finally deciphered it Peitermarizburg - Natal. Result! I then scoured the BMD for forces births- found the birth cert and indeed, he was born in South Africa -- Gt grandpops had been out there! Later on I was able to access the army records and found that he did indeed spend about 4-5 years out there before finally finishing his 20 years service. Oh how I wish I could confirm this finding with my mother! If I did though, I bet she would have had many questions to ask of her father.
Still I am pleased that a small hunch of a chance remark actually was true!
sallysmum
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My GGG Grandmother Eliza Bolton nee Bushell was sent to prison and 2 years hard labour in 1850 for committing BIGAMY !
She was married to my GGG Grandad William Bolton in Solihull, Warwickshire in 1841. She then married as Eliza Bolton to Josiah Mercer in 1849 Birmingham. She was still married to William.
Josiah Mercer in court said that William Bolton wanted to see his wife married off and gave Josiah £5 and also paid for the wedding dinner ! :o
Although Josiah was involved in this farce he was named as the victim :o
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I had been researching my 4th great granduncle on my paternal side. He was a butcher in Richmond, Surrey and had built a Baptist Chapel in 1829. During this research I found he and his wife had attended the Baptist Chapel in Brentford and had been baptised there by the minister John Andrews Jones. One day I was looking through some papers my cousin had sent me with the ancestors of my paternal grandmother and John Andrews Jones was my 4th great grandfather. This prompted me to look into the life of Rev Jones and I discovered that his first pastorate had been in Ringstead in Northamptonshire. This rung a bell and I remembered that my maternal grandfather's family had come from there. I contacted Ringstead Baptist and a VERY helpful member of the Chapel looked into the history of the names and dates I already had and indeed the family had attended the chapel during Rev Jones' pastorate. But that was not all. Just for interest she included and article which concerned a member of her own family but the key person in it was a Mr Weekly from the neighbouring village of Irthligbourgh. The Wild family of Sipson (my father's side) married with the Weekly family who had originated from Irthlingbourgh in more than one generation. As Ringstead and Irthlingbourgh were neighbouring villages it seems quite possible that my mother's side of the family may have Weekly blood too!
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Wow, I am so enjoying the wonderful stories in this thread!
Tracing my father's mother's family and building a tree from scratch was amazing because we knew almost nothing about her.
Suspecting, and then proving, that my 4th-great-grandfather (on my mother's side) was Jewish was pretty amazing, since that knowledge had not been passed down to us by my mother's grandmother (and she had to have known, since she had Jewish aunts, uncles and cousins).
Regards,
Josephine
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Looking at my great uncle's wifes tree. He moved to the USA in early 1900;s and married. Just recently I had some spare time and started to look at her forebears, Within a few minutes I was back into Glasgow in the 1200's via Norther Ireland and all outlined even with a book written on these families.
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Looking at my great uncle's wifes tree. He moved to the USA in early 1900;s and married. Just recently I had some spare time and started to look at her forebears, Within a few minutes I was back into Glasgow in the 1200's via Norther Ireland and all outlined even with a book written on these families.
The 1200s!!! Wow!
You lucky so and so. It takes most of us years to get back to the 17th century!
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Stubbsy,
Have you read 'Big Chief Elizabeth' by Giles Milton? It's about the 1st ships sailing to the US.
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That sounds interesting ! One of my distant cousins in the Griffin line was born in Isle of Wight, Virginia, USA in 1644. I think the family originally came from Wales, but I haven't been able to trace them.
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I think I may have added this story somewhere before but here it is again!
When I started on the family search we traced my gt gt grandmother back to a little village in Huntingdonshire called Brington. As a little holiday we decided to visit the place whilst staying in Huntingdonshire. Brington is now almost empty and is made of a handful of houses, a church and a post office.
On visiting the churchyard we found that the few stones in the yard were ALL our familys's! We looked for residents to ask about the history of the church and were sent in the direction of the local historian who lived in the village, and lo and behold the house he lived in had been owned by our family over 150 yrs ago! The gentleman had also done the history of his house and in his possession he had wills belonging to our forebears and our family tree going back to 1746!!
Not bad for a days work!! ;D
Emma
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One of my great uncles died of dementia in Salem,Oregon after living for years in Portland.
he had a sizable estate valued at 40,000 american dollars in the 1890s
there was a court case to appoint a trustee to dispose of the estate which comprised real estate in Portland.
Among the beneficiaries were several people livng in Japan and Beunos Aires,Argentina.
My family having been in South Australia for over a century we never knew that our ancestors had spread throughout the World.
One beneficiary had an unusual second name (Alt)
I chased this name which I guessed to be a family maternal name and made contact with the family living in Argentina.
I had discovered third cousins and offsprings and have had regular contact since that time.
This family had no idea who and where their great grandfather lived and died.
I found him in Kyogo,Japan where he had died,
The Argentinians had a photo of one of their ancestors talking to a Japanese man and had not known about his sojourn there.
This all came as a great suprise to me.
Alf
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My Milner ancestors were from remote Swaledale in Yorkshire. For some reason the parish was part of the diocese of the Bishop of Chester, on the other side of England.
But quite by chance I found the original will of Edmund Milner, written on calf skin vellum in Latin and dated 1500 in a dusty archive just a few miles from where I live in Leeds. I then found his son William's will too, dated 1530.
Once translated they made fascinating reading - but it was all a bit spooky, remembering that they had actually personally handled and signed those documents.
John
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We also found that on my father's side of the family they had been "Greaves" (sort of gamekeepers) of Knaresborough Forest in the 1200's, 1300's and 1400's, which in those days linked with the Great South Yorkshire Forest and Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire.
We now know that the Robin Hood legends were based in Yorkshire, not Nottingham. It was his enemy the Sheriff who was based there. Little John came from near Huddersfield; Robin probably did his poaching around Brighouse.
So did my ancestors spend their time chasing around after the likes of of Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner?
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Stubbsy, you are giving me goosebumps. An original will, written on calf skin vellum and dated 1500? Did you actually see the document, touch it, feel it - did you have to wear those white gloves, or did you see a transcription? How on earth did you feel? It seems absolutely incredible to me.
Here in Australia with European settlement commencing in 1788, those of us descending from either the convicts or free settlers in that period give "old" a definition which is somewhat different from that in other parts of the world. We do know that the "other" old really exists, but it is a little outside our ken.
Earlier this week I was completely overcome to see a microfilm of a letter sent from Whitehall in 1835 concerning the movement of my Irish convict's family to "the colony of New South Wales" :D. I know there are other documents out there about my family and these are probably carefully archived in records offices in various parts of the UK, but the idea of actually seeing them "in the flesh" so to speak, is something I cannot imagine.
I am completely green with envy ::).
Philippa
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It must be amazing to handle such an ancient document but I don't think that things have to be that old to be a bit awe inspiring. I have my great grandfather's Master Mariner certificate from 1899, a bit battered and torn but nevertheless, something which he handled and will have been proud to achieve.
And my grandmother's tatty old handbag, which my mum kept full of old papers, is really special to me. It was probably from the 1930s, so not that old at all but I still love to think of her carrying it.
Jen
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But quite by chance I found the original will of Edmund Milner, written on calf skin vellum in Latin and dated 1500 in a dusty archive just a few miles from where I live in Leeds.
What a great find!
May we ask which dusty archive?
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The wills are in the West Yorkshire County Archives and I have no idea how that happens when Swaledale is in North Yorkshire and the wills come under the Diocese of Chester.
Also, they are not in the main archives in Wakefield but in a small, anonymous redbrick depository in Chapel Town, Sheepscar, Leeds. You have to make an appointment and the staff have to go to find them and bring them to you in the reading room. Then you have to wear the cotton gloves but the staff will make photocopies for you for a fee.
If you already know the documents are there you can have the staff do a search and order photocopies online. Click the address below and follow the Leeds link.
http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/index.asp?pg=indexhome.htm
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I don't want to overload this thread with my personal posts, and this is not a recent discovery, but I have had passed down to me a soldier's rolled leather pack that belonged to my 8 x gt grandfather who fought in the English Civil War with Cromwell's Parliamentary Army in the 1640's and 50's.
The leather roll contained a razor and a whetting stone for sharpening his razor, knife and sword. This was important as they cut their hair short and were clean shaven, and so became known as Roundheads, as distinct from the King's forces who favoured the aristocratic flowing locks and goatee beards of the Cavaliers.
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Mine isn't amazing but different for the time and now I'd imagine. My ggg grandfathers brother was called, and went through life, as Saint Andrew. Why? Because he was born on 30.11.1820 Saint Andrew's Day.
Makes finding him in Indexes and Census' a lot easier with a name like that.
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I have had passed down to me a soldier's rolled leather pack that belonged to my 8 x gt grandfather who fought in the English Civil War with Cromwell's Parliamentary Army in the 1640's and 50's.
Wow!! :o Stubbsy, that's amazing! That may be the oldest family heirloom I've seen mentioned on here. What a treasure!
MarieC
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I have a number of amazing coincidences. Married twice and having four children from my second marriage my first three were boys and finally my fourth was a daughter. I had always wanted to call a daughter Jane I don't know why, no other name but that, so finally I had a Jane Margaret Howard. Many years later when researching my family history at the Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock, I was looking at a film of parish records which included the one for Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, I was looking for my KEELING ancestors (who lived and worked at the Ashford Marble works as masons) and I discovered that my 2 x gt. grandfather Benjam KEELING had married a Jane HOWARD! She was my 2 x gt. grandmother - explain that. Shivers crept up my spine. Not only that but a short time later the same film fast forwarded, abrupty stopped and I was looking at the marriage registers for St. Michael's church, Derby and there in front of me were the details of my maternal grandparents ie. William Henry BROWN to Mary TURNER in November, 1889. I couldn't remember my maternal grandparents wedding date, and this seemed to be my granny saying "look, we're here". Very strange.
In my youth I took up caving in the Peak District and was strongly attracted to the exploration of the old lead mines and drainage levels called soughs, very dangerous places, specially the soughs, the earlier ones being small narrow passages, full of mud, water and often gas. There is not a lot known about the Derbyshire leadmining industry these days but I have lots of information about them, and I was very interested about the stories of the driving of the first sough to dewater a mine at Cromford, the sough was Longhead and was driven in the early 1600's by the Dutchman Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (who carried out a lot of other drainage work in England) to dewater lead mines on the top of Cromford Hill called the Dove Gang mines. There was a lot of trouble at these mines, fighting, lawsuits etc. I've always been very interested in these stories. Well after my second divorce, along with my four children I moved back to live in Derbyshire, at Bonsall very close to Cromford and Wirksworth. Recently I left Derbyshire and have more time for family research and on the internet I have found through my maternal grandmother (Mary TURNER) I am descended from the COATES family of Ashover, Cromford and Wirksworth. This family were involved in the driving of Longhead sough and the strife on the Dove Gang mines, they were yeoman farmers, lead miners and smelters (ore burners or "brenners") and they can be traced back to the mid 1500's in Wirksworth. Not only that but one of the COATES wedding took place at Bonsall church in 1701. Why, I often wonder of all the places to choose to explore and then move to did I pick Bonsall, Cromford and Wirksworth? Very strange.
Margaret
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That's a bit spooky!
I've always loved the Trough of Bowland (on the edges of the old or 'proper' Lancashire/Yorkshire counties). Anyone who's visited the area and driven through the Trough will know it's a beautiful part of the country, but it's always - unconsciously - been a bit more than that. If out for a drive, I've always wanted to try to work the Trough road into the trip, and I would never dream of taking the motorway or A6 down to Preston and then to go inland to the Ribble Valley when going from Lancaster to Clitheroe or elsewhere in the Ribble Valley. And I've always liked Whitewell and the peacefulness of the little chapel and the churchyard.
It was, however, only when I re-started doing my family tree a couple of years ago and with easy access to censuses on the internet that I found that my great-great grandmother, Isabella Noble, was born in Sykes, slap bang in the middle of the Trough of Bowland. A little later, going through the Whitewell registers, I found that the Nobles farmed just outside Whitewell at a farm called Fence Wood, and that my greatx4 grandparents are buried right outside the Whitewell chapel door.
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Hi If anyone is still folowing this my grandfather was very fond of his two older brothers. They disapered and his father said they were killed in the Boar War. Come to find out One died of pnemonia in boar war and the other was in WW1 and died 1935 to bad grand pa was dead when i found this out. pretty sad. al b :(
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While trying to find more information on my 3x gt grandfather from Essex I was contacted by a chap researching the same name. It turns out that we are related and he lives about half a mile away from me in North Wales!! We e-mailed and swopped info for a while then my regular postman knocked on my door to satisfy his curiosity at my name on the letters and it turns out that he was the rellie that I was e-mailing and he had been delivering my snail mail for the past 3 years.
From 1811 Essex to 2009 North Wales
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I have been researching my family history for about ten years now, a couple of years ago I started on my husbands family as I want our daughters to have complete history of both sides of their family. I was given a marriage certificate of my husbands paternal grandparents (I was lucky to get hold of the original) they were married on exactly the same day as my maternal grandparents! They did not know one another and were married in different parts of the country.
Susan
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hmmm ..........
finding the record of the baptism of the THIRD set of twins my gt-gt-grandma gave birth too was pretty amazing
I knew she had at least 1 set (the 1881 cencus listed the children as - David twin & Charlotte twin - lol biiiiiiiiiig clue ) .......... then I found a second set .......... and I had a realy strong hunch that one of her 'singleton' births was in fact a twin - finding the record in the Parish records that proved the third twin birth (ALL male / female twins) to the same parents was an amazing moment for me.........
I have a heck of a lot of respect for her, only 1 set of twins was still complete into adulthood so she must have realy struggled .......... and she had 9 other children as well
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We live in Lancashire, most of the family lived in & around Manchester ............ I have traced my Dads Maternal line (lol Smith's nothing easy!) back through his Grandad who was born in a small village in Shropshire.........
I then set about his Paternal line (lol my Dads family are SO easy - this side is Evans!!!) ......... My gt-grandad married twice - normally I dont follow up to much on Step-Parents, but my Dad asked me to do his Grandads second Wifes tree as she brought his Grandad up after his Parents died & his dad used to talk about her a lot................ so I followed her line back to her place of birth .........
They both came from the SAME small village in Shropshire - which had a population of about 50 from what I cam make out .................... they were 1 generation apart, so never met as part of my family - but I can only guess that their families would have known each other back in Shropshire.
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On my Mums side of the family I was tracing the Birth & death of her uncle on her Dads side who died as a small child (a few months old), I found him via the Manchester Online burials record, and a rootschat mamber very kindly went & took a picture of the grave, and found out the address his parents lived at when he died from the records at the cemetery.
The address was really niggling at me it seemed realy familiar but I couldnt think why ..............
A few weeks later I was entering some details into my family tree program ............and I found the SAME address on a record ................. for another member of my mums family - on her Mothers side this time..............
2 families on my Mums family had lived in the same address in Manchester 50 Years apart.
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When I started reseaching my Dad's family I believed tha tthe all came from Benalla in Victoria. When I got his Mum's birth certificate I couldn't read the place of birth, it was not until I got her mothers marriage certificate that I realised it was Bowna, about 5 Kilometers from where I now live.
mum mum
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I have made two discoveries about my family.
The first one is that my Grandad (who is no longer with us) had a half brother that nobody knew about until he found my family tree website on the internet and got in contact with me.
And the second concerns my other Grandad (who I never knew as he died a year before I was born). I often wondered why he was an only child and why his parents waited 9 years before having him. On checking the 1911 census where he lived it stated that his parents had 3 children and that 2 had died. On looking through the BMD I found two children that were both born and then died in the same quarter although 7 months apart. I sent off for the certificates and I found out that they were twins and that they were both born with a birth defect and that they both died within 3 days of each other just 7 months into their lives. Not only must their parents been devastated at loosing them but they must have been concerned when they found out they were expecting again (my Grandad) but happily this time he was born fit and healthy.
I should mention that I have quite a few sets of twins in my family. My younger brothers are twins as was my nan and her twin sister had twins sons and so on so to find another set wasn't that surprising but the story of their short lives is quite sad.
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Discovering that my Pendleside ancestors the Bulcocks in the mid 1600s were amongst the first followers of George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement. His famous vision came about as he climbed the summit of Pendle Hil in Lancashire. All my paternal Heyworth and Bulcock ancestors had resided in the Pendle area for at least 400 years. I have always felt an affinty for Pendle Hill. As children we followed the local tradition of climbing Pende Hill on Halloween. There was a local tradition as Pendle Hill was famous for its Witches
I then discovered that the same Bulcock family included mother and son Jane and John Bulcock who were tried at Lancaster Castle in 1612 for Witchcraft. Some accounts say they they were convicted and hanged as witches but other accounts say they were acquitted.
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I have just discovered that I am descended from
"England's Laziest Man" True!
This comes from putting my family names into the recently digitised New York Times.
In a syndicated feature from London, 1909, Great Grandad Archibald Depau is noted as being in court for neglect of his children, it is almost amusing to read Great Grandma's descriptions. I had thought they had separated - now I know why.
Archibald was sentenced to six months hard labour.
A follow up lead to The Observer newspaper in 1910 shows him going from custody into the care of The Salvation Army (in whose care he died in 1915).
From the Observer article, he changes from a figure of fun to be a sufferer of deep depression.
Next discovery, please...
Dave 8)
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I have a couple of stories to relate .....geddit ??
My surname is Bickerdike and my fist wife's maiden name was Horsfall, both uncommon names even here in Yorkshire. When I first stard working on her line i found in the 1851 census a household in Huddersfield with a family of Horsfalls with a family of Bickerdikes as borders???
Later I married again ( don't worry I did it all legally) and my wifes maiden name is Thompson. As I researched her line I discovered her family were from Batley Carr decending from a chap called Smith Thompson, this led to lots of work on the family noting lots of names etc.
Well one day I took my new wife to meet my Great Aunt, a Vasey who had married a Thompson, there was my great Uncle and Aunt sittting having a cup of tea and chatting.
I asked my Uncle where he was born, "Batley Carr" he replied. "Was your fathers name Smith?" a look of surprised crossed his face " yes " he replied and "was your mothers name Norah?" I asked, even more surprised look on his face " Yes " he replied. " Well " said I "meet your cousin " and I pointed to my wife.
It turned out that my great Aunt had married my father in laws cousin.
The look on both their faces was a picture to behold and one that I will remember for a long time
Tim B
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My story is delightful
Beginning a family history course at the local library ,I was surprised to meet a person researching the same family;HALSTEAD from Southminster Essex ENGLAND
He was a third cousin . We had lived a few suburbs away from each other most of our lives !
We were able to trace our family (with lots of help ) back to 1650 in Suffolk, England.
Our fascination with the HALSTEAD family has found us many other cousins and friends across the world
We have had Australian reunions and continue our passion for family history
I am very glad that the conveyor of our History Class introduced us .She had our story written in the newspaper to encourage other to search for their family
Turramurra