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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: chinakay on Tuesday 08 February 11 19:40 GMT (UK)
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Just got to thinking about this, due to a thread on the Photo board.
My dad was in the Royal Canadian Navy during the war. His brother was in the Black Watch.
So dad was on leave in London, wandering around Trafalgar Square, and who does he spot but his brother!
Of course during wartime, you aren't to tell anybody where you are, or even drop hints. So neither of them knew the other was going to be there.
Dad comes running up to his brother and jumps on him. They pound each other on the back so hard dad said they were both sore for a week.
How I'd love to have seen that! Here's a photo of them standing by the base of one of the lions.
So...any family moments you'd like to have witnessed? No honeymoons ;D
Cheers,
China
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I'm a bit surprised no one has jumped on this thread yet... perhaps there are too many moments to choose a single one.
In that vein, I will say that I would very much like to witness the births of any and all of my brickwall ancestors to ask their parents, "Just what the heck are your names and the names of your parents?"
Nick
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Nice idea for a thread, China!
One moment I would like to have been able to witness would be the day my 4xgreat-grandmother Mary turned up at the Quarter Sessions court in Nottingham, wearing some of the clothes she had just been arrested for stealing ::)
Either she was very dumb, or very clever (and wanted to be arrested and transported to the colonies, as she was). Either way, I'm glad she did it, otherwise I wouldn't be here ;)
Cheers
Prue
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Very clever 4x granny.
I would love to know how my great grand father manage to have a affair with his wife's sister?
I think those wagon wheels must of been burning red hot between the houses they lived in.
Suzy W
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I would love to have been there the day 'the elusive Henry' (my Gt-Grandad) decided to completely leave his past behind & start a new life & deny the existance of his Mother, 3 half brothers & half sister.
(He told my Nana, his Daughter that he had NO family alive even tho all were still alive and living a few miles away)
LOL and - I would have really loved to have been at his wedding - so I could tell the registrar that:
The Groom wasnt named what he said he was
That his fathers name wasnt the one he gave
AND he wasnt born where or when he said .....................
ohhhhh AND just as an aside -
That the Brides given name isnt the one she is marrying as! ...........
(hehe n btw, shes 9 months so pregnant can you do birth registration too cos baby will be here in a day or two!)
lol n would this mean the marriage isnt legal???
Would have saved me 3 years searching if I had been there on the day!
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I would love to have been there when my 4x grtgrandad decided to change his name from Edwin to Edward and back again on a whim for census, children's registrations, baptisms....... (unfortunately he had a really common surname) AND to tell his wife to always say she was married before when registering their childrens births >:(
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GGgrandmother Mary Ann lent a good dress to a neighbour so that she could attend a wedding. The dress wasn't returned, and when Mary Ann met the neighbour brazenly wearing it, she made her give it back, right there in the street!
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I would like to have been there when a 2x Great Uncles 15 year old son came home from boarding school for the Easter holidays and had to tell his father he'd got the headmasters daughter pregnant.
Whoops ::)
Jo
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I would like to have been there when my grandad got arrested for climbing onto the back of Prince Alberts statue (the man on the 'oss) whilst he was drunk if only to see how he got up there as he was only 5'
Maybe he broke the reins but I dont think he was responsible for the paper bin lol
http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/listed/princealbert.htm
Willow x
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I would love to have attended the wedding of my great grandparents in 1914.
21 years after the birth of the first of their 10 children and 2 years after the birth of the last one.
And ask them,why did they wait so long to get married?
I wonder if all the kids(young adults) went ............was my gran(then aged 14) a bridesmaid?
Carol
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So...any family moments you'd like to have witnessed? No honeymoons ;D
Cheers,
China
I bet there's a lot of us who would love to have been a fly on the wall at the conception of an ancestor to find out who the dad really was :o :o :o
I was going to say been at the birth of........but that still wouldn't solve our mystery would it?
LOL
Carol
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I would have loved to have been at St Peter's Church in Leeds on 10 April 1861 because then I could have verified for myself whether the bride might have given birth on the same day!! The daughter's birth date is registered as 10 April 1861 but in Tadcaster. :o OK not a million miles apart, but to get married and give birth on the same day :-X
I'd also like to have been in Thaba Nchu, in the Free State, on the day when Reverend James Archbell arrived, accompanied by 15,000 Baralong led by Chief Moroka, in 1833. What a sight that must have been.
BumbleB
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My great-grandfather was a real scoundrel. Married the sweetest girl, his behaviour necessitated her sending their eldest daughter to live with an aunt for a while. Possibly (to be confirmed) an army deserter. Drank away the art college scholarship fees of his youngest son (who disowned his father and joined the army at 16). Abandoned his lovely wife for an (alleged) incestuous affair with his own sister, they both fell down the stairs in a drunken stupor, she fractured her skull and died. Allowed his eldest daughter to nurse him in his final weeks, or possibly more, when dying from lung cancer.
So I'd like to have been at his deathbed. Just to ask him whether he had any regrets? >:(
Mrs. T.
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As someone said before, so many times to chose from.
Do I pick the time the police arrived to arrest my cousins father and discovered 4 separate passports all with different names hidden in the wardrobe? (might have given my cousin a clue to who her father really was)
Or nan explaining to her husband how she was pregnant to another man yet again, and it was a different man to the first time it happened! (that the family know of ::) - there could have been more)
Or futher back and the standard just who on earth were your parents really????
Pebs
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:) I would have to agree with Nick - to witness the birth of brick wall ancestors would be very good.
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My grandad was in Culcheth Military Band also known as "The Tall Hat Band" from the second uniform they wore.
He was also Bandmaster of St.Catherine`s Church band Collyhurst.( In the late 1800`s)
Somewhere along the way he won a silver flute, and I would so liked to have heard him play it.
I would also have liked to have been in the cinema when my grandma( the above g/dad`s wife)was asked to leave because she got completely carried away(silent movies) and was shouting to the heroine not to trust the villain who was intent on having his evil way with her. She`d kicked her shoes off (bunions!)and could not find them. The family legend---- you know one of those leg ends---
has it she walked home wearing two ice cream tubs. I think that was added on for we kids,it creased us up everytime. Sadly she had died before I was born.
Viktoria.
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Had I been there when she fainted I could have stopped my 3x great grandmother falling into the fire & burning to death.
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Well, it may sound daft, but I'd have love to have been there when my granddad was conceived*. He's the only illegit in my direct line so far and I've lost a whole line. 58 years I've been searching :(
* Not necessarily to witness the event but just to find out who his Dad was ;D
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Far too many to mention but I was struck by China's original story as the same thing happened to my grandfather and his brother:
Just got to thinking about this, due to a thread on the Photo board.
My dad was in the Royal Canadian Navy during the war. His brother was in the Black Watch.
So dad was on leave in London, wandering around Trafalgar Square, and who does he spot but his brother!
Of course during wartime, you aren't to tell anybody where you are, or even drop hints. So neither of them knew the other was going to be there.
Dad comes running up to his brother and jumps on him. They pound each other on the back so hard dad said they were both sore for a week.
My grandfather (also in the Black Watch) bumped into his brother in Tripoli (his brother was in the Royal Navy). On the back of the photograph, which was sent back at Christmas to their mother, it says that they spent two days together.
Kim
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Strange though it might sound I'd have liked to have been there when my Mum (now deceased )took charge of the Bragg/ Rayworth family Bible at the start of World War two.then maybe I'd be able to find it and find a few of the missing family members.
Barb
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Agreed about brickwall ancestors, but my favourite would have been to witness my paternal grandparents' wedding. She was 35 and he was at least 66, gave their ages as 35 and 55.Wonder the church roof didn't cave in!!
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This topic has made me laugh so much since it started
What fab stories you all have to tell.
If there is such a place where we will meet them all again, can't
imagine they'll be too pleased with us discovering all the family secrets
they tried so hard to hide.
My ancestors seem so dull and boring after reading this.
Keep them coming!!!!
Marie
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I'd have liked to have been at great great auntie Mary's second wedding, to see the expression on her face when the vicar asked "Does anyone have anyone just cause or impediment...?". Luckily her existing husband was not there... ::) ;D
meles
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I'd have liked to have been at great great auntie Mary's second wedding, to see the expression on her face when the vicar asked "Does anyone have anyone just cause or impediment...?". Luckily her existing husband was not there... ::) ;D
meles
Nice one! That must surely apply to every bigamist!
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This topic has made me laugh so much since it started
What fab stories you all have to tell.
If there is such a place where we will meet them all again, can't
imagine they'll be too pleased with us discovering all the family secrets
they tried so hard to hide.
My ancestors seem so dull and boring after reading this.
Keep them coming!!!!
Marie
Oh dear you've got me worrried now Marie ;D
I wonder what they will say when we meet up with them again?
I thought we'd hidden that very short pregnancy from everyone ;D
Or.... why did you have to find out that my son was illegitimate.
Blimey are you saying my parents never married :o :o :o
Carol
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I would like to have been stood outside the house after the moment my Great grandmother concieved my grandfather,just to give me some idea who his flipping father was ;D
Just Looking,me and you both ???
George.
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loved reading these.
totally off away from the subject of seeing whom made out with whom and the game of who's the daddy lol......
my husbands ancestor was a domestic servent/carter boy/odd job boy on a large estate. he worked there from the age of about 6 until he was about 18. it had come to the attention of the lord of the estate that his odd job boy had taken a fancy to his daughter. rather than let this continue (it seems the daughter quiet like him too) the lrod arranged for the young man to go to canada and work over there.
i would have loved to have been a fly on the wall there, and witness his face when they told him of his new life waiting for him in canada without the love of his life.
turned out for the good though as the ancestor went on to become a major in the salvation army, married a wondeful lady and became very prominent.
a little extra thing in this story that i would have loved to have witness. during ww2 this man was reliabley informed that his brother(who had come over to america some years after his older brother) was travelling through his town by train with his regiment. he had had contact with the brother of sorts but never saw him. he waited all day at the station and come the evening the porter at the station told him to go home and that no other trains would be through. he did, and then unknown to him the train came and went and he missed his brother. he didnt see his brother for another few years. how sad!
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Come to think of it I would quite like to have been at the Battle of Kandahar with my GG uncle Henry.Well when I say I would like to have been there,I mean well behind the front line with a good pair of binoculars and a fast horse ;D ;D ;D
George.
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I hope that no-one in my family reads this. My nan was working as a servant in a house in Edinburgh. The house locked its doors about 9.30pm. My grandad was in the Scots Greys at the time, when they were courting. Of course she was late back and there were railings around part of the house, servants quarters etc. My nan tried to get in, but could not, she managed to raise her friend indoors to help, but my grandad had to lift her up over these railings, and she became hooked up, her bloomers were caught on the railings, whilst she was holding on to the window ledge which was level to her head with her freind hanging out the window trying not to laugh.
Eventually she pulled herself off and her friend helped her in through the window, would have been the sack if caught.
marcie
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;D ;D ;D
Ah - such great stories!
A friend of my mother's was the cook for a great family - Summer in London, Autumn in Scotland, shooting, The stories she told about the good and the great were priceless!
meles
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I'm a bit surprised no one has jumped on this thread yet... perhaps there are too many moments to choose a single one.
In that vein, I will say that I would very much like to witness the births of any and all of my brickwall ancestors to ask their parents, "Just what the heck are your names and the names of your parents?"
Nick
That was my first thought too, Nick. I'd like to have been present at the birth of my g.grandfather to see if his mother was really Spanish, was he actually born in Bethnal Green and is the name he was known as later in life his real name.
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I would like to have been there when my grandad got arrested for climbing onto the back of Prince Alberts statue (the man on the 'oss) whilst he was drunk if only to see how he got up there as he was only 5'
That made me laugh as when I first read it, I read that you grandfather was drunk and only 5 (as in age!). ;D
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I would like to have been there when my grandad got arrested for climbing onto the back of Prince Alberts statue (the man on the 'oss) whilst he was drunk if only to see how he got up there as he was only 5'
That made me laugh as when I first read it, I read that you grandfather was drunk and only 5 (as in age!). ;D
Age 5 LOL
Nah this was ages ago.........no, if it had been at the weekend just gone I might have believed a drunk 5 year old :-X
Carol
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Very interesting,
A simple one for me really i would have like to have spent time with my granddad (both sides) as i never knew either of them as they died before i was born.
Sarah
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I would have liked to be at the deathbed of my great-great-grandfather. He was poisoned! I would have liked to see the expression on the face of my great-great grandmother. Did she do it?
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In the same vein, Iwould have liked to be sitting in my grgrandfathers pocket when he met his real grandfather who would not acknowledge him after he was born, when he had not long married my grgran marjory. At least then I would iknow who the b.....r was.
marcie
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Very, very difficult to choose. I would have loved to have been present on 18th June 1563 when my 11x great grandmother, Euphemia Dundas, was brought before the Council in Edinburgh for having spoken "injurious and sclandarous wordis bayth of the doctrine and ministeris, and in speciall of Jhonne Knox, minister, sayand that.....the said Jhonne Knox wes....tane....with ane commoun hure, and that he had bene ane commoun harlot all his dayis".
Graham.
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I can't tell you anything about the actual moment of conception, but I can relate the 24 hr journey of it! My Mum told me (obviously when she thought I was old enough to know, which was long after I had children of my own).
Dad was in the Airforce, getting towards the end of the war, got a surprise 24 hr pass, (they were only at this particular air base on a special job - he wasn't stationed there. So it was a sudden leave and they were only allowed to travel on train 25 miles or so. Tickets provided! He and his mate went as far as they could on the train, and then hitch-hiked and walked the rest of the way - about another 30 miles!! I think she said they weren't actually supposed to go further than the train pass either - naughty daddies!
Apparently it took them a really long to get home to their respective wives,()the other chap lived only a couple of houses up the road from ours). And their wives didn't know they were coming either. ! So going by the time it took them to get home, they knew they wouldn't be able stay very long, to allow enough time to get back to the base before the 24 hrs leave was up! ! So they had about half an hour at home, met up the road and then had to get on their way back again. So that narrows the time of my conception down to about 1/2 hr!!
Sounded like one of my Dad's tall stories to me, he had plenty of those - but he had passed away just a couple of years before Mum told me. Funny that I just found this topic when visiting here, just recently got his Service records, and there is a 24 hr leave noted , just about exactly 9 months before I was born!! ;D ;D
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I would like to have been there when my grandad got arrested for climbing onto the back of Prince Alberts statue (the man on the 'oss) whilst he was drunk if only to see how he got up there as he was only 5'
That made me laugh as when I first read it, I read that you grandfather was drunk and only 5 (as in age!). ;D
LMAO I wouldnt put it past him. He was quite a character
He worked in the steelworks and lost two of his fingers in a press. It was such hot work that they supplied the workers with free beer while they worked so he could probably drink like a fish. I also found out recently that both his legs were smashed by a bomb during the first world war which makes it more amazing that he managed to climb the staute
Willow x
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The reins on alberts statue were broken VE night 1945 your grandad would have been 55 and the reins were replaced 1991
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Hello
I would like to send a message to a member GR2, in response to their post about their 11x Great Grandmother, Euphemia Dundas who was tried as a witch in Edinburgh in 1653. I wanted to tell GR2 about an exhibition in Lancaster last month which honoured all of the people accused of witchcraft in the UK, many of whom lost their lives. A beautiful memorial in which a prayer flag was embroidered for each person, 4000 in total was incredibly moving. My "witch" was Euphemia Dundas so I thought it would be nice to show GR2 the flag I embroidered for her. But I havent worked out how to send a direct message, Please can you help. Many Thanks Helen
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Hi Helen and welcome,
I have just merged your reply to the topic so that GR2 will see your message.
Regards
Sarah
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The reins on alberts statue were broken VE night 1945 your grandad would have been 55 and the reins were replaced 1991
You never know! as long as they don't send me the bill ;D
Willow x
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I would like to have witnessed my Marylebone London resident ancestor fill out the 1841 census form, where she put No as whether born in county or not, so I could ask her what county she was born in.
She was claimed by the Grim Reaper just 6 weeks before the 1851 census.
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One of mine put 'Shropshire' on the 1851 census which wasn't any help either with the surname of Harris
Willow x
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I'd have loved to be there to hear why my ancestor Harriet Toplis decided to leave her husband William Newbould, who seemed to be a straightforward farm worker in Melbourne area of Derbyshire, after a few years as his second wife. And she then spends a couple of decades racketing round the north with the real husband of a Mrs Brailsford, gathering more children - in 1861 they were in Westmorland, and he was labouring on the railways. The next census he was being a fam labourer in Howden arrea, but they were still together, with children.
By the 1881 census she was in Idle, Bradford, with another chap - this time she was Mrs Robinson (I think that man had left a wife, too).
By 1891 she was down as Mrs Robinson, and died as a respectable widow?? - but I've never manged to find any marriages for Harriet beyond her 1846 one to William Newbould, the one that seemed actually to have managed to produce Anne Newbold, my ancestor, her daughter.
I'd love to have known why she did what she did, so long ago.
TY
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I'd like to have accompanied my step-grandfather (Edwin) Frederick (Basil) Larking, an officer in the Royal Shanghai Police, when he left the Japanese-occupied city in 1939 to try to come back home with war looming.
According to Ancestry shipping records, he left Shanghai on the 11th of May, but didn't depart from Kobe until 10th June. He arrived in San Francisco on the 27th on the Taino Maru, a Japanese steamer. He arrived in Southampton on the 21st July from New York on the Aquitania.
I don't know why it took him so long to leave Japan, perhaps he was waiting for a place on a boat, they might have been scarce. But a fraught time because everyone knew which side Japan would be on in the event of a war.
Likewise, since it didn't take many days to cross the USA by rail, or the Atlantic by steam, he may have had to wait in New York. By September he was back with his parents in Hove, no doubt very relieved.
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I have always known a bit about my great grandfather's time based in Australia as a very young Royal Navy sailor 1845-47, but I have been doing more research lately, using newspapers. What I had not realised was how much time they spent touring the South Sea islands. I would love to know what he and the other lads made of them. They had a horrible captain, so they may not have got ashore much.
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When my maternal grandmother (,who already had a good number of children,one every two years for over twenty years at roughly two year intervals. Final total was twelve,starting at age eighteen)——
was pregnant again and a nasty neighbour announced in the corner shop “ I see you are off again MrsP.”
Grandma smiled sweetly, and replied” Yes,I am, as all my children are born out of love and every one is welcome “.
I would love to have witnessed that put down.
So There!
Viktoria.
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I'd like to have seen the look of sheer relief when spring finally broke through in 1850 and the Chapmans were able to emerge from the hastily built, one-room log cabin they had shared with the Hawse family for a long Wisconsin winter. The two families had banded together but they arrived to stake their claims late in the year and so one tiny cabin was all they could manage to get built. The Chapmans had four children ranging in age from six months [my g-grandmother] to five years and the Hawses had one child, aged six. It must have been five months of hell and I don't know if they remained friends afterwards. The Hawses stayed on in the log cabin and the Chapmans built a new cabin about half a mile further north.
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Another WW2 meeting of brothers. My father (AIF) was on a train to Cairns. So was his brother (a conscript). There had been trouble between conscripts and volunteers (AIF) so the men were ordered to stay away from each other. How difficult to run into your brother after many years fighting, but ordered to stay apart. I believe they did manage to get a few moments together.
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I wish I could have been at the wharf on the Brisbane river, Moreton bay, in 1846 with my ggggrandfather, James Fox, a former convict, to meet James Benjamin Fox, my gggrandfather, aged 11 who had sailed alone from the UK to join his father. The son had not seen his father since he was a toddler.
I also wonder how ggggrandmother, Mary Ann Fox, was feeling after saying goodbye to James Jnr. And his sister, too, Jane Mary Fox.
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I would have liked to meet my maternal grandfather but he died in 1928. I have recently found an obituary for him that states, “his chief diversion was reading”. That’s me in a nutshell! It must be the genes.
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Hello
I would like to send a message to a member GR2, in response to their post about their 11x Great Grandmother, Euphemia Dundas who was tried as a witch in Edinburgh in 1653. I wanted to tell GR2 about an exhibition in Lancaster last month which honoured all of the people accused of witchcraft in the UK, many of whom lost their lives. A beautiful memorial in which a prayer flag was embroidered for each person, 4000 in total was incredibly moving. My "witch" was Euphemia Dundas so I thought it would be nice to show GR2 the flag I embroidered for her. But I havent worked out how to send a direct message, Please can you help. Many Thanks Helen
Hi, Helen,
Welcome to Rootschat. I have sent you a personal message with my email so you can get in touch and I will send you a detailed account of Euphemia's life.
[Added - I have just been reminded that you cannot receive personal messages until you have made two or three posts. You will have to post a couple of replies to this first. I can't put my email in this post as that is not permitted. Emails are exchanged via personal messages]
I'd love to see your flag.
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May I have a second go?
May 1917,my grandfather got a communication informing him that my father was missing in action.
A further letter said it did not automatically mean he was killed, probably separated from his unit or captured as a POW.
Quite some time later notification he was a P.O.W.
My Grandmother,his mother had died September 1916, just as he was ordered to go to ManchesterTown Hall to enlist, there must have been some time allowed for Grandma’s funeral.
Then nine months later Dad is missing,it must have been a great relief that he was not dead,especially so soon after Grandma.
I have the communications ,in the special file for fragile documents.
I would like to have been there when the letter saying he was a POW and where in Germany he was arrived.
Viktoria.
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My g/grandparents. He born and raised in London, she, very pregnant, moved to London from Hull with hubby and 2 other kids.
4 years later (1871 census) hubby had moved back to Hull with 3 kids, she stayed in London. They never married but stayed together and had my grandmother.
What was she thinking and how did they meet!!!
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when my grt grandfather met with levison -gower and refuse him his wish to have john accept being his grandson and accept what would have been his inheritance as his grandson being left in debt for all of his life through non-payment death duty taxes which would have forever and a day efected the whole of our family for decades to come.