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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: suek2075 on Thursday 12 March 15 19:17 GMT (UK)
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After years of ag labs, farmers, mill workers, steel workers and the odd soldier who all seem to have lived very conservative, steady lives (plus of course a few emigrants to different colonies) I still live in hope of finding someone who did something a bit different.. a lady explorer, reformer...or even a bit naughty... highwayman, transported convict, bigamist - I notice there are a few of those around the forum. One may turn up yet, maybe one of the names who is so far missing in action.
Anyone else unearthed the family black sheep, a hero or a skeleton in the closet?
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Here's a link to similar thread.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=120305.0
I don't think anyone doesn't have at least one skeleton in their closet/family tree.
Between my wife and myself, we have the whole range: convicts, murderers, reformers, a famous vet, and even a philosopher (Jeremy Bentham).
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Only my Great(x3) grandfather, Abner Lucas, who was convicted in 1820 of throwing rocks at a yeomanry patrol in Burslem, and got 2 years in jail. I wonder if it had something to do with the Peterloo Massacre?
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Would a body buried in the garden do instead of a skeleton in the cupboard? If so, then I have one of those.
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The story goes that my wife's 3x great grandfather threatened to haunt the family if he wasn't buried in the paddock behind his tavern in rural South Australia. What lends more credence to the story is local farmers have never ploughed that paddock ever since apparently.
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Would a body buried in the garden do instead of a skeleton in the cupboard? If so, then I have one of those.
Ooohh Craclyn, do tell us more!
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Dozens! If I listed them all and included the illegitimacies it would be the longest posting in the History of Roots chat.Suicide, Transportation, Highway robbery, Marriages beyond the permitted limits of relationship (loads) Machine breakers, etc. etc.
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Ooohh Craclyn, do tell us more!
A distant cousin that bashed his wife on the head with a crowbar, buried her in the garden and told the family she had run off with another man. After wondering why there was no contact for several months her brother got curious and started to investigate a bump in the garden....
At the trial hubby claimed self defence as she had been about to wallop him over the head with a poker.
The newspaper accounts made fascinating reading.
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Craclyn are you related to my cousin. He has a similar story in Australia. Other side of the family to the line that links us.
Unfortunately in my tree there are black, blacker and blackest sheep. However I haven't found a convict yet.
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Dozens! If I listed them all and included the illegitimacies it would be the longest posting in the History of Roots chat.Suicide, Transportation, Highway robbery, Marriages beyond the permitted limits of relationship (loads) Machine breakers, etc. etc.
I think most of us have illegitimacies somewhere down the line...but highway robbery? And what does "Marriages beyond the permitted limits of relationship" mean? Sorry if I'm being a bit thick ???
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Mine was in the North East of England Nanna52.
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...Unfortunately in my tree there are black, blacker and blackest sheep...
Unfortunately I think I'm the black sheep in my family. Fortunately I'm the one doing the research :)
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Ooohh Craclyn, do tell us more!
A distant cousin that bashed his wife on the head with a crowbar, buried her in the garden and told the family she had run off with another man. After wondering why there was no contact for several months her brother got curious and started to investigate a bump in the garden....
At the trial hubby claimed self defence as she had been about to wallop him over the head with a poker.
The newspaper accounts made fascinating reading.
Not nice for the wife, but a good "skeleton" to have in your closet.
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I think we all secretly hope we can unearth a little something exciting and special! Not that every little piece of the jigsaw we fit in isn't special and exciting! But there is certainly a huge buzz when we do find something unusual regarding their actual daily lives!
I have been really fortunate to have found two "flowers" in my family garden, hiding away from me amongst all the leaves! Even more exciting is that one is a female, from my paternal side, and the other a male on my maternal side!
The first one is the wife of my great grandmother's brother. Her name is Ann (nee Dawn) PAULSON born in Papplewick, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, 1808, married to John PAULSON, born Mansfield, Yorkshire 1807. During the course of my research, I learnt that she had been widowed at a young age, had not remarried and had one son.
Further research into Ann's life brought the excitement with it! I learned that Ann was an artist of some repute, firstly while living in Mansfield, then LONDON, in then later in Australia, where she died!
She produced some amazing works, many of which were exhibited both locally and overseas. London, in the Great Exhibition, Paris Exhibition, others in England, then Victoria in Australian. A book has been written about her "The Victorian Lady Artist", by a local Historian from Mansfield.
She worked with several different mediums and focus, portraits, buildings, sketches, still life, especially fruit, and excelled in them all!
Ann moved to Australia to join her son George after the death of her husband John. She joined him in Castlemaine, Victoria, and continued to enjoy her talent, painting local scenes and people. Ann became very interested in the local flora and produced many botanical sketches and paintings, some of which were sent off to various exhibitions. She enjoyed painting the local Aboriginal people!
Anne died in Castlemaine, Victoria, 1866, and is buried in the Campbell's Creek Cemetery.
I have been lucky enough to find images of some of her work online, had some sent to me from Mansfield Museum, and one from the Castlemaine Art Gallery (just got that one yesterday actually)
And the best bit? When I go to UK in September, the curator of the Mansfield Museum is going to show me the paintings they are holding! Isn't that amazing??
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Exciting find No 2 coming up after a coffee!!
Jeanne 🌺
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I have a bigamist among my families.I won't give details for obvious reasons,except to say he has one of the more prominent Surnames at the bottom of my posts!
William Russell Jones/
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You name it, I've found it (almost): alcoholism, suicide (x2), wife beating, transportation sentence for theft (he ended up spending 6 year on a prison hulk), electoral fraud, someone in Newgate Prison for debt, a juicy divorce and an excommunication. Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. I have yet to find a murder.....
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Suek2075, "marriages beyond the permitted limits of relationship" means by the laws of the church. It used to mean marrying your spouse's sister or brother, as one example. It didn't stop people though; in my wife's tree, there are two separate examples of uncles marrying nieces (!).
Nanna52, keep looking for that convict. I always thought I would never find any, with South Australian ancestry that led straight back to various European countries. Now I have two direct ancestors, who were transported to Tasmania, and subsequently both made their way to SA. So you never know...
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Found a murderer in the family. After drinking most of the day a fight ensued between my ancestor and a lady acquaintance. He then abandoned her on a freezing night in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh where she died of her injuries and hypothermia. Only found this story when he turned up in prison on the Isle of Wight on the 1881 census. Why he wasn't hanged or transported is a mystery. I have read the trial papers and it was a vicious attack. Not a family story that was handed down!!! isk
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Skeletons are great finds. For a long while my lot seemed too good to be true, until.... I found HIM. And his sons. Very naughty. Still reading through the newspapers of the time, and chancery cases. Nothing bloody, but a toxic debt champion. Took down a couple of lords and a bank. Very complicated finances. And there's also the case of the grandma who married abroad 4 years after her second husband disappeared... Still a mystery. 103 years later and I still do not know what happened to him.
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<<<<<No skeletons in the closet..... too much other junk..... :)
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<<<<<No skeletons in the closet..... too much other junk..... :)
Is that why I haven't found a convict yet? ;D ;D ;D
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Husband hit his wife over the head with a lump hammer from which she died while she was in bed He legged it over the fields to the next town and hung himself from a tree on farmland. Sad part was that a young child was left in the house alone
Mo
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hi all
I have to be careful here but I have found a relative who I believe entered into a bigamous marriage therefore a person is not aware that his brother is in fact his half brother however as they are both still alive and in their late 60's/70's I am compelled to let sleeping dog's lie.
tony
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I have only got one drunk and disorderly in the market place fined 10 shillings and one fined 20 shillings for theft of fish from the dock.....oh and a couple of illegitimate babies.
Carol
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Right! Following on from my artist on page 2.
On my Maternal side I have an Early Settler to Otago NZ, William McAughtrie, born Barr Ayshire 1847. I became aware of him when I was given a family document way back in about 2002, when I first starting playing this genealogy game that we all love so much! This paper documented families BDM's and info re his family in the Village of Barr.
He was an Agricultural Labourer in Scotland, with an extensive farming family background, particularly in the village of Barr, where he came from to NZ. Haven't quite found the exact time iof his arrival yet, but somewhere between 1861 and 1872! Gold Rush Times. He went from being an Agricutural Labourer in Scotland to a Miner in Otago, then a sheep farmer, and many years further on find him on a list as being one of the top 10 Landholders of the area. WILLIAM is my 1st cousin,m4 removes!
So that's my exciting finds covered. Now for the skeleton!
My paternal great grandmother, Jane Dunnill, (sister in Law of the Artist in my first post).
I found a remark somewhere out there that mentioned that Jane's family were not happy about her marriage. Married an Accountant Henry Mathews 1865 at what is now Sheffield Cathedral.
In the book re the artist that I purchased, "The Victorian Lady Artist", there was a mention of a letter from England that Ann PAULSON had received, that stated "the family was extremely distressed about Jane's Marriage to Henry Mathews" I couldn't understand why, until I read the next sentence of
the letter, "Jane ran away from home to marry Henry Mathews!!
So looks like my great grandmother eloped bless her! I think I've figured out why the family didn't either, but that's another story! Nothing bad, but I think Henry's father, at the time , was an Railways Agent, Coal and Freight Manager at Sheffield Railway Station, (a recent line into Sheffield) where the family also lived!
I believe that Jane's father Charles may have been losing business to to the railways, and that would have been a huge threat to him, as he had a coaching and cartage business of his own! I'm sure it was not only the snobby thought of his daughter marrying someone who lived in a railway station, and may have been the real reason, but I guess I'll never know! Anyway they went on to have a successful life, moved around the world a bit, had 10 kids on their travels, and did ok for themselves!
So that's my 2 success stories and my skeleton story done! Now I want to go and read all the others!
Jeanne 😃
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We have a convicted male bigamist who then committed bigamy again - not caught- and then I found out this weekend courtesy of FindMyPast free weekend newspapers, that wife one tried to commit bigamy too :) ooo errrr
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...Unfortunately in my tree there are black, blacker and blackest sheep...
Unfortunately I think I'm the black sheep in my family. Fortunately I'm the one doing the research :)
Yes , my quote was going to be '' what apart from me''?
Convicts and am chasing down a story about wife desertion and bigamy. A sly grog merchant and bankruptcies as well.
No murderers as yet.
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You have reminded me of my great grandmother, who sold grog in the stables after hours, with one of the kids down the road, watching out for the constable. And she went bankrupt after being conned in a dodgy land deal.
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Peter Black was born Peter White, and worked first for his parents’ Shark fin soup Michelin Star restaurant in Timbuctoo until it went bankrupt in 1842. He later went into the Church and became vicar of the new A Frame Church at Malawiin 1856. In 1866 he caused a scandal by leaving his wife and four children and eloping with his children’s governess, Little Cheater. After laying a false trail to Zambia, they moved to the Antarctic and changed their names to Vicars. Little Cheater had a child, Valerie in 1875 (she died in 1894) and Peter and Little Cheater married in 1888, three months after Peter's wife Josephine's death. Peter's death certificate states that he died of Chilblains and the 1891 Census indicates that he was then paralysed.
NB I found this enquiry/message in an old historical society's newsletter. As I am not the owner of this message, I have changed the names and locations, and cause of death. But everything else is as it was!
I do however own Little Cheater!
Peter is on one of the census entries that I have for the family involved! Status Boarder
Monkey Business.
Jeanne 😱
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Oh dear ... do I have the most boringly respectable family tree in history? My sheep seem all a delicate fluffy white hue. I got all excited about a pale grey one, once, only to find it wasn't mine, just same name and almost same age and birthplace. Ah well, (adjusting the halo over the family tree....)
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Only thing I know about is my grandfathers (1881 - 1962) eldest brother (1858 - 1904) was often up before the beaks for drunk and disorderly behaviour. He must have been an all time loser, aged 46, he was crushed by a fall of earth and coal in a South Wales colliery. He survived a bit longer, but the Inquest into his death and his death certificate showed he was doomed anyway, TB.
I wouldn't be too keen to find a skeleton. I had some married friends who got the family history bug. Both highly intelligent, but they could not get very far back, couple of generations at most. It went on for years. Then, purely by luck the wife found there had been a change of name. Due to financial fraud in the family, his grandfather had changed his name, moved to London and joined the Army, a regiment posted for India. He came back with enough money to get married and buy an automobile. I've seen the photograph from c1905.
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Peter Black was born Peter White, and worked first for his parents’ Shark fin soup Michelin Star restaurant in Timbuctoo until it went bankrupt in 1842. He later went into the Church and became vicar of the new A Frame Church at Malawiin 1856. In 1866 he caused a scandal by leaving his wife and four children and eloping with his children’s governess, Little Cheater. After laying a false trail to Zambia, they moved to the Antarctic and changed their names to Vicars. Little Cheater had a child, Valerie in 1875 (she died in 1894) and Peter and Little Cheater married in 1888, three months after Peter's wife Josephine's death. Peter's death certificate states that he died of Chilblains and the 1891 Census indicates that he was then paralysed.
NB I found this enquiry/message in an old historical society's newsletter. As I am not the owner of this message, I have changed the names and locations, and cause of death. But everything else is as it was!
I do however own Little Cheater!
Peter is on one of the census entries that I have for the family involved! Status Boarder
Monkey Business.
Jeanne 😱
I am intrigued. Where did they move to in the Antarctic in the 1860's -1870's?
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LOL, probably a big iceberg!
Jeanne 😃
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Peter Black was born Peter White, and worked first for his parents’ Shark fin soup Michelin Star restaurant in Timbuctoo until it went bankrupt in 1842.
I definitely think that someone is pulling someone's leg here - Michelin Guides were not produced until 1900 and Michelin Stars were not awarded before 1926 :o
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Only my Great(x3) grandfather, Abner Lucas, who was convicted in 1820 of throwing rocks at a yeomanry patrol in Burslem, and got 2 years in jail. I wonder if it had something to do with the Peterloo Massacre?
It may have been some kind of demonstration related to Peterloo or a general demonstration over wages and conditions in Staffordshire. Peterloo would have been on their minds certainly
There was a lot of unrest at this time. The Corn Laws, The Six Acts and hundreds of bread riots, "bread or blood" was a popular cry, and waves of strikes often related to wage cuts. The Blanketeers, the Pentrich Rising and the Cato Street Conspiracy all happened around this time too.
Staffordshire Yeomanry
http://staffordshireyeomanrymuseum.weebly.com/background.html
"The first half of the 19th Century was a period of great political and social upheaval. At a time when the country was largely without a police force, in an attempt to deal with the widespread strikes, riots, and demonstrations, the authorities began to call upon the Yeomanry to take on the role of a mounted riot police, to assist local magistrates to maintain law and order. The working populations of the northern and southern districts of Staffordshire suffered greatly due to the effects of the crude economics of early industry, and the effect of the post-Napoleonic Wars slump. Social unrest was at such a pitch in the county that by 1819, the Staffordshire Yeomanry had been expanded to twelve troops, having tripled its original numbers. The turbulent character of these times is illustrated by the many occasions on which the regiment was called out on duty."
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Oh My Goodness ;D ;D ;D
If you look back a few to my original post , the second one on this page, you will see that I am not pulling anyone's leg re the postings.
NB ... the second paragraph provides information about names and locations only having been changed, and my reasons for making those changes! I'm a bit sensitive about that kind of thing, but "Little Cheater" truly does belong to me! She is the sister of one of my great grandmothers!
Incidentally, that particular great grandmother ran away from home to marry my great grand father!
These two daughters must have been a worry to their parents!
Ok. All done, not a leg pull at all, just an attempt to respect the privacy of the person who put the original message in the newsletter.
I didn't expect that anyone would get cracking to try and solve a mystery!! We are On The Lighter Side Board after all! But this is such a fantastically helpful community, I should have known better!
Sorry if anyone has been on a wild goose chase on my behalf, or on an Antarctic Expedition!! It's just a fun thing, but as I said, it really happened!
Modified this post to add that the cause of death was also changed!
Jeanne 😊
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jaybelnz - I wasn't saying that it was YOU who was pulling anyone's leg - however, facts are facts - and the Michelin Guides were not issued until 1900, and Michelin Stars were not awarded prior to 1926. The original purpose of the Guides, produced by the Michelin brothers, who were tyre manufacturers, was to promote their own business in France. AND therefore a Michelin Star restaurant in 1842 is mythical.
I shall now shut-up and go away :-X :-*
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;D ;D ;D. You don't have to shut up and go away at all, it's me that should do that! I should have researched my locations and time frames a lot better shouldn't I! Also my A Frames! They didn't come till later either! And probably never had them in Malawi! I just got carried away!
It was actually very hard work to do all those substitutions too -kept getting them mixed up! ;D
Jeanne ;D
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It seems that both sides of my family were allergic to marriage!
On my Mothers side, her parents decided to get married when she was 15 and they had had all their children
On my fathers side his mother was unmarried as well
My stepfathers mother didn't get married until he was 7!
At least I got married before I had children (though not with the man I married !)
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I have a 1st cousin 3 times removed who was found guilty of rape in 1883.
Reading the newspaper reports I found myself mentally cheering for the victim, who gave the same account at the police court, the committal hearing and at the Assizes.
Joseph was sent down for 12 years.
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I'm quite envious that people have found some skeletons... the thing about skeletons is that they usually generate some extra sources of information - court proceedings, newspaper articles, etc. which add to the interest of researching.
The closest I have come so far is someone my mother unearthed some years ago - if I remember correctly he killed someone, fled the country for the Australian gold rush, leaving behind his wife and child, then got himself killed in some brawl in Australia while his wife and child were sailing out there to live with him. Not sure what happened to them afterwards. We have lots of information including newspaper cuttings etc., but despite Mam adopting him so far I've been unable to prove that he belongs to our family!
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jaybelnz - I wasn't saying that it was YOU who was pulling anyone's leg - however, facts are facts - and the Michelin Guides were not issued until 1900, and Michelin Stars were not awarded prior to 1926. The original purpose of the Guides, produced by the Michelin brothers, who were tyre manufacturers, was to promote their own business in France. AND therefore a Michelin Star restaurant in 1842 is mythical.
I shall now shut-up and go away :-X :-*
Some years ago, Michelin sought damages against another trade who was displaying the Michelin man unauthorized; they lost the case he he could prove that the figure he was displaying pre-dated Michelin by many years.
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Lots of madness, badness and sadness amongst my ancestors.
The most noteworthy is Richard Tidd, brother of my 4gt grandfather, and one of the Cato St Conspirators
http://spartacus-educational.com/PRtidd.htm
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My find cannot be claimed as a "Skeleton" as it is very very recent.
I have a relative who was charged with manslaughter & jailed for causing the death of his own mother (my dads 1st cousin) although not in this country :(
Annie
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have been reading some of the replies to this....... uuuummmm.
lawbreakers are probably found in every family surname, and for the genealogical or family historian one should be relieved to explore the adventures of the few folk that have been lucky enough to reach the focal attention of the their day..... i wouldnt consider one of my ancestors having his head lopped off a skeleton in the cupboard though, as during the time of King Charles there were many who unjustly treated.... my family also has the pleasure of having an illustrious sea captain who ran his vessel aground accidently during one the Nelson battles..... i am fortunate enough to say that just about every generation of my lot were notable or got themselves into mischief.... but as my dad used to say "they are just a worldly lot, willing to explore the parameters of life". And thank the good fella upstairs they did otherwise my family history story would be flat and mundain....
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... i wouldnt consider one of my ancestors having his head lopped off a skeleton in the cupboard though, as during the time of King Charles there were many who unjustly treated....
I may well have such an ancestor; the ancestor of my paternal grandmother's father. Surname Burton.
My grandmother was born in Pinchbeck near Spalding Lincs in 1859, father ag lab. With difficulty i have traced her line back to around 1770, but no further. However; the aristocratic family Burton of Surfleet, Lincs, some 2 miles from Pinchbeck were attainted traitor on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and seem then to vanish from the record. Probably not surprising. I wonder, and frankly I hope so.
If proved this would definitely NOT be a skeleton so far as I am concerned.
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I have a Benjamin Green from Gloucestershire who was a Brick layer, went to gaol twice. What for ?
One of the Stanley brothers son bigamous married he ended in gaol and the news of the World!!! Oh the scandal lol
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Not sure if I would describe it as a "skeleton" but.........................
In 1871 my gg grandmother Rose Ann's 2 kids along with their father (they never married) were living at the home of her sister & hubby but she herself is absent (still haven't located her after more than 15 yrs of research for that yr) :o
In the household is her niece Rose Ann of 16 yrs old who I had initially believed to be my gg grandmother with an error on her age :-X
I later discovered that niece Rose Ann & the father of my gg grandmothers kids married at the end of 1871 although initially I believed the marriage to have been my gg grandmother Rose Ann (thinking her surname had been an error as they all lived in the same household ??? :o :o
I'm not sure if the affair with her "partner" & "niece" began prior to her disappearance or after ???
However it took me a lot of months to unravel the mess as both women were named Rose Ann & surnames similar which I assumed had been misheard/assumed & ages, well...............census records being unreliable at times kind of confused things too ;D
I have still not found the birth cert. for young Rose Ann the niece ???
Annie
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Plenty of my young relatives (and one not so young at all) recorded as being up before the Kirk Session for the "sin of ante natal fornication" and sitting up on the cutty stool to in church for 3 consectutive Sunday's, to show their repentance for this dreadful sin! After that they would be officially "absolved" from such sin! Other couples marrying were carefully watched and if they produced a child within 9 months, up they too were hauled before the Kirk session, still to be charged with that sin! Session clerks would go round the towns at night, to popular trysting places, spying for sinners to charge! I wonder sometimes if that's all they were looking for!
My nephew, well into his twenties at that time, who is interested in knowing about the family history, asked me what ante Natal fornication was. I told him it was pre-marital sex and his generation didn't invent it! He nearly fell off his chair!
One of my favourite research experiences! The look on his face was a gift!
Every now and then I would get an email from him, asking if I'd found any more sinners!
Jeanne 😄
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;D Your wording was very funny ;D
I just can't help wondering how my gg grandmother coped with her niece & the father of her kids marrying but she left my g grandmother with her sister (mother of the niece) as is noticed on the 1881 ???
The niece went on to have 5 kids with my gg grandfather between 1873 - 1880 but sadly died 1884 aged 30 yrs old :(
Anne Marie
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I recently found in the wider family a man who married his dead wife's sister about 30 years before it became legal. They had to leave the area to get married, although they didn't go far, only to the nearest city! They don't seem to have been prosecuted for it.
There are lots of skeletons in mine and my other half's families, murder is just about the only thing I haven't found. All part of life's rich tapestry.
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Jeanne - I found one of those as well. A young Janet Clerk was called up in front of the kirk in 1826
"The which day Jennet Clark produced to Mr Dickison a certificate from the Kirk Session of Hawick learning that she an unmarried person residing in this Parish was delivered of a Daughter on the 24th day of September 1824 and that she had made satisfaction for the sin of Fornication with William Minto then Labourer at (? - can't read) who confessed her guilt with him according to the Rules of this Church"
Solved a family mystery of why her first daughter was called Isabella Minto when there were no Mintos in the family that we knew of!
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I recently found in the wider family a man who married his dead wife's sister about 30 years before it became legal. They had to leave the area to get married, although they didn't go far, only to the nearest city!
All part of life's rich tapestry.
I have on my ex-wifes side a convict who married a widow in Adelaide then when she passed on married her daughter ( his step-daughter) . Does kinda leave a sour taste in my mouth. :( but it is part of the fabric of who my wife and son are
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Not sure if I would describe it as a "skeleton" but.........................
In 1871 my gg grandmother Rose Ann's 2 kids along with their father (they never married) were living at the home of her sister & hubby but she herself is absent (still haven't located her after more than 15 yrs of research for that yr) :o
In the household is her niece Rose Ann of 16 yrs old who I had initially believed to be my gg grandmother with an error on her age :-X
I later discovered that niece Rose Ann & the father of my gg grandmothers kids married at the end of 1871 although initially I believed the marriage to have been my gg grandmother Rose Ann (thinking her surname had been an error) as they all lived in the same household ??? :o :o
I'm not sure if the affair with her "partner" & "niece" began prior to her disappearance or after ???
However it took me a lot of months to unravel the mess as both women were named Rose Ann & surnames similar which I assumed had been misheard/assumed & ages, well...............census records being unreliable at times kind of confused things too ;D
I have still not found the birth cert. for young Rose Ann the niece ???
Annie
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a convict who married a widow in Adelaide then when she passed on married her daughter ( his step-daughter) .
I've got similar (though not a convict, or at least not a convited one!) - married his dead wife's daughter. This is complicated by the fact that the "original" marriage was actually bigamous, he having deserted wife no.1 and the children, who subsequently went to Canada as Barnardo's boys.
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I found my first convict in my family, Edward Childs, my 4xgreat grans brother. He was sent to Australia in 1838 for fighting in a pub and stabbing someone in the thigh. Edward was arguing with his father when the 3rd party stepped in and stood up for the dad and bit off more than he could chew.
Another one to add to my list of ancestor siblings who went abroad.
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Frederick Barnett, who, in 1859, was sentenced to 6 months hard labour for "breaking into a warehouse and stealing therein."
Still, rather that than Thomas Robbins on the same page of the same register who got 12 months hard labour for assault with intent carnally to know a girl under 10 years of age :o