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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: coombs on Saturday 04 February 17 21:24 GMT (UK)

Title: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Saturday 04 February 17 21:24 GMT (UK)

Such as the family stories of your grandparents, or even documents you looked at before you were bitten by the genealogy bug?

I remember my nan saying her mum died on her 50th birthday in 1945, and her maiden name was Edgington.

And mum saying her mum was born in County Durham, whose mum Catherine Musgrave before her died in about 1930.

And dad said that his paternal grandad was Richard Titshall who was originally from Suffolk and moved to Essex and ran a boot menders in Rochford.

Also I knew about the Cornwell family of Essex, and a rumour that turned out to be true about a London ancestor. All this helped me a lot on my way.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: KGarrad on Saturday 04 February 17 21:42 GMT (UK)

Both of my grandfathers had died before I was born.
And my father's half-sister and half-brother never had any children - so no cousins.

So, I was curious about my surname.

Within a short time I had found that my paternal grandfather had, in fact, married 3 times. He divorced his 2nd wife to marry my gran. Skeletons at the first attempt ;D

From that point I was hooked!

Them there was the story of us having French blood?

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: groom on Saturday 04 February 17 21:43 GMT (UK)

What really started me was my uncle mentioning that his grandmother had died following the HMS Albion disaster on the Thames in June 1898. I then remembered that my grandmother had told me that her mother had been rescued from the water but died a week later and that they had looked after a boy who had lost his parents. I knew my grandmother's maiden name, so looked up information about the disaster and found her mother's name on the communal grave at the HMS Albion memorial in East London Cemetery. That then started my interest in family history.

My grandmother also used to say that she was related to a Bobby Howell who was a famous band leader. I still can't find anything about this apart from the fact that her brother was called Robert  (but it wasn't him)

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Milliepede on Saturday 04 February 17 21:45 GMT (UK)

That great great was run out of Sheffield by the police  :o but have never found any evidence of this.  If he ran fast enough maybe there wouldn't be any evidence anyway.

Family stories may be embellished over the years but very often have a grain of truth in them.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: djct59 on Saturday 04 February 17 22:00 GMT (UK)

I knew a bit of the family history, and that my grandfather had gone to South Africa as his mother was widowed in 1878  when he was a child, and she ran the croft for the rest of her life.

In 1989, the year after my mother died quite young, her youngest brother died in a house fire that destroyed her birthplace. I drove her alcoholic older sister to the funeral. She was old enough to remember her grandmother, who lived till 1929. According to her, my g-grandfther collapsed in a field with peritonitis and died within days, as the doctor had to come by boat (there was no road to the village till 1883). Years later, this turned out to be true.

Twenty two years later the last of my mother's siblings died aged 89, so the cousins began to share memories etc. The rest was literally history.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Saturday 04 February 17 22:10 GMT (UK)

As a small child I was somewhat bewildered by the fact that my mother had a Granny Frost, who wasn't her real granny but was that of her two big sisters. I was too young to work out the implications of this. My mum's real granny was called Granny Smith, which we all know is, in fact, an apple.

Hooked from then onwards.....

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Beavances on Saturday 04 February 17 23:06 GMT (UK)

Mine started with the unearthing of two photographs - one showing a wedding around 1900 and the other a house which had not long been completed  before the photograph had been taken (very newly planted garden was the clue) but had a child standing in front of it dressed in Victorian clothes. My mother-in-law knew who the house belonged too and whose wedding it was but nothing else about the  background of the people. In trying to identify the house I went to the library in Otley, Yorkshire to ask if they had any old documents/maps  that might help me. The librarian simply said 'Oh I know where that is. I pass it every day on the bus!'  She then gave directions (...just up the road and along a bit) ...  and then I became hooked. If only it was always that simple!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: LizzieW on Saturday 04 February 17 23:07 GMT (UK)

I knew quite a lot of my mother's family history.  I knew her mother (my gran) as she lived with us and I knew her father had died from TB not long after my mother's eldest sister also died of TB.  I knew the names of my mother's grandmothers, my mother's elder sisters knew them personally but they'd died by the time my mum was born.  I knew one of them was married to an alcoholic and that she had been rich (although I didn't know why she was rich) but her husband drank all her money away.  That all turned out to be true, she had been left gold, silver, tenements etc. in an elderly lady's will.  I knew lots of names of my mother's cousins and aunts and uncles.

Eventually, all I had to do was put them all together to start my tree on my mother's maternal side.  Then, I was given a tree someone else had done (I actually met him) taking my mother's paternal side back 4 generations, although I have researched it much more widely since then.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Saturday 04 February 17 23:18 GMT (UK)

I also knew that my mum's dad had been killed in an industrial accident and that her mum had died at a relatively young age, leaving mum to bring up her two younger brothers. I had to know that because they lived with us - more like big brothers to me than uncles.

I knew that dad came from Aberdeen and that his younger brother was killed during WW2 at an age when he ought still to have been in school. I knew that three of dad's aunts were Pansy, Tootie and Nettie, though they were all, in reality, called something else altogether more sober and sensible. I have yet to work out why they had those nicknames!

What I didn't know was that my research would take me from Nairn in the North of Scotland to Portsea in the South of England, with many points in between and that in the end, my earliest known maternal ancestors (to date) were living in my own chosen county - Cumbria - or that another line, having gone all around Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland, would bring me back to within a very few miles of where I was born.  ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Saturday 04 February 17 23:31 GMT (UK)

Well mum told me that she thought her nan was born in London, maybe Stepney. I found out that she was born in Islington and met Durham born Geo Musgrave in London during WW1 and he then moved her up to co Durham in 1919.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: JACK GEE on Sunday 05 February 17 00:26 GMT (UK)

I started in the 1990's when my parents 50th wedding anniversary was nigh. Everyone knew that Aunty Mill Weeks - my fathers sister had the family tree. She did - but in her head!
It was fun but exasperating at the same time - trying to record while she went on and then keeping her on track. Many visits and calls to the 80+ year old the eldest of my GF children - i got the gist of the tree for the anniversary . I have been doing it ever since. It never stops and i am having so much fun going down each tangent.
Currently coordinating a book on the Bond family of East Dereham Norfolk and Ararat Victoria. Researching the McClures of Donegal and Victoria and assisting the writer of a Biography of David Shannon  the Dambuster pilot and progeny of the Shannon family of Derrybeg/Limavady northern Ireland and South Australi/Victoria.

Cheers
all
Jack Gee

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: groom on Sunday 05 February 17 00:33 GMT (UK)

Thank you Coombs for starting this thread, it spurred me into action.  ;)

Quote

My grandmother also used to say that she was related to a Bobby Howell who was a famous band leader. I still can't find anything about this apart from the fact that her brother was called Robert  (but it wasn't him)

I started a thread on here and I think that Jool has found the missing link and that my grandmother was telling the truth!  http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=764502.0

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Jool on Sunday 05 February 17 01:43 GMT (UK)

All I really knew was my grandparents' names including both grandmother's maiden names.  I knew some of my grandparents' siblings but there were more I didn't know about.  Sadly all of my grandparents had passed away by the time I got interested in family history.

My interest started when my father in law took out a 2 week trial on Ancestry to trace his family after he discovered some notes his late father made on their family.  He wasn't making much progress so I offered to help - I instantly became hooked and subscribed to a 12 month Ancestry sub after his trial ended.

Mom and Dad filled me in on their parents' siblings and some info on their grandparents, but they knew little else.  Dad (bless him) was so frustrating in the early days of my research, he said he didn't know anything else but when I made a new discovery he was often able to confirm my findings. When I discovered his dad's mother was born a Bond, he said "Oh yes, the Bonds, I remember them"  ::) ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: GUT on Sunday 05 February 17 02:12 GMT (UK)

I guess I was lucky.

I had a maternal great grandmother, born 1888 died 1973 who was a sharp as a tack. And she had known three of her grandparents. Gives you a pretty good head start really.


I had my two maternal grandparents well into the 1990s who I saw pretty much every day, most of that side was secret. Also a full complement of great Aunts and Uncles on that side, 10 all up, and saw them regularly at least a few times a year.

Paternal side was bit trickier, both grandparents dead before I was born, but knew grandads twin, born 1883, into my teens, and some of his other siblings as well.

Had a bit of material passed down, some of which now seems to have been wrong.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: GUT on Sunday 05 February 17 02:18 GMT (UK)

Quote from: genjen on Saturday 04 February 17 22:10 GMT (UK)

As a small child I was somewhat bewildered by the fact that my mother had a Granny Frost, who wasn't her real granny but was that of her two big sisters. I was too young to work out the implications of this. My mum's real granny was called Granny Smith, which we all know is, in fact, an apple.

Hooked from then onwards.....

I had a few of those, seems half my ancestors married more than once.

It has also lead to some confusion with other family members. One was insistand for years that my great grandfather had the nickname "Genge" whereas in fact Greatgrandmother had married a second time to mane named Matthew Genge but this relative thought when everyone mentioned "Pop Genge" it was just a nickname, took a bit orpf persuading.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: GUT on Sunday 05 February 17 02:39 GMT (UK)

Quote from: genjen on Saturday 04 February 17 22:10 GMT (UK)

As a small child I was somewhat bewildered by the fact that my mother had a Granny Frost, who wasn't her real granny but was that of her two big sisters. I was too young to work out the implications of this. My mum's real granny was called Granny Smith, which we all know is, in fact, an apple.

Hooked from then onwards.....

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Mvann on Sunday 05 February 17 03:56 GMT (UK)

Well for me, parts of mums family I knew about, but there were bits I didn't, mainly on grandads side of the family. Dads side I knew less about. I don't remember anything about mums grandma, as I was only 3 when she died. I did know that she had married 3 times, and mum has the info on the children from those marriages. Dads grandma I knew better as I was 15 when she died. She had married twice. Most of the research I have done has been to add on to what mum has got. 4 out of the five trees I have done actually start from my great grandparents and work back. The odd one out starts at my mums uncles name.

Some of what I had been told by my grandma I have confirmed, but some of it is not strictly true, one being that her grandmas family came from Manchester. Well her grandma was born in Manchester and the family moved to Leicester. But her grandmas dad was born in Staffordshire and his mum, I think was born in Leicestershire. So it seems that certain things I've been told are true in the context of the conversation, but may not be accurate to most people's understanding.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Nanna52 on Sunday 05 February 17 08:27 GMT (UK)

I started looking into my family history after my parents had died.  My mother and I were both only children and as my fathers family was split, not much information was available.  I never knew my grandparents so only information I had was grandmothers maiden names.  My mothers father died in 1918 when she was 18 months old and her mother when she was sixteen.  I have been on a great journey of discovery tracing her side back to Anglesey and Keynsham.  My fathers side is more complicated and I go back to it every now and again.  I have found some cousins on my maternal grandmothers side, but no one on the other branches.  I live in hope.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: kooky on Sunday 05 February 17 08:54 GMT (UK)

I began after my father died in 1996. My mother gave me an envelope with certificates in it. She said they were my fathers. When I looked properly there were many BMD certificates. I began a tentative tree and asked my mum where her certs were. She told me she only had her own birth cert. and her marriage .
So I decided to find them for her ::)
Thus it began!
Kooky

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Kay99 on Sunday 05 February 17 09:07 GMT (UK)

I only knew one grandparent (my mother's mother) and by the time I was in my mid twenties she, my parents and their siblings had died.   Then amazingly I started to work for a County Council with an attached Record Office which gave me access to some records well before computers were is common usage and started me off!

The grandmother I did know never referred to any relations other than her father who was a baker from the Isle of Man.    She always said she was from there as well.   However many years after starting found her birth in Liverpool and via another family a photograph of one of her brothers with an amazing resemblance.   Wonderful - granny would have been thrilled.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: andrewalston on Sunday 05 February 17 13:23 GMT (UK)

My mum was, and still is, full of stories about the events of her childhood and the things she was told when young. I'm still trying to write them down!

Some of the tales have been proven true, such as the story that when her grandfather remarried in 1910 following the death of his first wife, his eldest two girls took offence and walked out. At the 1911 census, they are elsewhere in town.

The "we are descended from George Marsh (St. George the Martyr)" story is still very unlikely ever to bear fruit. The right parish, but Marsh is an extremely common surname, and the related claim - George in every generation - falls down very quickly. However, this was the story that my mum was convinced could be proven, and started me on my research.

My dad never seemed to have any stories to pass on, but I wish I'd listened more carefully to his mother. When I took her for a drive around the village where she was born, would be relating which relation had lived in each house. Those links I do remember have turned out to be spot-on. She would have been surprised by some of my findings - she was proud that her mother came from that now upmarket village, but did not know that her father's father was born there too. Her parents turn out to have been 5th cousins.  :)

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Gillg on Sunday 05 February 17 14:35 GMT (UK)

Although both my maternal grandparents died young (45 and 50) and I never knew them, my mother and her sister had a fund of family tales to recall, so I learned a great deal about my musical chapel-going ancestors and the "family" red hair (which I didn't inherit, much to my father's regret - it had been the thing that first attracted him to my mother).  There were no certificates, but the trail has been fairly easy to follow up to the early 1700s.

I knew that my paternal grandfather had been born in a small Huntingdonshire village and had moved with his widowed mother and siblings to Lancashire, where he met my grandmother.  More than this I didn't know, apart from a few names of his relatives.  I did hear that there was a family "black sheep", but was never told who that was.  It took me quite a while to work out that this was most probably my gt-grandfather, who became a policeman in London but mysteriously returned to his village occupation of cordwainer after a couple of years.  Later correspondence with the police historians revealed that he had been dismissed "for stealing strawberries"".

I had just started putting together a fairly basic family tree when my mother died and my adopted older brother decided that it was now time to find out about his birth family.  He was given, after counselling, a copy of his birth certificate and learned for the first time his birth mother's name and his original forenames.  With a great deal of help from Rootsweb and RootsChat we put together his family history and he was able to make contact with his mother's younger brother and his cousins.  They had known of his birth and were delighted to hear from him and to know that things had turned out so well for him with his adoptive family.  His uncle was also a family history fan and was able to supply lots of information and family photos.   

   

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Kiltpin on Sunday 05 February 17 15:03 GMT (UK)

"What family info did you have before you started genealogy?"

Well, to be honest - a load of old cobbled together nonsense, wishful thinking and lies.

Just some of the highlights -

We are not directly descended from Florence Nightingale (the famous nurse who produced no children). To his dying day, my uncle maintained "Just because you can't find a link, doesn't mean there isn't one there".

We are not directly descended from the American General, Andrew 'Stonewall' Jackson. Same surname, different trees, different forests.

Georgiana Selina Henrietta is one woman and not three sisters.

Charles William Eaton was in fact three men, an uncle and his two nephews and not one man.

We were not all (each and every one) murdered in our beds by the Campbells at Glencoe.

I think that I spent the best part of five years disproving all the fantasy. What was left, was little more than my own name and date of birth.

Regards

Chas

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: patty38 on Sunday 05 February 17 15:17 GMT (UK)

My mother had a big Victorian photo album which we used to look through and she could name all the people in the photos and she told me many stories about her mother's family, I knew she was an orphan and brought up by her mother's two unmarried sisters, I found out her father died the day after she was born and her mother 3 days later, her birth was registered by an aunt on the same day as her mother was buried.

She also told me her mother's brother was drowned as a child. It was actually the son of another aunt, and he committed suicide age 14, there was a brother though who died young he had physical and mental disabilities, so maybe my mum just got them mixed up.

My father's family were from Waterford, Ireland, I was told by my father but now I'm not so sure and I knew those grandparents and the names of some of their siblings although they never talked about the past.

It's been a journey of discovery in more ways than one and I'm so glad I started.....but will I ever get finished, that's doubtful  ??? ???
 

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: 3sillydogs on Sunday 05 February 17 15:18 GMT (UK)

Not very much, I had paternal grandad's name and the fact that he was born in Wales.  Grandma's fathers surname and the fact that he was here during the Anglo Boer War.

Then there were grandma's stories that we were connected to an important leader of the Great Trek.

My maternal side apparently we are related via grandpa to some minor royalty, who was somewhat of a blacksheep (what else ::)) who was banished to the colonies. Grandma's line remains a total mystery and a huge brickwall. All I know is that she and her sisters were in an orphanage during WWI.

What have I found?
Well we are really related to the Trek leader  so grandma was right.  But the minor royalty, still can't find the link.  And OH and I are 6th cousins once removed ::) ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Sunday 05 February 17 15:47 GMT (UK)

I had a tree, originally drawn up by my grandfather, of his side - but with no dates or locations! I later found a few errors there. On my maternal side, precious little. I started hunting about, records offices, etc. and then online, then joined "Ancestry", and got a bit more serious.
Never really managed to solve any of the main mysteries ... why a great grandfather Andrew Keating ( a baker) died in 1933 in Fleetwood, rather than Southport, where I'd expected him to be - or where in Ireland he'd come from in the first place! Where exactly earliest known paternal ancestor was born... where in Ireland Thomas Cummins came from ... in fact most of my "stickers" relate to Ireland!!
That tree did stimulate my interest. Sadly only started after both parents dead, and not many older relatives to ask. One person, cousin to my father, was wonderful, allowing me access to her research - and in return I was able to do some research online for her maternal ancestry, and her husbands.
I wish I'd had the family papers, albums, letters so many people seem to have had and been able to access, or the large mass of relatives ... only children seem to have run in our family, so there have been very few to ask or to confirm findings.
My advice to you all: Get the info whilst oldies are still present, both in mind and body!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Erato on Sunday 05 February 17 15:52 GMT (UK)

I had a lot of information  -  a ~25 page document on her family history from my paternal grandmother, a ~70 page document from my paternal grandfather about his boyhood on a Wisconsin farm with a few genealogical notes, and a basic tree of my maternal grandfather's family produced by a distant relative.  All of these proved to be mostly accurate.  There were some interesting omissions, though.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: louisa maud on Sunday 05 February 17 16:09 GMT (UK)

When I was looking after my mother way back in 1994 she often got the "certificates and insurances" out of a large purse to look at, she did mention that her mother was married at 16, so on my way to London on the coach I stopped off and went to St Catherine's House, there I purchased my grandmother's birth certificate, 2 women in front of me told me to go into the census office "round the corner", (turned out to be Chancery Lane), I had absolutely no idea what to do or where to look, having sought help I went home to my mother with the 1881 census for Saffron Hill Holborn, there were 6 or so children shown on the listings all my grandmother's siblings, she had no idea my grandmother had so many siblings , little did she realise after a few more weeks of delving, (by then I had become hooked), that my grandmother was one of 12, their surname was very unusual and I have since been in contact and met the last 2 remaining males from this  blood line and cousins of  my mother, it would appear my Gt grandmother had 12 children spanning 24 years and the older ones hardly knew about the youngsters, when my grandmother died in 1958 we all thought there was no one to contact about her death, what a shame as there were still some siblings alive.

My grandmother was one of the oldest in her family but I did find one  person who has since died that knew a lot more about the youngest siblings and so filled in a lot of details I would never have been able to find out myself.

My grandmother actually got married at 21, so that was one story to be dismissed like others I have found to contradict  what I had heard over the years

I just feel sorry now that as a child I didn't ask more, but in those days it was almost a case of being seen and not heard, I would never have dreamt of asking either  grandmothers about their family, my parents told me bits and pieces but since my mother died in 1996 it has almost been my sole hobby to complete my family tree on her side and my fathers, well it never is complete really, is it?, and so I plod on

It has been frustrating but  fun and interesting to say the least


Happy Hunting

Louisa Maud

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: 3sillydogs on Sunday 05 February 17 16:29 GMT (UK)

Agreed TY.

There are many, many questions that I would like to be able to ask my parents, but I only started my research after they were both gone.  There are so many unanswered questions and gaps that they would be able to fill in...

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: louisa maud on Sunday 05 February 17 16:39 GMT (UK)

It ought to be a lesson learnt to try to encourage the youngsters, must admit my 2 grandchildren at 14 and 17 aren't interested as yet, I live in hope

LM

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 17:57 GMT (UK)

My mum used to look at me with "that look" on her face and say "You're like Aunt Kathy", in a way which I knew meant no good. I was never sure whether she meant in looks or in character.

Now, to be clear, Aunt Kathy was my dad's aunt, not my mum's and to the best of my knowledge, mum met her, at most, on one occasion, so not best qualified to judge whether I was like her in nature but the fact is that Kathy took her own life ( as did several other members of that branch of the family) and I honestly believe that in mum's eyes, that made her somehow flawed and there was nothing mum liked better than to compare me with someone who had "gone wrong".

Is there a depressive gene? If there is, it was certainly strong in my paternal line and continues to this day through me and both of my daughters. Poor Kathy, I very much doubt whether I am like her but I do wish I could know what led her, her uncle and her grandfather to such a desperate frame of mind that life was not worth living.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Sunday 05 February 17 18:24 GMT (UK)

Mum said that her gran died when she was about 4 and her name was Violet May. Also I had my grandparents marriage cert and was told there is a stream of gravestones in Little Wakering which belong to our Cornwell and Clift families. I memorised dates and names a while before I started FH.

I initially only did mums London side but then when I was in Gt Yarmouth and walking through the cemetery I saw a gravestone which said "Thirza Finch" and it reminded me that my paternal gran said her nan was a Thirza, so it started me on investigating all lines.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 18:28 GMT (UK)

Quote from: coombs on Sunday 05 February 17 18:24 GMT (UK)

I saw a gravestone which said "Thirza Finch" and it reminded me that my paternal gran said her nan was a Thirza, so it started me on investigating all lines.

Oooh...did a double take there....I have a Thirza French in my family.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: clairec666 on Sunday 05 February 17 19:16 GMT (UK)

I was lucky to have A LOT of information when I started.

My mum's dad caught the genealogy bug after he retired. I've inherited all the certificates he bought and his photos. He died when I was a baby; I wish I'd had the chance to discuss everything with him, and to thank him for keeping all those precious photos.

My mum started researching her mum's family, learning from her dad. Her grandmother was still alive at the time, and she could remember all her own grandparents, so I had 5 generations of that family handed to me on a plate.

My other grandfather must have realised the importance of preserving information - he sketched out his own family tree to give to us grandchildren, and for my grandmother. It wasn't very detailed and some of the dates weren't accurate, but I'm glad he wrote it down instead of keeping it in his head.

So I had names for all my 2xgreat-grandparents when I started, and dates for most of them too, plus photos for all branches of the family except my dad's mum. I've managed to confirm the information I already had, and extend most of the lines a little further.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 22:27 GMT (UK)

My parents also started to research their families in the 70s but obviously it was very different for them doing it all by hand-written letters and having to visit far flung records offices, so with limited time, they didn't get far. Also, they made some big mistakes and no matter how much I was able to show where she had gone wrong, mum would never accept what I subsequently found.

And in future years, will one of my daughters or grandchildren say exactly the same thing about me? ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Sunday 05 February 17 23:02 GMT (UK)

Quote from: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 18:28 GMT (UK)

Quote from: coombs on Sunday 05 February 17 18:24 GMT (UK)

I saw a gravestone which said "Thirza Finch" and it reminded me that my paternal gran said her nan was a Thirza, so it started me on investigating all lines.

Oooh...did a double take there....I have a Thirza French in my family.

Thirza to me did seem as rare as hens teeth but it is more common than we think. It is a good first name to have to trace people but can be grossly mistranscribed (which itself is a hard word to type without a typo).

Nan said her mum died on the 17th July 1945 on her 50th birthday, so I knew she was born 17th July 1895 providing nan was not mistaken. It lead me straight to the Jul, Aug, Sep 1895 returns for people with the surname Edgington. When I looked in the ledger at the FRC in Clerkenwell I thought "Well where is the date of birth"? I asked a lady and she said "You have to buy the certificate for that" I got the birth cert which confirmed what nan said, born 17 July 1895 and her mother was Thirza Edgington. I then got Thirza's maiden name of Snell.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 23:10 GMT (UK)

I wonder if Thirza was more common in certain regions. Mine was an Essex girl!

And the spellings of her name were many and various! She named her daughter Ermina, which is also quite a rare one.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Milliepede on Sunday 05 February 17 23:22 GMT (UK)

I have a Thirza from Wilts but she was always called Queenie, she even had Queenie on her marriage certificate!

I couldn't find a birth for Queenie then discovered her birth name was Charlotte Thirza or vice versa can't quite remember.

She was born 1893.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 23:25 GMT (UK)

My partner's mum was a Queenie....born within the sound of Bow Bells, a proper Cockney girl.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: CaroleW on Sunday 05 February 17 23:34 GMT (UK)

Back in 1997, my sister had a call from my cousin who was most upset having just discovered our paternal grandparents were buried in "paupers" graves.

She wanted to "dig them up" and give them a proper burial!!

Now - grandfather was buried 1919 and grandmother 1930 and as my sister pointed out - given there were other bodies in the graves - how do you decide which bones belong to our
grandparents??

However - that conversation is what started me off on my own FH trail as I realised I didn't even know my paternal grandparents christian names. 

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 05 February 17 23:37 GMT (UK)

Quote from: CaroleW on Sunday 05 February 17 23:34 GMT (UK)

Back in 1997, my sister had a call from my cousin who was most upset having just discovered our paternal grandparents were buried in "paupers" graves.

She wanted to "dig them up" and give them a proper burial!!

Now - grandfather was buried 1919 and grandmother 1930 and as my sister pointed out - given there were other bodies in the graves - how do you decide which bones belong to our
grandparents??

 

I love this! DNA testing all those old bones.....or maybe not!! ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Dyingout on Monday 06 February 17 00:03 GMT (UK)

Mine was my Paternal Grandfather who supposedly committed suicide by drowning, whilst in a bad state of mind. But he saw his son about an hour before and had said. he would see him in the pub after his walk.
The other one was a great Aunt who mysteriously dissapeared off the face of the earth all i had was a name Albina Loome
Found all about both.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Rosinish on Monday 06 February 17 04:15 GMT (UK)

I was interested in my genealogy long before I knew what the word 'genealogy' meant!  ;D

My paternal line was my interest, having lived with my paternal g/mother for a year on a remote island (South Uist, Inverness-shire) & annual holidays as a child (as well as holidays in my adulthood) after my g/mother was deceased.
There were no 'playgrounds' with swings etc. & all the kids I went to school with were Gaelic/English speakers although when speaking to each other, Gaelic was their native language which was mainly used! (I was about 9 yrs old) i.e. the kids probably never gave it a thought on my 'English' only language apart from the odd words unless I spoke, they would answer me in English  ;)

I spent many hours/days/weeks/months with the only g/parent I ever knew (paternal g/mother) as the rest of my g/parents were deceased before I was born  :(
My g/mother was b 1882 i.e. very old (in her late 80's) when I lived with her in 1969/70 :P

The Island of South Uist (where she was born) is small & my g/mother would tell me many things such as the names of her siblings/parents/g/parents etc. & my father (her son) told me much about his paternal line who were all born Motherwell, Lanarkshire but descended from South Uist & most of whom had emigrated to Canada!

I somehow (from such a young age) had a great interest in how my g/parents met & how both their families descended from South Uist & I found they lines easier to trace although my paternal surnames & forenames were aplenty, I rooted them out  ;D
My paternal g/mother's mother had an uncommon surname on the island i.e. that made things easier!

My mother on the other hand had been an orphan & born in N/Ireland!
Her parents both died when she was a child of 6/7 yrs old, (within a yr of each other) & knew nothing more than her parents names (mother's maiden name) & when they died.

I was able to piece a lot together in later years (from memory) most of what I'd been told with my Scottish roots but my Irish roots were a bit harder & had to rely on 'opening up old wounds' by having to ask my aunt (mum's older sis) questions which were hurtful for her to answer because of the nature of her parents deaths.

By the time I plucked up the courage to ask my aunt (my mother had been deceased for many yrs) & I had become acquainted with the techniques of FH research i.e. able to ask relevant questions which actually stirred up many memories (although distant/vague) in my aunt's mind but so much came to the fore with my questions & although the info. was scant from her own memory as a teenager, I was able to discuss things which helped her to recall more than she had actually remembered.

I have now traced my maternal parents lines further back than my paternal lines, mainly because there are more records to be had on my maternal lines who were actually of English/Scottish descent with more records available in the areas from which they descended (further back).

Such a pity my parents aren't here to enjoy my findings  :(

Annie

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: cristeen on Monday 06 February 17 10:53 GMT (UK)

I grew up being told I was descended from Scottish roots on my Mum's side and a family of ship owners. My paternal grandmother was very proud of her family roots and that of her husband. When we stayed with them we were taken to various places with family connections, eg Kentmere Valley (Lake District) ancient home of the Gilpins.
I didn't really get going until after that Gran died in 2005 and we discovered a bag full of old photos, including one from about 1890 of a family wedding. I was lucky in that various trees (hand written) and biographies had been produced by a variety of ancestors, it gave me a good starting point. It continues to be a fascinating journey; I have been able to prove the link to the Gilpins of Kentmere and disprove the Scottish ancestry (cover story for an illegitimate child)

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Monday 06 February 17 13:24 GMT (UK)

I'd even less when starting OH's side than on my sides - a casual comment by his mother one day that her mother (keep up) was called Tabitha, and shared my own date of birth, and had died young, ( no surname, by the way,) and the full name of his mother's father, known by my OH, and that he was a miner.... but incredibly, over the years I got back generations, especially on that Tabitha's line ..... and found that he'd far more local roots to where we now live than he ever realised!!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Josephine on Monday 06 February 17 18:15 GMT (UK)

So many wonderful stories; I've enjoyed reading each one!

I've been spending a lot of time researching my maternal grandmother's paternal line (Oliver in Scotland), so I'll talk about that one.

Before I was bitten by the genealogy bug, it had bitten one of my mother's sisters. This was pre-internet, when everything was done by mail, relying on occasional visits to the LDS centres.

Fortunately, my aunt was able to learn a lot from her mother (my grandmother), who had kept some of her parents' documentation. This meant that my aunt had correct information for her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. She also had information on her mother's siblings and some of her grandparents' siblings.

When I decided to start looking into this line, my aunt kindly shared her research with me, and I started to build on it. At first, I was doing it in tandem with a cousin, but eventually I was working on my own. I've managed to get back to the 1700s and even the late 1600s in some cases.

I've learned a lot and hope to put it all together in book format. It's going to be a huge job but I want to be able to pass it on to younger members of the family who might one day use my research as a starting point. As others have pointed out, the research is never really finished, and that's the beauty and frustration of this hobby.

Regards,
Josephine

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Deirdre784 on Monday 06 February 17 19:35 GMT (UK)

When I started this fascinating hobby about 5 years ago, I thought I was from a small family from Cardiff (though I did know I was born in Essex when dad was working there :) ). Mum had one sister, married with 2 children, dad had one brother, also married with 2 children. Mum and her sister had one cousin. My grandparents had all died more than 40 years previously, and my dad was no longer alive either. Mum was in her 80s and a great help. 

I have now discovered a large extended family tree including nearly 100 2nd cousins, ancestors from Pembrokeshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Essex (2 miles from where I was born!), Somerset and Ireland. And distant cousins in Australia, America and Canada. 

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: leka on Monday 06 February 17 19:45 GMT (UK)

A book that was given to me after my Parents died called 'Book of Christ' had names and birth dates going from1818 to 1895, it was for a family called Solomon of which I knew nothing about but turned out to be my Grandmother's maiden name. It was this that got me hooked.
Leka

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: clairec666 on Monday 06 February 17 20:36 GMT (UK)

Josephine, what you said about pre-internet days reminded me of my thoughts when I first dug through my grandad's research. (My own research started online.) He exchanged letters about genealogy with his cousin Charlie, and kept Charlie's replies. It looks like they'd spent ages puzzling over a "Woodward family" who kept appearing in photos, and couldn't work out how they were related to their own family.

I'll never have the chance to tell my grandad - I've solved your mystery, your grandmother's mother was a Woodward. Thanks to the internet, it didn't take me long to make the connection.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Josephine on Monday 06 February 17 20:48 GMT (UK)

clairec666, I can totally relate.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: groom on Monday 06 February 17 21:21 GMT (UK)

It's rather sad really isn't it, along with "If only I'd asked while they were alive" goes " I wish they were still here so that I could tell them."

My mother often spoke about her grandmother, Julia Maria Hayward nee Groom, who apparently lived with them when Mum was a child. She had her own stove in their back room and Mum and her twin sister often used to creep in there and get an extra meal. Mum knew nothing about Julia's background. I would have loved to have been able to tell her that I discovered she was born in London, but moved back to Suffolk, where her father's family came from when she was a few months old, and was baptised there a couple of months after her father died. Mum had no idea that she had Suffolk connections.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Tarnwater on Monday 06 February 17 21:57 GMT (UK)

My father died in 2006, and he knew a few stories of his side of the family which he would repeat to my brother and me  as we grew up. He even wrote down some of his memories before he died, which I have tried to back up with the facts. The grandfather who had a smallholding, and a few cows that supplied milk for the village, his cousin Arthur who was accidentaly killed aged 10, when a charabang ran over him, and an aunt with a fiery temper, but a heart of gold.
My journey on FH started proper from a black & white 1930 wedding photograph of my father's uncle, that came with a list of names.
How I wish I'd payed more attention to those stories, and the chance to share my new found knowledge with him.
For those that follow me, I hope they find my research of interest and carry on where I left off.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: g eli on Monday 06 February 17 23:31 GMT (UK)

I was extremely lucky. I was given a book which a distant cousin had researched, there was a family tree going back to my 3G grandfather, which included all the descendants of his thirteen children, including me and my sisters. Each chapter was written by one of siblings descendants so it was an interesting mixture of facts anecdotes and misconceptions.
This started me enquiring about the rest of my ancestors, but it wasn't until I tried to trace my OH's family that I really got involved, his father wasn't sure what his parent's names were, they had both died whilst he was fairly young.The only fact was that OH's grandfather had been killed in some sort of bus accident. I managed to find a possible candidate, but it wasn't until the 1911 census came out that I was able to go any further. I got an email from a family member that said we've found him he's mistranscribed but both of his names are there, He was born with one name married under another, and used both names thereafter.
Iwas hooked.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Johnf04 on Tuesday 07 February 17 00:07 GMT (UK)

Dad told me, when I was young, my grandmother, Agnes CAIRNS, was related to Rob Roy McGregor. When I finally developed an interest in genealogy, I discovered that Agnes was the descendant of Irish immigrants to Scotland, and that only one of my Scottish father's grandparents was Scottish. The other three were Irish.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: hullnow on Tuesday 07 February 17 12:32 GMT (UK)

I had a few bdm certificates,but what got my interest was a family story that my dads father,who I never knew,had run off to Canada and joined the mounties.My research revealed the true story,he went to Canada in 1911 returning with the Canadian Exp. Force beginning of WW1 as a private in the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles,he married g/mother in 1915 before he went to France.He settled back in Scotland but in 1920 went to Canada and then USA looking for work.He sadly died in Detroit in 1935,g/mother never joined him.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Tuesday 07 February 17 12:34 GMT (UK)

Nan said there was some Irish in the family but none found yet. There may be some Scottish as I have a Guthry/Guttree line from Leigh On Sea in Essex, which seemed to have several Scottish sounding surnames such as Ferguson, MacGowan and Ritchie. A fishing village probably would attract Scottish fisherman from 300 miles north as they were travelling round the coast.

I always wondered who my grandparents grandparents were, my great, great grandparents.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Tuesday 07 February 17 14:14 GMT (UK)

Quote from: coombs on Tuesday 07 February 17 12:34 GMT (UK)

There may be some Scottish as I have a Guthry/Guttree line from Leigh On Sea in Essex, which seemed to have several Scottish sounding surnames such as Ferguson, MacGowan and Ritchie. A fishing village probably would attract Scottish fisherman from 300 miles north as they were travelling round the coast.

I have the Scottish/Essex link in my family, from my great grandfather, born in Brightlingsea and his wife, born in Nairn. They married in Caistor, Lincolnshire, another stopping off place for coastal fishing boats. They settled in Nairn but I imagine in other families it worked the other way round. Nairn versus Brightlingsea....Scotland versus Essex.....I know which I would choose, every time!! ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Tuesday 07 February 17 16:10 GMT (UK)

My late Aunt, and a cousin of my Mum always SWORE the maternal line was scottish (even celebrate Burns Night!) - and of course, directly descended from Robert the Bruce!! Another cousin of hers, and myself started hunting around ... nope. Solidly Irish on the line they swore to be scottish, can only be traced back as far as their emergence dripping, from the Irish Sea in mid 19th C. Sadly Aunt is no longer around, but I'm sure she'd never be convinced - and the cousin who does Burns Night really doesn't believe either of us, despite us researching independently and only comparing notes when we were both sure! So we learned early on not to believe family legends ( "... owned half of Lord Street" (no), ".... was the last blacksmith in Liverpool ... (no) ", "Was named for the lady mayoress, who was her mother's friend... (no)" etc)
And the moral of that is: check out the information you are given as "Facts", before you hare off down a cul-de-sac in family history!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Tuesday 07 February 17 16:44 GMT (UK)

My mum was totally convinced that she had some Welsh ancestry, on her own mum's side. I have traced that side of my family back to the 1600s, one part as far as 1530ish, and at no point has anyone been born further South than the North Riding of Yorkshire. In fact, they rarely left that county at all and when they did stray it was only into Co. Durham and Westmorland. Mum died before I had all the earlier information but I know, "sure as eggs is eggs" that she wouldn't have believed me. Mum wanted to be partly Welsh and so partly Welsh she was!!

Her paternal line was at one time based in Staffordshire so maybe I'll find the Welsh connection one day! ;)

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Kevin, now in Chester on Tuesday 07 February 17 16:52 GMT (UK)

I began my research in my late-teens as I knew of only one other person with my surname, Carter, and that was my older brother.
Our father had died when my brother was seven and I was two and my widowed mother had since remarried.  Our grandfather Carter had died before I was born and in any case had become estranged from our Nan and his three children, including my father, when they were young.  It soon became evident that this was a part of their lives that they neither wanted to recall or to discuss. 
So I began my research with an almost blank sheet of paper.  There were no photographs, letters or stories about the Carters.  The only two facts I knew were that my great grandfather Carter was a Publican and that my father had been born in his pub – albeit a pub that no longer existed (the Angel and Trumpet,  High Street, Stepney which was bombed during WWII).
In the intervening 42 years I have managed to piece together much of the story - disturbing quite a few skeletons in various closets - on the way.  And I am now in contact directly or indirectly with all survivors of the 65 descendants of my great grandfather, the Publican Allan George Carter, as well tracing another 1500 plus family members from other branches of the family and enough stories to fill three books, so far.  A kind of compulsion as the great writer George Orwell once said.

Kevin now in Chester

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Gan Yam on Tuesday 07 February 17 17:06 GMT (UK)

My mothers stories of her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother always intrigued me even as a child.  My gt grandmother was Scottish and fiercely proud of this.  One of her sayings about her Scottish ancestors was "when they cut off their legs they fought on their stumps".  I always wondered what this meant and thought it must mean they were from the Scottish highlands and was referring to wars with the English.  However great grannie was from 2 miles over the Scottish border so this story still remains a mystery.(unless they were Reivers - need to do more research)

My maternal gt grandfather and most of his family were train drivers originally from Scotland.  He was one of the drivers involved in the UKs worst rail disasters, and although was not killed the family story was that he died a year to the day later, which  I thought was really spooky.  Research has shown that he didn't die a year later to the day, but in fact 4 years to the day, but I'm sure that a year sounds more creepy!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Tuesday 07 February 17 18:21 GMT (UK)

I also have confirmed roots from Scotland on mums side. I think before I started properly on genealogy I did once research the origin of the surname Musgrave and heard it was Scottish in origin (found in England and Ireland more though) so I thought they may have been from there but I found it was Ann Stewart, who wed into the Musgrave family whose Stewart line originated in Selkirk. I think Scottish migration to Northern England has always been prevalent for obvious reasons, the closeness and for work.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Tuesday 07 February 17 18:49 GMT (UK)

I think it was my Scottish side which made me want to delve into the family past. As a child I was ridiculously proud of having a Scottish father and grandparents and even now I identify more strongly with that side of the family.
But I have had the biggest challenges from my maternal line largely because of the inter-marrying ( and sometimes not bothering to marry at all) of Smiths which, I have to tell you, makes for some truly complicated and confusing research! And having gone more deeply into that side, I think some of the greatest pleasure has come from it.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Gillg on Wednesday 08 February 17 11:01 GMT (UK)

My mother's cousin Vera, a maiden lady and an only child, left me in her will her family portraits - 2 rather large gilt-framed oil paintings of her grandparents.  She had been rather proud of her Scottish ancestry and I wanted to find out more about this family and how it was that my mother also claimed to have Scottish ancestry. I was able, with some help, to trace Vera's father to a small island off the north coast of Scotland, where his family were boatbuilders.  He, however, wanted to better himself, moved down to Lancashire, found a job in a draper's business (the owner of this was also Scottish) and married the owner's daughter.  It was the owner and his wife who were portrayed in the pictures and were Vera's grandparents.  During the course of my investigations I made contact with another of their descendants, who, if truth to be told, had much more right to the portraits, as, like Vera, she was one of his grandchildren, but she didn't seem to want them and was satisfied with a photo of them.  They were so big that they never fitted in any of our rooms, either.

My mother, of course, was not related to this particular Scotsman, but I did discover that she, too, had a Scottish grandfather, who, like Vera's father and grandfather, had come south to find work.  It was not such a long journey for him, however, as he lived not far from Gretna Green, so was only just Scottish, we used to say.  Nevertheless my mother had a clan badge and skirt in the clan tartan and her sister's son, who went to live in Scotland used to wear the kilt on special occasions (and developed a strong Scottish accent!).

It's family stories like these that can start you off on the quest to find out more, as we can see from many of the earlier posts.  Sometimes, like these, they can turn out to be true, and sometimes they are totally unfounded. 

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Wednesday 08 February 17 12:23 GMT (UK)

Hey! I've "got" Smiths, too - only problem is, they were not. They seem to have without any imagination assumed the surname as an alias for about 40 years! Wonder what - or who - they were on the run from...His wife? Her husband? The Police?......
(I'd been delving into OH's lot to come up with that gem!) You couldn't make it up, could you?

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Wednesday 08 February 17 15:00 GMT (UK)

Quote from: ThrelfallYorky on Wednesday 08 February 17 12:23 GMT (UK)

Hey! I've "got" Smiths, too - only problem is, they were not. /quote]

Which one of us hasn't, somewhere down the line!! ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Wednesday 08 February 17 15:30 GMT (UK)

I always knew well over 20 years ago of the Titshall line and they came from Suffolk.

I am please to be part Scottish as well. I think many English people have Irish ancestry but also many English people have Scottish ancestors as well. I read once that in the 1800s London had more Scots than Glasgow at one point.

I have a Smith, James Smith, he was alive in 1841 bu died before the 1851 census and to add insult to insult, lolol, he said he was not born in county of residence in 1841.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Chilternbirder on Wednesday 08 February 17 15:37 GMT (UK)

I started with some letters from my gg grandfather, some of his merchant navy discharges and a selection of memorial cards from my g grandparents' generation.

That gave me a good start on that side of the family but pre internet that gave me a fairly limited line. With a young family travelling to county registries was a non starter and everything went on ice until I discovered Find My Past and Ancestry.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: venelow on Saturday 11 February 17 05:17 GMT (UK)

I did have the names of all four great grandparents as I was asking questions of my grandparents from about the age of twelve.

My grandfather told me that his grandmother told him that when she was a little girl she remembered seeing the soldiers coming back from Waterloo. I thought this was the neatest thing ever.

Sadly, I now know it could not have possibly happened as his grandmothers were born in 1830 and 1833. He also told me his father was a ship's chandler in Liverpool. He lied. The family lived in Liverpool for about two years during which time his father may have worked for a chandler.

Despite these setbacks my commitment to researching my family history remained undiminished. However my scepticism is very finely tuned.

Venelow

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Saturday 11 February 17 15:52 GMT (UK)

My "Smiths" remark was because so many people assume if they have one or two surnames in common, they are linked! Even with unusual names, it ain't necessarily so, - but when they have simply ASSUMED the surname ... you'd strangle them if you could get your hands on them!
Talk about making research even harder for you!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Saturday 11 February 17 16:12 GMT (UK)

I did ask mum what her maternal grandmothers maiden surname was and she did not know but her name was Catherine and she died in about 1930. When I first looked at my gran's birth in the indexes in 1920 I got my answer, her mothers maiden name was Coombs.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: pharmaT on Saturday 11 February 17 23:42 GMT (UK)

I had been told stories about some of my family so I had a vague idea of the names of my grandparents and 5 of my great grandparents.  I'd been told where my grandfathers were born (correct) and a couple of vague stories which turned out to be kind of true. 

When I started my mum gave me a pile of photographs including the one that is my profile picture and a box with my birth cert, my dad's death cert, my parent's marriage cert, both birth cert and one of my gran's death cert.  So I had confirmation of my grandparents names, indication of dates of marriage and the names of one set of grt grandparents before I went to any archives etc.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Sunday 12 February 17 22:02 GMT (UK)

Quote from: coombs on Saturday 04 February 17 21:24 GMT (UK)

Such as the family stories of your grandparents, or even documents you looked at before you were bitten by the genealogy bug?

I remember my nan saying her mum died on her 50th birthday in 1945, and her maiden name was Edgington.

And mum saying her mum was born in County Durham, whose mum Catherine Musgrave before her died in about 1930.

And dad said that his paternal grandad was Richard Titshall who was originally from Suffolk and moved to Essex and ran a boot menders in Rochford.

Also I knew about the Cornwell family of Essex, and a rumour that turned out to be true about a London ancestor. All this helped me a lot on my way.

Quoting my original post, I also had some of my nans diaries which mentioned relatives including her father in law, my great grandad Richard Titshall who was known as "Pops" and in 1949 she said "Pops in hospital, took boys to visit". Richard died in May 1950 of stomach carcinoma and leukemia.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: genjen on Sunday 12 February 17 22:41 GMT (UK)

Quote from: ThrelfallYorky on Saturday 11 February 17 15:52 GMT (UK)

My "Smiths" remark was because so many people assume if they have one or two surnames in common, they are linked! Even with unusual names, it ain't necessarily so, - but when they have simply ASSUMED the surname ... you'd strangle them if you could get your hands on them!
Talk about making research even harder for you!

Some people had no consideration! ;D ;D

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Monday 13 February 17 13:27 GMT (UK)

Exactly!
-Who Did They Think They Were?

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: coombs on Monday 13 February 17 22:04 GMT (UK)

My great grandad who moved from Suffolk to Essex in about 1905 moved down there to become a miller in Rochford at Rankin Mill. But by 1911 he was a boot repairer. I may have a good explanation as in the 1911 census when he was 27 it said he had a stiff right leg and knee since aged 25. So that must have affected his ability to work in the corn mill so he changed his occupation.

Family always said he went to Essex to work in the mill then became a cobbler.

In the 1911 census his soon to be wife was a cook at the home of the Rankin Mill owners.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: jbml on Friday 10 March 17 14:19 GMT (UK)

What did I know? Very little.

Both of my grandfathers died before I was born, and I think it was curiosity about them that got me interested in the whole subject of family history.

My father's father was one of a very large family. I was told "he was one of 14 children ... his mother wanted a daughter. The 9th was a daughter but died; and the 14th was a daughter". Not quite right. He was one of 11. the 4th died in infancy, but was a boy. The 6th and the 11th were daughters. The 11th, my great auntie Shirley, is the last of my grandfather's siblings still alive.

It frustrated me that, despite having this vast family, I never met any of them. I've met a couple of second cousins so far, and two of my cousins once removed, but that's all. Auntie Shirley has, however, given me a book which she originally compiled for one of my second cousins, with all of her brothers (and sister), and details of their various marriages and children and grandchildren.

My father's mother had an interesting middle name (Louvain), and I was told that she was named after the place in France where her father had served in the First World War. However, there was also a family story that her father had been a merchant seaman, who was torpedoed three times and returned to sea every time, but eventually died soon after the end of the war from the ill effects of his wartime experiences. These were obviously incompatible. They couldn't both be right. In fact, it turns out he was an Old Contemptible. He signed up a week after the outbreak of war, and because he could drive horses he was accepted into the ASC as an ambulance driver, and served with the 7th Cavalry Field Ambulance in Belgium in 1914. He was invalided out in 1915, and died in 1920. My grandmother was born in January 1915. The name "Louvain" is an anglicised version of Leuven, the site of the first great atrocity of the Great War, and many children born in late 1914 and 1915 were named in its honour. My great grandfather didn't serve there, however: it fell into German hands in August 1914, and my great grandfather didn't sail for Belgium until the beginning of October.

He MAY have been a merchant seaman at some point in his brief life, however. His army records record that he had a tattoo reading "I love Edith Sully". Alas, Edith Sully married somebody else, and soon after somebody by my great grandfather's name sailed as a storekeeper on a ship of the Union Castle line for South Africa. In the 1911 census, my great grandfather was living back in London, close to the docks, and his occupation was "Ship's Goods Checker". So it looks as though two family stories have become a bit garbled.

I was intrigued by a story which my grandmother used to tell of my father and his younger brothers getting lost in the woods, when my father was 11 and his brothers were 8 and 4. She received a reverse charge telephone call from a telephone box, and it was my father, and he said he didn't know where they were. She told him to read off the name of the telephone box, and to stay there, and she called a taxi to fetch them. When they arrived home they all had very muddy knees, and when she asked how this had come about my father explained that when they realised they were lost, he had made his brothers kneel down and pray for guidance "like you taught us we should", and then they'd found he telephone box.

What intrigued me there was that my grandmother was completely atheist, and I remember when she was dying my father had a big row with the hospital chaplain, because my grandmother didn't want to be bothered by him. So ... why had she been teaching her sons to pray for guidance?

It transpired that she was a cradle catholic, and HER mother (who died shortly before the events in this story) had been a devout catholic to the end. My grandmother apparently abandoned her faith at about the time of my father's birth, after an insensitive hospital chaplain had told her that she "deserved to lose her unborn baby for marrying out of the faith"; but it would seem that while HER mother was still alive she "kept up appearances" and continued to teach her children the elements of the faith. I would also hazard a guess that when she was admitted to hospital for the last time, she put "Roman Catholic" for her religion, rather than atheist ... and that this is why the hospital's catholic chaplain would have been attempting to minister to her.

On my mother's side, I had a few family stories which have been more or less validated, but not much. My mother thought her family was from Kent, because that's where her father grew up. Actually, they are from Huntingdonshire, and more particularly a village just 15 miles up the road from where I now live. On my first field visit I found my great x3 grandparents' grave (I visit it when I can, and like to lay flowers); and there is a brass plaque in the chancel of the church commemorating my great x3 uncle Harry Hardwick who was the organ blower there for 40 years!

And so I started researching ... and got bitten by the bug ...

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: anne_p on Friday 10 March 17 14:47 GMT (UK)

I was told rubbish and half truths.

My mother was Irish and talked at length about her aunts and uncles.
I discovered that they were all her great aunts and uncles.

She also told me loads of stories about growing up alongside her best friend  in the late 1930s and 40's
I thought that I knew a lot about this girl.

My parents married in Scotland and this friend was her bridesmaid.
The bridesmaid lived in Scotland at the time which confused me a little when I saw her address on the marrige cert

I later discovered that she was also my mum's 2nd cousin.
Their grandmothers were sisters and my mum never mentiioned that bit?

The girl was born in Scotland to Irish parents, and the only reason that she "grew up" in Ireland was because her family were evacuees in WW2 !

My dad always said his mother's line , (a Scottish surname that turns out to be our ONLY Scottish line of Ancestry) were from the Isle Of Skye.

So far I have traced this line back to the mid 1700's ( 5 generations before my dad) and every one of them were born within 5 miles of my dad's birthplace... in the East End of Glasgow.

Dad also said that this line were devout catholics.
 His maternal grandmother was catholic but his maternal grandfather was presbyterian and never converted to catholicism.( PR application proved that one)
Estranged from the family when he died and they buried him in a catholic cemetery anyway!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Friday 10 March 17 15:17 GMT (UK)

Thank goodness we're not the only household where there's more fiction in family history than there is on the bookshelves!

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: Chilternbirder on Friday 10 March 17 19:21 GMT (UK)

Once I started researching on the net I actually found some confirmation of stories that I thought false. Family legend had my gg grandfather born in Germany but all his merchant navy discharges and other documents had his place of birth as London. It was only when downloaded censuses from FindMyPast did I find is PoB given as Hanover.

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: nazchk on Saturday 11 March 17 11:31 GMT (UK)

I got bitten by the bug when I found out my grandmother's name was not the one she was given at birth. Turns out she was ' adopted ' by her paternal grandparents 6 weeks after her birth. Apparently she was concerned about what name would go on her coffin when she died and asked my mum who assured her that her married name would be used. This seemed strange to me so I asked why this would bother my gran. Mum then told me about gran having two names when she was born: Kelligan Jackson. Neither of these names had ever been mentioned in our family. Grans maiden name to us was Connelly. So, right away there was a mystery to discover. Gran's parents were not married and her mum gave her up because she couldn't support her. Her father was named as Peter Connelly, and his mother was married to a man called Patrick Connelly, and it was they who raised my gran as their daughter. This was a major discovery to me. Gran had been told her mother had died in childbirth. Right away I wanted to know who her birth mother was, and through time I found out that she hadn't died at that time, but had in fact gone on to marry someone else and have a large family with her husband. Brothers and sisters my gran never knew she had. Also found out my gran's dad Peter was not actually named Connelly either. He was born Wilson. Apparently there were 6 children born to my 2 x  great grandmother who was married twice. They all had different surnames when born. Four were illegitimate, but were given their father's surname. At the time of her second marriage my   2 x great gran had 5 children who all got called Connelly. Peter was killed in ww1, and on his army form his mother's name was registered as his next of kin. This intrigued me. Why was his father not his next of kin? Another mystery which led me to finding out that Patrick was not in fact his father. Took me ages to actually find out anything about Peter because he had changed his name. To this day i am still finding relatives of this branch of the family who are keeping up the tradition of changing their names. The latest one is William Steele formerly Boa, who was my 2 x great grans brother. She also had one called John but he is proving to be very illusive. Wonder what his real name will turn out to be? The search continues...

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: iluleah on Saturday 11 March 17 13:27 GMT (UK)

None!

My father, an only child who died when I was 17yrs old I knew his father until I was 5yrs old when he died, his mother had died of TB when my dad was 4yrs old and when I had asked him about his parents years before he always said he didn't know his mothers name.

At that time I had no clue about how to find out, never thought of asking my mother for or getting his birth cert, so 'floundered' for years. I only really wanted to find out his mums name 'for my dad' at that time I was not interested in FH research and if I had been told then I probably would never have researched.

My mother was no help at all and would just say "let sleeping dogs lie" whatever I asked about his family or hers. The only other person alive to ask anything of was her mum, my Nana but I had to find the right time to ask and ask in the right way or she just closed down too. That really made me more suspicious and it was only when I had my daughter years later and took her to see my Nana who asked "what have you named her" and when told she gasped and asked " where did you get that name from" ( it was an unusual name) I had never known anyone called that from anywhere and I am not sure where it popped into my head from.......... she went on to say "Granddad had an Aunt called that, it was a 'family name' but the last one to use it was that Aunt"

That gave me a way in to ask more and the information although it was very limited information about who his parents were and I later found what she told me was untrue and she would have known she was telling me lies but it enabled me to get started. I knew they were hiding things and knew I was not going to be told or helped. ... and to this day my mother will tell me nothing, she doesn't know that I know all the 'secrets' already all researched all proved.

About 10 yrs ago I was visiting and had left my FH folder on the coffee table, I walked in to her having a sneaky look, she behaved like it was on fire and was up and out of the room like a shot, but what she saw satisfied her I didn't know anything. What she didn't know was I had a real research file with all the information/records etc and 'what I was told' file which she had looked at.

Back then it took me two years to 'find out' and confirm my grandparents names, now with the internet and experience it would take me 30 seconds and my mum is still oblivious that for 30 years I have known that and much much more....the sad thing is none of which needed to be a 'secret'

Title: Re: What family info did you have before you started genealogy?
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Saturday 11 March 17 16:55 GMT (UK)

Ity is sad that the various "shames" and problems that so many families seem to have encountered meant that they took measures that have made them so elusive. I've had some really good hel0p to find one line in OH's family history, that I'd never ever have thought of myself - my mob were all so straightforward - but another researcher applied lateral thinking that then allowed us to backtrack ona prove what had happened.
It was a simple straightforward family line that I was given long ago that got me into this .... but I've found that digging around in odd corners is totally fascinating, and done so ever since!