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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: gmichaelking on Friday 28 April 17 11:13 BST (UK)
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Hi all,
I've been 'doing my Family History' for about a year now and I have learned so much, which got me thinking of the most interesting/surprising discoveries I have made so far...
The most thought-provoking discovery I have made is that both my wife and I are descended from 2nd Spouses at our GG Grandparents stage. If 1st spouses had not died, neither of us would be here. Reminded my of the section from Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' about how unlikely it is that we as individuals are here.
The most interesting discovery is that I am only the 3rd literate generation on my paternal line. Nobody before my Grandfather could read or write (that I know of).
The most surprising discovery, whilst I am from a long line of illiterate Irish farmers & Welsh miners, my wife's ancestry is somewhat more 'refined'. A long line of multi-millionaire merchants, professionals, royalty, and a GG Grand Uncle who has a crater on the far side of the Moon named after him! :o
How about you?
Regards
Graeme
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Great, Great Grandfather shot and killed Great, Great, Great Grandmother in a gun accident. A surprising discovery at the time but I vaguely remember as a boy my Grandfather talking about something like this but no one else in the family remembers the story.
Blue
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:o
Great, Great Grandfather shot and killed Great, Great, Great Grandmother in a gun accident. A surprising discovery at the time but I vaguely remember as a boy my Grandfather talking about something like this but no one else in the family remembers the story.
Blue
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Finding that the person i knew as my grandma's brother was, in fact her son, and wondering if my dad had any idea he had a half brother.
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Finding that the person i knew as my grandma's brother was, in fact her son, and wondering if my dad had any idea he had a half brother.
Family secrets!
The 1911 Census led me to solve a 60 year mystery for my mother "How am I related to Uncle Joe?" She knew he was a relative, but none of her 9 Aunties & Uncles could tell her...big mystery.
Turns out 'Uncle' Joe was really her Grandfather's nephew. Her Grandfather had a sister (born out of wedlock in the 1870s, as he himself was) who nobody talked about. None of the Aunties and Uncles knew they had an Aunt. :(
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It's the coincidences that surprise me. Back in the 1950's my uncle and his family moved from Birmingham to a small village in Worcestershire, it's only in recent times we've discovered a whole branch of the family came from a village 2 or 3 miles away. I moved from London to Bicester back in the '80's; just recently discovered ancestors in a number of the surrounding villages.
Instow is a small holiday village in North Devon, we went there as children, my grandmother and great aunt knew it because my great uncle came from close by. My nephew moved there a few years ago when his work took him to North Devon. What no one realised was that my great grandfather was born within walking distance. And there's more...
Do we make unconscious decisions based on our ancestral make up? ???
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...Do we make unconscious decisions based on our ancestral make up? ???
Hmm. My wife and I called our son Thomas. Turns out fully a quarter of the 80 odd direct male ancestors I've found were called Thomas as well!
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That my mum's grandfather had a short career as a bushranger!
Dawn M
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I've got a number of surprising discoveries that I can't really pick one out of all the shocks I've found. ;D
About 15 years ago my parents started researching their family tree. I was a teenager at the time so didn't take much interest in it. Bring it to the present day and I've started researching it all myself from scratch (prefer doing it all myself as I get more satisfaction from it that way).
My family never knew much about my paternal grandfather's line, he was illegitimate. They didn't have much luck tracing anything there. His father (my g-grandfather) was also an illegitimate birth and I couldn't find his birth record at all nor anything about his death. With thanks to this forum I found out that my g-grandfather was born with a different surname and a few years later his surname was changed at some point. The surname I have is actually wrong as a result. We have his step-father's surname. I should be a 'Small' not a 'McKenzie'. My family were all convinced they were 'McKenzies', wearing the tartan with pride at family occasions. They should really be wearing the 'Murray' tartan, given that 'Small' is a sept of the Murray Clan. ;D
It's really opened up a massive tree now. I'm so thankful to this site for helping me answer a long and frustrating question.
I discovered that my g-grandfather died in WW1 in a Canadian regiment. He emigrated there in 1911. Hence not having much luck in finding anything regarding his death as this was unknown to us before.
Going further back I find that the Smalls I am descended from, hail from Moulin and Kirkmichael in Perthshire, Scotland. My 6x great-grandfather only had one child that I can find from any indexes. I thought this to be strange for the mid 1700s. If his wife had died then I'm sure he would've remarried to have more children. I discover other trees online that state my 6x great-grandfather was heavily involved in the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Trading companies in Canada. Which would explain why he only had one child in Scotland. Apparently he married a Cree woman over there and had numerous children with her, then later abandoned her after he retired and went to England and died there. Whether or not this is the same person as my 6x great-grandfather is yet to be known. But I have a strong suspicion at the moment that he is given the dates, being from Scotland etc. There are many online documents about this man giving his story.
I have also been researching my maternal line. I found out that my 2x maternal great-grandfather shot himself in 1914 at the age of 65. He was found in an outhouse in a cemetery near his home in the town I'm currently living in. There was a very detailed description in the newspaper archives that I'd found. Pretty shocking and unpleasant. There was no record of him being mentally unwell (i.e. no hospital admissions that I can find). He had been visiting his son that night and it was noted in the report that he had seemed fine. It's all very curious. Whether or not his son had said something untoward to him that had caused this will forever be a mystery. This was previously unknown to my family also. I'd imagine that type of thing would've been kept hidden back then.
And finally; I have recently discovered that my 4x great-grandparents on my maternal line are the same two people that are the 5x great-grandparents on my paternal line!
This was a bit of a shock to me as there was a reasonably large area covered for my ancestors i.e. not the same town! This couple had a son called George and through this son it goes down to my father. They also had a daughter called Mary and this then goes down to my mother. I found it all a bit disturbing!
I think that covers everything from my tree. The rest of my tree is average, usual ag labs, domestic servants. Mostly country people. Rarely any are found in an urban place. There are the odd branches that have people emigrating to Canada and the US but nothing unusual there.
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I have found my husband's grandmother was married 5 times not 3 times as she told everyone. First one she was young and it was childless, her husband died in his mid 20s. Second childless killed Sept 1918 WW1. These were not known about by her 2 daughters (both deceased) from 3rd and 4th marriages. 3rd marriage only 2 years long, husband died of TB he's my OH's grandfather. 4th was 20 years and last husband in her late 50s and he outlived her by 2 years.
My gt gt uncle did a vanishing act. He went to South Africa and married a 14 yr old girl. They had 4 daughters, 2 died. He then left wife and children and returned to UK, lived 60 miles from his home town, changed his 1st name and age and lived with a woman for several years having 10 children. He did marry her but I don't know if 1st wife had died. His wife registered his death and put his correct name and age on the cert. She was much younger than him and married again the same year he died.
Have a current who done, it's only a few days old. My DNA has bought up a 2nd cousin. He's French and only has French relatives............... have told him I had 2 grandfathers and several gt uncles in Northern France, where his family come from, in WW1. Trouble is so far on my checking they were all married. :o Hope to find out which branch of the family he's related to but may never get it down to who fathered a child in France.
:)
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Hi all,
The most thought-provoking discovery I have made is that both my wife and I are descended from 2nd Spouses at our GG Grandparents stage. If 1st spouses had not died, neither of us would be here. Reminded my of the section from Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' about how unlikely it is that we as individuals are here.
Regards
Graeme
I wouldn't exist if world war 2 never occurred.
Kind Regards
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I was surprised, and my granny would have been horrified, to find that the side of her family she was most proud of was the one that contained our only known jailbird :o
Her great-grandfather was imprisoned several times and died aged 43 after doing 12 months with hard labour. Cause of death was 'Decline'.
Carol
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This is an old thread, but I recently found my 4x ggm married the son of a man thought to be (the semi-mythical) Lancelot Pattinson or Lanty Panty the Patterdale Cave Man, a man who, after the death of his wife, went to live in a cave where he "brought up some of his family [in this cave], and when any visitor called to see him all was in darkness and full of smoke." Apparently he also "lived to the good old age of 96 years, and in possession of all his faculties"! ;D
I am not his direct descendant as I am descended from the 'illegitimate' son my 4x ggm had before marriage, but she has the same maiden name as 'Lanty''s supposed mother so there is a chance, I suppose...
Unfortunately, it is probably, even certainly, all myth as censuses don't mention the 'cave' and there are other major inconsistencies as said in this article: https://crimesofthecenturies.com/index.php/2021/01/17/lancelot-pattinson-the-patterdale-cave-man/ but it's a great story, anyway ;D
SapereAude
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WELL, a surprise was that i was able to help a person learn the 'most likely father' of his 'bastard ancestor', born in late 1700s to an unwed gal who had a couple of quote'bastard children' and possible her sister did too. it began by this other person whose yDNA matched our Stanton line so well but his oldest ancestor was a Schoonover. and seemed to know that his ancestor man was not a schoonover. well, this person i helped told me the names surrounding the families who lived near each other and attended some Dutch reformed church , and then the same names of their sons were listed on a New Jersey list of men serving during the Revolutionary War times and there was a Stanton there. we figured out the county that young stanton was in and his father was of an age to fit coseying up to this young lady of last name Schoonover. and that Stanton was mostly tracable to the old New London Ct Stanton line that i was in. he was satisfied and i was pleased .; but it took 2 years of fussing around . interesting! so often you cant get anywhere in those circumstances.
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I found a few “surprises”…
My wife’s grandmother was indeed living the life of a travailing show-woman…she married a famous Irish showman and a few years later she committed bigamy.
I was told by relatives that I would never find anything about her as she was a “gypsy”!!
My great grandmother married 4 times.
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Finding ancestors who weren't English, Welsh, Scots, Irish or Manx was interesting. Discovering that my Albridge ancestor was originally Albach and born in Germany. Seeing the family passport from 1853 with my ancestor's name included was a highlight:-
https://grimsbyalbachs.wixsite.com/gaws
Blue
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That one of my Great Grandfathers may not be who all the paperwork says they are.