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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: pinefamily on Wednesday 17 April 19 04:21 BST (UK)
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I know we're all nuts and obsessed with genealogy and related topics, but do you find yourself drawn to one (or more) family lines over others?
I know I have over the years, both in my own and my wife's family trees. Some just seem to grab my attention and draw me to them, which of course means devoting more time to them.
I'm interested in others' thoughts.
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Definitely my paternal grandmother's branch. It has all the best stuff. Some of those ancestors arrived in North America in the 1600s; many were paragons of virtue and others were scurrilous riff-raff who were repeatedly fined and flogged for bad-mouthing the neighbors, thievery, drunkenness, assault and blasphemy. One was arrested for witchcraft but later released. One built the windmill that later became the 'Old Powderhouse' which figured in the so-called Powder Alarm, a violent protest in the run up to the Revolutionary War. Several served in that war, one at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Many years later, her grandfather's [my gg-grandfather] spectacular divorce trial produced headlines like "Raving Maniac! C.H. Ware Loses His Mental Grip!" Her cousin and his wife were victims of one of America's most famous serial murderesses. Another cousin was shipwrecked on a Pacific Island. Granny's uncle was a Wisconsin state senator who up and disappeared in Texas for twenty years but eventually showed up again. Yet another relative was busted for safe cracking. This branch of the tree provides endless amusement.
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Sounds like the making of a miniseries Erato.
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I live on the other side of the pond. My maternal line has captured most of my attention.
I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower in 1620. My Quaker line purchased and then populated Nantuckett Island off the Massachusetts coast where many became sea captains and founded the whaling industry. One captain was in Boston Harbor in 1773 when his load of tea was tossed overboard - the Boston Tea Party. Then there were those who fought in the Revolutionary War as patriots and a small group who remained loyal to the Crown. There were early settlers who opened up the Ohio territory and who fought in the American Civil War. My great-grandfather was one of six brothers who were in the Northern Army and was only one of two siblings who came out of that war unscathed.
I only wish I could discover more of my paternal line which did not immigrate to the USA until the 1850s / 1860s, but who became prominent in Chicago. But try to find a Jones in Wiltshire...
:)
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While war is a horror of human invention, it is good to be able to tie our ancestors into historical events.
So onevof your ancestors was the captain of a ship where the actual incident took place? Amazing!
My knowledge of the event is minimal; was there only one ship involved or several?
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It all makes my family sound utterly boring! One distant branch went to America in 1837, which provided me with some interest, following them from New York to Minnesota and Dakota, when those places were being opened up. All the sons fought in the Civil War, got injured, but survived. A few of the English men left the villages to join the navy, Royal or Merchant, but that is about it.
I have tended to concentrate on the Pay line, which, apart from being my main interest, has readily available BMD records, (even in the days when I had to read them in the Archives!)
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Lots, for all different reasons. One line had a significant number of members serving in India and British army in general, they are fairly well documented giving me more sources to look at. These include letters between my 5x grt grandfather and his brother between 1790s and 1830s that survive until today and include stories of meeting "that little chap Napoleon", being on the run from Napoleon's troops alongside domestic things such as "dear brother I have mislaid my baptism certificate would you perhaps have a word with the minister on Sunday".
Another Great great grandfather was very interested in Early photography, a love tht he passed onto his children and grandchildren. This means that for this line I hav lots of photographs compared to other lines. I really want to know who they are, not just ther names but what they were like personality wise.
Another couple whose present day descendents are very diverse in terms of where they live (not just UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ) and they lives they have. I find them fascinating
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Yes I tend to be more biased to ancestors who lead colourful lives such as ones who were soldiers, landowners, yeomen, vicars and a couple of my ancestors were doctors and even owned manors in the 1500s and 1600s, and those manors are now tourist attractions and my ancestors are buried in tombs in the manor house. Borde Hill in Cuckfield, Sussex is my ancestors old manor. Sir Stephen Borde, a man who was knighted in 1603 in Whitehall.
My 3xgreat grandfather Thomas Musgrave was a widower in Dec 1885. He lived in Tanfield/Lintzford in Co Durham. He had a daughter in America. All but one of his children had left home by then. So, he decided to live with his married daughter in America. He emigrated there in Sep 1886 aged 58. I found him on the 1900 US census aged 72 living with his daughter and grandchildren. I descend from one of his sons who remained in England.
Ironically, Thomas' grandfather was in the army in America and Canada from 1775 to 1784.
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I've found two different branches, on my Maternal and Paternal sides, who became Mormons and emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah.
This probably explains why I have so many DNA Matches from the USA and Canada on Ancestry. (Polygamy must have helped bump up the numbers:-)
Romilly ;D
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The Boston Tea Party involved three ships. The Beaver was captained by Hezekiah Coffin; Coffin is one of my families (I think it was spelled something like Coffyn in Britain).
My family is pretty common with mostly farmers, a few clergy, and just ordinary people. They did not start great events but just were there when they happened. Still, all this brings history alive for me.
:)
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There has to be a reason to get your attention grabbed.
In my case it can be:
.. an interesting place - somewhere far away, somewhere I have visited, or somewhere I know very well and can follow the references.
.. an unusual name (one of mine turned into a one-name study), or one I have encountered before (I followed two peoples with the same surname encountered in widely different parts of my tree, back to the same small village in Cheshire.
.. an unusual occupation.
.. a criminal - there are more records about them!
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uk4753, does your Coffin family originate in Devon? One branch there married into the Pyne/Pine family and ended up Pine-Coffin, mainly in Portledge and surrounding areas.
Andrewalston, you are probably right; there are most likely reasons that some lines grab our interests, even if they are not immediately obvious.
One of mine is a rather unusual surname, with a highly probable single origin. Mostly yeoman farmers, with one branch of clergy and MP's.
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I could go sideways and up on my tree, but I'm not interested in Bill, he's not in my blood.
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My Dad's side of the family is still holding my attention as I still haven't been able to find my Great x 2 Grandmother Elizabeth Conroy. She was last 'seen' in Durham at the home of her daughter Mary Watson and husband William Watson and family in 1881. Thereafter, she disappears - no burial.
Mary Watson nee Conroy ends up in North Shields as a widow and died there.
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The Boston Tea Party involved three ships. The Beaver was captained by Hezekiah Coffin; Coffin is one of my families (I think it was spelled something like Coffyn in Britain).
My family is pretty common with mostly farmers, a few clergy, and just ordinary people. They did not start great events but just were there when they happened. Still, all this brings history alive for me.
:)
How fantastic!!
Only THREE ships involved, and your ancestral line was there!!
:o
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My paternal granmother's line has a lot of the characters I learned about in history at school, not that I paid attention, it wasn't my favourite subject. When I saw the same surnames cropping up on my hubby's side as well I delved into it and found one of grandma's ancestors was a Great Trek leader and all these surnames were part of his party that left the Cape and trekked into other parts of the country. I have found we're related, albeit distantly to quite a few of the history making Trek Leaders either directly or through marriage.
And yes, I found that hubby and I are distant cousins!!!!! ::) ;D
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Pinefamily. I have traced my Coffins back to Brixton, Devon which is near Portledge, I think. The Portledge Coffins can trace their lineage back to about 1465 at least with rumors that they can go back to William the Conqueror. But, of course, that is unproven.
Mowsehouse. The three ships had taken a load of whale oil to England to sell. They were then hired by the British East India Company to take a load of tea back to Boston. Good timing.
:)
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The height of my obsession will probably remain the three years (2012-14) I chased the people in my paternal line. This is the preface to a book I wrote about them:
"My first foray into family history was to try to find out how our ancestors came to Australia. The result was a 2600 word story called ‘Cheap Imports’. It set out the ‘when’, ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of their getting here. It is summarised on the chart overleaf.
"There were 22 ‘cheap imports’. The first 14 were convicts or convict family. The next 7 were commoners, arriving as assisted passengers. The last, also on an assisted passage, was the descendant of a clan that had been outlawed for 2 centuries, the outlawry finally ending only at the time when our convict ancestors were starting to commit their petty crimes.
"I thought I could next write a book with 22 chapters—one for each ‘import’, fleshing out those basic details.
However, those ‘outlaws’ got in the way, stealing a whole book for themselves and making me write it first. (Books 1 and 2 will follow, one day.)
"You see... when I was a very small boy my father said to me, 'We come from Rob Roy, you know.' Dad showed me his copy of The Clans and Tartans of Scotland, and we all watched the Disney movie.
"For over half a century I’ve lived with a quiet pride in that claimed heritage. Occasionally I would hear that some member of our extended family in Australia was going to 'have a go at doing the family tree', or 'trace back to Rob Roy', or simply 'to prove it'.
"Approaching retirement, an always-warm desire in me caught fire. This book is my attempt."
Four years later I've barely started those other two books. :-\
Peter
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My Suffolk ancestors grab my attention, especially the Fairweather line who in the early 1500s lived in Hopton On Sea near Great Yarmouth. They may have originated in Scotland and had trade links with East Anglia. Fairweather is a common name in Scotland and NE England.
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Both my Swedish ancestors and my wife's Huguenot ancestors have also grabbed my interest as welll. I assume it is the difference factor.
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Love all your stories about tracing your ancestors and what you have found out about them.
It makes my lot seem dull by comparison.
My maternal line were from Fife, Scotland and most of them stayed there all their lives. They were fishermen and weavers. That is discounting my maternal grandfather who was lost at sea in WW1 before my mum was born. Don't even have a name for him.
My paternal line were from various parts of Ireland who came to Dundee in the mid 1800's and worked in the Jute Mills.
Sometimes I take a branch of my family and find out what their lives and social conditions were like at that point in history and try to imagine what it would have been like to have lived with them. On one census I have mum, dad, eight children, granny, grandad and an orphaned nephew all living in a tenement house which consisted of two rooms and an outside toilet shared with numerous other families.
Do you know what it doesn't really matter to me that they were ordinary folk. I am just so pleased and proud to have them as my ancestors.
Dorrie
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Love all your stories about tracing your ancestors and what you have found out about them.
It makes my lot seem dull by comparison.
My maternal line were from Fife, Scotland and most of them stayed there all their lives. They were fishermen and weavers. That is discounting my maternal grandfather who was lost at sea in WW1 before my mum was born. Don't even have a name for him.
My paternal line were from various parts of Ireland who came to Dundee in the mid 1800's and worked in the Jute Mills.
Sometimes I take a branch of my family and find out what their lives and social conditions were like at that point in history and try to imagine what it would have been like to have lived with them. On one census I have mum, dad, eight children, granny, grandad and an orphaned nephew all living in a tenement house which consisted of two rooms and an outside toilet shared with numerous other families.
Do you know what it doesn't really matter to me that they were ordinary folk. I am just so pleased and proud to have them as my ancestors.
Dorrie
I've analysed conditions too. I often think it's amazing any of them survived long enough to have the next generation.
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Dorrie,
Most of mine are/were "ordinary" folk too: farmers, tradesmen, ag labs too. But it doesn't lessen their interest to me.
That's why I started this thread, to ask why people are drawn more to one line over another.
Sometimes it might be the social history surrounding their lives as you have suggested.
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Interesting reading others FH - mine seem quite a boring lot in comparison! My maternal side the Harris/Harriss- oh yes someone somewhere along the line decided it was a good idea to add the extra 's' to make them sound more what imnot sure!
All the men were boiler makers even the ones who emigrated to Australia and appear to have moved around with the railways.... one side had a child born in each of the main railway towns.
My greatest interest has been researching sideways though... my paternal grandfather came from Switzerland and his family have been great to research in Uk as we're all related!
Some were associated with the sculptor Eric Gill in Sussex, another wrote papers on flora and forna on the Scottish islands and worked for the Natural History museum.
The gt uncle who caught my eye was married into the Cribb family, who were definitely an interesting lot... I digress.
Two Cribb brothers emigrated to Australia in the early 1800's, one was a baker and the other a chandler they ended up in Brisbane had businesses there and were politicians. One of the brothers was greatly involved with creating Queensland as a separate state from NSW.
All this peaked my interest as my son lives in Brisbane... I found cousins there too and have met and collaborated with them and between us we have brought others together it's been great fun!
So sometimes making sideways moves can pay dividends!
Caroline
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I don’t follow a line as such, but will fixate on one person who takes my interest or a family.
At the moment I am chasing my biological grandfather, I have worked out who are my great grandparents are and am down to five men. I’ll find him eventually. Before him it was my cousins WW1 experience.
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My London ancestors grab me as does my Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Kent, Durham, Oxfordshire, Dorset, Huguenot and Scottish ancestry. I do not associate as much with my Yorkshire, Berkshire or Gloucestershire ancestry and I do not know why.
So in that case the lines in my "biased towards" ancestors grab me.