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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: mulberry-rose on Friday 15 August 25 11:02 BST (UK)
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I was asking a family member what she remembered about her grandfather when she was little. I couldn’t find a matching death no matter what. Apparently “he was tall, a very quiet man.”
I don’t know who she was remembering, because turns out he died five years before she was born! ;D So now I always err on the side of caution with family stories.
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Oh yeah.
I discovered my grandfather had an elder brother, I asked relatives about him. "Oh, that will be the pilot killed in the war." replied an aunt. Oh no he wasn't! He died the day before his 28th birthday in a mining accident. It took me several years to find him. I eventually found the pilot, killed in flying accident in 1947, several years later. There were 2 other flying relatives killed in WW2, all three were nephews of my grandmother.
So I take family recollections with a large pinch of salt.
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My Wife has a family tale about her Great Grandfather coming to England from Roscommon in Ireland together with his two female children.
Wrong, the 1881 Census is the only one there is that has them all together and the place of birth for each of them, Manchester. We obtained the Birth Certificates of the two girls, one of which would be my Wife’s Grandmother and yes both born in England.
My Wife’s DNA shows very little Irish DNA, and DNA matches link to a MRCA beyond her GG GF and yes they too were born in Manchester.
He GG GF married a widow whose husband was Irish and she had a child by her Irish Husband that her GG GF raised.
So both documents and DNA prove no Irish connection, yet my Wife’s Sister cannot accept it as true because that is what Granny said.
All we can put it down too is that they lived in predominately Irish Slums in one of the notorious Courts at the bottom of Deansgate and being surrounded by neighbours of Irish origin could have led to the family story.
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My nan spoke of her 1895 Oxford born mother being of Irish blood. None found so far, all born in Oxford or surrounding areas, and one "not corn in county" in 1841 but died in 1849, 2 years before the 1851 census. He may have originated from London, as a witness to his 1819 Oxford marriage was a man who worked in a similar trade who was from London originally, and had an Irish surname - Carney. They were likely just friends who worked in the same metal making trade, but may have moved to Oxford together, maybe for work preparing cutlery for the unis and colleges.
However my nan's maternal grandfather in Oxford was buried in 1927 in Rose Hill Cemetery, Oxford, in a shared grave with an unrelated woman Ann Baugh, who was originally from Wicklow in Ireland.
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My late mother in law once told OH that his paternal great grandfather had married his dead wife's sister. (although it wasn't her side of the family we assumed OH's father had told her before he passed away) We tried for ages to connect the two ladies, but they were completely unrelated. However, some time later when we researched the wider family we found that two of that great grandfather's sisters had married the same man (consecutively not concurrently).
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When I started researching my family history many moons ago a distant cousin told me her Uncle had been awarded the Victoria Cross. It turned out to be the Military Medal !
Always a little grain of truth there somewhere.
Welly x
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A little grain of truth in a few stories. I was told a tale nearly 50 years ago by my aunt when I was just starting family history research. The story was that some relatives had become mormons and had visited before leaving for America. I made a couple of assumptions; the first being that this was something she had experienced, she was born in 1904; the second was that these relatives were related to her father's ( my maternal grandfather) family. I was wrong on both counts. I think the story was told to her by her maternal grandfather (1852-1927). The people who became mormons were his father's uncle and his family and they sailed for America in 1860. My great grandfather would have been about 8 years of age then and must have told his grand-daughter (my aunt) about this.
I have a few other tales told to me by various relatives but have no evidence to prove or disprove what was said. I am very doubtful about some of them.
Please excuse me if I have posted about this before.
Ray
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Not quite the same, but my parents and grandparents sometimes spoke about a black sheep in the family. They never mentioned his/her name, as they considered that I was too young to know about it. When I got interested in family history I racked my brains to think who it might be and found that my grandfather's father had served in the police for a few years and was dismissed "for stealing strawberries". This titbit was supplied by the Met, to whom I had innocently written asking for his police service record! Could this be the black sheep? I found a couple of others who in the 19th century misbehaved a little, a few illegitimate children, but nothing else, so it remains a mystery.
My mother's parents and grandparents were strict teetotallers and the reason for this, as told by my mother, was that a relative was quite a drinker and had been arrested on charges of being drunk and disorderly, had fallen down the stairs at the police station and had died from the blow he received. Many years later I encountered a closer relative of his who confirmed at least that her (and my) relative had indeed been a very heavy drinker, but that his death certificate had not given this as his cause of death, mentioning rather something less specific. My mother was a a teetotaller, too, though we used to tease her that she was rather fond of sherry trifle! "I've signed the pledge!" she would say, and sure enough she had a signed certificate from the Blue Ribbon movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ribbon_badge. The family were Baptists, and at communion services the deacons would bring round trays of tiny individual glasses of Ribena instead of the shared cup of wine enjoyed by the C of E congregations.
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My father, a New Zealander, told me he had Scottish ancestry, which I suppose was quite possible, and mentioned MacGregor. Many years later, when I did some research, I found them - in the coastal area between Edinburgh and Berwick, so not your wild highlanders!
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When I started my family history, my paternal grandmother told me that we had "French Blood".
I finally, after some years found that my Great-Great Grandfather was born in Jersey, C.I.
The family were Bible Christians from North Devon.
Births, Marriages and Deaths up to 1840; West Putford.
My Great-Great-Grandfather born 1842, Jersey.
Family found on 1841 census in Jersey.
2 more births and a death in Jersey, to 1846.
Then 2 births and 1 death in Bath, Somerset.
Family in Somerset in 1851, 1861 and 1871.
So, a grain of truth! Jersaise (kind of Norman-French) was widely spoken in Jersey at the time.
Family in Jersey 1841-1846 - 5years only. :D
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There are usually grains of truth in family stories. My mother collected the rememberances of "the maiden aunts" in the late 1940s 50s and wrote up a document. It is largely a collection of (untruthful) social pretensions and inaccuracies but contains enough factual detail to be of some assistance in gettting to the truth. Such histories also omit the juicy and interesting bits like relatives who ended up in an asylum, runaway brides etc.
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My aunt swore that her ancestry was Scottish - even related to Robert the Bruce! She convinced other relatives that was so. My mother - her sister - felt that may not have been correct, but had no evidence either way.
It didn't take too long once, decades after this family tale, that I found out when I started researching family history, before I discovered that both their parents were born in Lancashire, the paternal line from one part of Ireland, the maternal line from another! Absolutely no Scottish connection at all at least in that generation, though one person who was Scottish born married in, earlier.
Some family members still refuse to believe the facts presented. Ah well.
TY
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My Grandfather had Irish ancestry according to my Grandmother. In reality his father's family all lived on Portland all the back to the C16th whilst his mother's side were Devon/Cornish again back to the C16th.
I have no idea why she thought there was Irish blood!
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I remember when I was a teenager hearing my aunt tell my father that they were part French and part German. I was intrigued - even then interested in family history. Turns out I have found nothing but English folk and one Irish couple who arrived in Manchester around 1795 and the DNA agrees. Auntie might have been thinking about her step-grandmother whose maiden name was Monchier, but of course was not related by blood. No mention of any Irish ancestors. Auntie made up for this by marrying a man of mostly French Canadian background.
On my mother’s Sussex side her grandfather told her that his grandfather had fought at Waterloo although he would have only been about 16 at the time. His military records showed he joined the army a few years after Waterloo, and stayed in for twenty years. So, a grain of truth. His military records added a lot to my information on him. He returned to England at the age of 39, married his first cousin, fathered 7 children, and died after a night at the pub - walked home, under the influence, and tripped over an exposed tree root, hit his head, and died. The judge at the inquest chastised his friend for letting him walk home alone in that condition.
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I have a document that my Great-Grandfather drew up around 1900 of his Family tree
He annotated it with snippets about some individuals, some of which have a grain of truth to them:
William -- unmarried, worked for Lord Fitzwilliam in Ireland. Not true for this particular individual as he was a married farmer, but it was true for another William a couple of generations earlier
John -- ran a pub and known as "Jones the Marsh" Not true for this individual as the pub wasn't built until after his death -- but his son did run the pub and is "Jones the Marsh" on his gravestone.
The only snippet I cannot corroborate in some way or other is James -- "last of the wain wrights and father of 13 children"
I cannot find a James
I cannot find anyone who built wains or any similar farm vehicles
I cannot find anyone who had 13 children
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There is a tendency to "bump up" status, often. A friend was deflated when research guided her to re-assess the "Lady of the manor" to being actually a ladies maid up at the Manor! Not quite the same....
TY
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I did some research for a Canadian lady, who insisted her family came from the Isle of Man.
True, her relatives did live on IOM.
But they came from Undercliffe, Bradford, Yorkshire!