What is the biggest mystery in your tree?

[MalGordon]

My biggest mystery at the moment is definitely my G G Grandfather. I have traced back as far as his marriage (with the register records) and his death (a copy of the death register entry). However before that it would seem that he was found at the bottom of the garden in the cabbage patch. I have census entries from 1841 that show him being born in Midlothian, Scotland and was aged 50 ( so birth year about 1791. Lo and behold in the 1851 census he has aged 15 years and was now born in Inverary, Argyllshire about 1786.

On the death register entry from 1858 he is shown as being 76 when he died. This now makes the birth year about 1782.

I have been told that ageswere rounded down or up for the 1841 census, but I am sure this was only done to frustrate us descendants trying to make sense of the maze that has been created.

My father who died this year, aged 94 was never sure of where his grandfather had been born, other than he came from the Edinburgh area. One cousin I spoke with thought the family originated in Germany and another that he had been born in the Eastern border area. It is a pity that I never started this quest many years ago when the elder relatives had been alive. But then I guess that that is a common failing. Never the less I will keep searching and maybe one day that elusive piece will pop up and open the way back.

[luas]

I believe inaccurate ages were put in census returns for all sorts of reasons, including people wishing to be thought younger than they actually were.  A relative of mine, who lived in a small village, clearly transgressed some sort of norm by marrying one of his servants who was very much younger (decades) than he was.  They moved to a nearby town, where they were less well-known.  In the next census, she has had another ten years added to her age so that the enormous age gap between them appears less glaring.  One can only assume their marriage caused a lot of gossip, which is probably why they moved.

[NadT]

We have two unanswered mysteries, both on my hubby's side.
Firstly his mother's grandfather Robert Service Baxter emigrated to Canada about 1902 with his wife Louisa and children Elizabeth Grace and Robert.  I found them on the 1911 Canadian census in Watrous Saskatchewan.  Louisa and the children came back in 1912-13 (not sure exactly which year - can't find them on passneger lists for going out or coming back) without her husband, telling people that he was selling up the farm and business in Canada before coming home.  He never did!  Apparently the children were told he died on the way home as his ship was sunk (mention of the Lusitania has been made but there is no reference to him on anything I've found to do with that sinking).  The odd thing was that apparently he was seen after the war apparently back in teh Uk (stories differ as to whether it was Shrewsbury, where Louisa and the children went, or London).  Anyway, can't find any record of him on death records for the UK, and someone had a peek at Canadian records for us and couldn't find him there either.  We are also told that Louisa told her grandchildren in later life that she had a big secret that she'd never told anyone - needless to say, she didn't expand any further!!

The second mystery is my hubby's great grandmother, Ellen Thomas nee Griffiths.  Everyone (including her own children) was told that she died shortly after childbirth in 1902.  When doing my research I discovered from the will of her husband Edward who died in 1906 that she was alive, but classified a lunatic and unable to look after her children.  I have tried the obvious 'lunatic Asylum' in Shrewsbury that she would have been in, and whilst they can tell me there were a copule of people of that name in there at that time, they have no records of why they were in there or what happened to them.  Her husband worked in Hong Kong for 3 years between 1902/3-6 and we don't know where the children were during that time.  I guess I'll have to wait for the 1911 census and see what turns up on that to progress any further with that one.  Quite sad really as we think that it was probably post natal depression that she had.

Nad

[scouse_mouse_2000uk]

The biggest mystery I have found so far is in relation to my paternal grandmother. At the age of 17 she was sent to the Isle Of Man. We don't know why or for how long. My aunt said my grandmother didn't go into it. My aunt and I have put two and two together and came up with a pregnancy. I have been in touch with the Isle Of Man social serveices today and gave them what information I had. Hopefully soon we will find out if an adoption took place. If there is no pregnancy, then the mystery will remain. Lynn

[tracyjgiles]

i have 2 mysteries Where did Gertrude Mace (todenham) go after she gave birth to my grandma in 4 nov 1904, she just vanished leaving evelyn vera Mace to be brought up by her grandparents.

and my second is John Nolan (1835) who came to england from Ireland, having not stated where in Ireland.................it is impossible to follow the tree back any further.

Tracy

[tinav40]

Hi all
Don't get me started.... my family can give Agatha Christie a run for her money.
I would like to find out why someone can be on the ships passenger lists coming home to England but there is no record of them leaving. That on has bugged me for ages.
How can someone also disappear of the face of the earth?
Happy mystery solving. 

[Pilgarlic]

Hi again Pilgarlic,

Just found a Sopley, north of Christchurch ... and a Shripney just over the West Sussex border, close to Bognor Regis.  Can't remember what the local accent is like there but would have thought Sopley the most likely one to give the possibility of the two notations that you have.

Have you already investigated that?

Hello DudleyWinchurch

Thanks for trying to help me on my GGG Grandad John Edey from Shropley and Tapley.

I reckoned Sopley was the right place as well. Unfortunately my contact searched for baptisms at Sopley and did not find a baptism for John Edey circa 1783. I am thinking he may of been baptised in nearby Christchurch now. I still reckon Sopley was the place that was meant in the censuses though.

Here is a link to a previous thread i started on John Edey.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,281574.0.html

Pilgarlic

[LizzieW]

I would like to find out why someone can be on the ships passenger lists coming home to England but there is no record of them leaving.

I've got this with brothers of my g.grandmother.  One emigrated to USA but there is no record of him on passenger lists, but he is on US census and there is a marriage for him in the US.  His younger brother also emigrated a few years later, he is on passenger lists.  Then for some reason, they both returned to England and are shown on the passenger lists but they didn't stay as they are back on the US census in 1901.

I think the reason the first brother is not on any passenger lists, is that he sailed for the US before the date of passenger lists which are accessible on the internet.

Lizzie

[Bill749]

The biggest mystery in my family tree at the moment is - WHY did a cabinet maker should uproot his entire family from Dover and emigrate to the USA in 1877 and take work as a paper-hanger, before trecking across country to Salt Lake City.

Bill