Family rumours have they turned out to be true?

[KathMc]

Theres not too many of these rumours in my family, although my great aunt thinks that her grandfather James Clitheroe Scowcroft was Scottish, even though his mother was from Suffolk and his father was half Irish and half Lancashire, and he was born in Preston.


Stephen

I am not even allowed to talk about my English background to my uncle. In his eyes, we are all Irish, although the English background is so very interesting: architects, involvment in Coventry silk weaver riots, and Shakespeare's lawyer.

Kath

[Pegasuss]

I feel Left Out!

The Only 'Tale' I have is that I am a Decendant (9th Generation) of John & James HARDMAN of Allerton Hall!

Their story was the Inpiration for 'Great Expectations'!

I (only!) have to go back another 2-3 generations in My research to find the Facts!

P.S.

I think that I will find a connection!

[KathMc]

Pegasuss,

Let us know when you do. The tales are fun, but it great to find the truth in them.

Kath

[liverpool annie]

I've been able to turn up that she provided herbal remedies for people and I think that's where the witch thing came into play. Providing women for sailors, makes for an interesting story, but I am not sure I can prove that.

There's also the Jewish gr grandmother who fell in love with the Polish aristocrat. He supposedly gave her jewels that she buried under a tree somewhere in Poland, because she couldn't let her father see them. Because they knew the family wouldn't understand, she ended up marrying a nice Jewish boy and they emigrated first to Belgium and then America.

And my father-in-law swears they were related to Al Schacht, the clown prince of baseball. If you were to see a picture of my father-in-law, his father, and Al, you would agree there was a relationship, but I am having a hard time finding that one.

Kath

Wonder if there is anything in here to give you a clue Kath !! 

MY OWN PARTICULAR SCREWBALL: AN INFORMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY. " Schacht, Al". VG+, Doubleday, 1955. First Edition, Hardcover, 5.75 X 8.5, NDJ. 254 Pages.  Al Schacht was the "Clown Prince of Baseball".

http://members.aol.com/jewxword/12000.html

[wotty]

My granddad kept a silver dollar in his sideboard. He said it was payment from Al Capone for transporting alcohol from Canada to the USA.

He also said that there was a family of leprechauns living in his kitchen cupboard but that I'd have to look a lot faster if I wanted to see them. 

Interestingly, I have recently found a person of the right name and age on a ship to Quebec at the right time - and his father and two of his brothers were crossing the border from Canada to Detroit with suspicious regularity at the same time......

Wonder what happened to those leprechauns?

Wotty.

[KathMc]

Annie,

We have that book and I have poured over it. There are some of the same first names in the family, which could be a clue. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the family, and I will have to try again when I get back to this side. The problem is that my husband's surname was changed and my husband seems to remember it had nothing to do with Stahl (like Stahlberg, Stahlstein, etc). No one seems to know what it was though. His gr grandfather was in England for a few years as Harris Stahl, and he had siblings over here I believe, who used the same name. Maybe it was originally Schacht. My father-in-law's sister thinks Al and her father were maybe second cousins or something. My FIL remembered Al coming to the house one day in Brooklyn to visit his dad and what a thrill that was. I will have to scan in pictures and show the resemblance. It is uncanny. I would love to find the connection.

Kath

[KathMc]

Wotty,

Funny, we always had a leperchaun living in our attic: Mr. Doolittle. He didn't like it when we got noisy. That's what my mom used to (try) to keep us quiet. And that's the story her grandmother told her. I wonder how many generations back that went?

I grew up on the Canadian border and there are some great stories of the bootleggers crossing the St. Lawrence River and how they knew when it was safe to come.

Kath

[Q.]

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories.

My fathers mother was quite a snob.  She told us that her father William Boa, was a famous lawyer in Edinburgh.  I wrote the University to enquire and discovered that while he was indeed a student, he never finished his education.  So much for that! (I think he was a law clerk instead)

She also told my father that his second cousin was Gary Cooper, the actor.  From Census returns I have learned that Gary's mother lived on the street over from my great grandmother, but no ties yet uncovered.  Maybe it was "second street" and not "second cousin"  Another great story though.

From my mothers side I grew up believing we were related to John and Pricilla Alden of Mayflower fame.  So far it looks like "my" Aldens were Agricultural Labourers instead.

And one last one...

I heard that my mothers "Aldens" were police constables in Yorkshire.  This turns out to be true.  And my great grandfather Alden was a member of the North West Mounted Police, known now as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  At least that story was true.

TQB 

[Cybermouse]

For years my father insisted that my grandfather was on the first boat to land on Gallipoli and managed to survive. This piqued my interest when I first started doing my family research years ago and I decided to find out if it was true. Years later I have my Grandfathers testation papers and I can firmly prove he was not on the first boat to land on Gallipoli. His battalion (20th Battalion, 5th Brigade, AIF)  in fact did not land on Gallipoli until late August 1915. However, further research proved that his battalion was the very last to be evacuated from Russell's Nek in December 1915 so I now wonder if he was in fact on the last boat to leave Gallopoli? Sometimes disproving a family myth leads to an equally interesting truth!