Family rumours have they turned out to be true?

[AussieDale]

Hi All,

Do you get any points for starting rumours ?

When Lady  Diana and Prince Charles got engaged, I used to say she was my relative.  (Tongue firmly in cheek) Don't think anyone believed me,  but we do have Spencers.  Still trying to prove the connection, and my husband's uncle was Prince Phillip's chauffeur. and he remembers going to the Mews to visit him.  Does anyone know how I could get hold of his service records at Buck Palace?.
My husband also lived next door to Reggie Dwight (before he was Elton John).  He used to take the hat around for him at the local pub.  Also my husband's mother is related to the last witch to be hung.  (have not started on that lot yet).

My mother used to call me Madam when I was young!!!!!  Does that count?

We have a ship wreck, but was always told it was the Equetta which sank off the coast of Nth Queensland.  When I looked it up in 1987, there were no matching suvivors.  Instead its the Taroba which sank in the Red Sea, 1890.

Still looking for my trophy convict, and for the Aussies distantly related to John Farhnam. 

Mostly ag labourers but found a"Higgler" today.

 Any ideas what a Higgler does?

Cheers for now Dale

[CarolBurns]

Hi Dale

Try this link

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-hig2.htm

It is a pedlar or itinerant dealer

Carol

[AussieDale]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for the reply and site.  Can't thank all you lovely people out there enough.  Have finally found my "passion" in life and genealogy is it.  Besides my family of course.  Cheers Dale

[meles]

Blimey, Dale, you have got an interesting tree! As one who comes from a long, long line of Ag Labs, I am jealous!

meles

[Sooziecats]

My Mum is still convinced that her Father's, Mother's family owned some land in a nearby village - I have done very little research into this side of the family and have no idea how I would find out if this is true or not!

Sue B

What a load of rubbish !!!  We have just been to visit the gravestone that my Mother said was her Grandfathers, yeah right Mum, this bloke died in 1847 and as her father wasn't born until 1910 I think she may be wrong.  Just because the surname was Farmer, Mum assumed that it was her relative! -  I will now only listen to my 92 year old Grandmother as she remembers far more than my 65 year old mother 

But it does go to show you need to check out the names etc given to you as not all is corrext - even when they insist. 

Sue B

[MrsLizzy]

my husband's uncle was Prince Phillip's chauffeur. and he remembers going to the Mews to visit him.  Does anyone know how I could get hold of his service records at Buck Palace?.

Still looking for my trophy convict, and for the Aussies distantly related to John Farhnam. 

Hi Oz - I doubt you could see his service records as I don't think they would be available for many years yet.

I am sure Bill Bryson told his readers in his fabulous book Down Under that it is not tactful to mention the word "convicts" to Aussies as if I remember rightly Bill says they lose all sense of humour!   

[MrsLizzy]

My Mum is still convinced that her Father's, Mother's family owned some land in a nearby village - I have done very little research into this side of the family and have no idea how I would find out if this is true or not!

Sue B

What a load of rubbish !!!  We have just been to visit the gravestone that my Mother said was her Grandfathers, yeah right Mum, this bloke died in 1847 and as her father wasn't born until 1910 I think she may be wrong.  Just because the surname was Farmer, Mum assumed that it was her relative! -  I will now only listen to my 92 year old Grandmother as she remembers far more than my 65 year old mother 

But it does go to show you need to check out the names etc given to you as not all is corrext - even when they insist. 

Sue B

It's amazing the daft mistakes people make on such flimsy evidence.  Lemme tell you a story!  I was about 20 and working in London for the oldest bank in England - C Hoare & Co.  I had mentioned this to my long distance boyfriend who lived in Dorset.  I was puzzled when he stated that he "had seen one of our branches up here in Dorset" and I pointed out to him that the bank had only two branches, both in London.  He insisted I must be wrong because he knew he had seen one of our branches.  Next time I visited, we were on a bus and he pointed out this branch of C Hoare & Co.   Not only did the fascia proclaim that it was "R J Hoare Stonemasons", the premises were covered with gravestones and other memorials.  He was quite incensed when I suggested that this ought to have been enough of a clue that it was not a bank, even if the initials had not been wrong.   Thank God I didn't marry him eh - how thick would our kids have been - especially if they'd inherited his looks AND his brains! 

[MarieC]

I am sure Bill Bryson told his readers in his fabulous book Down Under that it is not tactful to mention the word "convicts" to Aussies as if I remember rightly Bill says they lose all sense of humour!   

Just shows you shouldn't believe everything you read, even if it is Bill Bryson!!!

We Aussies love to find a convict or two in our ancestry.  I am personally quite chuffed that a cousin has found two in the lines she is researching!  There is a First Fleeters society here which is exclusive and sought after - you can only be a member if an ancestor came on the First Fleet, soldier, sailor or convict!

MarieC

[Kezlyn]

Love, love, love Bill Bryson, but yep, it's pretty cool to have a convict in the tree somewhere.

Years ago, it was something to be ashamed of, and it was called "the stain" if you had one in your family. Awful.

Now most people realise that most of the convicts were people who were transported for very minor reasons, and often they stole simply to feed themselves and their families.

I'm very proud to have 4 convict ancestors - 3 were women, 2 were pregnant, and one of those was a 16 year old Romany who arrived in 1792. She married a crew member from the ship that transported her, had another 13 children and established and ran a pub with her son until she died in her eighties. All of them, from pretty nasty beginnings, managed to end up with jobs, homes and families.

I think sometimes the English etc use the term as an insult (usually when we beat them at cricket  ) but in Australia it's pretty cool.

Kez