Family rumours have they turned out to be true?

[nanny jan]

My grandpa always said that his father was from a wealthy, Russian Jewish family but as he never married gtgrandma and is hiding on 1901 census.........who knows!  Counting the days until I can look for him in 1911.


Nanny Jan

[indiapaleale]

My cousin insists that our Grandpa died in 1925 when he fell off his bike and a handlebar punctured his lung.....gruesome!

I have Grandpa's death cert and he died of pneumonia......

I suppose it may have been caused when he fell off his bike and punctured his lung!

[PrueM]

I've got loads! 

Best one was from my Nana, who got it from her mum.  great-gran's parents were well-to-do, her two grandfathers owned diamond mines in the Transvaal and railways in the USA, and tea plantations in Ceylon.  Daughter of diamond miner went to finishing school in Switzerland, father died while she was there, she came home to find evil stepmother had diddled her out of everything she was supposed to inherit.  Penniless and destitute she turned to the son of the tea merchant who married her and they started a school together.

Actually....great-gran's mum was the illegitimate daughter of a woman who later married the so-called "diamond miner" (obviously Nana and great-gran didn't know about the illegitimacy) - he was actually a warehouse man.   great-gran's dad was the no-hoper son of a teacher.  Together, great-gran's parents had 9 children, with her mum dying with the 9th child when great-gran was 17 years old.   Children went to orphanages and relatives.

I think great-gran made up the stories - either consciously or not - to ease the pain of memories of a very hard life growing up. 

As nana got older and older, the stories became more and more elaborate every time they were retold!  When I first found out that the Tea Merchant was actually a Teacher, I told Nana, but she wouldn't believe it, so I chose not to tell her any further discoveries!    Let her have her happy fantasies till the day she passed away 

Prue

[stockman fred]

[Indiapaleale wrote:My cousin insists that our Grandpa died in 1925 when he fell off his bike and a handlebar punctured his lung.....gruesome!

My great Grandad died in a  bicycle- related tragedy too- he was walking home from his shop in 1935 when he was struck from behind by a hit-and-run errand boy on a bike. He died a few days later from an internal injury. Unlikely but true, and it was only a few hundred yards from where I am now.

[Lydart]

Dee ... I probably ought to know, but I don't ... who is/was Lord Archibald Fenner Brockway ?

[yn9man]

I have a couple of myths which I am still trying to prove or disprove.

The body of a maternal g grandfather was found floating in a river. My grandmother always said that he had been beaten and robbed and his body thrown in the river. What I have found out is he really liked alcohol and his occupation at the time of death was as a chef on a lake freighter. I think he probably fell overboard but as yet it remains unproven.

Per family writings and diaries a paternal ggg grandfather was supposedly a boatswain on the HMS Victory and was killed with Admiral Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar. I have since found that he didn't even serve on the HMS Victory and I still haven't found him listed as killed in action during the Battle of Trafalgar.

yn9man     

[julie64]

Following on from yn9man, my grandmother was always told that her great grandfather John Nelson (born circa 1815) was distantly related to Admiral Nelson.  I have to admit, I have not tried to prove or disprove this, as I expect all Nelsons at the time imagined a family connection!  My John Nelson has proved notoriously difficult to trace back any further though, so who knows?!

In the same family line - grandmother's sister married into the Courtold (not sure about spelling) nylon family, and lived in South Africa from the 1930s - not too exciting, but then again, the furthest any of my other ancestors got was the Isle of Man!!

Julie

[KarenM]

I used to always think I could be related to Lord Stanley, being Canadian and the most treasured trophy I was happy with my last name, but when I got older and realized my name really wasn't Stanley and I don't come from any Stanley's.  Seems my gr-grandfather wanted a more WASP sounding name when he came to Canada 

I do though, still try to pull the wool over people's eyes with being related to Lord Stanley 

I did have my picture taken with the Stanley Cup 

Karen

[aghadowey]

My grandfather's grandfather's father was a sea captain and I was told he drowned at sea. Turns out he did drown- in the well out back the house!
Another story was that my great-uncle (by marriage) harry was related to Richard Nixon, U.S. President. Both families were Quakers and lived in Whittier, California. Sounded reasonable- although the connection wasn't mentioned again after Watergate. A few years ago I was able to trace uncle harry's family and there was no Nixon connection but just recently came across more details and it's possible, but not proven, that uncle harry's sister married a connection of Nixon family. May be where that story started.