Family rumours have they turned out to be true?

[ozlady]

My Paternal 3xG grandmother was a  Romany. No she wasn't, she was an ag lab in Wellington, Herefordshire.

[Jean McGurn]

My family always said that we were related to the late Mr Justice Stables. When I started doing the family tree in the late 1980's my late sister even wrote to the family ( his sons are also judges) and was upset because she got no reply.

I have been able to confirm that we are not connected. His family are STABLE (no S) and come from Essex originally.

Plus my name McGURN was nicked out of a Chicago phonebook in the 1930's by one of Al Capones henchmen to become 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn.

Oh well maybe there is someone famous somewhere in the family tree.

Jean   

[deeiluka]

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

Lydart,

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FFEBR

gives a brief description of who he was.

....dee

[Helen D]

My Dad always said there was an ancestor who was on the boat that took Napoleon to exile - which ancestor, which boat or even which exile were not stated!! I have an idea which ancestor it may have been but more work needed there!

There is also one that the ancestors were thrown out of Salisbury because they were protestant! Now that must have been so long ago I don't think I have a chance of finding the truth or otherwise!

Helen

[JayneA]

Hi

I was doing some checking for a friend of mine, her family story was that 4 members of the same family died in a train crash going to France.

It turns out that it was 3 murders and a suicide!

Thank goodness it was over 150yrs ago. Still very sad all the same.

regards

Jayne

[MarieC]

I think that sometimes families put 2 and 2 together and get 6, wanting to have a famous ancestor!

It is rather sad when you disprove stories.  I have mentioned this elsewhere, but my mum always assured me that she was descended from a connection of Captain James Cook.  It isn't so.  She may have reached this conclusion because there are Cooks in our ancestry who were mariners, and her own grandfather was a sea captain.  Who knows?

Other very romantic stories seem to be wrong also.  My French ggggrandmother, born in the West Indies, was said to have eloped from a convent aged 17 to marry her dashing adventurer Irish-Dutch husband.  The age is right, but since she married with her guardian's approval, it doesn't sound like an elopement.  Also, her father was said to be a Marquis and Admiral of the Ancien Regime who fled from the French Revolution to the island of Guadeloupe, W Indies.  He seems to have been middle class, a lawyer.  Not sure where the stories came from...

MarieC

[kerryb]

Firstly we were supposed to have a link to Mad Jack Fuller, Sussex eccentric, MP and entrepeuneur.

Well one of the Harmer's married a Fuller but her son was illegitimate born some 10 years before her marriage!

Kerry

[KathMc]

What a fun topic. I think everyone has these stories. We, like many, have a bunch. My dad always said we were related to HG Wells. I have since found not true. There's also the story that my gg grandfather McCluskey came from Ireland, the sole survivor of the potato famine after being involved in some "rebel event". That one I haven't been able to prove, although the sole survivor thing could be true.

I just received some material in the mail stating that my ggg grandfather Murphy was a sea captain from Ireland and that his oldest went to university at McGill in Montreal and ran newspapers up there. My Carlow Murphy was far from a sea captain (probably never saw the ocean until he emigrated) and his oldest son was a police officer in NYC and died of cirrhosis of the liver. His son however was a rather prominent Catholic priest who did his first training in Montreal. So there is some truth in there.

My uncle loved to make things up about the family -- famous furniture family, war heroes, etc -- but none have proven true.

Many more. Wouldn't this make a fun book project.

Kath

[MarieC]

Wouldn't this make a fun book project.

Kath

You're right, Kath!!  We should do a Rootschat Anthology - Great Family Stories that Ought to be True but Aren't, or some such thing!

MarieC