Family rumours have they turned out to be true?

[Cal241]

CJ
you are right ... Keith has a great sense of humour and Cheshire Cat suits him 

Cal 

[nutkin]

I supposedly have an ancestor who was hung as a horse thief in Yorkshire.  His name was "Ratty" Nixon as he was a rat catcher by trade.  Have yet to find him. Only one rat catcher found so far and he poisoned himself by taking horse medicine for his rheumatism.  Would love to find the truth in this tale!

[wheeldon]

I'm sticking to and following the  family rumours, they haven't let me down so far 

Yeah yeah Keith 'dragged up in Cheshire' .......

I knew you were part of the Cheshire set 

[Josephine]

My mother always wondered if my father's mother was of French descent, based on her maiden name on my father's birth certificate.

Turns out that was not her real maiden name:  it was the surnname of the relatives who raised her and their family was originally from Ireland.

The funny bit is that her real maiden name is French!

Regards,
Josephine

[PillyP]

I was told we had Japanese, Gypsy & Prostitute connections on my father's side.
Japanese is true and possibly the prostitute. I haven't yet found a gypsy connection,
unless  my auntie Elsie, maiden name 'Pike' counts.

Pilly

[stoney]

Not in my family - but a close friend's!

There was a "rumour" of someone being shipwrecked on an island (in the South pacific, I believe) sometime in the late 1800's. Apparently word got home that he had survived and could not get home to his family - he was apparently made "king" of the island by the natives (probably another inducement to stay and leave his wife and children abandoned at home in the UK!)

Just last summer, out of the blue, my friend received some correspondance from this missing relative's "island" decendents, along with copies of photos of the miscreant in his latter years - which bore a close resemblance to existing photos my friends family already had!

So now a "reunion" is being planned.....I shall have to remember to curtsey to my friend, given her "royal" connections!

[Josephine]

stoney,

Wow, what an exciting family reunion that will be for your friend!  Please fill us in on the details when you learn them. 

Regards,
Josephine

[LizzieW]

Hi All

My dad always said that his g grandmother was Spanish (probably true as her name was Da Costa), but he said that he was descended from the Carreras tobacco family and that his descendant was the black sheep of the family and fled to England!  As I haven't so far traced the Da Costa lady, I can't confirm that but I suspect my dad made it up.

The other rumour comes from my mother, she always said that we were related to Emma Hamilton, Nelson's mistress.  I have recently read 2 biographies about her and in both it is stated that she was born Amy Lyon on 26 April 1765, in Ness on the Wirral, Cheshire, which at the time  was a huddle of thirty or so miners' hovels. Her mother was called Mary Kidd and she moved to Ness from Hawarden, a village outside Chester, to look after her newly born nephew.  (Men out numbered women 5 to 1 in Ness!). I do have lots of descendants from a different part of Cheshire, but they were, like lots of others, agricultural labourers/farmers/butchers, but lived a long way from the Wirral.  If there is a connection, I have yet to find it and I am back to 1740 with the largest branch of the family.

Liz

[KPM]

My Dad remembers being told as a child that his family came from Turkey - across the water.  Try as I might, I couldn't find any relatives from Turkey and have managed to get back to the early 1700s.
Several years ago, I moved to a small village and was amazed to find that the particular relatives in question also came from this village some 100 years earlier.
Whilst driving home one evening, I noticed a sign for 'Turkey Farm'.  Turkey Farm certainly was 'across the water'.  My grandparents lived in a village the other side of the river!
Whilst I can't be certain, I think its more likely this was the 'Turkey' my Dad was told about!!