Author Topic: Family Myths  (Read 5059 times)

Offline Jillie42

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Family Myths
« on: Tuesday 11 September 07 12:57 BST (UK) »
How do you go about solving a long standing family myth when no one actually knows the name of the person involved and the story is really vague?

Do you think there is always a kernel of truth behind the myth?

Our myth is that one of our Snow ancestors was a diplomat in Russia during the revolution. He apparently hid a female aristocrat under the floor boards then smuggled her to England where he supposedly married her. it's a great story but I've never found any proof of a Russian wife for any Snows after 1917, not any clue that a Snow was ever a diplomat in pre-revolution Russia.

What about the rest of you? Have your myths ever turned out to have a basis in fact?
Eaton (Woughton on the Green, Doncaster and N. London), Davis(Shinfield and London), Harrington (Ireland and London), Sutcliffe (Todmorden and London), Williams, Hollingsworth (Thaxted), Lane (Rotherhithe), Fuller (Chesterton, Cambs), Dilley (who knows where????)

Offline poppysmum

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 13:09 BST (UK) »
We have a family myth that our family is descended from the Wilsons who owned the town Wilsontown, in Lanarkshire.  Granny even has a story abouyt how we lost it.

I have traced the Wilson line as far back as I can and here is no sign of us coming from that town, never mid owning it.

I think what might have happened is thta a lot of people in the area lost everything when they works went 'bust'  so I think maybe that happened to our family and that's how the story got passed down.

I don't know if stories like that are always wrong, i think there has to be a grain of truth in them somewhere.  you just have to look, see if you can find out if it's true!

caroline
Whytes, Durness; Bulloch, lanarkshire; Wilson, lanarkshire; Wilson, peebleshire; Rickelton, Glasgow; Harris, ayrshire and glasgow ; Steele, ayrshire; Duffy, leith Smith, Leith;  Stewart, ayrshire and Glasgow

Offline WHS1899

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 13:22 BST (UK) »
I was told there was a brother and sister, Sophie and Stuart Henderson who were related to the family. They were Scottish, he was an MP and she was in music hall (according to my Nan) or a ballet dancer (according to an aunt). My 2x great grandparents were Scottish but were Tod and Spence, not Henderson.
 It has taken me a long time but I got there in the end. One of the more distant Tod's married a STEWART, and two of the children were Sophie and James Stewart. James was a scottish MP and was made a Barronet, taking on the name James Henderson Stewart. (this is where the name mix up occured).
Sophie his sister trained as a ballet dancer and was due to go on a tour with Margot Fonteine when she had an accident and had to give up dancing. She then trained as an actress. So my Aunt was right and poor old Nan wrong.
This is one myth that was right, but I have many with only a ting grain of truth!
Beverley
Leics-Sharp/Baker/Underwood
Marylebone-Osborne/Tod(d)
Herts- Sear, Cato
Bucks/ Beds-Impey/Field/Hall
Herefordshire-Smallman
Glos-Poole/Byard/Smallman
Middx-Kemp/Harris/Perrin/Lee/Cooper/Morrell
Middx-Ballard
Berks-Ballard
Wilts-Ballard
Hammersmith, Middx-Cranstone
Surrey/Middx-Jux
Villemagne, France- Perrin
Dunning, Perthshire-Tod/Niven
Dorset- Tod/d
Milner- Neenton, Shropshire
Edwards- Neenton, Shropshire
Poultney/Beswick-Kidderminster, Worcs

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 14:32 BST (UK) »
One branch of my family was very hard to track down until recently. Information was that Adam married Hannah, had 2 daughters & went to Vancouver. However, I found birth of one daughter in Australia, yes Australia, so though Vancouver was just a mistake. A few years ago someone mentioned her ancestors going from Ireland to Australia & Vancouver, B.C. but I still couldn't find my relatives in Vancouver, British Columbia or even Canada. A few weeks ago I found the family in, wait for this, Vancouver in Washington State, U.S. with 2 Australian-born daughters, another child born California & the rest in Washington State. There were 9 children altogether and I was able to get to names for some of them but still trying to fill in the details.
Just goes to prove it's not a good idea to assume anything when trying to locate relatives.
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!


Offline Bitza 5

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 16:10 BST (UK) »
i have been told that years ago when a family settled on land and more added to it that gave it a name IE normally that of the first settlers so the myth was the town was theres or belonged to them as time evolved and people came to live there or move away. the myth was still there as it was passed down to generations. the land not actually being brought by any one. worth a thought. or or looking into.

                Bitz
ClearyIreland/England
Normyle Ireland/England
Liddell Lanark
Freland Scotland
Cameron Scotland
Renfrey cornwall
Tregoning Cornwall
Lewis Wales
Burge England
Mills England
Spanswick England

Offline lizdb

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 16:32 BST (UK) »
Family myths, i find, often have an element of truth, but have often been embrodrered over the years - or often relate to someone completely different than whom they are said to relate to.

My father's family always insisted his gran was Susan Archer before she married , and that she was related to a Lady Archer.
Well, all our research proved that she was Susan Kemp before her marriage. However, we then found that her mother, also a Susan, was Susan Archer before she married  Mr Kemp.
But however much we hunt, we cannot find a link with a 'Lady Archer'!!!

So - just a mereist hint of truth, surrounded by a LOT of myth!
Edmonds/Edmunds - mainly Sussex
DeBoo - London
Green - Suffolk
Parker - Sussex
Kemp - Essex
Farrington - Essex
Boniface - West Sussex

census information is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline wotty

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 11 September 07 21:28 BST (UK) »
My great grandmother was said to have a sister called Alice, who left Co Durham for the USA in the 1850s. The family story is that she went to Montana and lived at a place that became known as Ridley Creek (Alice's maiden name was Ridley).
There are just a couple of things about this story.......there is an Alice Ridley from the same town, who married and went to the US in the 1850s. She lived at Ridley Creek, Pennsylvania. She just doesn't have the same parents as my great grandmother!!

Wotty
Meehan - Co Durham, Ireland, USA and Canada
Hopps -  Co Durham and N. Yks
Ward, Mortimer, Littleboy - Norfolk
Angus -  Co Durham
Pyle -  Co Durham and Northumberland
Rowntree -  N Yks and Co Durham
Ridley - Co Durham
Kelly -  Co Durham and Ireland

Offline stoney

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 12 September 07 12:32 BST (UK) »
We've always been led to believe that our Meyers ancestors were Dutch and came from Heligoland.

As far as I can determine, Heligoland was never a Dutch possesion, rather it was originally Danish, then British then finally German.

My earliest traceable Meyers was Archibald Meyre who gives his place of birth on the 1841 and 1851 census as "Scotland", c.1815. Searching Scotland's People appears to give no result for this name and date, although there is an Arch Meier, b. Govan 1805.....!


The family owned shops in Carlisle and there was some "unpleasantness" outside in the street, around the time of WW1 with a rabble accusing them of being Germans, which was refuted by the family who insisted they were Dutch (maybe out of self-preservation!).

Police and military officials called at one of the shops to take my G-Grandfather, Edward Meyers, into custody to be interned. My G-grandmother gave them short shrift and advised they take the matter up with Edward himself - in Richardson Road Cemetary, where he had been laid to rest a few years earlier!
 
Beattie, Beveridge, Carson, Davidson, Hounam, Johnston,  Purdon, Rae, Stevenson, - Scotland.  Brown, Bulman, Cooke, Harding, Meyers, Osborne, Routledge - England

Offline buckaroo

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Re: Family Myths
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 12 September 07 12:57 BST (UK) »
Our family myth says that our Gr-grandfather (Slaymaker) came from London (we're now in Wales), and that the family had a shop?/stall? that sold cutlery?/crockery?  Having followed the family line through the census, I did find the family in London, as fruiterers in Covent Garden!!! The family presumably fell on hard times parents died, children split up, youngest ones sent to Middlesex Industrial school one of which eventually ends up in Wales. (aaah! one myth put to bed).

But as with all good mysteries there's a twist,... ... having put up a request for any information regarding the unusual name Slaymaker (on this website) we were contacted by a lady from the liverpool area who had a casserole dish with a stamp of the name 'Slaymaker & Co. Covent Garden & Manchester' on the bottom.  (How exciting!!!)  We've tried to do a bit of serching for 'Slaymaker & Co.' but without much luck, if anybody out there knows where to look and likes a challenge we'd love to find out more.

Buckaroo
Abraham           Field
Barnett             Jeavons
Price                 Turnbull
Slaymaker        Uttley