Which ancestor do you admire most-and why?

[mrs.tenacious]

Obviously, our war-serving military/naval ancestors - who can surpass their attributes? But who else in your family really 'stands out' and has earnt your respect and admiration, or whose story has really touched you?  I know it's difficult, but let's try to limit it to two (a couple could count as '1').  Here's mine:

My gg grandmother Sarah (1843-1930).Widowed by age 38. Started own business upon widowhood, Fancy Goods Shopkeeper/Proprietor ran own family business for 30 years, then owned B&B establishment till aged 65. Had 7 children, 4 died very young,the other at 33. 2 still living when she was 68. Died at 87 years.  Obviously a strong, hardworking, independent woman of her time.

My great-grandparents William (1882-1960) & Alice (1882-1941) who had a total of 8 children. Lost 3 of them, (aged 8, 6 & 4 yrs) to smallpox in 1913, over a 3-day period. Their last child born 1920 died before his first birthday.

What strength they must have had, just to keep going.

So, who are your heroes/heroines?

[groom]

The ancestor that I admire and whose story has touched me is my gx3 grandmother Sarah ( 1793 -1880) She had 5 children, the youngest twin boys, one of whom died when he was a few months old.

Her son, my gx2 grandfather died when he was 32 leaving a wife and 4 young daughters and then Sarah's only daughter died leaving a young baby that Sarah brought up. Sarah's husband died in 1854.

In the following censuses she is described as a pauper. Then I found her death in 1880 and sent for her certificate and was surprised by the mention of a post-mortem. With the help of people on here I tracked down the following:

SHOCKING ACCIDENT = TUNSTALL
On Tuesday, the Coroner(C.C.Brook Esq.) held an enquiry  at this place, on the body of Sarah Groom, widow, 89. It appears that on the evening of the 29th ult, deceased filled a benzoline lamp, but finding she had put too much oil in it, poured some of it out on to the fire. The lamp was naturally all a blaze, which caught the clothes of the old lady. A little girl who resided with her gave the alarm, and a labourer came in and extinguished the flames, but the poor woman was so badly burnt about the face and throat that she expired on Monday morning last from the injuries received. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned.

That reduced me to tears when I though about how she must have suffered in the days before the pain relief that we now have, as looking at the dates on the death certificate she must have taken about 14 days to die.

I agree, they were strong people in those days.

Jan

[cherries]

This is a hard one to answer.  So many of my ancestors deserve admiration.  My German and Norwegian families who came to Australia in family groups in the 1870's.  The parents of these families were in their 50's and 60's so it must been a huge decision to uproot themselves to give their children better futures.  Facing a three months voyage on a sailing ship to a land vastly different from where they were born must have been pretty daunting.

Maybe my Granddad who left Grimsby at the age of 17 to migrate to Australia all on his own or his father who was orphaned when he was 10 and was sent to Grimsby as a fishing apprentice working in the North Sea. 

But perhaps if I must choose, my great great grandmother Margaretha Nagel who at the age of 79 decided to leave Germany and join her remaining family in country Queensland.  This was in 1889 and four of her children had been living in Australia for about 20 years. She had been widowed young and made a living working as a milliner making lace caps as worn at home by ladies in the village.  She also kept a small store of drapery and, when time permitted it, she would take some of her wares to the neighbouring villages for sale.  She lived on until she was 91. 

[mrs.tenacious]

Two amazing stories already. 

I'm sure we could agree that the lives of all of our ancestors were so hard in comparison to our own nowadays, and we find ourselves in awe of what they coped with, but I just found that a small handful seemed to 'stand out' more than others. 

I know my suggestion of limiting it to two may seem almost impossible, but I just thought that if anyone responded, they might run out of typing space on their post!

Mrs. T.

[MarieC]

I have two, and they are both women who coped with very hard times in Victorian London. 

My gggrandmother Eleanor Bentley was widowed in 1847 when her lighterman husband died of a "brain disease", leaving her with four children.  The youngest, my ggrandfather Thomas, was only two.  I can only imagine how hard it must have been for her in the East End of London, but she kept herself and her children by running a lodging house for mariners.  She managed to put Thomas through an apprenticeship, and he went on to a very good career, being superintendent of docks in Hong Kong and captain of a sailing ship trading round the world, then a marine surveyor in Sydney.  Her daughter married well and she and her husband became increasingly prosperous later in life.  I haven't found what happened to the other two boys.  Eleanor disappeared after the 1861 census, so sadly I don't know what happened to her, but it is possible that she joined her son Thomas in Taiwan, where he was based for awhile.

Another ggrandmother, Mary Martin, had her husband Edward go bankrupt in 1854 and then disappear.  She also would have had a major battle.  The family was intensely religious, and her eldest daughter Mary, after doing an apprenticeship as a milliner with her aunt, became an Anglican nun.  Mary Martin worked as a dressmaker and needleworker to support her children, and somehow managed to send her son William to Oxford, where he read theology and became a respected Anglican priest.  In old age, he endowed a scholarship in memory of his mother and his wife.  Her daughter Caroline was a pupil teacher, living with Mary, and met and married an Irish Anglican priest and they emigrated to Australia.  Mary was still alive in London in 1901 - an old lady by then - I haven't found her death. 

I think that women who were thrust into poverty in Victorian London and who still managed to care so well for their children deserve the greatest admiration!

MarieC

[Nick29]

My father - despite a really unhappy childhood - his mother died when he was 6, being brought up by an aunt who had no children, and had only just been widowed herself, and having a father who turned to drink (and who can blame him ?), he always had such a positive and happy attitude.  I could add a lot more, but he is my hero.  I just wish I could tell him.

[Kim1980]

Interesting thread!

1. My paternal Grandfather - 1 of 5 brothers born into a very poor London family. Despite the poverty and temptations elsewhere, he believed in bettering himself through education. He won a scholarship to a grammar school and despite having no shoes and being beaten up and bullied on a daily basis for his poor appearance, he survived and was able to pull his own family out of poverty. This is a philosophy that he has passed on and I am trying to keep alive.

2. My maternal Great Grandmother - Had 10 children that survived (others that did not). Rumour has it that her husband, drank most of the earnings and was violent. The strength that woman must have had is very admirable.

[rutht22000]

My great great grandmother's brother - one of 14 children who spent some of his childhood in a debtor's prison with his father, mother and siblings, grew up other wise in slum property, before the whole family were uprooted 200 miles away.

Went from living in Courts and tiny little terraces before ending up owning large houses in Cheshire and then in Kingston Upon Thames.  He eventually became Chairman of the London and South Western Railway, was knighted and given a Baronetcy. 

and his sister - my great great grandmother - widowed with 2 children (and possibly having lost a 3rd) at the age of 24; 23 year old husband dying a horrendous accident, having to abandon her living daughter with her sister and taking her baby son to live with her in slum property.  I have no idea what she did to make money and it was another 4 years before she married my great great grandfather.   She went on to live a slightly more comfortable life after she married again, but when you think about someone that young with 2 kids with barely any income, being forced to split her family up so the little girl would have a chance....

[Erato]

The ones who set out bravely and optimistically for the New World, especially those who did so in the early years [1620s-1650s] about whom I know very little beyond their names and a few rough dates.  But also my gg grandparents, the Logans, Ennises and Chapmans, who arrived in the 1830s-1840s and moved west to settle on the Wisconsin frontier where they worked with their new neighbors to build functioning societies in the former wilderness.

For example, gg grandfather B.H. Chapman, his wife Mary Pepper and their four children [aged 0-5 years] who survived the first winter on their Wisconsin homestead in a hastily constructed log cabin that they shared with another settler family.  And gg grandparents John Ennis and Mary McGee who successfully raised all of their ten children to adulthood on a subsistence farm.  And g grandfather J.L. Logan who walked 500 miles from Ohio to Wisconsin with what he could carry on his back, was one of the first settlers in his community, and worked hard enough at farming and logging to send all five of his daughters to college.