Family legends that turn out to be nonsense

[kitching]

Hi

My mother always told us one of her uncles went to Australia and opened an orphanage, after many years searching I found them, they were lodging with a family called orphan

[jaybelnz]

   My grandmother was very adamant and proud that she was a 1st cousin of David McCallum (Glasgow Born Actor - as a young man, Illya Kuryakin in "The Man from Uncle").  Years ago I looked at his bio, and did not see a connection.  I even wrote to him via his Secretary, just in case, got a really nice letter back, but no relation.
A couple of years later I obtained a marriage certficate for my GGFather, on it one of the witnesses was his sister - Catherine Watson, the other witness, her husband  -  David McCallum!! Further research showed that Catherine Watson and David McCallum had a son, another David McCallum, born Glasgow around the same time as "the" David McCallum"  A bit like Reayboy's post!!

But talking about usually a grain of truth somewhere in the old stories handed down, another cousin of mine told me that a great-grandfather had been a Ships Captain, and our Grandfather had travelled the world with him as a child. .  A couple of years later I found that my GGF, the said ships captain,  had been an Accountant, a Manager, and a Passenger Agent for CPR. Worked in London, then Boston (where my Grandfather was born) then Montreal.

On his marriage certificate, my grandfather is listed as a ships steward!!  So, at the very least, they were actually involved with shipping - so there's that grain of truth!! 

Jeanne

[helenw123]

My mother was always told that her cousin was stillborn, but my auntie remembers him being run over and killed by a bus when he was age 9!  No idea why people made it up about him being stillborn.

My grandmother was adamant that her mother was born in Hull, Yorkshire, and I do believe that's what she actually thought, not that she had made it up.  She was actually born in Walsall, Staffs, where the family have always been.  The weird thing is that on the 1901 census she did actually say she was born in Hull, whereas othere censuses have said Walsall.

It all keeps us on our toes!

[aghadowey]

There are 2 local myths which have been circulating in my area for years.

1) Actress/dancer Ginger Rogers was a McMath from Blackhill.
Fact- real name was Virginia McMath but no connection to McMaths of Blackhill (I traced both her family and theirs and found nothing even remotely close)

2) U.S. Senator George Mitchell's family came from the Rhee.
Fact- there were Micthell in the Rhee but George Mitchell's father was originally named Joseph Kilroy and adopted by a Lebanese family!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_J._Mitchell

[n4mv3t]

the myth ... that my sisters were the first girls born on my fathers side of the family in 300 years!!
the facts ... g granma Annie had 2 girls, gg granma Jessie had 4 girls ... 

the myth ... grandfather lost his (right) arm in WW1
the facts ... grandfather was seriously wounded in WW1 (left shoulder) ... no record of a pension claim for war injuries ... 

the myth ... Uncle was a pilot who died in his plane during WW2
the facts ... Uncle was a telegraphist/gunner ... 

[harley08]

My grandmother always maintained her grandfather was a scottish sailor who came from a rich family and in disgrace went to New Zealand, met a maori princess, and married her on the boat on their way to Australia. The truth is he was born in Guernsey, went to New Zealand at 18 with his parents and siblings, married his English-born wife in Christchurch NZ, and came to Australia in 1898 with his family.

[jaybelnz]

  According to my strictly Scottish grandparents, both their families from way way back were as white as the driven snow!! Pillars of the church!  No divorces, no alcohol, no scandalous doings whatever - perfect Protestant Christians! 

 My generation (and me in particular) was the first in history to pluck eyebrows, wear eyeshadow, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes ("if the Lord had meant you to smoke you would have had a reeky lum on your heid"); first to have Catholic friends, to wear miniskirts, go dancing, go  to a Youth Club (and on a Sunday!) stayed out past 9pm, and played sport on a Sunday!  A sinner no less! And I believed them too!  Yet Robbie Burns was their hero!!

Talk about piling coals on the head! And filling up young heads with guilt!!  (All though, tempered by the fact that they were wonderful grandparents and I loved them very much).

Then while doing my FH, I found that my great grandfather, the revered head of our Scottish family in NZ, married twice.  His first wife, my ggmother, died and six months after that, he made an "Irregular Marriage" in Scotland.  He also "took to the drink"!  My other great grandmother had a child before she married a different man, and 4 of their daughters also appear in OPR's - yep -up on the cutty stool!!    Luv it!!

Jeanne

[Jean McGurn]

Sometimes I do wonder that most people fall under the myth of name association. i.e Howard Hughes must be a relation because we have the same surname. I think this is what has happened in my family.

Matt

Similar in my family. When a child I was told that Al Capones henchman 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn was a cousin. NO he nicked our name out of a Chicage phonebook so he could have an Irish name.
Also a Lord Chief Justice Mr Justice Stable was grans cousin. Not so because gran's family spelt their name StableS and came from Manchester area and the judge's family hailed from the South East of England.

However there is a chance albeit very slim that there is a Mathew Stables who had something to do with Parliament in the 1700's and is pictured on a painting. Haven't been able to get that far back as yet.

Jean

[HughC]

You laugh at stories of babies found under the gooseberry bushes, but this one is true.

A dozen years ago I was living in a flat in a village in southern Germany.  It was warm summer weather; every evening at sunset a stork flew in and perched on the lamppost in front of the house.  Not sure what attracted it, but it was still there when I went to bed.  Gone by the morning, but back the next evening.

That went on for a week.  On the seventh day the caretaker's wife gave birth to a daughter and the stork was seen no more.  Evidently satisfied with its work, it had moved on to a new haunt.

I'd always wondered where babies come from.