Skeletons in the closet anyone?

[Redroger]

...       i wouldnt consider one of my ancestors having his head lopped off a skeleton in the cupboard though, as during the time of King Charles there were many who  unjustly treated....   

I may well have such an ancestor; the ancestor of my paternal grandmother's father. Surname Burton.
My grandmother was born in Pinchbeck near Spalding Lincs in 1859, father ag lab. With difficulty i have traced her line back to around 1770, but no further. However; the aristocratic family Burton of Surfleet, Lincs, some 2 miles from Pinchbeck were attainted traitor on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and seem then to vanish from the record. Probably not surprising. I wonder, and frankly I hope so.
If proved this would definitely NOT be a skeleton so far as I am concerned.

[LouisaS]

I have a Benjamin Green from Gloucestershire who was a Brick layer, went to gaol twice. What for ?
One of the Stanley brothers son bigamous married  he ended in gaol and the news of the World!!! Oh the scandal lol

[Rosinish]

Not sure if I would describe it as a "skeleton" but.........................

In 1871 my gg grandmother Rose Ann's 2 kids along with their father (they never married) were living at the home of her sister & hubby but she herself is absent (still haven't located her after more than 15 yrs of research for that yr) 

In the household is her niece Rose Ann of 16 yrs old who I had initially believed to be my gg grandmother with an error on her age

I later discovered that niece Rose Ann & the father of my gg grandmothers kids married at the end of 1871 although initially I believed the marriage to have been my gg grandmother Rose Ann (thinking her surname had been an error as they all lived in the same household  

I'm not sure if the affair with her "partner" & "niece" began prior to her disappearance or after 

However it took me a lot of months to unravel the mess as both women were named Rose Ann & surnames similar which I assumed had been misheard/assumed & ages, well...............census records being unreliable at times kind of confused things too 

I have still not found the birth cert. for young Rose Ann the niece 

Annie

[jaybelnz]

Plenty of my young relatives (and one not so young at all) recorded as being up before the Kirk Session for the "sin of ante natal fornication" and sitting up on the cutty stool to in church for 3 consectutive Sunday's, to show their repentance for this dreadful sin!  After that they would be officially "absolved" from such sin!  Other couples marrying were carefully watched and if they produced a child within 9 months, up they too  were hauled before the Kirk session, still to be charged with that sin!   Session clerks would go round the towns at night, to popular trysting places, spying for sinners to charge!  I wonder sometimes if that's all they were looking for!

My nephew, well into his twenties at that time,  who is interested in knowing about the family history, asked me what ante Natal fornication was. I told him it was pre-marital sex and his generation didn't invent it!  He nearly fell off his chair! 

One of my favourite research experiences! The look on his face was a gift!

Every now and then I would get an email from him, asking if I'd found any more sinners!

Jeanne 😄

[Rosinish]

  Your wording was very funny 

I just can't help wondering how my gg grandmother coped with her niece & the father of her kids marrying but she left my g grandmother with her sister (mother of the niece) as is noticed on the 1881 

The niece went on to have 5 kids with my gg grandfather between 1873 - 1880 but sadly died 1884 aged 30 yrs old 

Anne Marie

[sharonmx5]

I recently found in the wider family a man who married his dead wife's sister about 30 years before it became legal.  They had to leave the area to get married, although they didn't go far, only to the nearest city! They don't seem to have been prosecuted for it.

There are lots of skeletons in mine and my other half's families, murder is just about the only thing I haven't found.  All part of life's rich tapestry.

[suek2075]

Jeanne  - I found one of those as well. A young Janet Clerk was called up in front of the kirk in 1826

"The which day Jennet Clark produced to Mr Dickison a certificate from the Kirk Session of Hawick learning that she an unmarried person residing in this Parish was delivered of a Daughter on the 24th day of September 1824 and that she had made satisfaction for the sin of Fornication with William Minto then Labourer at (? - can't read) who confessed her guilt with him according to the Rules of this Church"

Solved a family mystery of why her first daughter was called Isabella Minto when there were no Mintos in the family that we knew of!

[DavidG02]

I recently found in the wider family a man who married his dead wife's sister about 30 years before it became legal.  They had to leave the area to get married, although they didn't go far, only to the nearest city!

All part of life's rich tapestry.

I have on my ex-wifes side a convict who married a widow in Adelaide then when she passed on married her daughter ( his step-daughter) . Does kinda leave a sour taste in my mouth.    but it is part of the fabric of who my wife and son are

[Rosinish]

Not sure if I would describe it as a "skeleton" but.........................

In 1871 my gg grandmother Rose Ann's 2 kids along with their father (they never married) were living at the home of her sister & hubby but she herself is absent (still haven't located her after more than 15 yrs of research for that yr) 

In the household is her niece Rose Ann of 16 yrs old who I had initially believed to be my gg grandmother with an error on her age

I later discovered that niece Rose Ann & the father of my gg grandmothers kids married at the end of 1871 although initially I believed the marriage to have been my gg grandmother Rose Ann (thinking her surname had been an error) as they all lived in the same household  

I'm not sure if the affair with her "partner" & "niece" began prior to her disappearance or after 

However it took me a lot of months to unravel the mess as both women were named Rose Ann & surnames similar which I assumed had been misheard/assumed & ages, well...............census records being unreliable at times kind of confused things too 

I have still not found the birth cert. for young Rose Ann the niece 

Annie