Family Oral Histories

[handywithashovel]

Reminds me of when I was a child.  My father would often say "when we lived at the castle" to which my mother always responded "you mean when they lived on their boat".  My mum was right - boatmen were part of his family - no evidence at all of hierarchy.   


Added:  Unfortunately both had passed away before I even started on Family History.

That's really cute! Maybe it was a really fancy boat 

[BumbleB]

I don't somehow think so - middle of Yorkshire and the canal system for transporting goods 

[iluleah]

Wow... it's too bad people feel they have to hide things. I feel for them that they have that worry or shame, and I feel for others who are missing out on the real stories because of it. Sounds like you found a lot all the same! Wills and unions, those are good ideas, thank you!

Yes it is sad, however life and minds change about what was 'shameful' ...more open minded maybe and less bound by religion or 'what the neighbours' would say as well as less Victorian upbringing of children being seen and not heard so couldn't ask

My mother was keeping her own secret ( which I found out about within 6 months of starting) and yes I followed the records and found out all the other 'secrets' she refused to tell ...30 yrs on my mother still doesn't know I know. I see no point in upsetting or embarrassing her ( and it would)

I remember asking my gran about her parents and 'saw that look' but as we were alone she whispered "I think my mum was married before but no one talked to children about that".... turned out it was her dad who was previously married ( and her mother lied about her age on marriage and in each and every census) and gran died before I researched about the 5 half older half siblings she had ( 4 of which died before they were even a month old) and grans older 'sister' was actually her half sibling

[Rena]

Reminds me of when I was a child.  My father would often say "when we lived at the castle" to which my mother always responded "you mean when they lived on their boat".  My mum was right - boatmen were part of his family - no evidence at all of hierarchy.   

Added:  Unfortunately both had passed away before I even started on Family History.

That's really cute! Maybe it was a really fancy boat 

That piqued my interest too, but I translated "the Castle" as being an old pub's name and wondered where the boat was and on which canal/river.

Then, of course, he may have been taking coal from Newcastle

[aghadowey]

Years ago someone trying to trace their family came to us looking for help. They'd already done quite a bit of research and were fortunate enough to have copies of old family letters. She thought elderly female relative who lived not far from us must have been very religious as one of the letters mentioned her going to 'The Temple' every day. As this took place in rural Ireland and the nearby churches were Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic it should have been a clue. Had a good laugh when we explained that "The Temple" was the name of a pub a short distance from the old woman's home 

[Erato]

"The Temple" was the name of a pub"

That reminds me of an article [in the Guardian, of all places!] about Vargas Llosa when he won the Nobel Prize for literature.  The author obviously had not read the novels because he was unaware that the title of 'Conversación en la Catedral' did not refer to a church but rather to a bar/lunch joint called 'The Cathedral.'

[Mimble]

"Reminds me of when I was a child.  My father would often say "when we lived at the castle" to which my mother always responded "you mean when they lived on their boat".  My mum was right - boatmen were part of his family - no evidence at all of hierarchy.    "

I wonder if this referred to a canalboat? Apparently roses and castles were a common decoration of narrowboats in Victorian times. http://narrowboatinfo.co.uk/roses-and-castles/

[BumbleB]

Yes, the census entries all refer to "Waterman", although to be honest her father rarely appeared - Mirfield, West Riding!