Family Oral Histories

[Top-of-the-hill]

   "On the other hand, my gran used to tell people her brother died when he fell in the hold of a ship and broke his back."

   An uncle of my husband died in just this way as a young man, but the family apparently believed he was murdered.

[Gone]

   "On the other hand, my gran used to tell people her brother died when he fell in the hold of a ship and broke his back."

   An uncle of my husband died in just this way as a young man, but the family apparently believed he was murdered.

I've come across a few family stories which have been embellished, and a few that were hidden, thought to have been taken to the grave. Some of them have been extremely sad and I can understand why they weren't spoken of, but others are fascinating. That's a part of family history I really enjoy, solving mysteries.

[Erato]

"The oral history about him are all wrong"

In my experience, there is at least a grain of truth to the stories.  For example, my father told me that my gg-grandfather did not serve in the Civil War because he had been badly crippled in a farming accident.  The truth is that gg-grandpa managed to squeak by to his 45th birthday without being drafted.  He was crippled in a farming accident but that was many years after the war.  Another example:  My grandmother said that her great uncle married a widow named Curtis who had a daughter named Stella.  I wrestled with this for ages before I finally figured out that she was a widow but Curtis was her maiden name and Stella was a niece who she adopted much, much later.

[iluleah]

"The oral history about him are all wrong"

In my experience, there is at least a grain of truth to the stories.

I would normally agree however in my great grandfathers case "The oral history about him are all wrong"  they lied about who he was, the person they named was his uncle and any 'story' was about that person......... so clearly it was all wrong... the interesting thing is when I found out his name and realised there was a grave in the village grave yard scribed with his name... only later to find out he is not even buried there but 3 miles away in the next village in an unmarked grave...... so all wrong even the grave !

[BumbleB]

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.

[handywithashovel]

My advice is look at the years they lived, research what records existed so civil, parish, census, tax, land, wills, newspapers and such things as trade directories, unions... (my great grandfather was a farmer so there are lots of farm records) and attempt to find each one. The oral hstory about him are all wrong, but it tells me lots about my family, that they want to hide information and in some of their case also are prepared to  lie to 'keep a secret' my nana told me his name( wrong name) , she had met/known him so knew him and lied about his name just to 'keep the family secret/shame'

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!

[handywithashovel]

   "On the other hand, my gran used to tell people her brother died when he fell in the hold of a ship and broke his back."

   An uncle of my husband died in just this way as a young man, but the family apparently believed he was murdered.

Oh my gosh! The research I find always seems happy enough to stir up the dramatics. So and so was killed!! Was it because of his uncle's posse, or was the killing party led by a man after his wife?
Or old age and fevers. Either way. 

[handywithashovel]

"The oral history about him are all wrong"

In my experience, there is at least a grain of truth to the stories.  For example, my father told me that my gg-grandfather did not serve in the Civil War because he had been badly crippled in a farming accident.  The truth is that gg-grandpa managed to squeak by to his 45th birthday without being drafted.  He was crippled in a farming accident but that was many years after the war.  Another example:  My grandmother said that her great uncle married a widow named Curtis who had a daughter named Stella.  I wrestled with this for ages before I finally figured out that she was a widow but Curtis was her maiden name and Stella was a niece who she adopted much, much later.

People trying to piece together what they've heard, I think. I've definitely had to deal with that, people being married to their own parents, being their own siblings, being their parent's siblings...

[handywithashovel]

"The oral history about him are all wrong"

In my experience, there is at least a grain of truth to the stories.

I would normally agree however in my great grandfathers case "The oral history about him are all wrong"  they lied about who he was, the person they named was his uncle and any 'story' was about that person......... so clearly it was all wrong... the interesting thing is when I found out his name and realised there was a grave in the village grave yard scribed with his name... only later to find out he is not even buried there but 3 miles away in the next village in an unmarked grave...... so all wrong even the grave !

 
That's a whole lot of wild! Did you ever find out why all this trouble? If you can't trust graves, what can you trust??