Author Topic: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.  (Read 23283 times)

Offline J.J.

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #126 on: Saturday 22 August 26 13:14 BST (UK) »
Haha jbml... Love your puritan settlers "fleeing religious intolerance" in order to create their own version of it elsewhere. People have done some pretty ugly stuff in the name of religion.

Sorry to debunk this one as we all want that story to be real...But the story the museum told you is for the most part, just another unfortunate whitewashing myth. A lot of the Stromness museum beadwork was taken back to Scotland by one man as "gifts"...so many are likely the usual stolen native artworks. In actuality, very few wives were taken back...& a few men took only the children.

adding: Stromness Museum has an excellent collection of Cree beadwork from Norway House.  These pieces were taken back to Stromness by William Henry Watt as gifts for his family and is on long term loan
https://www.stromnessmuseum.org.uk/blog/collections-connections-1-wed-23102024-1405

and here's his "history" with HBC...no wife mentioned!...but he was a biggy-wig so wonder how & from whom he appropriated such precious items!!!
https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_assets/docs/hbca/biographical/w/watt_william-henry.pdf

One likely scenario...if an HBC servant/underling (ie:fellows who did all the actual work) was behind on a payment for his ordered goods...(They also had to buy their own clothes & equipment)
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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #127 on: Saturday 22 August 26 14:09 BST (UK) »
Another myth debunked is when people say "the census will give which cottage our ancestors lived in then". Maybe more likely in later census records but not so much in earlier records, and even for later records you still have to do a bit of digging to find where in the village or hamlet the cottage/house/farm was. In cities it was easier as houses were numbered more often and streets named.

Doesn't help me with my ancestors who, in the 1841 census, were listed "in a camp in the lane" in Rickmansworth.

WHICH lane, for Pete's sake????

Very true. "Cottage" is often what is said, down the main street. Often a good idea to see if a local shop or pub is enumerated in the schedule nearby.

Even into the late 1800s, birth certs for city births in particular often gave just the named row of houses (such as "Southampton Terrace") as the birthplace, and omitted the actual street name, such as in big cities like London, and it took me ages to find out what street or road, or lane, the "Terrace" or "Place" or "Yard" was.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain

Online jbml

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #128 on: Saturday 22 August 26 15:23 BST (UK) »
Haha jbml... Love your puritan settlers "fleeing religious intolerance" in order to create their own version of it elsewhere. People have done some pretty ugly stuff in the name of religion.

Sorry to debunk this one as we all want that story to be real...But the story the museum told you is for the most part, just another unfortunate whitewashing myth. A lot of the Stromness museum beadwork was taken back to Scotland by one man as "gifts"...so many are likely the usual stolen native artworks. In actuality, very few wives were taken back...& a few men took only the children.

adding: Stromness Museum has an excellent collection of Cree beadwork from Norway House.  These pieces were taken back to Stromness by William Henry Watt as gifts for his family and is on long term loan
https://www.stromnessmuseum.org.uk/blog/collections-connections-1-wed-23102024-1405

and here's his "history" with HBC...no wife mentioned!...but he was a biggy-wig so wonder how & from whom he appropriated such precious items!!!
https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_assets/docs/hbca/biographical/w/watt_william-henry.pdf

One likely scenario...if an HBC servant/underling (ie:fellows who did all the actual work) was behind on a payment for his ordered goods...(They also had to buy their own clothes & equipment)

Now that is SO disappointing to learn ... but as ever, if the story doesn't match the facts, it is the story that must be discarded.
All identified names up to and including my great x5 grandparents: Abbot Andrews Baker Blenc(h)ow Brothers Burrows Chambers Clifton Cornwell Escott Fisher Foster Frost Giddins Groom Hardwick Harris Hart Hayho(e) Herman Holcomb(e) Holmes Hurley King-Spooner Martindale Mason Mitchell Murphy Neves Oakey Packman Palmer Peabody Pearce Pettit(t) Piper Pottenger Pound Purkis Rackliff(e) Richardson Scotford Sherman Sinden Snear Southam Spooner Stephenson Varing Weatherley Webb Whitney Wiles Wright

Online coombs

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #129 on: Monday 24 August 26 14:16 BST (UK) »
A beginner to genealogy has to learn the ropes after all, and they may think someone born in England in 1799 for example will have a birth certificate, giving parents names and mother's maiden name. If only that was true that far back, and we have to say to them that civil reg did not start until 1 July 1837.

Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain


Online jbml

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #130 on: Monday 24 August 26 14:57 BST (UK) »
A beginner to genealogy has to learn the ropes after all, and they may think someone born in England in 1799 for example will have a birth certificate, giving parents names and mother's maiden name. If only that was true that far back, and we have to say to them that civil reg did not start until 1 July 1837.

I blame Gallic inefficiency, myself.

If only those pesky Normans had done a PROPER job of administering the country, registration of births, marriages and deaths would have started in 1067 and we could finally prove once and for all which of us is, and which of us isn't descended from William the Conqueror!
All identified names up to and including my great x5 grandparents: Abbot Andrews Baker Blenc(h)ow Brothers Burrows Chambers Clifton Cornwell Escott Fisher Foster Frost Giddins Groom Hardwick Harris Hart Hayho(e) Herman Holcomb(e) Holmes Hurley King-Spooner Martindale Mason Mitchell Murphy Neves Oakey Packman Palmer Peabody Pearce Pettit(t) Piper Pottenger Pound Purkis Rackliff(e) Richardson Scotford Sherman Sinden Snear Southam Spooner Stephenson Varing Weatherley Webb Whitney Wiles Wright

Offline Zaphod99

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #131 on: Monday 24 August 26 15:36 BST (UK) »
I've just finished "1, 000 years of annoying the French" by Stephen Clarke.  They made so many mistakes!  It's a great book.

Zaph

Offline David Nicoll

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #132 on: Monday 24 August 26 19:20 BST (UK) »
Two thoughts.

Perhaps we would have better records if the Anglo-Saxons were still here. We might still have some of their records. All the shires were defined by them, or the Romans!
The Normans did a lot of Harrowing in various places, perhaps most famously the North.

Secondly, how many family myths have been “bunked”. I have a tantalising possibility of The Dukes of Gordon, probably never proveable!
Nicoll, Small - Scotland Dennis - Lincolnshire, Baldwin - Notts. Gordon, Fletcher Deeside

Online jbml

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #133 on: Monday 24 August 26 20:38 BST (UK) »

Perhaps we would have better records if the Anglo-Saxons were still here.

Nah ... they were JUST as capable of losing kings as their successors.

Where is King Offa of Mercia today? Buried in Bedford ... and promptly washed away to who-knows-where? Probably sitting in the marshes where the Ouse meets the Wash, guarding King John's treasure!
All identified names up to and including my great x5 grandparents: Abbot Andrews Baker Blenc(h)ow Brothers Burrows Chambers Clifton Cornwell Escott Fisher Foster Frost Giddins Groom Hardwick Harris Hart Hayho(e) Herman Holcomb(e) Holmes Hurley King-Spooner Martindale Mason Mitchell Murphy Neves Oakey Packman Palmer Peabody Pearce Pettit(t) Piper Pottenger Pound Purkis Rackliff(e) Richardson Scotford Sherman Sinden Snear Southam Spooner Stephenson Varing Weatherley Webb Whitney Wiles Wright

Offline Top-of-the-hill

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Re: Myths debunked when doing family histroy.
« Reply #134 on: Monday 24 August 26 20:59 BST (UK) »
  The Anglo-Saxons are still here! We may not be the rulers, but as Chesterton said "we are the people of England that never have spoken yet."
Pay, Kent
Codham/Coltham, Kent
Kent, Felton, Essex
Staples, Wiltshire