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Secrets and Lies

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NanKate Wed 25-Oct-23 15:40:27

I have just listened to the fascinating Podcast on BBC Sounds called ‘Life Changing’ with Dr Sian Williams the episode is called ‘The Baroness’. I won’t tell you the story as you might like to listen to it yourself.

It made me realise that in times gone by people regularly told lies, often to hide family secrets.

My mum born in 1910 went to a small Welsh school for a while and lived with her Mum, Aunty and cousin. Once or twice a year she and my Nan went to visit her grandmother in Birmingham. When asked by the teacher where she was going she innocently said ‘my mum says we are going away for the hunting season’ ! My mum’s family always had delusions of grandeur.

My niece was visiting my mum in the 1970s and was given a portrait oil painting. My niece said it was lovely to have a genuine painting of her great-grandmother. My mother gave me a look as if to say ‘don’t say anything’ ! To this day my niece thinks the painting is of her relative. I’m keeping schtum.

Do you have any similar secrets in your family ?

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Ali08 Tue 31-Oct-23 13:23:58

Glorianny
How did the vicar give someone a dad, was it himself?

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Glorianny Tue 31-Oct-23 16:26:28

Ali08

Glorianny
How did the vicar give someone a dad, was it himself?

No he wrote a completely made up name for the bride's father on the marriage certificate. We knew it was false because we'd looked at the previous census when the two children were living with their mother at her father's house and they all had the same surname. Her father wouldn't have had the same surname, but he did on the certificate.

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Floradora9 Tue 31-Oct-23 21:40:57

I have been listening to a book by Stephen F. Anderson
"A Broken Tree" how DNA exposed a family's secrets.
Stephen was one of 9 children in the USA and wondered about his family's blood lines especially after his father was told he could not donate blood to Stephen's brother and could not be his father. It turned out all 9 children had the same mother but the first three had the same dad ( an old boyfriend ) the rest had different fathers apart from the writer and his brother who shared the same dad. In her 90s his mum told him who the fathers were . The children were brought up by and loved their dad but it was too late to discover if he knew the true facts. A fascinating book .

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