Have you proved or disproved any family stories?

I have found that the years I have spent researching my family tree solve some mysteries and throw up many others. I am now having to prune the tree and put some stories onto a website for future generations. At least we do not have to slog around record offices and churches any more.

There was a story that someone in my father's family made a lot of money and then went into the church.

My brother has been researching the family tree and found a great great uncle who seems to have had money (still not found how) and went to London where he set up refuges for the poor where they could find a bed and be fed. So far as we can tell he never actually became a minister but was very religious.

What an interesting thread!

When I started researching my family, a cousin said it would be nice to find there was a Lord or Noble in the family. Well, I have given up counting how many there were. I have confirmed that we were part of the army that arrived in 1066 and strangely, the family have personally served every King and Queen of England from William to Elizabeth 2. Many old 'stories' were found to be very true.

I now run a World Wide website for the family and answer many questions.

When I started researching my family, a cousin said it would be nice to find there was a Lord or Noble in the family. Well, I have given up counting how many there were. I have confirmed that we were part of the army that arrived in 1066 and strangely, the family have personally served every King and Queen of England from William to Elizabeth 2. Many old 'stories' were found to be very true.

I now run a World Wide website for the family and answer many questions.

My MIL always thought her father was in the Cavalry during WW1. His army records show he was a groom at the Cavalry Barracks, an important role, but not the gallant officer on horseback that his stories led her to believe.

I discovered my Granny was two years younger than she claimed when her elder sister (100 years old and something of a village celebrity) mentioned her in a local newspaper interview. Then I got her birth certificate. I expect she was embarrassed at having got pregnant married so young!

I did my family tree whilst I was living in Turkey and it helped to keep me sane. My mother had done her father's tree but got stuck at 1831. She knew another name came into it somewhere but thought that there must be bigamy in the family. I found some others investigating the same tree and they helped me with this. It turned out that the father born in 1786 had become a father at rather an early age and the first child was born out of wedlock (my ggg ? grandfather). The result was that the first child took his mother's name. After this for a generation or so all the children used their mother's name but they eventually reverted to the male last name. Mystery solved.

There were always rumours that the same family was involved with smuggling. After long research by another researcher we were able to link my bit of the family to another tree with the same name. It transpired that this ancestor was indeed implicated in smuggling as he ran an inn. He was reputed to be involved with several gangs. The stranger thing was he disappeared in 1749 and no trace of him since.

I still have one family rumour to have a good look at but I don't think this one will ever be solved as the name Jones is involved.

I didn't come across any other major tales but I is possible my father's family were RC at one point because he was married twice, once at Kidderminster and on the same day in a private chapel.

I would like to go back to it at some point but I reckon I'll have to go local record hunting unles the info I'm after is on the 'net by then.

Happy Hunting

The first thing I knew about my family history before starting research was something my grandfather had told me when I was very young. He said that his grandfather had been a coachman for a big house. Naturally I had romantic visions of some stately home. In the event it turned out that he was indeed a coach driver (domestic) though the house wasn't as grand as I'd imagined. He'd started out as a horse keeper/trainer and many in the family went on to work with horses one way or another: blacksmiths, horse drivers in the pits etc. Given the general standard of living amongst my ancestry any private house of any size would have appeared "grand".
There is a horse breeder/trainer of the same surname now, probably related to us - the name is quite unusual - though I have not been in contact.

The only other thing I knew was never mentioned by my father - for fairly obvious reasons - and it was my mother who told me after dad died. Both of his parents had been illegitimate. I have no way of finding out who their fathers were which leaves me with two dead ends. In one case it seems a local farmer had given his name for the birth certificate but the story goes that he wasn't the actual father.

The mother was said to have gone to America leaving her little son behind with his grandparents. I have still to find out about this. Not only do I not know what year she went, or where from, but also her name was a very common one - the passenger lists have many of that name - but certainly the child, my paternal grandfather, was raised by the grandparents. The same applied to his future wife, my paternal grandmother. They both died before I was born.

I always watch the Dunkirk programmes to see if my uncle Maurice is visible, I know he was there and came back on the last big ship to leave...I haven't managed to find what ship it was though.

What a great memento for the family archives gracesmum

I was watching a BBC2 programme last night about the Commandos and their training at Achnacarry in Scotland in the 1940's. Lord Lovat was due to lead No. 4 Commando in a raid near to Dieppe and out of the corner of my eye I saw familiar face - or at least I guessed it might be. My late FIL as a young Commando officer!! He went on to lead a section of No. 4 Commando in the D-day landings and was seen as something of a war hero in Normandy where he has a street, a square and an avenue named after him. Pa died in 1987 so it was amazing to see this face from the past. (The programme will be on BBCiplayer until this time next week if anybody is interested.)

yes, dad's auntie doris really did ride the wall of death.

Hello Durhamlady-- my grandfather came from Cornwall to work in the mines in the N of England and landed in the Barnsley area, he made good and could leave the mines and later had a beer-off shop on Barnsley Road, Cudworth which did so well he sent my father and uncle to a private grammarschool.
Which part of Cornwall does your family come from?

A terrible accident. I think it had an effect on all his family. His father seems to have vanished a year or so later - at least, I can find no sign of him at home or anywhere else after that, and no death certificate, unless he was one of the many listed as "unknown male", who were often drunks or down-and-outs.

Elegran; I've been thinking about your granndfather's uncle while I've been doing the washing up. Find it so sad. [back to the washing up...]

Numberplease Somewhere I read that the hangman alway's had a partner who worked with him,someone who would help him to work out the weight's etc of the condemed man so the noose would work first time,maybe your realative was one of these people

My grandma was always going on about bringing back hanging for murderers. She used to say if nobody wanted the job she`d do it, and that her father had been the local hangman. But I`ve checked the records of hangmen, and can`t find anyone with her father`s surname, unless he worked under a pseudonym, would that be likely in the 1800s? I`m presuming it was about then, as she was born in 1884.

My father always said his father was a b###### in both meanings of the word.I never knew what he meant until I started researching my family history and found that my paternal grandfather-whom I never knew as he had left the family home-was born to a single mother in 1889 and never knew who his father was.

janreb, I think there were a lot more of these 'irregular unions' going on than was realised at the time! Another interesting thing that came to light when doing the research was that my grandmother was born 3 months after her parents' marriage. After the wedding but before the birth they moved 200 miles away, presumably to cover up the embarrassing fact of the pregnancy.

I have long suspected that my father's parents weren't married - haven't proved it either way yet.
For several years no one could find the details of my husband's great grandparents marriage. We eventually found the wedding - over 40 years and 13 children after they'd first become "Mr and Mrs." Both of them died within two years of getting married!

My brother and I had long suspected that our mother's parents had not been married, although they were known as Mr and Mrs. We knew our grandmother had been married to someone else prior to setting up home abroad with our grandfather, and we had no evidence that her first husband had died. Eventually my brother turned up a marriage record for the pair - 19 years after our mother's birth. He also discovered that our grandfather too had been married previously and had a wife living until shortly before this second marriage took place. We still haven't been able to discover if either grandparent was divorced, and we have no idea whether our mother (who died 10 years ago) ever knew any of this.

My Grandfather was born in Northern Ireland and enlisted in the Royal Artillery to fight for Queen and Country in the Boer War. He rose through the ranks, was commissioned as an officer and retired with the rank of Major and an OBE

He married and had a large family and we, children and grandchildren, were always told that his father had died before he was born and his mother died when he was 10 and he was brought up by an uncle who was a farmer.

One day in the early 2000s when there was a family gathering of the older generation a discussion about where he came from arose and the usual story was being referred to when one of my aunts who had lived at home all her life suddenly commented that she wasnt sure about it because she had seen his mother's death certificate and she was described on it as a 'spinster'. There was a stunned silence and the conversation moved on. He also had her surname

I have since done some research and now know that in fact he was born illegitimate and grew up in close to abject poverty and that his uncle was actually a farm labourer. But as a clever and ambitious young man carving out a quite remarkable career in a prestigious regiment and in a society where illegitamacy was a badge of shame he was, of necessity, economical with the truth.

If it hadnt been for the chance sight my aunt had we would never known because she saw it when my grandfather, as an old man, was bundling up and destroying any documents, including his mothers death certificate, that might reveal his origins. How my aunt managed to see the certificate I will never know as she has since died.

This is the one I haven't managed (yet) to prove.
My uncle left notes about my ggrandfather, one of the things he said was that my ggrandfather, a bottlemaker in Dublin for years, supplied Guinness with bottles. I couldn't find anything that said he did. Then my distant cousin in Canada comes up with the same family story, and can I prove it?
He went bankrupt and left for South Africa, and I know that the people who bought up the bottleworks did supply bottles to Guinness....but I still can't find anything to say that my ggrandfather did.
It is even possible that he went bankrupt because he couldn't get a contract to do so!

I discovered a hint that my grandfather's uncle died rather spectacularly, so I followed it up and proved the story true.

He was 15. On the day after Boxing Day in 1881, he told his father he was going "to the pantomime" with a couple of friends that evening. The boys then headed off to the Music Hall instead.

A new show had opened the previous night, including a Chinese conjuror whose act finished with him balancing a small cannon on a sword, and firing a blank from it. Unfortunately, the blast had blown out one of the gaslights and resulted in a stampede when someone yelled "fire". The boys were keen to see this act, and managed to get seats at the extreme right of the Gods in a packed theatre.

The management had insisted that the cannon be aimed well away from the lights. The conjuror aimed it well to the side, and his beautiful lady wife (English) warned everyone to keep very still, and those in the balconies not to lean over. He waved his hands to indicate that they should sit back. She repeated the warnings. Finally he was satisfied that all was safe and fired.

George leaned forward for a better view and was hit on the forehead by a wad of paper and killed instantly.

Whoever had loaded the cannon (identity not established in the manslaughter trial that followed) had used newspaper instead of the usual wisp of tissue to tamp down the black powder. Whether the tissue paper would have been just as fatal was not determined. Certainly if George had stayed back as requested he would have been safe - but he was clearly of the same temperament as my grandfather and my own uncle - both also called George. Heredity will out.

This event was influential in bringing about legislation on the discharge of firearms in theatres.