Strange coincidence

I found a legitimacy issue with my mum's grandad. Wasn't sure to tell her as she adored him, so I said his mother was not an attractive personality and wasn't it great that he turned out so well!

I have traced my Maternal line back & discovered that both my Granny & Granddad's families originally came from the same area around Barrow in Furness & then ended up in Yorkshire/Lancashire, settling close. Their families had followed different paths in terms of work.

One branch of my family in the late 19th C were "hoop makers", possibly for crinoline skirts.

Researching Ancestry is fascinating, haven't found any convicts yet

if you are trying to track people in the usa try
www.familysearch.org/

dont know if it works in uk
it is a huge base of records kept by the mormon church
its also free
data is not related to mormon religion/they are just amazing historians

Family history research is fascinating. I began researching my history after my Mum died and I inherited the family photo albums. Fortunately I knew who most of the people in the old photos were, but I wanted to know more about them. My ancestors were scattered all around the UK; one emigrated to South Africa where he made his fortune in diamonds(!) and then settled in Australia. Most of them were ordinary working class people. I'm still working on one 'death in suspicious circumstances' and a few non existent marriages. I discovered a distant cousin living in the USA, and we have met several times and continue to keep in touch. It can be interesting, revealing and sometimes distressing but well worth doing to be able to pass on all that information to future generations.

Yes, you can use Familysearch here in UK, but I personally am very wary of giving them information about my family. The reason they collect all this data is to do with their religion. I would not put a family tree on there.

got to tell ya most ancestry geneology sites get their info from lds records.
no one should put current or past family tree on any site/free and cheap templates for trees are available.
i am not a mormon/got no use for any religion
www.quora.com/How-is-Ancestry-com-affiliated-with-the-Mormon-Church

In February 2014, FamilySearch announced partnerships with Ancestry.com, findmypast and MyHeritage, which includes sharing massive amounts of their databases with those companies. They also have a standing relationship with BillionGraves, in which the photographed and indexed images of graves are both searchable on FamilySearch and are to link to individuals in the family tree.[6]

My daughter (whose family are mostly from the London area) recently found out that her 4 x great grandmother
was the sister of her husbands (whose family have been in Manchester for many generations) 5 x great grandmother.
Their surname was "Herring" and they lived in a little village on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. But I suppose we are all related if you go very far back!

One of my relatives was hung in 1827 as a member of a notorious gang and two others were transported to Australia. One was a "highway robber"--he mugged an old man for his gold watch--and the other stole a sack of cochineal (I've always wondered why!). Genealogy is addictive but also very frustrating, especially when relatives are illegitimate and you can't find out anything about the father's side of the family.

Yes I know what you mean chicken. I can research my mother's side but I came to a dead end with my father. His mum was quite free with her favours and there is doubt about the paternity of most of her children. She used to give them to her parents to look after anyway, who weren't well off and really struggled to feed them all as they became teenagers.

My great granny went to jail for picking up Cabbage leaves from an open market floor. This was to make soup for her children. It was 1911 and she was a widow.

They think they are having a hard time now!

Marieeliz

Thanks for the interest, Mischief, but DH's grandfather was with his grandmother in the 1930s/40s. We found a the name of a man who was living in the same house as his grandmother and great grandmother in 1939 but that's the only information we have and we're not sure if he was living with grandmother or great grandmother or was just a lodger.

vampirequeen
Ooh-'eck...

Not sure this fits in here but it's a fascinating story....
www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-43420678 today

How interesting Soulis * to see a pic of your Father, whaw!

I'm finding this thread very interesting, sad & funny too.

My lost granddaughter will have a shock if she decides to do this when she's older, everyone she thinks are family are not and I think my estD forged her birth certificate!

Sorry not funny but ...what's the word

My aunt's middle name was the surname of my MiL. Those days the girls were given family names as middle names. We looked into it and discovered that my maternal grandfather and my MiL's aunt were cousins. I have never tried to work out how DH and I are related though.

One of my great aunts was a dwarf, her family were well to do, sold her to the circus. Her brother (my great grandad) who had been disowned for marrying a woman who lived on a canal boat found her and bought her back for 50 guineas we have the receipt. She then became a money lender. I can't find out what happened later in her life.

How awful Nanawind your poor aunt, hope she had some happiness in the circus. Just imagine reading her diaries, how interesting they would be! How old was she when she was put in the circus, do you know?

Yogagirl she was 5 and her brother got her back when she was 15. He went in front of the judge accused of kidnapping her back which he had done.
The judge ruled he could offer the circus compensation. This was 1879.
It's such an amazing story. I have found some newspaper reports of her when she was 35 but she was sent abroad. I do know she lived till she was about 60 and was burried in that country. We have 2 letters from her. I would like more information but this is proving difficult.

Nanawind 5 years old, the poor little thing, how could her parents do that, she must have been so unhappy But hopefully after a while, I really do hope she found happiness with her new family and that they treated her well.

I have a copy of 'Who do you think you are?' magazine from last year in which they give various resources for tracing circus relatives - have you seen this?

Sorry - I was addressing that to Nanawind

AlieOxon no I haven't seen that magazine. I will look on line. This is such an interesting part of my family history. To think her own parents sold their child. But this research has shown that they were not nice people. They disowned their eldest son for marrying the wrong person in their eyes. Sold the youngest for being a dwarf. They also had 3 other children im trying to find them but it's proving very hard.
Thank you for your suggestion.