Genealogy Chat

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I need to share this as no one here understands :( About a year ago I found two little girls aged 6 and 4 in the 1901 census in a workhouse. I was preety sure that they were the daughters of my GGGrandparents who had died two years previously. Because a work on a strict budget for this obsessive hobby and they didn't pass the 'would I be here if they weren't?' test I had to put them in my 'holding' file till I could buy certificates. Well they have played on my mind and a couple of weeks ago I couldn't stand it any longer and ordered the certs.....And yes they are mine! I know its silly but I now feel as if I have given them a home and family so they are no longer alone in the world. I must admit, I even shed a few tears this morning over the certs. Chris :)

Oh I think thats a lovely story. I do feel that doing this we arent just nosey parkers (like some people have said to me!) but we are honouring and remembering these people.

I understand. :-)

Oh Chris, Of course they are important to you - they were your gt gt grandfather/mother?s little sisters. Now I want to know whether they stayed in the workhouse or went to family members to live. Did they survive into adulthood? did they have happy lives? Did they keep in touch with their older brother/sister? See I'm as soft as you are :-) Judith

I'm sure they'd be really pleased to know that someone all these years later still cares about them ....... Emma

Thanks everyone Its good to know i'm not alone in being 'soft'. Judith I can't find marriages for either of them at the moment and I am dreading looking at the deaths indices....Having just 'found' them I really don't want to loose them again just yet. Roll on the 1911 census, fingers crossed the mice haven't nibbled the bits that relate to them. Chris

Its a Great feeling isn't it! Well done!

Im just going to send off for my nan's second husbands cert. My aunt (80) tells me it was a marriage of convenience and I dont doubt it. Nan was about 40 and this chap about 60 but she had three young kids and he was comparatively 'comfortable'. He was a good step father to my mum, he paid for a big wedding for her in 1940 when very few people could afford such luxury. Its strange, that auntie doesnt know what happened to him??? My dad said he just wasnt there when he came back after the war and no one seemed to know where he was (nan was very secretive and not the sort of person you questioned). Well, I started tracing this man. I found him as a 3 year old, orphaned and staying with fosterers. I found him as just 13 and living as a lodger in a house where everyone was old. I found him marrying and losing his wife and child a year later then much much later he married my nan. I have found his death in south London and Im sending for the cert, because I think he had a sad life and I do feel I should do that small thing so that at least he is in someones memory. I can only think nan must have kicked him out at some point and he died alone somewhere.

Heather Ohh thats sad. I hope you can 'bring him home' like I did with the girls, if you know what I mean? Chris

Im wondering if he went into a home - he was 82 when he died 1948. But she obviously hadnt shown him a lot of affection, had she. I suppose difficult for us to judge, shed lost the man she loved probably felt bitter about that (my mother was only about 9 when her dad died and her siblings even younger) and perhaps she resented having to marry him. We will never know. But as you say, he deserves some respect and someone remembering him, even just for the kindness he showed my mum.

Hi there I too found a sad story but this time theres no death cert just two memorials at opposite sides of the world. What would have been my 4th cousin emigrated to Colarado in 1903 as did many Cornish Miners, he returned home somtime in the early 19teens (from research we've placed it as approx 1912-13). He came home to Cornwall to see his ailing parents & return to Colarado with his older brother. Both hoping for that new life. They were aboard the 'unsinkable' Titanic & their bodies were never found. Their family erected a memorial for both brothers in the local graveyard while in Idaho Springs Colorado a memorial was placed in rememberence of the older brother by the Woodmen of the WOrld (a masonic like org). Now I ahve found them I feel like they needn't be forgotton again as they ahve been for many years. Am I soft or what? Clare

Aw bless what touching stories, a rich tapestry of life! truly x

Chris Hi from a relative newbie. Was very touched by your story about the little girls. At the moment I am desperately trying to find info about my Nan's Mother. My Nan was born in, and then left in the workhouse by her Mum. She was then brought up by her Dad's family. My Nan was never allowed to talk about her Mother, and never knew anything about her at all. I think I may have traced her death, when my Nan was only 3yrs old, in 1923. I'm waiting for the cert to arrive so that My Nan, at the age of 86, will finally know what she should have known a long time ago. I hope that I too, will be able to bring a relative 'home'

Cor,I bet there will be a few tears that day! Take her a box of choccies at the same time, eh?

what touching stories, when i first started this quest i was told to stop opening cans of worms, but i see it as opening a small side window and peeping out into a life we only know about through pictures and films, most of the time the stories are sad but like ourselves there must of been happy times in our ancestors lives....MOE!

Thanks for understanding Sharon xx

these storys are very touching, i'm sitting here going: aaahhhhhh.

Oh I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one who sheds a tear or two My husband just doesn't get it. I found my great grandad - family told he had died in ww1, they didn't even have a name for him as his wife was supposidly grief stricken that he was never mentioned again I found him and his naval record - it told me his name date of birth, eye colour, height and distingishing marks such as scars and his tattoo, I cried and said I found you at last, Only thing was his wife told a lie he hadn't died, he left or she threw him out, I feel as though I have brought him home now to the family of grandchildren and great grandchildren that missed him and wanted him. Joanne

I found one of my great grand mother's living with an uncle and aunt in 1851 aged 14. Someone sent me the 1841 census and I found her age 4 with three brothers and sisters and both parents. i know they all died except her of typhoid and t.b. before she was twelve. I felt really sad when I realised she had named her three eldest daughters after her mother and two sisters. Some of our ancestors had unbelievably sad lives.