Genealogy Chat

My Nan used to say that way back her however-many-great grandfather was a Spanish pirate. Got back to the 1780's and no Spaniards so far.... but we DO have a spanish connection as there was Thalassaemia (Spanish anaemia) in our family which has now died out. Also we have the name Pankhurst from Mayfield in Sussex and I have found the will of a Ferdinando Penkehurst who was something to do with the court of Charles II..... our pirate perhaps?? And that would be on Nan's side too. I'll connect it one day! Julie

I was told, when I was little and didn't want to do swimming lessons that 'Your father's Gran had a cousin who used to do swimming training with Cpt. Webb (the first man to swim the channel) so swimming is the the blood' He did come from Dawley !!!!!! Julie

Hi, When I was little we used to stay with my aunt and her husband. They had a big shop on the High Street in Lowestoft. It was converted from an old merchant's house. It was very big with lots of staircases and rooms around every corner. I used to sleep in a bedroom at the front. My aunt used to call it the King's bedroom. As I grew older I thought it was just a story to amuse a small child, until I started to do family history. I read about the history of the town and discovered that King George II landed at Lowestoft in 1737 on his return from Germany. A storm had blown up and he was seasick. Further reading revealed that he stayed in the house of a man named Jex, a bit more research and I discovered that Jex used to own my aunt's house. So I really did sleep in the King's bedroom. Gwynne

My most blatant 'family legend' must have been a tale told to young children and perpetuated. It was about my Great Grandparents - she was alleged to have been run over by a bus (in 1880s Norfolk???) and he allegedly died of grief a year later. Well, the truth was that she had TB and was ill for 8 months and he died of peritonitis, probably after an accident at work. So, remember this when 'lying' to your children!! Jane

I'm sure you must have noticed my desperate and , at times, frantic , search for my Munro relatives. I'm the one who is always asking thought provoking and often stupid questions. If there wasn't a family legend about our descent from the Barons of Foulis I probably would be doing something useful like washing or the ironing.

Just remembered another one. My Grandfather was captured on the fifth day of WW1, in the trenches, and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. Nothing was heard of him for four years, and as he was an only child, his Mother died of a broken heart three days before he was repatriated. As children we were warned never to speak of the War in front of my Grandfather (Don't mention the War!!!) Erm.....SKS (doesnt want to be known as a looker-upper!) kindly found his records for me at TNA. He was conscripted in 1916, went out to fight in October 1917, wasn't actually captured until late 1917, spent a few months in a German Officers Hospital where they certainly saved his leg and possibly his life too, and was repatriated early 1918. His mother died December 1919 of a heart attack. From 1916 to 1918, his father, who was a big noise in the Blackley Co-op AND on the War Food Committee, sent regular tins of biscuits, chocolates, cigarettes and so on, switching these supplies to the German Hospital where Grandfather was a patient. It gets even murkier - Grandfather had actually lived in Germany for seven years BEFORE the War, studying music and he spoke fluent German.Hmmmmm.....He went back to continue his studies in 1920, and that is why he is listed on my father's birth certificate as a 'Student'. Olde Crone

A family legend was the only way I could find one branch of my family in the census returns! My Grandmother's maiden name is Smith, which as you all know it a pain to search for! However I was never able to find my great-great grandfather James, b. in 1868 on any census returns. We had his birth cert, his marriage cert and no census returns. It was at this point Grandma mentions his nickname was 'Stiffy Baxter'. On a whim my Mum tried looking for a James Baxter in the 1881 census and low and behold a James Baxter of the right age with mother Mary turns up. Unfortunately the head of the family was Joseph Baxter and James' birth cert said his father was Jeremiah Smith. As there was a bit of a gap between the older and younger children we though perhaps Jeremiah had popped his clogs and remarried. Strangely though we looked at the parish records and Jeremiah and Mary seem to have been baptising children until the early 1890s! As the names all match and Joseph Baxter turns up as a boarder living with who we presume is Mary's parents (She's a Jenkinson but has a Francis Fitton on her marriage cert as her dad!) all we can think is that dear old Jeremiah was using an alias for the census returns. Bit of a shame one old family legend has thrown up a mystery that we are unlikely to ever solve! If anyone has lost track of their Smith family in Worsbrough, near Barnsley, let me know! You might be related to Jeremiah!

Oh what a lovely surprise to come home and find so many of your brilliant family legends. And Carol, thanks for putting me straight about the masonic chains. My over-active imagination had something very different in mind! Just remembered another wild goose chase. One of my ancestors said he was a lighterman on all the baptisms and weddings. I have wasted A LOT of time looking for him in the extensive Waterman's records and he was nowhere to be seen. I have since found him in 1841/51 down as a labourer. Perhaps he wasn't too bothered about lying to the vicar but when the official looking enumerator came round felt that he'd better tell the truth?

I was always told my great grandfather had a fit of jealously and accidently pushed his wife down stairs and she broke her neck and died.All the family stated it was an accident but he was then hanged for it at Bristol prison. I have now got evidence that in fact he cut her throat then his own on the same day. My grandfather was 5 years old and in the house when it happened.They were never married but she used his name and from my reserach it looks like he was married to someone else who he left with 2 children to run away with my great gran who he murdered. I bet she regretted that little daliance with a married man.! Rgds Tracey

Heather, Thanks again. Will have to look up the details and get back to you on this. Just signing off as one of the dogs has an appointment with the VET in half an hour. Maureen

Glitter, give me the name so I can at least see if he was a waterman and therefore eligible to enter the race!

Heather, Thank you for your kind offer but I did check out a website and the name was not listed. Really strange that the jacket was known about in the 1950's so I can only presume that the winner was not the name I was given. Think I need to do a bit more research on this. Maureen

Just to be different, I found a marriage for my great aunt that nobody knew about. I have the cerificate and her name and age is correct as is her father and both the witnesses are known to us. Mum would have been 8 at the time but she didnt have a clue.

One of our lovely ones was that dads side 'Cheal' originated from Jews who came over in the mid 19th century. Seemed reasonable, put an S on the front of it, very possible. The bloomin Cheals were in the Domesday book and living in Lincolnshire then moved en masse (gawd knows why) down to Brighton area in the 15th century.

Legend 1: That great grandfather on mother's side worked on building the Eddystone lighthouse. : not unless it was originally in a field in Kent! Legend 2: That the 'Hamilton' part of the line was connected with Nelson's mistress : Fact - Robert Hamilton was a boarding house keeper in London around 1830 and his first wife (my ancestor) died of TB.

Us grandchildren in the family were brought up on the story of Gt.G.dad being a famous London Barrister, I started this family thing, sent for his m/c and found out he was a solicitors clerk, his father is shown on his m/c as a news vendor, he probably stood on the corner selling the daily paper.We were also supposed to be of Irish descent on Dad's side but back to the early 1800's and all born in London. My father in law repeatedly told us stories of living in Canada, but there is no way he could have been there. They may not have been Irish but they certainly had kissed the blarney stone.

How many many times have we read messages on here: 'My GGGMx2 was a servant at a Lords house and we think her son was his' Blimey those Lords must never had time to go hunting, shooting or fishing.

I didn't know it when I started researching, but some relatives believed one branch to have been fairly well-off. They were stunned when I told them their middle-class-wannabes were poor agricultural labourers, had received parish relief and that one had lived in the workhouse for several years before his death.

Oh just remembered another one that the same great-aunt (see earlier post) told me - she believed that the Parsons line that I was chasing came from some obscure little village in Cornwall. Spent ages searching the records for the parishes all around there, but no Parsons families to be seen. Then on another visit to the same gt-aunt (God bless her!) she recalled that ''oh no the Parsons weren't actually from there, but Charles had visited the place once on holiday and had thought of moving there'! Grrrrr!

I love these stories. My mum's family believe that their ancestor's were Welsh. Grandma's maiden name was Edwards so we thought it would be her line. One aunt said that grandma's dad was born at Ross so I thought Ross-on Wye....Welsh borders etc. etc. But then I found grandma with her family on a census and her father was born at Rowley Regis and going back to an earlier census found that his father was born at Rowley Regis too. Looking closer at the address, they lived at Ross, Rowley Regis! Heather(still looking for the welsh connection)