Who is your most annoying ancestor?

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I have three!

My gg-grandfather, John Mitchell, who has an unrecognisable place of birth on the 1851 census and also my gg-grandparents James and Mary Smith who are on the 1841 census and lived until 1859 and 1860, but are not on the 1851 to tell me where they were born :(

OH's "best" one died two days before the 1851 census and was buried the day after it. I guess he was probably "in the house" on census night, but they couldn't ask him his details, could they??! lol

[bev&kev]

Easy peasy.

Pesky gg grandfather Benjamin James, he of the birth places Hampton Middx on one census and Churchill, Oxfordshire on another!

Just when I thought I had his father sussed and sorted, I find Benjamin's family listed as Romany baptisms, which makes perfect sense for Benjamin - he has the right name, profession and is living in a "gypsy town", but his supposed father .......... that I have taken months, if not years to track down ......... doesn't fit at all.

So it's back to square one, and I have about as much chance of ever finding Benjamin's parents as a golden needle in a yellow haystack.

[KiteRunner]

My great-grandfather Eugen Hermann Friedrich, or maybe Hermann Eugen Friedrich - he is supposed to have been born in the USA in 1888 but I don't know where! Though luckily I do have his parents' marriage certificate (they married in Germany) but they have such common names I can't pick them out on passenger lists and of course there is no 1890 USA census available. And they were back in Germany by 1900. I always thought the American bit would be easier than the German bit because there is so much American stuff online!
(Oh, and I don't know where he got married or died either)

[Cool Blue]

How long have you got? LOL
All of my lines have a ''pesky point'' somewhere along, for all the various reasons it is possible to be ornery.
Still, I suppose it's half the fun, isn't it?
Janexxx

[Pat Hope]

Mine is my gg grandfather William Gleaves I have found his birth,marriage and death in 1879. I found him 1861 and 1871 but can't be sure if I have got the right one in 1851. He married in July 1851 and gave the same address as his wife to be.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

All of my lines have a ''pesky point'' somewhere along, for all the various reasons it is possible to be ornery.
Still, I suppose it's half the fun, isn't it?
Janexxx

Well, I suppose all of us have a sticking point on every line, otherwise we would all be back to Adam and Eve, but there are some ancestors who should be straightforward, but fate (or something) has made them difficult!

[Uncle John]

My g-g-grandmother Isabella Colts Dobbie and all her brothers and sisters. Her parents married in the Church of Scotland (got the OPR) and they all appear in the 1841 and later censuses, but no baptism records at all. They must have been baptised in a seceding church whose records haven't made it to Edinburgh. There are any number of ministers and their wives in that part of my tree.

[WendyPusey]

My Great Grandmother Adelaide Jacques (nee Cope) born c1865 Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland!!!! Need I say more?

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

My g-g-grandmother Isabella Colts Dobbie and all her brothers and sisters. Her parents married in the Church of Scotland (got the OPR) and they all appear in the 1841 and later censuses, but no baptism records at all. They must have been baptised in a seceding church whose records haven't made it to Edinburgh. There are any number of ministers and their wives in that part of my tree.

I'm interested as to why that maker her and her siblings annoying? Many of my ancestors were not baptised at all..........

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

William born 1810 - no father named on 1st marriage certificate in 1834

but.... I was really excited when I found a second marriage (this was going to be my breakthrough)

You would think he had the 'decency' to name his father at his 2nd marriage even though he was deceased. 'Certificate says father deceased'
I was so disappointed.

[Vicky the Viking]

don't mention Ireland... OH has 2 separate branches of them. The really really really most annoying at the moment is his gt gt grandfather, Joseph Redmond, born in Liverpool in 1856. We can't find him or his parents on the 1861 census, and he is in lodgings in 1871. His mother **says** his father Charles is a mariner, but we have been wondering if that was a little white lie to cover a little indiscretion...


...today trawling the newspapers on the Gale site, I found reference to a street brawl naming "three brothers Dennis Edward & Charles Redmond" in January 1856, in the same street where Joseph was born. So I am now trying frantically to trace these brothers to see if this can shed just a little glimmer of light onto our missing family...

[Nicky L]

My great grandmother Bertha Melinda Parr born 1854/58 in Weston-super-Mare, not on BMD, appears only once on a census with her parents in 1881 together with a daughter born in Bristol, and is shown as unmarried.

On birth cert of first daughter 1874 says she is married to Wiliam Price. No trace of any marriage.

She then has 3 more daughters in 1884, 1885,1887 with William Perry, no sign of that marriage either (on their birth certs it says Bertha Melinda Perry, formerly Price,nee Parr)

She is on 1891 census, but no husband with her.(he was a commercial traveller)

She then dies from complications after an abortion 1892, wife of William Perry,age 32. in a house round the corner from her home (informant coroner)

My grandmother always said her older half sister, who brought up her sisters after her mother died, refused to talk about her early life as she was too ashamed!

[Rachel Scand]

My Great Grandmother Adelaide Jacques (nee Cope) born c1865 Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland!!!! Need I say more?

Wendy don't complain !!! you have a county

I have a John Flynn .... Ireland ... and that's it :( :p

My most annoying are gt gt grandparents both born abt 1830
I can guess at who his parents might be but can not prove it as no marriage cert has surfaced.
No clues about her parents/siblings.

[Chris in Sussex]

"OH's "best" one died two days before the 1851 census and was buried the day after it. I guess he was probably "in the house" on census night, but they couldn't ask him his details, could they??! lol"

Merry

Some time ago I actually saw an entry, but didn't note the ref, that said something alone the lines of 'Died at 3 o'clock of the morning' against the name and age... So he must have been laid out in the house!

Handy if it was your rellie, not only date of death but also a time :D

[KiteRunner]

I just thought of two more annoying ones, actually. Sorry - must have been rushed before! Jane Laurence (I'm sure Merry will recognise the name) and Ann Sage, neither of whose births / baptisms, parents etc can be found.

[Stella]

Mine is my gt gt grandfather, born 1825 illegitimately. Am completely unable to find out who his father was as he was given his mother's name as his surname.

[Little Nell]

Merry

I have various family members who are missing on a particular census. But my gt gt grandfather William, Gray is a bit of a mystery. 1841 his wife states she is a "railway labourer's wife" but no William of any kind can be found matching my chaps' details, certainly not railway labourer. 1851 he is still not to be found and he died before 1861.
He then appears in baptism records of children as a fisherman and then dies as an ag lab.

Husband's gt gt gt grandfather James Robins is even better. He doesn't get onto any census. He does manage to take out insurance, appear in baptism records and also in street directories, but he isn't at home on any census, and unlike my William, he wasn't a fisherman, he was a furniture broker, so had no reason to be away.

[JBee]

I have 7 born Ireland and not a hope of knowing where!!!

Margaret Padden/McPaddon c1839
Patrick McQuade c1842
Daniel Barr c1837
Hugh Kirk c1845
Hugh Farmer c1779
Helen McBryde c1779
Annie Norman c1860

Also have
Archibald McGilthighnich ?1764 Islay?- Western Isles? - Scotland?
No wife at all - nameless?
Son Duncan no birth no death -m 1791 Rothesay, Bute

Isn't genealogy wonderful??????

[Harrys mum]

I have three!

My gg-grandfather, John Mitchell, who has an unrecognisable place of birth on the 1851 census and also my gg-grandparents James and Mary Smith who are on the 1841 census and lived until 1859 and 1860, but are not on the 1851 to tell me where they were born :(

OH's "best" one died two days before the 1851 census and was buried the day after it. I guess he was probably "in the house" on census night, but they couldn't ask him his details, could they??! lol

Do I have to answer that????????????????????? Starts with..........A......

[Harrys mum]

My second most annoying one is my gg grandmother, Amelia who seems to have left her husband and taken up with my gg grandfather. Then several years later when she gave birth to my great grandmother, she named her after her "first" husband. ????????

The first husband didn't die till many years later.................