your family myths- busted or not?

[kylejustin]

seeing the thread about the illegitimate child of joseph paxton, i got interested to know about your family myths, and whether you busted them or not.
i always enjoy reading threads about what your ancestors said, and then the hard time everyone has trying to prove them, but then they kind of sort themselves out.

i have a few family myths, and no surprise, they involve illustrious figures, but mine are to difficult to solve. so what are your family myths?

one of mine is an illegitimate descent from a duke of buccleugh, another claims descent from the monarchy of prussia. while there is a claim that my ancestor was the brother or son of a prussian general!!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Did gran have a secret marriage to a Mr Mortimer-Wheelan?

No, but she did have a secret bigamous marriage to Mr Hamilton-Whelan.

Did ggg-grandfather desert his wife and run off to America?

No, but after his wife died he did remarry and went to America leaving all his first family behind.

Are we related to John Sainsbury the grocer?

No.

Are we related to Clarks the shoe people?

No.

Are we related to Edward Jenner who "invented" the smallpox vaccine?

Well, no, but we (ie mum's family) are related by marriage.

Was g-grandmother's uncle John Horniman the tea merchant?

No, but he was her great-aunt's husband.

Was one of my great-grandfather's brothers the museum curator at Ipswich?

No, that was Saffron Walden. That man's son was at Ipswich museum.

Did gran's family come from Normandy and arrive with William the Conquerer?

No idea!!

[kylejustin]

im loving those merry!! i can't come close!!:D

[Penelope]

Redacted

[Somerset Sal]

I managed to "prove" one family story: I inherited a garbled story in which someone connected with my maternal grandfather had something to do with an escaped tiger. The family never really believed it. I eventually found newspaper and magazine reports of the incident, which happened in London's docklands in 1857 and involved my great, great grandmother's little brother being chewed by an escaped tiger. (He survived.) My Dad says it's typical of our family that we feature as the victim and not hero of the story!

[guybrush]

Myth: Were the Jones family originally Jewish and called Shultz?

No, the family were Welsh unsurprisingly but way back there were the Sholt family.

Myth: Are we descended from Matthias Prime Lucas Lord Mayor of London?

Not descended but almost definitely related.

Myth: Was Charles Hemmings really a Gypsy boxer called Charles Wayman and did he murder someone?

He probably was called Charles Wayman. He was not a Gypsy but more likely descended from Gypsies. He may or may not have been a boxer and if he did kill someone, he was never a suspect.

Myth: Should we have inherited a large estate called Roache House?

No, Roach House was a semi in Cheshire and if it was even owned by my family member and not rented, it would have gone to her children.

Myth: Did Patrick Moran work for Count De Zuluetta and was he the first person to take a horse onto the Aran Isles.

Patrick did work for Perdo De Zuluetta, a Spanish Count in London. I doubt he was the first person to take a horse onto the main island Inishmore as people have lived there for centuries. I've yet to prove either way though as no-one in the Aran Isles will give me the time of day.

[Penelope]

Redacted

[Stella]

My paternal grandfather's brother Richard Wright was, I am told, given 30 years in prison for murdering his fiance's lover either in Belgium or France during or just after World War 1. Supposed to have been imprisoned in England, but I can find no proof of it.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Was my great grandfather a Master Jeweller?

No, he was a pawnbroker's shopman in a slum.

Are we related to THE Seymours?

Well, if I knew who THE Seymours were, I might stand a chance of working it out - the name hasn't cropped up yet as far back as the 1600s.

Are we descended from the de Traffords, of Trafford Park and Old Trafford?

No, we are not, we are related to the Traffords of Cheshire who consistently farmed about 20 acres for 300 years. And we are also the descendants of a man who worked as a farm bailiff on a farm owned by minor descendants of THE de Traffords.

Was my grandmother orphaned at a very young age and did she grow up in a terrible children's home?

No. Her mother died when granny was 19, her father died when she was 44.

Was my great great grandfather a train driver and did he drive the Flying Scotsman?

No. He drove a stationary factory engine in a weaving mill.

Was he an old drunkard who brewed beer in the backyard and drank it with his mates while his wife toiled away in a shop?

Well, yes, maybe he was...but this MIGHT have been his father, who WAS a Brewer and was definitely a ne'er-do-well.

Did my seven month's pregnant granny walk three miles in the snow, carrying her two year old son to the infirmary only to find he was dead and then walk back again, carrying his dead body?

Very likely. He died in January in the hospital a few miles from their home and she gave birth six weeks later.

OC

[Little Nell]

myth: my great-uncle Thomas Emmetts Matthews ran Tilbury Docks.
reality: he worked as a fireman for 2 years.

I suspect he was inclined to big things up. His father Thomas was a milk carrier who died years before TEM married. TEM's marriage cert states his dad was a "provisions merchant"!

[Janet]

OH ancestor George Sullivan drowned on the Lusitania. Wrong George Sullivan!

My grandfather invented refrigeration in Plymouth. Refrigeration did not appear in Plymouth until 1936 and my grandfather died 1932. He was into Ice Storage.

My Great Uncle invented rayon. Rayon does come from the cellulose component of the tree, the part used to make paper but he actually invented the sulphite method of making paper, so where the rayon bit came from I do not know!

The same Great Uncle owned Paynes the Firework Comany. Where did that come from?? He managed a paper mill in Kent and Dieppe. He also had many failed patents taken out one was for some sort of gunpowder!!

My grandfather started the Cremyll Ferry run from Plymouth. The ferry has been running since the 12 Century!

Yet another Great Grandfather had an ironworks in Thurles Ireland and was responsible for building the iron gates around St Patricks Cathedral Dublin. He actually owned a forge, and was responsible for the iron gates around St Patricks Cathedral in Thurles!

I am sure there are others but cannot think just now.

It is interesting, though, how there is always a grain of truth within the myth.


Janet

[JulesSmith]

There's a murderer in our family
Yes and no. GG Grandfather was imprisoned for her murder, but I'm not so sure she didn't do herself in.
We have Swedish blood
Hmm so far I've traced that line back to late 1700's and they are in Yorkshire... must but be very thin blood by now.
G grandmother lived til she was 110 years old
She lived til she was 91

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

My 3xg-grandfather witnessed the first balloon flight in the UK.

Well he lived in the right place at the right time, so I expect he did!

[LangleyValeSue]

OH's grandfather died on the very last day of WW1 - shot by a sniper.

False........unless WW1 ended on 24 April 1918, although he was killed by a sniper's bullet.


Mother-in-Law's Mum was a ladies maid in the big house at Culworth, Northants.

False......... she was a parlourmaid there and previously had been a downstairs maid in a house near Birmingham.


And on a much sadder note.............
M-in-L was 12 when her baby sister died the day after she was born and M-in-L put lillies of the valley in her tiny hand in her coffin.

False............It was 4 days before her 5th birthday when her baby sister was born on December 8th. The baby died on Christmas Eve and her Dad registered the birth & death at the same time. I don't think lily of the valley would have been blooming in December 1921 in England.

[dicole]

Great-grandfather wanted to study at university (was medicine originally, but when I checked later, it was civil engineering) but his father, a builder, would not agree to pay the fees for the final exams.

So g-g f came to Australia and was in the Royal Engineers and built the rifle ranges. Fell off his horse and broke his arm, set it himself and it never healed properly. They gave him, a tee-totaller, a shot of brandy for the pain and he became an alcoholic. He died after hit his head on the footpath after a pub brawl. The govt wanted to give him a state funeral, but his widow refused. Also had something to do with building Sydney Central Station, and built his own house at Auburn NSW.

The first bit, I don't know how to prove. Yes, he joined the NSW Corps of Engineers and became one of the first members of the Royal Australian Engineers.

So far, I can show he was invalided out of the Army and made an Honorary Captain and paid 3 years salary in compensation- so presume the falling off horse bit is true - I know there is some more correspondence with the Defence Dept Archives, but don't know how to get it (yes, I have asked, no reply).

After leaving the Army, he became a builder, but joined the Dept of Home Affairs during WW1, and, yes, was responsible for building the Rifle Ranges near Sydney. Don't know how he managed to build his own house or Central Station while serving with the Engineers.

Don't know about the last bit, except he died of a cerebral haemorrhage, so possible, and is buried in an unmarked grave. Perhaps the Army offered a Military funeral, rather than a State Funeral.


Other great-grandfather brought four of his five children to Sydney, just as WW1 broke out (mid-1914). It has been said that he left g-g-m behind with eldest son, as he had to do National Service.

As Eldest son was 16, suppose this could be possible, but cannot find that he served during WW1. ggf and ggm were apart in 1911 census, eldest son with her, other children with his parents and his sister. GGm remarried as a widow in 1918, but ggf remarried in 1923, after her death. Bad feelings remain with descendents of Eldest son.


Diane

[Olde Crone Holden]

Diane

Conscription didn't start in WW1 until the end of 1916, so in 1914, no one was under any legal obligation to go to war!

Just remembered another one, on the WW1 theme.

My grandfather was captured on the fifth day of the war in 1914. He was posted missing, believed killed and his mother died of a broken heart.

Um...he didn't join up until December 1916 and was posted abroad in 1917. He WAS captured in 1917 in the trenches, but as he was an Officer, he got special treatment by the Germans and was sent to a German Military hospital where they operated successfully and saved his leg. He was then repatriated and was back in dear old Blighty early 1918. His war lasted exactly seven weeks.

His mother did not die until 1919 - spanish flu - and her son, my grandfather, was present at her death.

OC

[Anne in Carlisle]

OH's grandfather Fred said he was an orphan
Wrong - he is with his family in 1881, 1891 and 1901. In 1902 he marries the girl next door (as per 1901 census). Fair enough his father did die when Fred was 10.

OH's g grandfather (Fred's dad) died at sea.
Wrong - he worked on the docks (so might have fallen in) but no, he died of some sort of spinal problem and his mil registered the death.

Anne

[modem]

One of our myths was that 3 x great grandfather was an aristo and general factotum to Lady Nelson and that his will was read in Lady Nelson's drawing room. There are also other tales that spin off from this one.

However, said gentleman was a domestic coachman to a Lady Nelson, in fact the widow of Admiral Nelson's nephew who inherted the title, and he died whilst in her service. So it is possible that the solicitor came to the house and dealt with the will, which I have, in one of the more formal rooms. Thought it was interesting that there was some basis for the myth and how easy it was for the family to build it up.

[maggie_4_7]

The only family myth that I can think of is that my grandfather was an extra on the Convict 99 film 1938.

:D

To be honest I've no proof of this whatsoever!

However as he was in Pentonville Prison in 1911 then anything's possible.

I think looking back on it it was probably a bit of a **** take in the family...

[zoejg]

Aha, one of my mum's cousins - who was brought up as her brother after his mum's death - really was an extra in The Bridge on the River Kwai. I dismissed this as nonsense until a couple of years ago - because he has a tendency for tall stories, but then he actually pointed himself out and it's clearly him

That's all I have, though... none of my relatives seem to have claimed to have been anything other than what they actually were/are - working class labourers and miners for the most part. That's fine with me, though!