Genealogy Chat

Just following on from a thread Laine has seen elsewhere - what is the most AMAZING thing you have found in your family history???? I thought that this was interesting and may be interesting to other members to post their 'show stopping finds????

Laine has asked me to put this up as she cannot despite trying and trying get on to GR... I believe some of you do have this difficulty from time to time :-)

'Mine has to be the murder of my g.g.g. aunty by her daughter [matricide??] Her daughter [my 1st cousin 3 times removed] was charged with her murder, but this was reduced to manslaughter on the judge's directions, and she ended up serving a 5 years prison sentence. Lucky girl!!!!! I found out this information totally by accident whilst searching in the newspapers for another family name entirely - and just thought the 'search summary' of names was too much of a co-incidence - when I clicked onto the 'result' I was shocked when I realised that this was my relative!!! How my family must have been shocked at the time!!!'

Remember this is from Laine not from me... But I will post something not amazing more horrifying for her family... so watch this thread..

Persie

Perhaps this is the thread

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/general_chat/thread/1205603

Not to worry R...

I see our Gracie's thread on general..

P

Hiya Persie.

I have a few,but one of my most treasured finds was a meeting between George Washington and my 3x great grandad, Israel Burrow Copley b.1765 a Yorkshire cloth miller.

Israel's father William Copley founded one of the first water powered cloth slub mills in Yorkshire, and sent his son Israel to America to promote his fathers business. He was invited ( by letter ) to visit George Washington to discuss the workings of his fathers mill.

Written in the Diaries of George Washington.

Jan 1788 ( page 266 )
"A Mr. Copley ( a considerable cloth manufacture ) from Leeds in Yorkshire came here in the evening, introduced by letter from Doctr. Mc.Henry of Baltimore. Burrow Copley of Hunslet parish, borough of Leeds,Eng. was among the first cloth makers in the Leeds area to use water-powered machinery to cord and slub wool."

I have a copy of the hand written document.....so a great peice of memrobillia to keep in my FH album.

Tony :-)

hi p
well finding my great aunt on ancestry complete with mug shot and criminal records 14 pages of them moostly for prostitutution and stealing the last charge was stealing a bodice she got seven years penal servitude
regards joe

Not sure whether this should be classed as an amazing or amusing find.

Whilst following up the descendants of one of my 3x Great Grandfathers who had 18 children I eventually came across one of his great grandchildren (Mildred Daisy, my second cousin twice removed) who was herself one of 14 children. In 1902 she married a chap in Australia who in 1905 set up his own company, the Ansell Rubber Company with machinery acquired from his employer, Dunlop. Dunlop had decided to discontinue condom manufacture but her husband Eric presumably still saw the need for production of the product to continue. In any event the ploy obviously worked as Mildred and Eric only had 2 children themselves (The last born in 1905) and for a while the Ansell Rubber Company were the largest condom manufacturers in the world.

Well not nearly as exciting but finding my maternal grt x umpteen grandfather was the sail maker on HMS Enterprise that spent several years looking for Sir John Franklin who was lost looking for the North West Passage.
Joseph Wood succumbed to bronchial problems in 1855 when the Enterprise returned to port

Thank you Perse for posting this thread for me - sorry Gracie, didnt know that you had already started such a thread or I would have just posted on yours. I will read through all the postings on your thread in a minute!!!

Well.... a mention in George Washington's diary [wow!] ... prostitution with a 7 year sentence - more than for manslaughter [that says alot about the times!] ..the worlds largest condom manufacturers [only Jonesey could find that one!!? lol] and a sail maker on HMS Enterprise - an artic discovery ship!! [an exciting link to an historic ship - but a sad ending for your relative! It was probably the voyage that caused his bronchial problems!!]

Your discoveries dont have to be 'exciting' to others - they are all exciting to you because they are your family. That is how it should be!!

I hope lots of others post their findings too!

Elaine

My grandfather was married three times..first wife died in childbirth,they were both nineteen.His second wife Elsie couldnt have children.My mother was born to his third wife...she told me that her dad and Elsie had brought up a boy who was born to Elsies sister and husband.,because they had a lot of children.
Imagine my surprise when checking 1911 cencus,there he was with grandad and elsie under their surname....an even bigger surprise when I
received his birth certificate...he had grandads surname as his middle name...first name was the same anyway.Elsies sister and husband then went on to have another four children.
Although not a secret,this boy was twenty years older than my mother and had children about the same age as her.,made me think though,either they were having that baby for Elsie,or my grandad was messing about.

Kay

Sorry everyone - I seemed to have caused problems!!! I have just seen KenSE posting at the end of Gracie thread redirecting to this one. Sorry Gracie and to everyone else I may have confused by ask Perse to post this thread for me. I seemed a good idea at the time and didnt realise that it may confuse etc.

Would you like to copy your postings to Gracie thread??

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/general_chat/thread/1205603

and I can delete this one?? Just let me know what you would all like to do.

I'll delete my post on the other one for starters.

Lainie,

I don't think that you should worry too much. I'm pretty sure that Amazing Grace will not be upset by there being another thread similar to the one that she started back in February especially as it is on a different message board.

By the way just to clear up any confusion, the Ansell Rubber Co were the worlds largest condom producers in terms of numbers produced not the size of the product. ;-)

Persie,

What do you mean But I will'post something not amazing more horrifying for her family... so watch this thread.. '????

Do you know something even more funny and amazing about my family? - or where you referring to something in your family??????

lol

Hi Ken,

If you are OK with that? - as I said I dont want to confuse with this thread OR tread on anyones toes!!!

Jonesey - you read my mind!!!!!!!! lol :-D

Hi Kay,

There seems to have been alot of this around. Family secrets and all that. Unfortunately, it is a shock to the family who didnt know of it, because family secrets were taken 'to the grave'.

I dont know whether we should blame them or not for this because when all is said and done, they were dealing with situations in the best way that they could at the time. It is just shock to those left behind who find out the true situation when those who have 'kept' the secret are no longer here with us!!!

I personally feel that these secrets should not be 'kept' because the truth will always out - as you have indeed found out for yourself!!!!

Sorry Lainie

That should have been my family duh!! ... I was so pleased when I finally got what you gave me to actually post on here, that I mucked up by addition to it. Gosh leave me alone for five minutes and I manage to make a mess of it.

Mine isn't very nice and I got rather upset when I found it...

P xx

My 2nd cousin twice removed Louisa died in 1893... she was 15 and a half. She was washing her hair in kerosene and it caught fire from a lighted candle near by.

Her father came to her assistance and tried to extinguish the fire with his hands, but, failing to do so, called for water. Her younger sister Annie aged 11 came with some, but in her haste, spilt it, and by the time more was obtained and poured over Louisa's head, her face, ears, and neck were severely burned, her neck was burnt through the collar of her dress catching fire.

Her father's hands also got burnt whilst trying to quell the fire and it was some time before he returned to work.

Now times were not like today and it was a couple of days later that her mother took her to Wanganui Hospital (some distance away) on the mail train. (does not really bear thinking about)

Louisa suffered and was in a great deal of pain when she died a week later in Hospital.

Persie

Oh Persie!!

That is a horrific story!! Poor girl. I cannot even bear to think about the burns she received! Oh - and I can only imagine what her family went through and how they felt.

Even the thought of using kerosene makes me shudder - but that is the way things were in 1893.

I assume that she died of septicemia [infection of the burns?]

I found a reference to my earliest ancestor being a martyr in 1598, indicted for denying the Queen's spiritual message. Hanged, bowelled and quartered in frightful barbarity.

But the amazing thing is I found a ballad of 10 stanzas written about this event.
It gives insight into the type of man he was. Very brave.