Genealogy Chat

Hi How many mysteries have you found when doing your tree. I would like to know, why my step ggrandmother still could not write her name in 1942? Why, I never knew my ggrandad and ggrandmother were still alive when I was 5. Why, my grandad was buried in his inlaws grave and not with his family. I was 10 when he died, and didn't know he had 3 sisters. Why, i was brought up to think my ggrandads first wife was Egyptian (took me a year of looking to find she was Spanish). Never knew I had a brother who was a stillbirth, found out in my 50's by accident, my Mother never told me, so I dont have any details. All these things I would like the answers too, but as there isn't anybody here to tell me, I will have to wait for the hereafter. Ann

Plenty of mysteries in our family...so I've discovered. Why didn't my Irish Mum tell me that her Dad was one of 9 children...I only knew of one! And I never knew that my Irish Gran had any siblings either and I don't think that any of my cousins knew either No wonder we have been going around in circles. Finding Dad's family is just as bad. His mother was one of 13. Where the hell are they. I know that some of her sisters and brothers were still living in Bristol when I was small...but can I find any of their descendants? NO. My husband was told that his Dad was an orphan....lies, lies, lies. We discovered that he had an elder sister who registered the death of their mother who died in the 1960's ! So my husband missed out on knowing his Grandmother, an aunty and 3 cousins. Luckily we have found 2 of his surviving cousins. One is 79 and the other is 83 and we are going to meet them later on this month. I will never understand why families have all these secrets. So what if grandparents split up...it's not the end of the earth! The truth will out..as they say.

We were always led to believe that my nanna's cousin was an only child, but when we found her grandparents grave discovered that she'd had a brother who died when he was 4 (she had been less than a year old) and we now wonder if she ever even knew about him. Sadly, although she is still alive, she's very old and not very with it so that's one conversation we won't be having with her. We've ordered the death cert to try and shed some light. On my mum's father's side there are a gazillion unanswered questions. Where was he born and when? Where did he disappear to after he divorced his wife? Did he realise he was living so close to the children's home his kids had been put in? Did he die alone (he was listed as usual residence being a place reported to be a hostel for homeless men)? Did he know that his daughter had wanted to see him when she was 16 ...indeed did the social worker even contact him when she'd asked her to? Did he have a choice in leaving and did he really never try to come back and see them???? so many questions that there will never be an answer to. Very sad.