General Chat

I am a kind of object of interest in the village, not for anything I have ever done that was clever or outstanding but because I was born here to a father and grandparents who were also born in this village.

At the harvest supper everybody was asked to put up their hands if they were born i Sussex. Some looked quite proud to do so which set me to thinking that I was probably the only person there who had, I think, a full set of, great and great-great grandparents who were also born in Sussex.

One day we will find out where that road goes to .

Did you see Alice Roberts and the programme about Tintagel?
A professor took DNA from people all over the country who had at least 2 generations in the same area, the results were amazing!
Definitely an East/West divide.

I watched that programme about King Arthur, it was fascinating. I really must get my dna checked.

Lizxx

My sister and I were amazed when we got our DNA results.

Before getting our DNA done, I had traced 3 'lots' of my ancestors back to about the early 18th Century - that would be the Suffolk, Cornish and Hampshire ancestors, there were (are) still the Buckinghamshire/Herefordshire 'lot' to do.

The maps of our DNA showed the west of the UK - Ireland, Wales and Cornwall - or Celtic - and Cornwall used to be a separate country, from England.
We then had Norway/Sweden, with a blob near Portugal. Absolutely no 'central' English!
This would also mean the 'Elephant in the room' - my dad's dad - who he didn't know (but had his suspicions) was probably Cornish (or Iberian) .

I had 47.1% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh - we regard that as the 'Celtic' (Cornish) DNA. 43.4% North Europe - the map showed Norway/Sweden etc - the Suffolk side, and 9.5% Iberian, my sister more North European, and 3.6% Iberian.

That map on the Tintagel programme sort of explained it - Our Suffolk lot were interlopers!

Then I found this:
"If we take an average value of each parent being 50%, and grandparent being 25%, and so-on, it only takes 7 generations before you reach just 1%. At 10 generations you have 102 which is 1024 ancestors. At that point, one ancestor at 10 generations would represent just 0.1% of your DNA.
Over 350 years, the researcher can estimate that there will be about 12 generations".

So it looks like our ancestors married people of similar backgrounds too. :-S
There were definitely some 'close' marriages in the past on the Cornish side, and looking at my ex's family - umm, well, his ancestors mainly spent 200 years living between Overton and Whitchurch - but there were 'interlopers' - mainly women form other areas.!
Glancing at Censuses, I found his great grandmother working at the same Farmhouse in the New Forest, as my Great grandmother a generation later (ex's dad was in his 40's when ex was born).
It transpires we both have New Forest 'squatters' in our ancestry!
I may leave that side for our children to work out the 'closeness' of these families.

It's not as if we were brought up together - both our fathers were in the Services, so we both moved around a lot - although we both went to (different) schools on the edge of the New Forest. We just met when his mum was ill - he was my sister's boyfriend's best mate!

I think mine would come back 70% Selsey,30% Midhurst.

What a joy for family historians, Sharron!

I have family links with a country cottage in Herefordshire,where our same extended family have lived from 1861 census until the early 2000s. The last occupant was born in that house and he only spent 3 nights out of it,in his entire 93 years,- 2 nights, when he went on honeymoon and one night when he visited someone in hospital in Birmingham and couldn't get back home because of fog.

I'm of mixed stock and my children even more so..... and as for my grandson, who knows? We have bought a DNA testing kit to see if the passed down tales of a Chinese link in his ancestors have any truth.

Mental chewing gum for family historians, Gwyn.

It was a bit more challenging before the internet but now it is possible to put a hundred members on the tree in an evening. That was a couple of sisters who moved along to Bognor.

I can join you -
I was born in Sussex - so were both parents - and all 4 Grandparents as well as
6 out of 8 GreatGrandparents - and several more GGGrandparents.

Until i had my DNA done I was beginning to think I had not moved away from Sussex/Kent and Hampshire. Now my tree is on the move again (was working on the husbands for a few years) and i have migrated to Devon & Cornwall as well as Scotland..

Which part of Sussex are you from?

My Mother was born in Newcastle and apart from a few weekends at Blackpool was never away from it. I thought in my tree that I knew most of her family, but what I
"knew" wasn't strictly so. Her being part of a large family was correct, but my GF was a
widower when he married a widow. So Aunts and Uncles were half, if you know what I mean. My Father came from Northern Ireland and sadly records are difficult to trace.
My GGF was illiterate, says so on the 1901 census (humbling) I know my GF married
twice and know both wives and their children, which of course includes my Father. GF
married in Belfast, was a docker died 1940, same year the Church he married in was blitzed. GGF was married to Rose Ann Galoway at Ballylinny Presbytarian Church. His name was Francis, and the name of his Father was also Francis. In records my family name Irvine becomes Ervin or Irvin or Urvin. My GF's name was Samuel and my Father's name was also Samuel.Samuel senior had a son also named Samuel who died aged 7 years, he survived his Mother Ada Coaton.
Father left Belfast 1940 during war, never went back.
Interesting piece of trivia for you Rose Ann Galloway's Father's name was Samuel.
Rose and Francis called their son Samuel Galway Irvine b1874 and Samuel Galway Irvine called both his sons Samuel Galway and my Father called me David Galway Irvine.Respect for George Galloway ? who knows
;-) ;-)

An Irishman, not being able to find a parking spot, starts to pray.

“Lord,” he prayed, “if you open a space for me, I swear I’ll give up whiskey and I promise to never do anything bad, ever again!”

Suddenly, the clouds parted and the sun shone on an empty parking space.

“Never mind,” he says, “I found one.”

Hi Sharron

My family and I were born and raised in Brighton. A couple of the Great Grandparents were born in Steyning. and moved to Brighton. My maternal Grandmothers side were more Framfield/Laughton and ended up in Brighton. Fathers side were Lews area and ended up in Brighton.

Both sides of the family have probably moved around East & West Suissex since 1700.

One of mine, who was born in 1805 (important) moved to Bright on some time after 1851 and so did several of his children and their families.I don't know why that was but when he moved, he took the opportunity to say he was ten years older than he really was. I don't know why he did that either but it sounds like he might have been up to something doesn't it?

Anyway, nobody would have thought any more of it had he not lived to be 97,a pretty much unheard of age in the early twentieth century when he was even more feted foe being 107!

I do have a tiny newspaper cutting with a picture of him, lying old toad!

My Grandparents were born in Parterdge Green & West Grinstead. Gts born in Shipley right back to 1660.
Phyll

My lot on both sides stuck to Kent/Sussex. Living on the county border, my Father was actually born on a farm that straddled it. My 18 times Grandfather lived just half a mile from my present home.