General Chat

Another one for me is my Mum was told her Fathers surname and that he was a business man from Reading, nope, the surname is correct but he was from Gateshead and was a cinema projectionist.
I have uncovered other mysteries too including one on my Mother in laws ancestors. :-D

I kept hearing rumours that an ancestor married Wyatt Earp, of Gunfight at OK Corral fame.

Nope, it was a distant ancestor whose parents moved from Buckinghamshire to South Australia in 1847 when she was 5 years old, family became Mormons (maybe), went to California on a Mormon ship in 1857. The family may or may not have gone to Salt Lake City and then back to the San Bernardino Valley. The daughter married a second time in 1893 to Judge Nick Earp who was either the father or the uncle of Wyatt Earp.


I'm still trying to sort out 2 family stories from OH's family

1. An ancestor was murdered and all his money taken as he walked back home after selling a cow at Kendal Market.

2. OH's great-great-grandfather had 20 children between 1832 and 1864. I have all birthdates, baptisms etc for every single one.

BUT family lore handed down to all or almost all descendants, and published in some local publications is that the parents actually "had 20 children twice" .................. meaning they had 20 children, 1 died, and they had another baby

I can find no evidence of that, nor does there seem time for a baby between child 19 and child 20 ................... unless there was a miscarriage at less than 5 months.

Nor is there a second marriage .............. gggrandfather died 3 weeks before his wife in January then February 1869.

And a friend told me her father said his mother said she was related to a distinguished scientist, because they had the same name. But the family were from the north of England and the scientist from Kent. I have traced back both families and found no connection. I assume the remark was made as a joke, as they shared a surname.

My uncle used to tell people that his grandfather was a driver on the 'Coppernob' loco on the Furness railway. Well he did work on the railway, I think he was a platelayer. I think maybe one of his brothers was the loco driver.

Don't you just love half-truths! :-D :-D :-D

Apparently, my grandad used to sing 'I belong to Glasgow' after a bevvy or two.
Gran kept saying he must have been born in Scotland.

He was, like gran, born in Southampton, but someone hearing gran may have
assumed.

I was told the name of Mums cousin and that he died in a plane crash, well he did die in a plane crash but it was an Air Force plane, the details I was given are correct BUT it was the Brother of the one I was told.
Does that make sense?