Interesting Family History!

Piggymon · 28-10-2007, 23:23

This weekend I spent a long time with my Gran and Auntie looking through old ( and I mean OLD ! ) pictures and learning some family history .. I found it really interesting.

My Great Grandad was a spiritualist and held seances for many people including Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle and the Cadbury's family ( my Gran used to get mahooosve chocolate castles ! )

My Gran showed me pics of my family that were over a hundred years old.

I then visited my Auntie and asked her about things and she brought out some pictures from the seances that were held !

I'm going to see if I can borrow them when I visit next and scan them in but they were very much like this one :

There were about 20/30 of them and they were bloody amazing ! There was a picture of my Great Grandad with what appeared to be an American Indian coming out of him - My Auntie said this was his spirit guide.

Bloody fascinating

Anyone else have interesting family history ?

Kell_ee001 · 29-10-2007, 01:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piggymon

Anyone else have interesting family history ?

eerr... not that I know of!

Chuckles · 29-10-2007, 01:40

My Dad's father worked down t'pit. His father worked down t'pit. His fathers father worked down t'pit. Reapeat Ad Nauseam.

Mark · 29-10-2007, 01:51

My stepdad's a genealogy nut. He has a few big folders full of stuff he's researched since I got him on the internet a few years ago.

My Mum's side of the family has people in Yorkshire, somewhere in Scotland (who had lost contact with the rest of the family over 50 years ago but we found them) and probably a few other places. My Stepdad's side of the family has connections back to the Irish potato famine (well it would do with a surname like Menah a generation or two ago).

Unfortunately I can't find out much about my Dad's side as it seems my Dad doesn't have interest in such things (no surprise there), and the best source of information would be my Nan who seems to have decided it's too upsetting for her to recount and there's no way I was going to even think about pushing that.

I've even seen my Mum's diary from the year I was born - complete with my birth weight.

Nutcase · 29-10-2007, 07:09

A distan relative grounded the SS Great Britain

Will · 29-10-2007, 07:15

I've managed to trace part of my family and our family name appears in the Doomsday book. However I haven't really focused much between that time and the relatively immediate past. Our surname is quite prevalent in the USA so we must have emigrated there at some point, or at least part of our family went to Ireland and moved on from there to the States.

lostkat · 29-10-2007, 07:54

That's fascinating Piggy. Would be really interested to see those pics when you get them

My Mum's absolutely obsessed with tracing our family tree and she has loads of folders full of info as well as a database on her computer. She tries to get as much info as possible on everyone to get an insight into their life, because she's really interested in the social history aspect. She's always off to various records officies to get marriage/birth/death certificates for some distant family member or other. She's not interested in the family name as such, more the link of people who got together to form our family and the people in it... if that makes sense? She's even been to churches to see where our relatives are buried and visited the villages they used to live in.

So far, she's found that we come from all over the UK. We've been in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and some of the family moved over to the USA too. I think the funniest story she's found out so far was that my Nana's great great great etc. Grandfather died in the asylum. My Nana was mortified because my Grandad kept taking the mick out of her for it, lol.

Stan_Lite · 29-10-2007, 08:48

One of my uncles on my Father's side of the family traced ours back to the middle of the 17th century, apparently our ancestors were the lairds of one of the small islands in the North of Shetland.
He went to the island and took pictures of the ancestral home - a small mansion by Shetland standards. Although there have been various bits tacked on throughout the years, it's still an impressive house and is still used - the present owner is a Lady something or other (no relation).

He couldn't get any further back than that because the parish records before that were in a poor state of repair and mostly illegible, which is a shame.

One thing that was quite interesting is that, up until the middle of the 18th century, they still using the Fathers first name with son or daughter tacked on to make the surname of the offspring (i.e. the surname of the son of Peter Robertson would be Peterson and the daughter would be Petersdaughter). This practice died out in most of the rest of the UK in the middle ages.
This format is still in use in places like Iceland and would account for why Shetland stopped using it so late on, since much of the culture in Shetland until recently was based on old Norse culture.

Admiral Huddy · 29-10-2007, 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostkat

My Mum's absolutely obsessed with tracing our family tree and she has loads of folders full of info as well as a database on her computer. ..snip..

Same here. My mum has got back to the beginning of the 18th century but records start becoming fairly local then so she has to travel around for records. It does her good really, she gets around and travels. I’ll have to ask her. I don’t think she’s keen on sharing because of the work she’s put in.

One of my clients does genealogy for a living. She’s like a private investigator. One of her clients was trying to look for some twins that were killed in action during WW1 in 1917. However, one witness reported that he saw the boys being carried on a medical cart and were never seen since. Assumed dead, they had unmarked graves. It turns out that the boys were taken back to a London hospital and both died from their wounds in 1918. It also turns out that one tried to save the other whilst they were bombed and dies together 6 months later. Their real "unmarked" graves in south London could then be named and a proper service was performed in their honour. Nice story I thought

Wossi · 29-10-2007, 11:19

My Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great (I think that's the lot) Grandfather used to race longboats across the Tyne and all over the country. He was quite well known when he lived and was given a pub in his local village as a mark of respect, the pub still stands today. I remember visiting his gravesite for a project I was doing at school and instead of a normal headstone, he had a giant bronze statue of him there

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Clasper

His funeral procession was watched by an estimated 130,000 people.

28-10-2007, 23:23	#1
Piggymon Lara Croft Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: PigmoPad - Braintree Essex Posts: 8,604	Interesting Family History! This weekend I spent a long time with my Gran and Auntie looking through old ( and I mean OLD ! ) pictures and learning some family history .. I found it really interesting. My Great Grandad was a spiritualist and held seances for many people including Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle and the Cadbury's family ( my Gran used to get mahooosve chocolate castles ! ) My Gran showed me pics of my family that were over a hundred years old. I then visited my Auntie and asked her about things and she brought out some pictures from the seances that were held ! I'm going to see if I can borrow them when I visit next and scan them in but they were very much like this one : There were about 20/30 of them and they were bloody amazing ! There was a picture of my Great Grandad with what appeared to be an American Indian coming out of him - My Auntie said this was his spirit guide. Bloody fascinating Anyone else have interesting family history ? __________________ BF% 28/08/08 - 21%

29-10-2007, 01:40	#3
Chuckles '09 sexual conquests: 4.5 Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1,075	My Dad's father worked down t'pit. His father worked down t'pit. His fathers father worked down t'pit. Reapeat Ad Nauseam. __________________

29-10-2007, 01:51	#4
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	My stepdad's a genealogy nut. He has a few big folders full of stuff he's researched since I got him on the internet a few years ago. My Mum's side of the family has people in Yorkshire, somewhere in Scotland (who had lost contact with the rest of the family over 50 years ago but we found them) and probably a few other places. My Stepdad's side of the family has connections back to the Irish potato famine (well it would do with a surname like Menah a generation or two ago). Unfortunately I can't find out much about my Dad's side as it seems my Dad doesn't have interest in such things (no surprise there), and the best source of information would be my Nan who seems to have decided it's too upsetting for her to recount and there's no way I was going to even think about pushing that. I've even seen my Mum's diary from the year I was born - complete with my birth weight. Last edited by Mark; 29-10-2007 at 01:54.

29-10-2007, 07:15	#6
Will BBx woz 'ere :P Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 2,147,487,208	I've managed to trace part of my family and our family name appears in the Doomsday book. However I haven't really focused much between that time and the relatively immediate past. Our surname is quite prevalent in the USA so we must have emigrated there at some point, or at least part of our family went to Ireland and moved on from there to the States. __________________ *No No!*

29-10-2007, 07:54	#7
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	That's fascinating Piggy. Would be really interested to see those pics when you get them My Mum's absolutely obsessed with tracing our family tree and she has loads of folders full of info as well as a database on her computer. She tries to get as much info as possible on everyone to get an insight into their life, because she's really interested in the social history aspect. She's always off to various records officies to get marriage/birth/death certificates for some distant family member or other. She's not interested in the family name as such, more the link of people who got together to form our family and the people in it... if that makes sense? She's even been to churches to see where our relatives are buried and visited the villages they used to live in. So far, she's found that we come from all over the UK. We've been in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and some of the family moved over to the USA too. I think the funniest story she's found out so far was that my Nana's great great great etc. Grandfather died in the asylum. My Nana was mortified because my Grandad kept taking the mick out of her for it, lol. __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?

29-10-2007, 07:09	#5
Nutcase Moonshine Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Chelmsford, innit! Posts: 3,979	A distan relative grounded the SS Great Britain

29-10-2007, 08:48	#8
Stan_Lite Stan, Stan the FLASHER MAN! Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: In bed with your sister Posts: 5,483	One of my uncles on my Father's side of the family traced ours back to the middle of the 17th century, apparently our ancestors were the lairds of one of the small islands in the North of Shetland. He went to the island and took pictures of the ancestral home - a small mansion by Shetland standards. Although there have been various bits tacked on throughout the years, it's still an impressive house and is still used - the present owner is a Lady something or other (no relation). He couldn't get any further back than that because the parish records before that were in a poor state of repair and mostly illegible, which is a shame. One thing that was quite interesting is that, up until the middle of the 18th century, they still using the Fathers first name with son or daughter tacked on to make the surname of the offspring (i.e. the surname of the son of Peter Robertson would be Peterson and the daughter would be Petersdaughter). This practice died out in most of the rest of the UK in the middle ages. This format is still in use in places like Iceland and would account for why Shetland stopped using it so late on, since much of the culture in Shetland until recently was based on old Norse culture. __________________ Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I...

29-10-2007, 11:19	#10
Wossi Absinthe Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: In the middle Posts: 1,385	My Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great (I think that's the lot) Grandfather used to race longboats across the Tyne and all over the country. He was quite well known when he lived and was given a pub in his local village as a mark of respect, the pub still stands today. I remember visiting his gravesite for a project I was doing at school and instead of a normal headstone, he had a giant bronze statue of him there - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Clasper His funeral procession was watched by an estimated 130,000 people.