General Chat

I personally love a bit of scandal in my tree to show off to my more judgemental members of the familylol

I have pirates, slave owners, a woman that couldnt keep her knickers on and abandoned her children anda judge who paid for his daughters lover to be murdered as he wasnt of a high enough status in the community and thats just my Devonshire lot lol

Although my fave ancestor was my 2 x g grandmother Caroline who was born and died in the same house lived to the ripe old age of 97 through some very hard times and im lucky enough that I paid attention to my nans stories about her, she seemed a right character :o)

Oh, SRS, I wasn't dissing your question!

I was just shrugging at my own ancestor(s). I wouldn't mind at all having a proper convict! Just like my deserter, and the grx4 grandparents who got expelled from Dorset under the Poor Law - perfectly respectable things to be. ;) The Royal Ulster Constabulary circa 1922, not so much.

What they all share in their own way is: they're interesting. At least our own are to us. ;)

Hi Janey :)

I know it's part of your ancestry that you cannot choose however it's interesting to see what people hope for. I always think reading the boards that people (well quite a few people) hope for the odd convict or a little bit of a rogue as it's a little more interesting ;) or should I say they can find something a little more interesting about their ancestor.

I think having a witch in your family is interesting, however, personally the way they died would upset me and in some respects I'd rather have someone who died peacefully in their bed.

Thanks everyone for your views :)

Great grandma had a child in Suffolk before moving to Dorset.
Met my g grandpa - who had abandoned his wife in London - proceeded to have 10 children before they married!!
My gran started 'walking out' with my grandad 3 weeks after his (previous) wife had died (that's love for youand very scandalous at the time) his late wife knew my gran - she looked after gran when she first went nto service aged 14.
From their letters when gran & grandad were courting - gran had 3 'OMG' moments - (when she thought she was pregnant) - and they were only courting for a year!!!!
G gran (aged 46 - g grandad was 63) was also expecting a baby when gran was courting grandad - gran thought this disgusting!!!
So for generations we only like to believe out parent's 'did it' when a baby was produced!! LOL

A gr-grandfather who deserted from the Imperial Army after 5 years in India, rather than get sent to die in Afghanistan, when he'd been promised 5 years and out. He was undoubtedly acting out of self-interest (probably with a large dose of disillusionment), but that's fine with me. Anybody who doesn't fight imperialist wars for any reason is fine with me. He lived in fear the rest of his life, probably a combination of traumatic military experience and reality-based fear of punishment. But 60 years later in Canada, he still had nightmares.

His family seems to have been rather successful in business. He had to abandon that. His son, my grandfather, was a union man, mother died when he was 10, struggled to raise a family during the Depression, and was a wonderful person.

The other grandfather was with the Black and Tans in Ulster after WWI. I can think of no extenuating circumstances for that one. I have heard the scraps of stories of what he did. Pure evil.

But you can't pick 'em. He had ancestors who suffered under the Poor Law, who died in the workhouse, who led ordinary prosperous middle-class lives. Maybe his father was as dreadful as he was when he became a husband and father, adultery and booze ... although I have a hard time picturing a cathedral organist in that light. More likely it was the military itself, which was his career before coming to Canada. My dad broke the pattern, with some help from my mum. ;)

All part of the mix.

I wouldn't really mind if they were scandalous or regular ancestors so long as I could find out the basics e.g. birth, christening, marriage, offspring, death, burial. I have too many to chase with hardly any information.

I think I'd like to tell some of mine that, Elizabeth - I wonder if they'd ask me why I wanted to know about someone who was merely an ag lab or cotton spinner? There are others, I must admit, who I'm sure are looking down on me and probably saying to each other, "No one knew about that bit of scandal when I was alive, how come she's found it now I'm dead?". Then, there are probably others who are thinking, "How on earth hasn't she worked that bit out yet? It's obvious!".

I would certainly like to ask my 7xgreat grandad Hurst what it was about one of his son-in-laws that made him leave the man only a shilling when he left his children (and the son of this son-in-law, ie. his grandson) sums of £30 and £40 each in 1772!

Dear All

Hello

I like my ancestors, farm workers, costermongers, traders.

They seem okay.

I dont like the fact that there was so much poverty and poor housing for some of them.

But if I could briefly, I would go back in time to a couple of my ancestors
and tell them that nearly 120 years or more later, they would be remembered.

I hope they would like that.

Very best wishes to all
xx

I seem to have had a lot of Ag Labs in my ancestry, and only one 'gentleman of means', but no scandals that I know of as yet. Might make it interesting, but whatever I find, they are not my responsibility, so it doesn't worry me. I have already ascertained that none of them had any "real" money, so the younger generations must have done better than the older ones did.

Isn't that a different question Dermot?

with probably only one answer lol

Where would we be without our Ancestors?

scandalous
are you joking


i make up for them all lol

Gwyn Lol!!

I was hoping to find out something from the criminal registers then found I couldn't fully access them because you have to have the more expensive membership. Probably wasn't anyone on there anyway, my Ag Labs tend to be more like Gwyns, except for Harriet.

I'm proud of all my Ag labs, but most of them weren't poor enough for poor laws and settlement orders, didn't leave Wills and just generally got on with life, keeping their head above water, so didn't leave much of a paper trail to embellish the bare facts about them in parish records.

Someone in my tree had a bit of a reputation. We had heard of this from different branches of the family, but wondered how to record it.
My husband settled for something like this.......

Harriet welcomed the opportunities of living in a seafaring port. and was always pleased to welcome the men safely back on shore.

Gwyn

oh Maggie,,,lol you did make me chuckle.

**starts wondering what my agricultural labourers got up to***

I was always taught to believe my ancestors were haedworking upright ag labs and merchant seamen!
A lot of my ag labs appeared in the 'petty sessions' for having too much drink. One attacked his neighbours shed (while his housekeeper had a run in with the neighbours housekeeper) because he'd built them on my ancestors land! It went to court. Ancestor was 'forgiven' for the shed incident - as they WERE on his land - but his housekeeper was bound over! LOL
One son of an ag lab tried to derail a train - fortunately he failed, but he wasn't the sharpest tool in the box- he said he was drunk in the neighbouring village - but he saw the perpetrators running away from the line!!
I was horrified to hear of one trawlerman namesake who tried to set fire to a fellow crew member - I researched him and fortunately he didn't come from my lot!
My g grandfather was a ship's steward on the liners. I've heard stories about how some of them behaved at sea ie quite a few were bisexual (any port in the storm etc - pun intended).
I asked my mum about this. 'Oh no - not him - he had 10 children.
BUT - in the 1930's, in his seventies, he would take my mum to see Shilrey Temple films, he would be wearing a frock coat, top hat and have a silver cane - when all around him were in flat caps - camp or what!! LOL

just think if the health and safety PC nit wits
got involved in the testing of witches

breathing apparatus must be worn at all times
safety gloves in case of splinters from the ducking stool
no fires to be lit before 6 pm

I don't think witches were wicked,
but I do think the ones that tried them and then murdered then were.

I think it must be wonderful to have had a witch listed in ones family tree,
not so sure about having one of their murderers though. I.E. members of the church.

Now that has just reminded me of something i was supposed to be doing! trying to find a link to 'Cunning Murrell'
(The Master of Witches) from Essex where my Murrells come from....

http://www.controverscial.com/James%20Cunning%20Murrell.htm

google her name lesley read away
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nwa/wild2.html


http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nwa/wild.html