Scully Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 (edited) My Grandma hailed from Skipton and her and her husband came to my home town because of the work on the railways, but that is all I know. I recall she used to tell me she was distantly related to either Marks or Spencer of the shop of the same name. I have a friend who is researching my ancestry and has discovered that there is indeed a Spencer in my family. I'm hoping it at least means discounted underwear, but have a feeling it will more likely mean his forename will turn out to be Frank. Anyone researched their ancestry? Edited July 1, 2016 by Scully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bala Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 I had a relative who was a village rat catcher in the 1800s , true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 someone in the family has done........our side is mentioned in the doomesday book..........then it went all downhill................white Russian and slave trader from county cork...among some of the scum i am related to...........thats why im so well balanced and normal.........................................not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oowee Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 Fingers crossed on the under wagons. A few years back I put my name into an ancestry search engine and it came back no records found. The next day I had an e mail saying your father and grandfather are in grave numbers x and y at London Road cemetery. Thinking it was a scam I sent back an enquiry which came back with more detail. I replied again and started talking with a chap who had spent the last 30 years researching my family history. It went right back to the early 1500 where they were tenant farmers of the lord mayor of London based in Warwickshire. They were thrown off the land under the land reform act and went to Coventry as weavers. It gets a bit woolly at this date as people could not read or write in many cases so the search was stopped as the surname spelling has changed. I went to visit him in St Annes and was given a full set of everything from wills and photo's to indentures and birth certificates. When I was a child I was given my Grandfathers 1st world war medals that had been thrown in the bin together with arm and cap badges, in disgust at the war pension paid. The medals had been rescued and passed down to me, the cap and arm badges given to a girl in the family to play with. This girl was the mother of the chap that had researched my history and he had the badges to go with the medals which he gave me to go with the first picture I had of my Grandad. I had never met or heard of this chap before this date. There is so much detail that I understand he lodged it with the National Archives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 Yes...been doing my family research for nearly 20 years, fascinating stuff and it can get addictive. on my dads side my gt-gt-gt granddad born 1815, was a Crown Glass Cutter at Ravenhead glass works, St Helens Lancashire. On moms side my gt-gt-gt grandad born 1800, was a gamekeeper, Wickhambrook Suffolk. One of my relatives on my dads side (Charles Hartland) shot the vicar of Lower Gornal 1879, needles to say the vicar survived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adzyvilla Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 managed to research my dads side of the family all the way back to the early 1600s, my grandfathers family originally hailed from Manchester and were cabinet makers. My grandmothers family were grain dealers and tenant farmers from bedfordshire. How my ancestors met still remains a mystery. Did find a totally unknown branch of the family through my research, which shed more light on my Grandmothers side, who were big into the quaker movement, and those descendants still live in the Bedford area. My mothers side are an enigma. Both my grandparents were born in the east end of London, and their parents too, but before that the trail is completely stone cold. Both had unusual and rare surnames, with old english origins, which you would have thought would make things easier, but apparently not. My mum assumes they were from 18th century european immigrant families (possibly jewish) who adopted English names on arrival, as she recalls some family rumours regarding jewish ancestry, sadly her and her sister are all thats left of that branch of the family and lots of knowledge of the past was lost when the family home in Deptford was hit by a V1 in 1944. Everyone in the family (3 generations) were killed that night, except my grandmother, who had been evacuated with my infant aunt to somerset, where my mother was born. Its an absolutely fascinating subject and one i will surely return to when i have more time. Maybe i will find the clue that will finally unlock the mystery of my maternal ancestors. Good luck with any further research Scully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secretagentmole Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 (edited) My ancestry was mostly wipe out on my mother's father's side, some little jumped up *** in charge of Germany charged into Poland and destroyed a lot of records. My father's side is more complicated than a complicated thing. Thought his side was all Cambridgeshire Fen, but it turns out his mother's father was a brick layer from Sheffield who moved down to the Fens to work. So that added to my mother's mother's family means I have more Yorkshire heritage than a damned little. Upsetting that is... Edited July 1, 2016 by secretagentmole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodp Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 I'm supposed to be related to Isaac newton, his brains never made the trip though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted July 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 Thanks all; some good stories there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impala59 Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 A whole lot of mine were tranported to Oz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McSpredder Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 .....fascinating stuff and it can get addictive.Yes, very addictive indeed. Done quite a bit of it, for myself and for a couple of pals. I have a sub with www.Ancestry.co.uk, but there is a lot of free info from websites such as www.freebmd.org.uk (useful for England and Wales post-1837, but not Scotland) and www.familysearch.org. Probate records are worth looking at, and those from about 1860-1965 include full names and occupations of the executors. www.gov.uk/search-will-probate Just typing a persons full name into Google will sometimes bring up interesting stuff. If any relatives died in WW1 or WW2, there is likely to be something on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website www.cwgc.org (might be rather busy this week). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 I have done a bit of research and it is surprising how a few random things that had been said about ancestors seemed to pan out in the layout of things. It is complicated and you come up against mother's and daughters and fathers and sons having the same names and names getting corrupted like Smith becoming Smythe. Most people years ago weren't educated which led to the line getting very complicated. As far as I could find that one grandmother's family came from the Birmingham area back to the 1500's and another line of the family came over here with William the Conqueror and the name originates from a village in northern France which had been colonised by the Vikings. Another part of the family were millers in the 1700s in Suffolk. Another part of the family were large farmers in Kent and Romney marsh. Ancestry is very interesting but it is very complicated and everyone is a bit of lots of genes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 My great, great Uncle was the Irish Ambassador to the USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winnie&bezza Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 My mums fathers side are from positano in Italy and his dad (my GG) was full Italian. He married an Irish lady with the surname of Minogue. Still not looked up if I'm related to kylie! My Italian great grandad moved over here with the family and started up ice cream parlours,taxi firms and amusement arcades. His brother (mums great uncle) who was born in England opened up Alfredo's cafe in Islington which is the cafe in the film quadrophenia. It's gone through a lot of changes but I have never been there and is now called meat. Interested to know if any of you have been there at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted July 1, 2016 Report Share Posted July 1, 2016 We have a few characters in our family. My wife has traced some of hers back to 1215 and my side back to approximately 1000, a generation before the Norman Conquest. My great great grandfather fought in the Peninsula War and then at the Battle of Waterloo with the 10th Royal Hussars. He was invalided out of the army, eventually becoming an In Pensioner at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. All ex-soldiers in receipt of an army pension were described as Chelsea Pensioners, an In Pensioner lived in. He lived to a ripe old age and I have a photo of him as an old man in his Chelsea Pensioner's uniform. My grandfather was with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in France and Belgium and was twice wounded badly enough to be sent home. Once he was shot in the backside (!) and the other was grenade shrapnel in his back and shoulder during a trench fight. We found a mines accident record from the 1850's in which my great great grandfather was injured, losing his leg. He was 11 years old at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My great, great Uncle was the Irish Ambassador to the USA. ahhhhh.....so thats where your diplomatic DNA comes from............... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkfanz Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 yes ive done got a huge file of papers collected a good cheap site is genesreunited,for £10 a year you can put your family tree on or what you know of it and then can search other trees it turned up others in my ancestry that was workin on same project then you can share information and study each others family tree, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krugerandsmith Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My Grandma hailed from Skipton and her and her husband came to my home town because of the work on the railways, but that is all I know. I recall she used to tell me she was distantly related to either Marks or Spencer of the shop of the same name. I have a friend who is researching my ancestry and has discovered that there is indeed a Spencer in my family. I'm hoping it at least means discounted underwear, but have a feeling it will more likely mean his forename will turn out to be Frank. Anyone researched their ancestry? My Grandfathers called ..... William Henry Smith ... Received no money yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Geordie Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My old man is directly related to the g plan makers! When he left school, my gran had a job lined up for him there. I am also related to John Baird, the guy who is famous for creating the TV in the UK. Strange thing is, I don't own a TV There is an extensive list of info at my dads, relating to the family tree. It has never really been of much interest to myself! But he seems to take it all very seriously. It all started when he was searching for records of his father, who was killed in an experimental bomber accident. Then he searched for death, church records until he found where he was buried. From there he searched his lineage and never stopped really! Family all over the world really, Australia, America, Hong Kong, South Africa etc. might be good if ever I want to visit said country! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clakk Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My family have records back to 1823 ,as weaver,s in the same family home in Lochgelly in Fife.The last weaver went into the mine,s when industrialisation killed home weaving around 1900.His sons and relatives followed but the great War and second war and even Korea broke into this service.My dad moved away from this tradition doing any job he could rather than follow his dad underground.Grandad lost a brother in the Bentley pit disaster in the 1930,s and saw action in Africa ,Burma and Korea as a Dragoon during the second world war and recalled to Korea ,the so called exemption for miner,s having passed him by???.Great Grandad was in "The Black Watch" and survived the Somme ,dad had a great picture of the wee man upto his knees in his kilt in that stinking mud in front of his trench .He died aged 91 refusing to discuss the horror he experienced and abhorred the politicians that sent them to war .Its amazing finding out what part your family played in history ,but alas no Gettys or Roschilds in our family just working men and women doing the best for their familys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My relative, John Bradshaw (1602 -1659) presided over the trial of Charles 1st, and sentenced him to death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danger-Mouse Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My relative, John Bradshaw (1602 -1659) presided over the trial of Charles 1st, and sentenced him to death. Wow, that`s going to be tough to top! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 My relative, John Bradshaw (1602 -1659) presided over the trial of Charles 1st, and sentenced him to death. you are da man....................i would love to have that history...............when you shook prince charles hand did he have a nervous twitch ? did you ancestor get any keepsakes of the event like a royal ear or finger......or even a toe..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Anyone else here connected to Robert Edwards, a Welsh privateer, given land by Queen Anne? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Edwards_(pirate) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Have been told repeatedly that Genghis Khan is where i get my tact from? Apologies to the OP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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