General Chat

I am having great fun rattling the skeletons, hope future generations enjoy mine!! Not spilling the beans now of course!

Well Ann the Victorians were a sanctimonious lot. Covered up piano legs, used child prostitution, sent children up chimneys, young children and I mean young in factories craweling under weaving looms etc.

As you say it is the holier than thou attitude which is galling.

Found in a newspaper that my Great Grandfather whose children were very 'pious' was arrested for being drunk and disorderly when he was young. Nothing wrong with that but I wonder if his family knew, they were all baptists and T total.

And my Grandmother, the wife of the above's eldest son, she was a pillar of the Baptist church, was a 7 month baby. And her mother another Great Grandmother, had a baby before she was married who was brought up as her sister. I couldn't care less, but they were all so religious and goody goody.

It is the 'tasty' bits which make life interesting. According to my mother her family were all just short of canonisation! To my sorrow she was not around last year when I discovered her g.gfather had died in a lunatic asylum of syphlis!! As a result of this demeanor his family were cut out of the family business (he was one of three brothers who began a very sucessful foundry exporting world wide) and exiled from the rest of the 'good' family.

Oh l'm sure l have some skeletons in a large closets...my dad married 3 times and had affairs everywhere he went. His last wife was his housekeeper...lol
The twins who lived opposte me turned out to be my half siblings.....l would love to find the rest as l'm sure they are out there somewhere.
Looking at some ship records the other day found my grandad went to America aged 65yrs, he was'nt 65yrs but about 6 weeks old, someone has used his passport!!!!!!!

jude :o)

Found an article this week whilst looking at those addictive on line newspapers that my great grandfather (before he met my great grandmother)together with a woman from Bradford were described as a 'riotous couple' because they were extremely drunk and he threatened a window cleaner, it doesn't say why. When the police were sent for he 'downed' the policeman. The woman was given two months jail and he was given three months hard labour. As my father was a man of a fiery nature, I had always presumed it had come from his mother's side of the family, after all these years I am having a rethink.-jle

LOL-my eldest worked out at the age of 10 that mummy was 'up the duff' when she anddaddy married!
I congratulated her on her knowledge of biology and maths!!

My g grandfather's brother was convicted and imprisoned in 1851 of trying to derail a train -ironically at Cheddington - the same year my g grandfather (allegedly a very 'pious'man) joined the metropolitan police!!

One of my g grans married her husband the same year her eldest daughter (my gran) married - at least the 10th child was legitimate!!
They'd had to wait until ggrandad's first wife died,but ggrandad called himself a 'bachelor' when he signed the certificate.
Sex really was invented before the 1960's!!

One of mine did time for setting fire to woodland in Herefordshire

.Dunno why,I don't think he lived in Herefordshire,in fact I doubt any of the family have ever been there.

Many moons ago, little groups of people would gather at History Society meetings/Record Offices etc and usually the conversation would turn to 'who are you looking for - or what do you hope to find. Mine was always the same in OH's tree I hoped to find a sheepstealer who was deported!

All I found to my horror were Vicars/Rectors for 2-4 generations, then they saw the light and I think discovered sin!

I haven't found a murderer yet, but have an example of just about everything discussed by previous posters, plus a suicide.

Just had an email from her - informs me that 'as we have decided her g.gmother committed a crime' perhaps we should move on as she would like more info.

No apology nothing - hell freezes over comes to mind!

Believe you me Claire she was - if you had read the emails and she did not believe it - in spite of documentation!!!!

It was as if I made made up the story and invented the marr certs/census!!

She will never know what she has lost - a tree going back to 1622!

I would just LOVE to find a little *interest* in my trees.
My living rellies have enough skeletons, where are the ancestors?
They all seem to have been hard working salt of the earth people.... BUT... I will keep on digging .;-0)
Deanna X

I think that the more 'trouble' you find then the more interesting it is.

I dont know why she is blaming you chris,,,,we cant all have tree's that are neat and tidy.

Well I am afraid that even in todays modern society there are still people out there with the same views regarding illegitimacy etc.

My In-Laws were approached by their daughter asking them not to "celebrate" their 50th as this would let everyone know that their daughter was was well on the way at the time.......like everyone would be sitting there trying to work it out!!!! I was stunned to say the least, this was in the 1990's.

My own parents were expecting little ole me when they married, I feel quite proud of the fact that I was there on the day! lol

Annx

My gran created most skeletons!! (and told the most 'porkies')
...and she was such a lovely lady!!
I can still see her, fag in mouth scratching her pig's bellies.

Oh -and she made me and my cousin (aged 11 and 10 ) sit on Princess- the most violent of cows,and smoke 5 Woodbines each for stealing just the one!!!
Harsh!! LOL

She really was a lovely lady, though. When a man she had adopted as a 4 year old later on in her life contacted me,and I jokingly pointed out that she wasn't 'whiter than white' (ie my dad and his sister were illegitimate) -he refused to talk to me!!
My reaction? Well sorry - just look at the birth registers-both had her maiden name. Not my fault - just fact!!!

Thanks Sharron. I've nearly vomitted into my late night hot choc. Just when you think you've heard everything about the Victorians. I mean have you seen the way they posed kittens.

Yuk and double yuk.

Jill

The Victorians were fascinated by death and would sometimes have photographs taken of their dead children as if they were still alive.I have heard of one such picture of a couple taken in a photographer's studio with the body of their twelve year ol daughter standing between them with a hand on one shoulder of each parent.

Death was like the Victorians' sex.

Hey. It's always easier to blame others than to accept a truth. My father blamed me for everything that happened to them. From my existence holding him back or my mother catching a cold and as for the shame of their grandson having autism...

How silly this woman is but how sad too. She is blinkered and embarrassed by her past. Let her get on with it. Bit of a cheek though to respond to your help in such a badly behaved manner.

Don't let it put you off.

Jill

Agree Chris, my nans baby died at 18months, I also have a photo of her sitting in the garden at my nans house........she was such a bonny baby. My mum was born a year later, and that photograph was never taken from its place on the sideboard whilst my nan was alive. It was the only photograph they had of her and it was taken by a neighbour showing off his new camera..........mum said my nan was so thrilled to have it.