Family Myths

[Grampa Jim]

My Gran was christened Maud Wake Heron and always claimed to be descended from Hereward the Wake. It turns out that her mother, after the death of her father was raised by an uncle and an aunt whose maiden name was Wakes.

[Wilf]

I'm really pleased to dispel one family myth.

My great grandfather Thoms Cooke died in 1911 aged 43.
When I first started my research I was told he had drank himself to death.
I recently got his death cert...he died of TB

He may have been drinker but alcohol didn't kill him... I believe he died from drinking milk straight from the cow.

Allie

[Ozzie Gert]

A distant cousin was telling me her family story was, her 2x great grandfather had died in India and his wife died giving birth on the boat home. They had put their 4 older children in a home before going to India in early 1900.

Putting the children in a home was right, but the parents never left England. The father married, his niece in 1936 after moving back to his hometown and the wife remarried in 1911, we have not found a divorce yet.

This man was my great uncle and i already had his birth and 2nd marriage cert when told the story.

Sylvia

[Mary from Italy]

How satisfying to know that you can hate the guy without having to feel guilty, though

For many many yrs my MIL told all who would listen of her poor unfortunate father nursing both his parents on their deathbed of TB.
His father even allegedly fell off the bed onto the floor and he had to pick up his dead body.Him only being a kid (family myth places him of around the 10 yr old mark)
All this trauma accounted for his demise in adulthood to being a drunken violent villain of a man who cruelly mistreated his children and wife, taking an axe to them and giving chase on many occasion. He beat them all and never worked, the kids were removed a few times by welfare and most of the time he lived in a drunken haze, All because he nursed both his parents who died within a couple of weeks of each other in his arms.
He was the baby of the family too (youngest of 16 kids) and when his parents were dying they made provision for their "Bubby" and paid for a third grave alongside them both for his eternal resting place, when his time came that is.
Well you can almost feel the lump in your throat and almost pity the man in his grief which incidentally lasted 50 somewhat yrs. The scarring he bore and the heart wrenching tale of a boy orphaned and the excuses the family made for his diabolical behaviour. The anger - the violence- well there were no grief counsellors in those days were there.It was understandable.
Then along came me and my family history.
well for a start his father died in a hospital of consumption ( me and my darned death certificates!) while the 17 yr old Bubby was in jail (we were never told that bit) (me and my darned court records)
and his distraught mother only six months after was remarried and living it up with her new MUCH YOUNGER man, she continued on a great life for a further 9 yrs before she too died of the same illness but not quite in the way we were all told. again in hospital while he was away doing his bit for the king again(tee hee)
He finally succumbed to the drink about 20 yrs ago and was dutifully buried with his ma and pa in his eternal resting place at their side.
I rang a few weeks ago to speak to his very elderly sister in law, with whom nobody has had any contact since his death she being his last living contemporary (she is sharp as a tack)
She told me the third grave was for their eldest son who paid all the burial expenses when his pa died and his ma but when MIL dad died 20 yrs ago there was no money so they had to grovel to his elder brother to let them use the grave he paid for all those yrs ago.
CAN YOU IMAGINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It took me many weeks to let all these cats out of all these bags, the courage it took me to dispel these myths was enormous, and I was shot down a thousand times but the certificates dont lie. Death certificates, marriage certificate and archived court records.......she thinks I have made it all up. This cost me a ****** fortune to prove to her, but still she says Im wrong. Im keeping my mouth shut in future.

[taffyfrog]

My mother and grandmother brought me up believing that my gggg grandfather was a Scottish sea captain who ran off with the family savings to the United States (where he had somehow managed to raise a second family). Unfortunately the ship went down en route, all hands lost. Seems that there was money somewhere just waiting for me to collect. None of it. he was a humble Bridlington tailor, buried in Bridlington along with his ancestors as far back as 1690.

[Sunny Kate]

One family myth that is unlikely to be proven concerns my 3 x great grandfather Thomas Charles Druce, born about 1796 to 1800, supposedly at Witney (according to 1851 census), married first wife at Bury St Edmunds in 1816, married second wife in 1852 and died in december, 1864. He fathered at least 10 -11 children and owned/ managed the Baker Street Bazaar in the late 1850s.

In 1896 the widow of one of his sons claimed that Thomas Druce was in fact the 5th Duke of Portland and that her son was the rightful Duke and that her father in law's burial was a sham. The fact that the Duke of Portland was eccentric and avoided contact with people fuelled this speculation. ! A series of famous court cases ran in the London courts until 1907 when TC's body was finally exhumed from his grave in Highgate Cemetery. Verdict - it was TC's body.

The court cases entertained the world at large and various players were convicted of perjury etc. Newspaper articles of the time are fascinating reading and books have featured the claims.

None of the many Druce descendants that I've corresponded with has been able to find TC's origins in parish records. There were also claims that TC was an illegitimate child of a previous Duke because there appears to be a family likeness. Information about TC's first wife Elizabeth Crickmer is also very scarce.
So who knows - what is fact and what is fiction???

[Jac]

My ex OH said his family were connected to the Peabodys of philanthropic fame no they lived in peabody buildings in Hammersmith.
Jezeph family came from Russia as yet unproven and am back to 1702

[Grann65]

My gt grandmother Clara Giovannelli (born 1843) was supposed to have come to England with her father Gregorio who was an interpreter for Garibaldi in 1865.

No, I've found out that Gregorio (Gregory) came to London about 1817, married in 1818, and had nine children all born in Clerkenwell. According to censuses, most of the family, including Gregory, were artificial florists. Clara was the youngest child and her father died in 1853, well before Garibaldi's visit. The myth began when she gave father's occupation on marriage certificate in 1866 as interpreter - wishful thinking? it maybe sounded better than artificial florist!

[Uncle John]

Ooh, I forgot - something I cannot prove yet - mum's Eccles family is related to Sir John Eccles, but which one ???

Cannot find any John Eccles knighted in our Manchester Eccles yet !!

Was he the model for Eccles in the Goon Show, perhaps? :D:D

[dicole]

Ooh, I forgot - something I cannot prove yet - mum's Eccles family is related to Sir John Eccles, but which one ???

Cannot find any John Eccles knighted in our Manchester Eccles yet !!

[Nicky L]

Bits of this are true

My great uncle claimed (in writing) that his grandmother's family (Ann Perkins b Porlock Weir 1814, my gg grandmother )ran the Ship Inn at Porlock Weir. True it was run by various Perkins .

His g grandfather who was born in Larne (not sure tho his son, James Green my gg grandfather was born there in 1809)

My ggg grandfather had a schooner and that he and his wife had a smuggling business from Ireland to Porlock Weir (the headquarters being the Ship Inn)! Not proved.


He also said that my gg grandfather was taken to sea at 8yrs old, and "His father, my ggg grandfather sank the revenue cutter, for which his schooner was cut in half and he hanged on the main mast head at Bude. " This is the bit I'd really like to prove!

I have found that James Green was in the Preventive Service, and that he was married in Bude in 1838,
Also that his FIL James Perkins, my ggg grandfather (b Porlock Weir 1778)was also a Coastguard,and is buried in Bude aged 85
James P also won a silver humane society medal for a rescue off Budehaven in February 1845, when he was 67! So obviously pretty tough .

Smuggling and coastguards seemed to go hand in hand.


The Perkins family had small Copper Ore barques trading to Chile. Not proved.

There's a big connection with the sea/fearlessness in the Green/Perkins line.
There were 2 more coastguards, a son and a grandson of James Green.

My Great Uncle ran away to sea when he was 14, was brought home, then allowed to go to sea. He was shipwrecked on Staten Island off Cape Horn for 3 weeks in 1903,it was his first voyage and he was 16!
He was a master mariner in sail and steam, commanded a motor torpedo boat in WW1 and was awarded a DSC.
Maybe its not so surprising that he did the things he did, given his genes.

So I'm still looking....

Nicky

[Meridian Line]

At my mother in laws funeral last year, the family were talking about her father, who said he had been on the ship that had rescued Ernest Shackleton from his ill fated journey to the South Pole on the Endurance.

Shackleton had set off for Antarctica in August 1914, and planned to cross it via the South Pole. Early in 1915 the Endurance became trapped in ice, & 10 months later sank. Eventually Shackleton took a few men & made it to South Georgia, where he was picked up by a Chilean navy tug, the rest of his crew were finally rescued in August 1916.

I had a copy of my OH's grandfather's navy WW1 record, he didn't enlist until May 1917, and was posted to HMS Dublin, which was part of the North Sea Force, based in the Firth of Forth.....the opposite end of the globe from the South Pole!!

With the help of a descendant of another sailor on the Dublin, it turned out that Shackleton had been a passenger on HMS Dublin from Murmansk (on the Russian coast) to Scotland in November 1918, and had given a lecture about his adventures at the South Pole.

When I told OH's father all the info I'd painstakingly gathered, he said I must have my facts wrong, as his father in law wouldn't have made the story up!!:(

[Grampa Jim]

My Gran, Maud Wake Heron, always claimed that her middle name referred to the "fact" tht we were descended from the Hereward. The truth was that her mother after the suicide of her father was raised by her Uncle and Aunt. Auntie's maiden name? Wakes.

[Uncle John]

Myth or truth - not yet proven. FIL and his sister claimed that their ancestors fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie and subsequently had to change their name from MacDonnell to Mitchell. They never managed to explain how the family ended up in Sunderland. The furthest back I've got reliably is about 1800 in Sunderland.

[Boudicca]

My mother always believed the story that in 1936 a German contingent came to Bethnal Green to offer my grandfather a castle in Switzerland. He had died the previous year and so it is in fact my uncle who is now heir to the castle. The only problem is that there are other male heirs who lived in London at that time who would have been more eligible. Also Anthony Adolph from GR told me it isn't an uncommon story!

My mother also believed her grandfather was a Scot and bootmaker to the Queen (Victoria) but he was in fact born in St James, Westminster and I think his father was too. BUT his grandfather was a Scot who worked as a shoemaker in Carnaby Street so the story had just got a bit distorted.

[Laura the Explorer]

hi
Never knew much about dads family still don't really even though I had spoken to his sister before she died all I knew was he had a great big chip on his shoulder because on his birth cert under father there is s line




Laura

[cookingkaz]

hi
i have got a myth that my ggrandmother mary apperley is related to james apperley or "nimrod" victorian sports writer,havnt found it yet but theres lots out there and i also have problem with owens supposed to be welsh havnt found them yet either.
karen;)

[allie island]

It's been great reading these 'myths' :D

Mine was also the one which more or less started me on this Family History lark.

My Grandad was born in the workhouse and bought up in children's homes, but wasn't an orphan.
The family story went that his mother was in service as a cook and he was born 'the wrong side of the sheets' - in other words he was the illegitimate son of a member of the gentry.

As you can imagine, I hoped to find some rich rellies BUT.....
though he was born in the workhouse, his mother wasn't a resident there (just used it as a lying-in hospital) and it was his father who was the cook - mother was too young at the time to have such a lofty job - and unless they lied on the birth certificate, they were both from humble backgrounds.

Never mind - it was fun finding out the truth

[kelly smith]

My Nan always said that she was related to Sir Athur Rostron of the Carpathia. Rostron was her maiden name I have followed this family line back to the early 1700's and have not found a connection! If there is one it must be a very distant cousin!!