Family history research surprises...

[wheresmymojo]

I'm researching the family history on both my side and DH's.

I've come across quite a few surprises/interesting things and wondered if anyone else had anything they've found in their family trees that took them by surprise?

The ones off the top of my head in my tree are:

• I have a 4th Great Uncle who was a civil war hero in the US (he even has a Wikipedia page); I had no idea we had any ties to the US at all

• DH's family can be traced back to the 1000's because one of them was mates with William the Conqueror

• DH's family is full of Barons, Sirs, Lords and Sherriffs of Nottingham. Some of them have marble tombs and oil paintings

• Mine were poor as fuck, many died in the Irish famine, some lived in Liverpool slums, some died in workhouses. The ones that had a 'good' life still worked down the pits and raised lots of children in just two or three rooms

• In one branch mine eventually trace back to Scottish crofters near Aberdeen (also poor) trying to make ends meet for 10 kids off 7 acres of land

• One very sad suicide with that I think now would've been PND

• Lots of deportations to Australia and time in prison for petty crimes like stealing a chicken (probably to eat) on my poor side

Anyone else?

My mother and my uncles and aunt always thought their grandmothers name was one thing eg Mary Smith, a few months back I found her birth certificate, turns out she went by her middle name and her surname was different to what they thought so she was actually Ann Mary Small for example. Close enough but different. My DM found out the truth at aged 72 and was thrilled I found it, even though it was a surprise

If you do have anyone who went to America then the shipping lists (they’re also on Ellis island for free as well as ancestry) are a great wealth of information.

They contain the address of their closest relative in the uk, so usually gives a good clue that it’s the right person, plus an address of someone in the USA which can sometimes help know who went before there. It also contains random information like their height and how much money they had with them and if they were allowed straight in or held for medical inspection.

It’s fascinating.

The repeated names is such a double edged sword. Especially in a family that adhered to the usual naming patterns. So if the granny didn’t appear to have a child named for her until the third daughter you know one has died.

MyVisionsComeFromSoup ...your Herculeses might be to do with Hercules Linton... builder? of the Cutty Sark. Maybe the name of the year or something

There is a replica of the figure head in Inverbervie!

@wheresmymojo someone has already answered about your background over time using DNA so I'm a bit late. My DNA is very British and says everything is from 1800 onwards so I don't know what happened before then!

When you do the DNA how come you can trace other people with that DNA? Have they used the same company or something?

I've had uncovered great stuff, been researching for 20 years or so and still finding exciting discoveries! The families with unusual surnames are the easiest to find newspaper articles for, or when they take an ancestors surname as a middle name, makes them a bit more unusual. I've found my grandfather had an illegitimate son, he was on the birth certificate and we think he paid money to his mother. Shame he didn't get to know him! I've also found several relatives who have died in train related accidents and even one hung at York Prison. I've found some in the workhouse and in prison. I'm a music teacher and my brother is a bespoke furniture maker (although he's also musical and I've dabbled in furniture restoration!) - we have one line of the family who were musicians and then another side who were all furniture makers and had their own shop! Most were farmer labourers / miners / worked in the mill.

For those of you asking about researching, there are a couple of things I've found useful:

• probate records often give details of address / spouse and can be surprisingly helpful (You can view these on ancestry)
• sometimes you think you've found the right parents marriage, but can't be quite 100% certain - if you search for births on www.gro.gov.uk (you need to register but it's free to search) it also lists mothers maiden name, meaning you can be certain the marriage / mothers family are correct

Happy to help if anyone is struggling or needs advice

ok so I am struggling with my side...all I know of my father is his name and where he lived, but nothing about his parents, so it is a dead end. I found an electoral roll with my mother but no idea where he was before that. Any ideas?

I found his wife and kids on Facebook but even they are drawing a blank. Also, how do you keep it free without having to pay £20 a month?

Oh and also, you can also search surname and mothers maiden name on the gro website (link in previous post) so you can find any children who were born and died between censuses - especially when you know there are some missing ones from the number of children born alive and have died on the 1911 census

Also I found what i think is a couple way back. he was transported, but she came over free. He got seven years but I think they were married after only five. is that likely?

Hey ItsaFuckingPotato, try looking on Free Cen, Free BMD, Family Search and maybe sign up to a trial on ancestry/ find my past (think you get 2 free weeks or so!) Which area are you looking at?

Quite a few things surprised me. My grandfather received the DSM for his actions in the first world war.

My greatgrandmother went under at least six different surnames, and was probably a bigamist. One of her partner's committed suicide by throwing himself off a viaduct, with his hands tied behind his back (!). Oh, and she went to jail for a month for theft. Her husband beat her up, so she ran away with the lodger, taking underskirts(hers) and a knife and fork.

I'm quite proud of her for the running away, not easy in the 18hundreds.

I'm about three generations away from the workhouse.

@eebegum Australia. and it is a common name I think. Can't find anything after 1980 and as I was born after that it doesn't help! :(

I cant even find their marriage listed. Or my mothers to her current husband?

Like you @wheresmymojo my family were obscure and mostly poor whereas some of DH's was solidly middle class but rapidly spiralled up to aristocracy and royalty.
We reckon it's possible his family owned the land my family lived on at several points.
I do find it sad looking at the records of the burials of the children. One woman emigrated to the USA and she had about 7 children who all died under 4. I was willing one to survive :( You wonder how they didn't lose their minds.
Or another who lost her husband, parents and several children in 5 years. Just awful.
On a happier note I was looking at one rural agricultural labourer branch of the family and one older couple had their grandson living with them. Poking around a bit found his mother and a few more siblings all with her surname and a shared middle name. The census 10 years later shows them all together with their mother married to a well to do man with the middle name as his surname and all the children have reversed their names to have the middle name as the surname. The man's mother dies a couple of months before they married. It looks like they were all his children but his mother didn't think she was suitable. Setting aside the why didn't he stand up for her, they did at least have a happy ending and were one of the local middle class for generations. Everyone must have known the history.

In the last fifteen years the research an uncle, my mum and I have uncovered has been full of surprises, a few very sad, and many very interesting. The latest is that the house of a relative has been bought by a Hollywood star.

My family is nothing but Colliers and Ag labs, notable only for how many relatives died in coal mining accidents. My great grandmother lost her father, grandfather, brother, brother in law, son in law and nephew in pit accidents.

I find it all absolutely fascinating though, it’s quite a thrill when you find a new link and absolutely addictive.

Potato you will find that records from mid-20th century onwards have great gaps in them as not all the records have yet been transcribed and made available online.

A lot of errors also creep into online transcriptions, especially if they are done by people from a different country (eg Americans transcribing English records) because they won't have that local knowledge of places and usual spellings of British first names & surnames. They just transcribe what they think it is. There could just be typos as well.

I found out my wife is my 6 th cousin!

Did mine few years ago, also a sheriff of Nottingham in the family - could be the same one!!

I am so shocked but I can't believe that there is proof that 1,500 years ago my ancestors left India, through Persia, to Europe East and West, then throughout the UK and Ireland.

Still no luck with my dad, not even a name. 50% of me is still missing.
Though I do have thousands of gypsys to talk to

If you can find any relatives who moved to Canada it's good. Their records are great.

If you have Irish ancestors, use this site civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp

It can be time-consuming with the regular Captcha checks but you can get real details and rule some Ancestry leads out.

4 Cats, lot's of married first cousins in my tree. Makes it difficult.

I find it very difficult to get my head around how so many people’s children died so young and how they managed to get through such awfulness.

I have Irish ancestors but find the Civil Records site is inaccurate - my grandfather did his family tree before he died, and obviously would have known his own birth date and that of his older brother, but on that site, both birth years are wrong - his brother was born in 1910, but is listed as being born in 1900, and my grandfather was born in 1918 but is listed with the wrong first name (they've used his middle name, which he was known by, and not his legal first name), and as being born in 1915. It's confusing.

Yes, you do have to open up the links and check the actual records on the Irish site. Can take time but at least you can see the actual records. My grandmother had no idea of her actual dob though .