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Original poster

What family mystery would you like to solve?

148 replies

livingonaprairie · 15/08/2024 22:27

Just watching Who Do You Think You Are and have always loved finding out family stories. If you were ever famous enough to be on the show, what would you like to find out? For me it would be investigating my granny's family
We found out shortly after she died thar the person we thought was her father (who was still alive when I was little) actually wasn't. He was the father of her 6 siblings but she was the oldest one and born illegitimately at the end of WW1 and he took her on as his own. I'd love to find out about my actual great grandad and his family but we'll never be able to because we don't have any information at all. Are there any interesting family stories/rumours you would love to learn more about if you were famous enough for WDYTYA?

OP posts:
Original poster
livingonaprairie · 16/08/2024 10:40

Gosh thought that at least a couple of people would be interested in this 😳

OP posts:
Mydustymonstera · 16/08/2024 10:43

I think it’s interesting! But I don’t have a family mystery I know of. Following!

Anonym00se · 16/08/2024 10:44

We were told my great grandfather died at sea but from doing my family tree and a dna test I discovered that he’d buggered off and bigamously remarried. I’d love to know what went on there!

thecatsthecats · 16/08/2024 10:45

I can't say because I've told the anecdote too much to people that I know are on Mumsnet!

I have a passing theory about my ancestors. They fought on the Lancaster side at Bosworth in spite of being a distinctly northern family. There's a patch of Stanley lands that have connections to my family though, and I wonder if a second son threw his lot in with them.

AuntieMaud · 16/08/2024 10:53

I have a fair bit of info on my paternal grand and great grandparents side of the family but almost nothing on my maternal side. So frustrating and I have even considered hiring and paying for an expert to do the digging for me.

What does this cost? Has anyone here done this?

OnlyFrench · 16/08/2024 15:17

My mum's dad was allegedly killed during the Boer War.
He had two birth certificates with different fathers....one of whom allegedly died in WWI. Funny, because he was receiving an army pension till he died in 1949!
DNA confirms that neither was his real dad 🤷‍♀️. Absolutely no idea who it was, but his mother spent time in prison for prostitution, so quite a few candidates

invisiblecat · 16/08/2024 15:23

What my dad really did during the war.

He wasn't conscripted as he had a 'reserved occupation', and it was all very hush-hush and Official Secrets type stuff. I don't think he ever even told my mum. Although I have a vague idea, I'd love to be able to find out more.

shellyleppard · 16/08/2024 15:30

Op I would love to know what happened to my dear grandad. Rumour has it he was involved in a fight and the other fella was injured/killed?? Then when he returned to Scotland he changed his name?? So much mystery but I will never know the whole story as everyone has now passed away.

TickingAlongNicely · 16/08/2024 15:36

My dad is certain his parents married in 1947. Theres records etc.

But I've found a wedding certificate from 1942, which makes more sense with their ages.

Mining family, so not a soldier shipping overseas etc.

My question would be why the quick marriage, then the public one years later? My guess would be a pregnancy but the miscarriage?

SpiritedSneeze · 16/08/2024 15:37

I'd like to know who some of my ancestors were and what happened to them.
My maternal grandmother was abandoned shortly after her birth into the care of a man (definitely not the father) who may have lived in the same block of flats. That man then gave her to a older couple who raised her until they died when she was a young teenager. She never had anymore information about her birth family.

MerelyPlaying · 16/08/2024 15:42

My great-grandfather was a bit of a bad’un. Married a widow with three children, they went on to have six more children together.
Came back to the UK from overseas and within two years he’d run off with the cook/housemaid and had six more, one of whom was my grandmother.

I know who his parents were, I eventually tracked them through DNA and his father was (at the time) a well-know entertainer. But he lied about his father‘s name and his place of birth on his marriage certificate, I’d love to know why, and what he was doing before the age of 30 when he married.

Meanwhile, on Ancestry the DNA results show someone who is as close as a second cousin, but of whom I have no knowledge. I sent them a message but they haven’t replied (possibly not subscribing any more) - I’d love to know where they come into the family as I’ve got full family trees for the last three generations.

one day …. It took me years to track down great-grandfather’s true identity.

CMOTDibbler · 16/08/2024 15:45

Not my family, but DH's. His great grandfather had a habit of 'marrying' a woman, getting her pregnant and then beggaring off after the baby was born. The only legal marriage of the 5 appears to be to DH's great grandmother and all the rest were bigamous. He moved round the world doing this, but no sign of where he died so I'd love to know what happened to him

Blueuggboots · 16/08/2024 15:45

My Grandmother was brought up by her older sisters and they told her all sorts of stories about her family being connected to German aristocracy.....no idea if it's true but would love to find out.

Escaperoom · 16/08/2024 15:46

My maternal grandmother's father was a mystery man. Or at least to anyone left alive. Apparently my grandmother knew his name, but after she died DM couldn't remember it. He was a Captain something or other, but could have been the captain of anything from a rowing boat to an ocean going liner (more likely the former!) Would be interesting to know more about him but we obviously never will.

notasockpuppet · 16/08/2024 15:47

My maternal GGGfather. Got him getting married to an Irish lady (so no records now as they went up in flames), on the next census with 2 girls, then poof! Disappeared. No death certificate, no divorce either, a complete mystery. Been hunting off and on for 40 odd years!

On another note I work for a very large, UK wide organisation and I spotted the name of a guy who shares my GMother's (very unusual) maiden name. I plucked up courage to email him and we come from the same region in the UK (not where either of us live) so as my Gmother was youngest of 10 and the only girl, there is a very strong possibility we are related ( however I am old so possibly a generation older than him😂)

BelleoftheBall5 · 16/08/2024 15:48

My dad spent decades researching his family tree (pre-internet). Year’s later, a relative on my mums side asked him to try to find out about her father, (nothing was known about his birthplace or childhood. He told family that he had changed his name in his early 20’s following a car accident). No one really believed this to be the truth. He worked as a journalist.

My dad couldn't find anything despite years of research (and frustration). His feeling was that my mums relative probably worked as a spy. My mums cousin paid a private investigator to look into her dad, too. The PI concluded the same, that he was probably a spy. I will never know the truth.

Auvergne63 · 16/08/2024 15:49

My Italian grandparents emigrated to France in 1926 because of Mussolini. My grandfather refused to join the fascist party so had to flee. They left their first born behind and never went back for her. I would love to know why.
The same grandfather was arrested by the Germans, during the occupation, in the middle of the night and disappeared for 3 months, leaving my grandmother and her 6 children to fend for themselves. When he returned, he never spoke to his children about it. No one knows why he was detained and where. I wish I knew what happened.

Mydustymonstera · 19/08/2024 19:27

wow @Auvergne63 i wonder why they left her behind?? Did you ever manage to trace the grandparents, maybe she was left with them?

Hoppinggreen · 19/08/2024 19:30

Is DH's real grandad a Russian rapist?
Very sad story but we suspect he probably was rather than the lovely man who married his pregnant Grandma.

CharlotteStreetW1 · 19/08/2024 19:39

Was my father's family really related to a US Presidential dynasty (we have the name in the family and they're from a similar part of the world) and was my mother really related to a very famous sportsman (who shares my mum's unusual maiden name) or is it just made up fanciful bullshit on both their parts? 😄

JoanThursday · 19/08/2024 19:48

What an interesting thread!

I want to know where my great-grandfather is. He and my great grandmother had several children in the early 1900s with the last being born just before ww1. He went off to war and came back now and then - I know that because I found an article about it in the local paper at the time (good old digitised archives!).

Then ... He just disappears. Not on 1921 census, not on 1939 census. There is no death record, and I can't find him popping up elsewhere in the country, eg marriages. My great grandmother is described as 'head of the household' on the census.

My father tried to find out more from elderly family members back in the 1980s but no one was prepared to talk about where my great grandfather went.

Years after my Ggf disappeared, my great grandmother got together with the chap next door. They never married, but she took his surname. They're buried in the same grave in the tiny village where they met.

MargaretThursday · 19/08/2024 19:49

I'd like to know what my grandad did during two of the war years. He flew (fighter) in the Battle of Britain and for a bit afterwards.
He was then moved to a bomber regiment, with no flight records, although we know he was still flying (fighters) in combat situations in that time.
After the war he was a test pilot.

I have a suspicion he was in intelligence over this time. He was very clever, brilliant memory (I remember him memorising all the number plates in a car park once-about 30 of them, when he was in his 80s) and also designed his own house, which included a basement with his own built transmitter radio (he was apparently quite a well known radio ham for a while after the war).
He also had a few stories about being in places at important times, and giving eye witness accounts, but there are no records of him being there.

I would just find it interesting.

LIZS · 19/08/2024 19:54

Why did my ggm half brother move to USA with his young family in 1890s and did he meet up with his half sister who also emigrated later then moved to Bermuda.

Who was dh gm father? Family anecdotes do not match any records.

Augustisnearlydonesogoodbyesun · 19/08/2024 19:56

My dm told me her df died of a heart attack.. At an anniversary party his dsis's dc told me he drowned... No way to know the truth now.

JC03745 · 19/08/2024 19:57

Was my grandmother actually the mother of a great aunt, and not her much older sister as we were told? Nan said she was disgusted that her parents had a 'change of life' baby when she was 17, but was it really hers?

When nan married my GF, why did they have to suddenly leave the rural area they'd live in for years and move to the city- when my mum was a toddler? Rumour has it that nan had an affair! Everyone is gone that would know now, including nan, who lived with her secrets for 102yrs.