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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:
Skigal86 · 20/08/2024 07:13

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.

This happened in my family, although we found out when my gran died that my great aunt was actually my aunt. Dad and Uncles had suspected it for years though. Not sure how they found out but my grandad gave money to my grans parents each month for taking care of aunt. So we don’t know if she was his daughter and he and my gran later got married or if her dad was someone else. We all now basically pretend that she’s always been our aunt and don’t mention it.

TitilatedOcelot · 20/08/2024 08:36

I'd like to know how my great grandparents met. On one census GGM is an inmate at a work house. By the next she is married to GGF and they are living over 100 miles away, in a town neither of them is from. GGF is from a completely different part of the country to GGM. I always wonder what happened in those 10 years between censuses!

Everyoneesleistheproblem · 20/08/2024 08:44

Two of my aunts have had one of their children with someone that wasn't my uncle (would have been in the 60's). I never knew until my dad mentioned it in my teenage years and it has never been talked about in the family . Not sure my cousins even know their biological dads.
So weird as everyone is happy to talk about emotional stuff and be open in general. It would just be interesting hear first hand how different getting pregnant outside of a relationship has changed over 60 years.

Original poster
livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 08:53

OnNaturesCourse · 19/08/2024 23:18

What a brilliant thread!

I'd love to know why my GG mat Uncle ended up in a mental hospital in London when he was retired army, single and living in the Orkney the census before. He stayed there until his death many years later, buried in London. The hospital records show no next of kin despite him coming from a large family with over 10 siblings and, at the time, living parents plus many aunts and uncles.

What happened to him in those years between census and why did he have no next of kin?

That's a really sad story, something significant must have happened for him to end up like that and with no recorded NOK. I can imagine though that the family might have disowned him or pretended he didn't exist if he was suffering from mental health problems in those days 😥

OP posts:
Sawitch · 20/08/2024 09:11

I would like to know who my maternal grandfather was to complete a family tree. We were told that he was a soldier and given a name, but have never been able to trace him. I reckon my grandmother was spinning us a line!

CoffeandTiaMaria · 20/08/2024 09:29

Growlybear83 · 19/08/2024 20:39

This isn't a mystery on the scale of others but I would love to know what happened to my Mum's engagement ring. She remarried in 1986 and I don't remember ever seeing her without her engagement ring on after her wedding - she was like me and never ever took her rings off. She finally stopped wearing it about three years ago when her dementia got really bad and she lost loads of weight. I put it away for safekeeping when I realised she wasn't wearing it one day and found it in the bin because she thought it had come out of a cracker. After she died I got the jeweller to resize it and re- set the stone so that I could wear it. I got a proper valuation done at the same time so that I could insure it. And when I read through the valuation report, it said the year of manufacture was 2002. I've checked the hallmark and spoken to the valuer, and it's definitely correct. It looks like my mum's ring and the current valuation would tie in with the original purchase price, adjusted for inflation over the years. But how can the hallmark show that it was made 16 years after she first got it?

If she’d had it resized or restyled it would have required a new hallmark. I’ve had my engagement and wedding rings done recently.

sausawyee · 20/08/2024 09:40

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 06:25

@sausawyee get your husband to test his Y DNA at FamilyTreeDNA, may give extra helpful data additionally to AncestryDNA.

Thank you.

FatFilledTrottyPuss · 20/08/2024 11:15

I’d love to know what happened to my great grandmother and my grandad’s twin brother.
The story was always that great grandmother was pregnant out of wedlock and her married sister agreed to take the baby once it was born. When GGmother had twins her sister would only take one and the other was sent to Canada. After my grandparents died we found out that GGmother had kept the twins herself until they were 3 years old and then given them up.
I can’t imagine how traumatic that must have been for her and her little boys and nobody knows where granddads brother ended up, or what happened to GGmother afterwards, other than she was shunned.
Apparently granddad used to see her around the village when he was a little boy but had to ignore her.

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 11:25

@FatFilledTrottyPuss have you tested at Ancestry? Might be interesting to see if anything popped up.

OnNaturesCourse · 20/08/2024 11:47

livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 08:53

That's a really sad story, something significant must have happened for him to end up like that and with no recorded NOK. I can imagine though that the family might have disowned him or pretended he didn't exist if he was suffering from mental health problems in those days 😥

Show quote history

I agree he may have been shunned, but I really want to know how he ended up in London. There is no sign or record of him being in London prior. I'd love to know where he was buried too as I have located all his siblings but not him

FatFilledTrottyPuss · 20/08/2024 11:49

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 11:25

@FatFilledTrottyPuss have you tested at Ancestry? Might be interesting to see if anything popped up.

Not yet… I actually bought an Ancestry test for my dad a couple of years ago that he wasn’t interested in doing. He’s given it back to me but I’m scared of half siblings popping up if I do it! I’m going to once I’ve plucked up the courage.

CrushingOnRubies · 20/08/2024 12:31

I also would like to know who my dgps met. They were together during some of the war but married after. But my dgf was away for all of the 5/6 years of the war and my dgm was in England the whole time and I think courting someone else at the start of the war.

Arraminta · 20/08/2024 13:19

DH's maternal grandmother. Did her first baby really die accidently as the result of being dropped, or was it infanticide?

Hoppinggreen · 20/08/2024 13:54

Misthios · 19/08/2024 23:35

Yes a lot of these “mysteries” could be solved with a DNA test or a couple of hours research.

It was actually a DNA test that led to the mystery in DH's family.
Having said that it was more of a lightbulb moment than a complete shock

redtrain123 · 20/08/2024 13:56

Why my uncle was adopted? No one knew until my grandparents had passed away. Why did they decide to adopt? And then have children naturally?

AgathaSultana · 20/08/2024 13:57

On a dna test my cousin came up as a half sibling so I'd love to know if that's true or if we're just cousins.
Also my grandad was disowned from a well to do family so it would be cool to find out more about them.

GuppytheCat · 20/08/2024 14:00

In my family tree on Ancestry, there is a birth certificate for a child called Edward. In the next census, Edward has disappeared from the family and instead there is a daughter, Lillie, with the same date of birth.

Lillie was definitely a girl, as she went on to have three children. So... who was Edward?

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 14:13

@AgathaSultana was the test at AncestryDNA?

Bluebellsinthewind · 20/08/2024 15:51

What a fantastic thread. It blows my mind , to think in the past people had secrets that with DNA/Internet etc we can unlock in 2024. If only they knew.

I started a tree on Ancestry during the first lockdown and got on reasonably well with it. I found a distant cousin in Australia and we swapped a few messages.

This thread has inspired me to pick it up again now the dark nights are creeping in.

In answer to the thread title (I had totally forgotten about this, until this thread) rumour has it that one of my ancestors was friends with and worked with Al Capone.

Original poster
livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 16:09

GuppytheCat · 20/08/2024 14:00

In my family tree on Ancestry, there is a birth certificate for a child called Edward. In the next census, Edward has disappeared from the family and instead there is a daughter, Lillie, with the same date of birth.

Lillie was definitely a girl, as she went on to have three children. So... who was Edward?

Wow that really is a mystery! I would love to know what happened to Edward too, do you have any theories?

OP posts:
Lemooon · 20/08/2024 16:11

livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 16:09

Wow that really is a mystery! I would love to know what happened to Edward too, do you have any theories?

Show quote history

Maybe twins? Birth certificate for Lillie missing so it looks like it was just Edward. Then Edward sadly died before census so just Lillie left.

Original poster
livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 16:12

Thanks everybody for all your really interesting posts so far. I love hearing about family stories and imagining/guessing what might have happened. Some things are so sad though, but it's all such rich social history.

OP posts:
Original poster
livingonaprairie · 20/08/2024 16:13

Lemooon · 20/08/2024 16:11

Maybe twins? Birth certificate for Lillie missing so it looks like it was just Edward. Then Edward sadly died before census so just Lillie left.

Show quote history

That's a possibility I hadn't thought of!

OP posts:
AgathaSultana · 20/08/2024 16:16

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 14:13

@AgathaSultana was the test at AncestryDNA?

23&me

Peverellshire · 20/08/2024 16:18

What’s % share there @AgathaSultana ?

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