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Original poster

Family History Shockers

54 replies

WildSassenach · 03/09/2025 22:08

I've been researching my genealogy for the last ten years or so. Having revealed a few skeletons in the long lost closet, what are the strangest or most shocking things you've found lurking in yours?

OP posts:
YorkieTheRabbit · 03/09/2025 22:17

I think you may need to share your skeletons before others share theirs Smile

Original poster
WildSassenach · 03/09/2025 22:19

I'm not after a story, DM or otherwise @YorkieTheRabbit.

OP posts:
petermaddog · 03/09/2025 22:19

i have a sibling born before me before they get married no idea born in a covent home for girls i think

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Families
Original poster
WildSassenach · 03/09/2025 22:20

I would share one or two but I've told the rest of the family. 😂

OP posts:
Lemintonic · 03/09/2025 22:22

I've been informed recently by my 101 year old Aunt that I have another sibling somewhere. That's a bit shocking.
I had no idea and I honestly don't believe my late mother knew either

CheeseWisely · 03/09/2025 22:25

My Grandmother had an affair with my Grandad’s Brother in Law (his Sister’s husband). Went on a few years I’m told. All brushed under the carpet and both couples stayed together. They were both dead by the time I found out. Nasty judgemental old bat about other people’s indiscretions she was, how she had the brass neck after that I’ll never know.

Dabberlocks · 03/09/2025 22:26

@WildSassenach There is a genealogy board on MN, have you ever had a look there?

My ancestor's sibling was murdered, that was a bit of a shock, reading that on the death certificate. You expect all sorts of causes of death, but not 'murder by person or persons unknown'.

DonorConceivedMe · 03/09/2025 22:28

Finding out my father wasn’t my real father as my mother had used a sperm donor. That was quite a shock…
Then discovering that my siblings were in fact half siblings as a different donor had been used each time.

R0ckandHardPlace · 03/09/2025 22:29

Two of my Gt.grandparents were bigamists. One was allegedly a mariner who was ‘lost at sea’ leaving my Gt. Grandmother a widow. He’d actually moved to England and had a whole new family. Another Gt. Grandfather left and married another woman and had a new family, all whilst living two streets away from my Grandma and her Mum in Brighton.

I had a great aunt who was pregnant out of wedlock. The baby was taken from her and she was put in a mental asylum, where she died.

My 15 or something times great grandfather was Sheriff of Nottingham. But the most shocking, shameful discovery of all was that Elon Musk is my cousin (our gt gt grandmothers were sisters).

Original poster
WildSassenach · 03/09/2025 22:35

I did post a while back @Dabberlocks, not many folks about though.

@R0ckandHardPlace How did you get that far back? I've tried, but it's so difficult to do it with any accuracy.

OP posts:
DonorConceivedMe · 03/09/2025 22:38

Other fun facts are that DH is descended from Edward III and I’m distantly related to Tracey Emin!

R0ckandHardPlace · 04/09/2025 05:48

WildSassenach · 03/09/2025 22:35

I did post a while back @Dabberlocks, not many folks about though.

@R0ckandHardPlace How did you get that far back? I've tried, but it's so difficult to do it with any accuracy.

It’s easy to go back centuries if you find.a notable branch. I’ve got a couple branches with Lords and Ladies, and they’re very well-documented. It’s not so easy to find that level of information on the 99% of branches where my family were farm labourers.

The Scottish records are excellent. I’ve spent a few days in the records office in Edinburgh and the staff are really helpful. The biggest difficulty I’ve faced is in trying to access Irish records.

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 04/09/2025 05:59

DonorConceivedMe · 03/09/2025 22:38

Other fun facts are that DH is descended from Edward III and I’m distantly related to Tracey Emin!

Statistically we're all descended from Edward iii.

But if you got documents on that then that's quite impressive!

Natsku · 04/09/2025 06:14

I'm on one genealogy site and I saw that my maternal grandmother had been listed as adopted, asked my mum about it but she knew nothing about it. Checked again a year or so later and she was no longer listed as adopted. So I take it all with a grain of salt now.

Also my mum remembered that her dad had 17 older siblings but only 14 are listed and she can't remember the names of the other 3. Did they even exist or has everyone (several family members are active in adding in people and further information and sources on the site) forgotten them?

nellietheellie75 · 04/09/2025 06:32

My grandmother was the eldest of 8 siblings or so we thought, turns out that she had an elder sister who was adopted shortly after birth. Dp's grandfather had a whole other family.

devildeepbluesea · 04/09/2025 06:35

There’s a rumour that my great great grandmother was a bigamist too - also married to a seaman, but it was her doing the bigamy!
Incidentally I remember her very well, I was about 12 when she died.

Mymiddlenameiscynic · 04/09/2025 06:51

Both my grandmothers were pregnant when they got married.

LlynTegid · 04/09/2025 07:04

Not sure what the best word to describe it is, discovering that you have ancestors who died in the Holocaust.

Footle · 04/09/2025 07:17

@LlynTegidNot sure of the word, but you’re part of a very large club.

Cadenza12 · 04/09/2025 07:24

A number of people in my family tree in Victorian times had babies within a few months of their wedding. I don't think they were as straight laced as we might think.

AutumnLover1989 · 04/09/2025 07:28

Not a skeleton as such but my great great grandmother was meant to go on the Titanic to Montreal,but it was fully booked so went on the Carpethia. Strange to know that if she did,I and my family wouldn't be here...

IamSmarticus · 04/09/2025 08:57

Natsku · 04/09/2025 06:14

I'm on one genealogy site and I saw that my maternal grandmother had been listed as adopted, asked my mum about it but she knew nothing about it. Checked again a year or so later and she was no longer listed as adopted. So I take it all with a grain of salt now.

Also my mum remembered that her dad had 17 older siblings but only 14 are listed and she can't remember the names of the other 3. Did they even exist or has everyone (several family members are active in adding in people and further information and sources on the site) forgotten them?

@Natsku Can't you search the birth records for any others? Using surname/MMN and approx birth year +/- 10 years?

I found out by searching the newspaper archives that one of my ancestos murdered his wife in her bed. Another committed suicide by jumping into a canal as she was convinced she had a terminal illness (but didn't).

Natsku · 04/09/2025 09:00

IamSmarticus · 04/09/2025 08:57

@Natsku Can't you search the birth records for any others? Using surname/MMN and approx birth year +/- 10 years?

I found out by searching the newspaper archives that one of my ancestos murdered his wife in her bed. Another committed suicide by jumping into a canal as she was convinced she had a terminal illness (but didn't).

Show quote history

I don't know how to search birth records (not uk), shall have to find out

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 04/09/2025 09:01

Natsku · 04/09/2025 06:14

I'm on one genealogy site and I saw that my maternal grandmother had been listed as adopted, asked my mum about it but she knew nothing about it. Checked again a year or so later and she was no longer listed as adopted. So I take it all with a grain of salt now.

Also my mum remembered that her dad had 17 older siblings but only 14 are listed and she can't remember the names of the other 3. Did they even exist or has everyone (several family members are active in adding in people and further information and sources on the site) forgotten them?

Any possibility that the other 'siblings' were in fact children of unmarried daughters brought up by their grandparents as children of the family but not ever listed as such?

YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt · 04/09/2025 09:18

I did Ancestry DNA and a load of half cousins, etc popped up who I knew nothing about. Turns out the man I thought was my grandad wasn’t my biological grandad. Nobody had any idea!

Well apart from Grandma I guess. And actually looking back I suspect “grandad” probably knew seeing as my mum was born in 1941 and “grandad” spent most of ww2 fighting in France. My grandma told me a weird story just before she died about how she’d had a “friend” in the war and grandad found out and wasn’t happy and there was a fight and grandma threw a pistol in a river as she was scared someone was going to get shot. So I guess that was the big show down.

i don’t think my mum ever knew. She died before I found out.

i then researched my biological family tree and it is wild. My great grandfather had something like 16 kids by about 5 different women, including the 16yo sister of one of his wives. 🙈

and he went to prison for kidnapping some member of the British aristocracy in something like the 1910s/1920s…..can’t remember the name of the person he kidnapped but he got quite a lengthy prison sentence. Think it was my great grandad, or maybe his brother. I need to be writing stuff down more.