What made you fall into a black hole when finding out about your ancestors ?

[WinterBerry40]

Mine was on my mother's side in the mid 1800s a family with unusual names led to me deep diving into finding out as much as I can about them .

Names :
Thomas , Joshua ( my gg x times gf ) Ambrose , Emmanuel , Hercules ,Charity , Penella , Lendon , Joan .

I discovered they were travellers and had led lives ( and thanks to their names ) which were easily traceable with lots of info available .
They were quite well known in their area and even have things wrote about them in historical incidents .
My mum would have never known she came from traveller stock and I'm quite proud to have that in my family history .
Hello out there if these names are linked to your family also !

I would love to see a photo of her but as I said in-laws (who fell out with my nana over legacy/will) have all family docs and photos from that side.

Thank you so much MNers for the posts helping me! Truly grateful 🙏

No, there were more Bunces in Munster than in Ulster in the 1911 census (see map). The census at that time covered the whole island as Northern Ireland didn’t exist then. The name Daisy was much less common in the Catholic community as a pp said, but it seems that wasn’t your Irish great-great grandmother’s name after all, so the probability is she was in the south, though can’t be sure of course. As pp pointed out a lot of Bunces were in North Kerry then.

That would be great. Hope you’ll be able to access that information 🤞

Well looked on ancestry and no Daisy or Margaret Bunce there.

So will try the Irish link here.

Any tips for healing a decades old rift with an elderly lady? She lives in London but her only child is in NZ. He’s lovely though.

Yes my nana knew her own mother as Daisy but obvs not her first name or if she did I never knew it and we don’t have marriage or birth death certs. I need to do more digging thanks!

I’ve found great grandad’s details but hard to see on phone so will look on laptop later.

Isn’t it a bit strange that in Ireland you could generally tell, in the past, whether someone was Catholic or Protestant by their Christian name.
Daisy would be less common in the Catholic community then as a nickname for Margaret. It would usually be Maggie or Mags.
When doing your research @Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain
remember that Ireland was counted as one country administratively including for Census records, under British rule until the War of Independence ended in 1921.
However during the Civil War that followed Irish independence many records were lost as a fire destroyed the Public Record Office.
The Irish Census of 1926 is being released to the public tomorrow. It is free to access. There was no Irish Census in 1921 because of war.

Thanks for this.

bloody complex! So many records to check both Rep Ireland and England and NI. On ancestry you can search by NI but not specify the exact places? Munster and Leinster? Why?

My mum has on her ancestry account her great grandad’s birth records. And marriage I think too. So can get info from there. She needs to share it with me I think. My mum lost interest in researching further. So down to me.

The way I’m working it out, great grandma was Daisy born illegitimate in either Ireland or England. She’s my nana’s mother. Married working class man and became so my nana said middle class. She died 1917-1922 in London. Buried in London. Kensal green cemetery I think. Nana’s parents wanted her married off at 14, partly because she was flighty and had dance lessons. Very strict household. Nana was taught piano, typing at Pitmans and swam for her county (London). Went to an Anglican girls school in Ladbroke Grove apparently with confession boxes (?!) and priests. Not Catholic.

Her mother (my great great grandma) was definitely Irish and 18 when she died giving birth to Daisy. She wasn’t called Daisy. Maybe she was Margaret in Ireland. Whether she lived in Ireland or England too I don’t know. I am guessing she was born in Ireland, she either got pregnant and ran away to England to hide it, the shame or she came to England for work, met a man, got pregnant then died having Daisy at 18. I am assuming she died in England. Unmarried probably. But the latter (unmarried) is just a guess. I think the Irish mother was servant class from gossip from my nana, but again not 100% sure. Could be farming family.

Sorry for confusion!

Your poor great-great-grandma. Only 18! Women had it so tough then with pregnancy and childbirth 😔

Good luck with your enquiries. Bunce is an uncommon name in Ireland so that might help a bit hopefully🤞

Thank you! Will try to update.

I get that but my point is that Daisy as a nickname may be a family thing. Where there is one there may be more. Especially as the Daisy in my article above was born in the 1920’s. It’s certainly an avenue that I would be exploring.

As far as I know it was her first name. What she was known by. But as you say it may not be her Christian name.

My nana was Lilian Jean and was called by Lily by family and friends as a child and young woman. When her mum died when she was 14 she was sent to Liverpool to stay and live with her uncle and aunt but didn’t like it and returned after a few months, maybe 6 or a year. On her return she found her dad had remarried to a woman named Lily who was only a few years older than her and was 18/19. Nana didn’t get on with her new stepmum and from then on was called Jean, her middle name. I think she would’ve preferred to stay as Lily but her stepmum may have created a row over that and other matters. and her dad just went along with whatever his new wife wanted.

My auntie from my nana’s first marriage (she got divorced as he was sent to jail for being a confidence trickster) was sent to a milk farm according to nana. Nana told us that after she got divorced she was working in an office, living on meagre wages and didn’t know what to do as a divorcee with a young daughter. She said she met a woman who told her about milk farms. Nannies were expensive and there was no social security only the workhouse/poorhouse. Her dad who was wealthy didn’t help her apart from paying for and organising her divorce. Only that wasn’t all. So my aunt was sent to the milk farm. She was then fostered out and placed in an orphanage. Her dad came to see her and wanted to keep her as a child but her mum wouldn’t allow it. At 16 she reconnected with and went to live with her mum, (my nana) and my step grandfather (her stepdad) and my mum (her half sister from nana’s second marriage), but soon clashed with her mother (my nana) and moved out of the home they shared and she eventually got married. We knew nothing of the fostering or children’s home, my aunt only told me after my nana (her mum) died. So sad.

Placemarking

I’m happy to confirm that recorded first name is not the same as the name she was known by. My great aunt was Elizabeth but was known as Lily all her life except for her birth and death records. Her marriage record and her census records are down as Lily. Until the day she died, she was Aunty Lil. I don’t know why - I can’t find another Elizabeth in the family.

Good point about Bunce being the father’s surname and not her surname. But then I don’t have the father’s Christian name.

It’s like Who Do You Think You Are!

My stepdad is Irish too. From Sligo. And my step grandma was from Tralee.

My 3xG GF and GM were drowned at sea just off the coast of Belfast in a huge storm in the 1860s with 2 of their children. He was a master mariner and captain of a collier that made regular runs to Belfast with coal from Fleetwood. The storm battered ships around the coast of the UK and over 150 ships were wrecked over a couple of days.
Despite losing his parents my 2xGGF went on to be a master mariner. The family have an eclectic collection of gifts he brought back for my 2xGGM from his trips. One of his grandsons became works manager of what is now BAE who build the huge nuclear submarines.

Most of my family were involved in ship building. They moved around the country as the industry grew. My DFs side were anchorsmiths from Devonport and my DMs side were marine engineers from the Clyde. My 3xGGF was an engineer driver on the Clyde in the mid 19th century. He probably drove engines in the goods yards or ship yards.

There is also strong evidence that I’m related to Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame although it seems he has a lot of decedents. We are not direct descendants just cousins multiple times removed.

I haven't quite worked it out yet, but there's a distinct possibility that I am distantly related to a man called Howard Carter. He and Lord Carnarvon discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

My grandad did alot of family tree research as his parents died when he was a teenager and his mum had an unusual surname. He found a couple of generations back a relative went to America and a town was renamed to the surname in his honor.
The Scottish novist Dot Allen we're related too.
I've been doing the other side of my family and a bit of my husbands. Turns out my great grans sister's first and middle name and DG's great gran, first name and surname are the same. Both families lived in the same tenement stair when my great gran and siblings were children and DH's great gran and husband where in their 20's.
I think perhaps DH great gran was maybe a godmother or something because of the name thing. About 15 or so years later both famies had moved and again were living in the same tenement stair.
Every so often I go back to the family tree and do a bit more research and each time I do I get sucked back down that rabbit hole !