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Off Topic The Family History Research thread

Discussion in 'Queens Park Rangers' started by West London Willy, Sep 19, 2017.

  1. West London Willy

    West London Willy Well-Known Member

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    Anyone else here done research into their family history? It'd be interesting to see whether any of us are unknowingly related!

    I've done quite a lot of research into my own tree, and stumbled across an interesting story last night.

    My 2x Great Grandfather (paternal direct male line), Thomas, seems to have been a bit of a player. He was married twice, the first ending in the death of his first wife Sarah, and the second marked as separated, but never divorced (which would still have been difficult back then, in the 1870s).

    All the while, however, there's another woman in the background. Mary Ann appears on birth certificates for a number of Thomas' children, including that of my Great Grandfather (another Thomas). It seems that she came on the scene around the time of Sarah's death, and was considerably younger than her lover. After Thomas and Caroline separated, Mary seems to have moved into the family home, and when she remarried after Thomas' death, she is named as his widow with his surname, despite never formally marrying. I guess they had presented her as his 'wife' and had she reverted to her own name, the lie would have been uncovered.

    I feel like I'm on Who Do You Think You Are...

    Any other stories?
     
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  2. sheffordqpr

    sheffordqpr Well-Known Member

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    I've done a bit.

    My maternal GGG Grandfather ran a pub in Wokingham. The Raglan, which unbeknownst to me at the time, I used to take a customer of mine for lunch. He also was a signalman at the junction down the road. Fewer trains then. He had a couple of daughters, one of whom took up with a local ne'er do well by the name of Edward. After having courted her and eventually marrying her, he moved in to the pub and worked locally as a labourer on an ad hock basis. Several records exist of his brushes with the law and inevitably, having got said daughter up the duff, he did a Reggie Perrin and ****ed off abroad, turning up 10 years later in Venezuela under the name of Eduardo. I know this because he eventually returned to the UK to face his misdemeanours, so maybe he wasn't a bad egg after all.

    On my fathers side, we appear to be sprung from Norfolk stock. There is evidence that my GGG Grandfather ran a silversmiths in Holborn. Dad's family come from a long line of travellers, so effectively, I am a Norfolk pikey!!
     
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  3. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    That's odd Sheff. Several of my direct descendants on my fathers side were silversmiths, goldsmiths and jewellers, all living in the Clerkenwell/Little Britain area from the early 1700's to the early 1900's.
     
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  4. West London Willy

    West London Willy Well-Known Member

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    Loads of my family are from Shoreditch and the surrounding area, so it's likely there was some interaction (although probably just on the nicking stuff from your ancestors level...)
     
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  5. sheffordqpr

    sheffordqpr Well-Known Member

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    If you live in a caravan and let your kids **** in the street (as I do) we are obviously related!!! Welcome brother pikey!!:emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl:
     
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  6. Didley Squat

    Didley Squat Well-Known Member

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    Our family has been traced from here in Oz back to Cornwall England, although we are not related whatsoever to Vicki Pollard (TV show).
     
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  7. Turkish" Premier" Hoops

    Turkish" Premier" Hoops Well-Known Member

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    My g,g,great grandfather forget which side was the chimney sweep at Buck,House my great grandad my nana's dad finished up as regimental sergeant major royal fusiliers,and was master at arms at Dover castle during WW1 having been sent home from front aged 45 lol in 1915 and was ARPWarden in Whitton near Twickers in the second lot he was according to research actually born in St sepulchres in the City of London in 1870 and he died at home aged 98 in 1968, making me a direct descendent of a proper true Londoner born in the actual city of London.
     
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  8. West London Willy

    West London Willy Well-Known Member

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    Most of my family on my father's side are from Shoreditch / Hackney going back many generations, so I'm laying claim to be a true Londoner (yeah, I was born in west London, but it all counts!)

    Quite a few of my relatives have spent time researching the family tree, so I'm in possession of a lot of information, going back an unfeasiblly long way. There's one route mapped out that will take me back through some of the earliest Puritan settlers in America (one of my ancestors' names is on the founding Stone in Hartford, CT) and then back through various sirs, earls, Dukes, etc. and ultimately to Royals. William The Conqueror, King John, and through them back even further to people like Harald 'Bluetooth', after whom the communication thingy is named.

    On my mother's side, we're pretty much Essex people, with a little Irish thrown in somewhere...
     
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  9. sheffordqpr

    sheffordqpr Well-Known Member

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    We are ALL related to Charlemagne.
     
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  10. West London Willy

    West London Willy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, but do you know the names of the people in between? :p
     
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  11. durbar2003

    durbar2003 Well-Known Member

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    Seems to be a lot of Thomas’s in your family,
    Wow, there must have been a lot of Willys among your ancestors.
     
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  12. Lawrence Jacoby

    Lawrence Jacoby Well-Known Member

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    Grandfather was a baby left in an orphanage born in the U.K. but from a woman from ballybay in Ireland

    He grew up on a farm for orphans
    Never met or could find out anymore than stated

    Grandmother from Spanish gypsy origins wiped out in WW2

    They had 9 children my Mum and purchased a farm that was where Gatwick is now

    Father was Kent gypsy and strangely had no other brothers or sisters

    Both his parents died when he was a boy so he knew nothing

    I grew up on a big farm in remote East Sussex I have three boys and had French roots for 35 years

    i have one Uncle left who still runs a farming concern
    I have many cousins of course males all mainly with long service records in the Army

    Apart from that I know very little
     
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  13. durbar2003

    durbar2003 Well-Known Member

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    So do you live in a caravan on someone else's farm?
     
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  14. Lawrence Jacoby

    Lawrence Jacoby Well-Known Member

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    Nope I sell Winnebagos
     
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  15. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    Acoutrema!
     
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