One of my main hobbies is poking about round old graveyards and burial sites...I like reading the inscriptions on the grave markers of people who died two hundred years ago and wonder what their lives were like...and that led on to researching my family tree. Irish records are virtually non-existent 'cos the rebels burned the GPO down, which contained...among other records...all the census forms except for those of 1901 and 1911. So it really is a struggle to get any further back than about 1850...
It wasn't long before I found my Mother had fibbed...not a tiny little white lie but a thumping big one. According to Mother she was an only child sent away to Scotland when she was six years old to board in a convent school...and she apparently never went back home, spending all her holidays at the school.
Mother had four brothers...two half brothers and a sister! One of the half-brothers was a war hero...one of the other brothers was a drunk who ended up in a poorhouse...and another brother married a woman who was a little bit potty.
I was gob-smacked so I was.
And she had an Uncle who was a priest and two Aunties who became nuns...
Most of this information came via a cousin I met on-line through the Ancestry site...and the best part was meeting that cousin and another cousin in Dublin a couple of years ago...
The English side of the family is much easier to trace...it's quite easy going through parish records to get back as far as the early 1600's and sometimes...if those folk had titles...back much further to the 1400's...everything is on line now you see.
But when I began to ferret around in Himself's tree...well...you wouldn't believe what I unearthed. One of his cousins, about six times removed, was transported to Australia in the early 1800's. He'd stolen a bolt of cloth and was actually sentenced to death but it was commuted to transportation for life. He carried on thieving mind you...then there was a vacancy for the post of official flogger and hangman. He applied for the job and earned the sum of fifty-two pounds a year for administering the nasty whip made from hide to the naked backs of various miscreants and hanging others who escaped the flogging, but ended up with rope round their necks instead.
Not the sort of family you'd want to have over for afternoon tea...
Another cousin...slightly more recently in that he didn't die until the early 1920's, was sentenced to penal servitude for life after shooting his wife dead...he was out on parole after a couple of years and lived until he was ninety-two! He'd travelled to Australia on one of the early 'assisted passage' schemes.
I'll be keeping a careful eye on Himself from on...
26 Replies
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Wow vashti, interesting read and still funny ( not laughing at ur family but there is defo some lively characters) might have to go and look at mine now , intrigued slightly. X Sonia x
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It's ok to laugh...they aren't your relatives...lol
That's great Vashti and really funny. I did try going back through mine but found it hard going. Can you put some pointers on please on how to startie what records to use and how to do it online please? Thanks. coughalot x
Hi Vashti, brilliant! it's amazing what you can dig up lol! I have some amazing family stories handed down, I should really write it all down before I forget! My Granddad was related to a famous playwright huff xxx
You really must write it all down hufferpuffer...it's a sure and certain way of keeping the memories of our people alive...famous playwright? My mind has gone to mush I can only think of Shakespeare...lol...and that'd make you a very old person indeed!
I'm not that old haha! my Grandpa ( Mams side ) he was the cousin of Samuel Beckett, I remember my Great Auntie Georgie being very proud of a mantle clock that he'd bought in Paris... huff xxxxxxx
It is fun isn't it? I'd love to actually meet with some of them...
Yes,it is great,being able to go back in time.One of my distant Uncles,some years back was a serial bigamist,that was a real eye opener! I did start a family tree,but have not done much of late,I really must get back to it!
I don't think it will be anywhere as interesting as yours though! xxx
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A bigamist is very interesting! Don't think I have one of those...lol
That's an interesting history Vashti, not sure I could have the patients to do all that research. Maybe when I become less active I might. Enjoy your searching x
Keeps the mind active Vashti, have to send you details and get you to do my research for me. I lead a bit more active live as secretary of a group which takes me out quite a bit even if at a laid back pace.x
Hi.......nice to see another family history enthusiast. Him in doors is very into it. He also has an Irish family, we think from Cork. ?? County or city.
Like you he had relatives transported to Australia but his were English and judging by the amount out there they must have populated a whole state on there own.
The Irish side had one catholic brother, but they wouldn't help us with any data on this man and his origins.
My side are more sedate ....just country paupers.
You will have to let us know what else you discover..........
J.
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Maybe if you knew which Order the priest joined? He'd have gone to Maynooth to do his training first...but if he joined a Monastery it might be slightly more difficult to trace him...
You say 'just country paupers' but they were responsible for keeping the country fed...and each would have had a skill...
Sorry...that sounds as though I'm banging the table...lol... but I used to sigh heavily when I came across another ag lab until I researched their lives.
Cork has masses of records on-line...but Him Indoors would need to know the Town lands of the people he's looking for...
Hi Vasti, I too joined Ancestry during my bad year of illness (you need plenty of time to do this justice). I really enjoyed the experience and felt in the end almost as if I knew them all personally. I did not find any skeletons in the closet as you did but I did get back to 1432 on my Paternal grandmothers side and back to 1650 on my Maternal grandmothers side. One weekend my husband and I decided to pay a visit to Angelsey and Caernarvon (where all my Paternal ancestors came from). I knew the villages and hamlets where they had lived, so it was relatively easy to go and have a look. Most of the hamlets are just a few houses and farms, however, one hamlet had a church so I went inside and walked around looking for my ancestors. Would you believe I actually found one ancestor and child as I was looking through all the gravestones (mostly toppling sideways or part of the paths), yes I was actually standing on top of the gravestone. As his name was William Williams amongst a village of Williams it could have been any family except that the child buried with him was a baby daughter Anne who died at 3 months of age (yes I had the proof with me). I could not believe it, I stood there and thought of their lives on the farm and yes I left with a tear in my eye. I would recommend this as a hobby to anyone interested. Good luck and take care Maximonkey
Lovely to actually find a grave of two of your people...it breaks my heart sometimes to see the sheer number of babies and small children who died.
It is almost a commitment that you undertake when you begin searching...I don't want to leave anyone out...want to have every single person remembered...lol
The furthest back I've managed to get in a direct line is to 1545...that's on the English side...
Thanks Vashti, good luck searching and enjoy the experience. I found more about my husband's family than I ever expected by looking in the advertisements in local papers. From there I went further back and found they were from Ireland. The parish records helped with this part of the search. This part of the family line stopped in the early 1800's in Ireland but as their name was not Irish but comes from Northumberland I guess they emigrated there for business reasons (they had a carting business which obviously was needed during the potato famine). Anyway if there is ever anything I can help you with, please ask. Take care and keep well. Maximonkey
Hi Vashti........great to find someone else who likes graveyards!!!! My family laugh at "mum's ghoulish fancies" but I find the older headstones fascinating with such ornate carvings and the inscriptions, often touching or amusing...much more interesting than modern ones.
I've also done our family trees and although I've had some surprises ( I found my Dad had been married before he married my mum......now that was a surprise) there's been no one famous or infamous in any of them but I live in hope!!!!
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huff xxx
No Pleasing Some People...
Died at the Tower of London
