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Dear all
We find all sorts of rellies in this exercise. When I first started, I tended to think all those husbands and wives who stayed together and raised 8 children were wonderful people. I am sure they were, in their way, but they could have been nasty buggers too. Lazy husbands, nagging wives (oops, not much different from today then!), infidelity, illegitimacies, you name it. I found my g grandfather and his wife and six children, including a step-daughter born to my g grandma out of wedlock. I thought "oh how good of him to accept her as his own". I have since learnt that he didn't accept her at all, she was made to skivvy for his family to express her thanks for him having "taken her in", sent out to work and tip up all her wages, and died a lonely, unmarried lady in a supposed lunatic asylum, ignored by her family.
I have another g grandfather who, to the outside world, was an upright man, a cut above the rest, a trade union man, a fighter for the rights of workers back in the 1890s, a member of the local Catholic Church, on it's committee, what a star. Everyone admired him. I have newspaper cuttings displaying his achievements in the community, accolades to his efforts for all sorts of groups. A very well-respected man. But he married a young wife and caused her 16 pregnancies. 12 died at birth or a few days later, but he carried on impregnating her for 20 years until she died, aged 41, in childbirth. The child, his only surviving son, lived. Within 3 months he married again - I am talking 1910 - and when his son died during WW2 the second wife is recorded as his mother. His step-mother was by all accounts a very good wife and mother to the children, but she was not Charles's mother. I got it changed. The cwgc site now shows his birth mother and not his step-mother. I couldn't allow it to be wrong.
Our ancestors were a mixed bunch. We have to accept it. They did what was needed or accepted at the time. I still haven't worked out what is meant by "He had two sons, one born of Mary, his wife, and a daughter Julia". Does it mean he had a son by his daughter Julia? Incest! Or does it mean he had one son by someone else, and a daughter Julia by his wife?
Ah well, we are all here today enjoying this hobby, we have to accept what we find.
Love to all
Margaret
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Susan
I have been researching my family for some years now - all lines slowly back to as far as I can go (in some cases).
There are all sorts in my tree - well educated and reasonably well off in some cases and poor as church mice in others. A whole bunch of mine were from the East End of London and every time I come across my gr grandfather he is at a different address. I know what he did for a living - I have a rough idea of his income even, I know - from extensive reading around the area/subject in question - that he probably had a rough life.
I also know that without him (or any of them) I wouldn't be here. I think most of us appreciate that.
My point was made in light of the census result for my trollope of a gr grandmother. How do I know she was a bit of a trollope? There were a few family stories, her husband (my gr grandfather) committed suicide when he found out she was messing around, she had a child a year to the day (almost) that her husband died, she never married her "fancy man". In short, on the census return she lied. Big time. How do I know all this - because I've researched it. Death certs, birth certs for the child born the year later. Extensive hunting to track down the item in the newspaper about the inquest ... you name it, I've done it.
I'm not basing my comment on the fact that the info on the form differed to what I thought it ought to be. I know that the info she put down was incorrect - now, whether she was a straightforward liar, whether she was "scared" that the "authorities" might find out she was living in sin, or whether she was just deluding herself into believing what she wrote (making herself out to be an iditiot in the process) I have no idea. I expect she just lied - I can't imagine she would have been scared of anybody. She may well have been a bit of a trollope but she was, by all I've found out about her a game old bird and a tough one to boot. And respect her? Yes, I do - because she was a tough old bird. (Although part of me blames her soundly for the death of my gr grandfather so it is a bit of a balancing act in this particular instance.)
But she was definitely being idiotic in filling out the form with a load of codswallop!
Jill
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honestly it is very irritating how some people have absolutely nothing better to say.
Your Ancestors are the reason YOU EXIST.
Your Ancestors had to go to work at 9 and 10 years old JUST TO EAT.
They didn't go to school in most cases and were lucky if they stayed out of the workhouse.
Many older ones never learnt how to read and write mainly because they were never given the opportunity.
so if you got a census page with any information, count yourself lucky!
if you have a subscription to this website then you do have food to eat and a warm place to sleep at night so I think we should give them all our RESPECT if for no other reason than we did not have to walk a MILE in their shoes!
s/
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I agree Margaret.
Just as well they didn't have to claim Housing Benefit or the like!!
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Yeah, Jill, they were like those of us nearly a hundred years on filling in stupid forms. and without our education - I think they did bloody well!
Margaret
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Do you think it was easier before we saw these original images?
From 1901 back I could blame any/all errors on the enumerator - now I blame my idiotic ancestors! Still, it's nice to know they were human!! LOL
Jill
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On the transcripts I have, the address is in the bottom left hand corner.
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thanks julie,
that will be my stupid gg grandfather just writing the name of the town then!!!!
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Karen
Well on the one i have the address is bottom right with my grandfathers signature
Signature
Postal address
George
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bottom of the page, right hand corner
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Afternoon all,
I have bitten the bullet and bought some credits to see the orginal for a particular line that I am sturggling with.
However, no-where on the original can I see the address where they lived....
Please help
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