Genealogy Chat

I know it's been said many times before, but the ONLY way is to trace back one generation at a time. My husband's aunt said that his ancestor John Cummin was in the battle of Trafalgar. Yes, there WAS a John Cummin in Trafalgar, but was he ours??? Who knows. Family legends are great, but they should be treated as just that unless proven. Was my 2 x great grandmother a famous soprano [as I have been told]? Probably not---there is absolutely no proof of this! Beware! Wendy

Great Grandfather, according to family, married after Great Grandmothers death to an 'American' who spent all his money. I 'met', through this site, the Grandson of Great Grandfather and the 'American'. The American was British through and through and there was never any money!!! His family had it that Great Grandfather's first wife (my GGrandmother) was foreign......Well she was Irish....Does that count??? Just goes to show......Take family stories with a pich of salt, until proved otherwise :) Chris

I recently got a copy of my ggrandparents marriage cert which shows they married in 1928 (when their eldest child was 6), they always told everyone that they married in 1918 & even had a big party for their 50th wedding anniversary in 1968!!! what we can't get to grips with is that my g-nan couldn't keep secrets at all did with this one for 70 yrs!!! I've found lots of things like this in my tree, you can't believe all that your told (unfortunately!).

My Mum was happy for me to research my Dad's family, but said I didn't need to do hers 'because we know all about it already'. Everything I knew about my mother's family, told to me by her, has turned out to be incorrect. Someone contacted me on here who was quite a close relation. We struck up an e mail correspondence, but as soon as I asked any questions, he failed to respond. Can you blame me for thinking that there is a mystery here? I'd say use family stories as a guide only until you can prove them to be correct. Sheila

Long ago, when I first started tracing my great-grandfather, my dad told me that he had wanted to study medicine but his father (gg grandfather) wanted him to follow family tradition of carpenter/builder and would not pay for the final exams. G-granddad left home and joined the Army, fell off his horse and broke his arm. He set it himself and it did not heal properly and he had to leave the army, and became the builder his father had always wanted. Well, I carefully checked out the family, and all the facts I could. When I recounted to Dad what I had found and how his story fitted with my facts, only lacking proof of the medical studies, dad said, no it was civil engineering he wanted to study !! Diane

I think perhaps with older relatives, their memories get confused. When I started doing my tree, my gran was still alive. I didn't know about her family so I asked who her parents were. She said her dad was Frederick Rothwell and her mum was Alice Ada May Wordsley (actually Worsley, said with an Evesham accent), that Alice had sisters Polly, Amy, Edith and Laura. Could I find them? Not a chance. Turns out Polly, Amy, Edith and Laura were Alice Ada May's aunties, along with another Alice and an Ursula. Alice Ada May went by her third name as a little girl and Frederick was christened Fred! The only way I found great-grandma was by locating her mother on the census. Since Gran was only 15 when her mum died, perhaps she remembered her mum's aunties as her own. My maternal grandma was magic - she said her father in law was a grenadier guard outside Buckingham Palace. He was a gamekeeper. I still don't know much about her eldest sister Liz, just that she married 'later in life' to a man called Cis Dawson. I'm still looking for their marriage and so far have done most of the relevent BMD pages between 1910 and 1940.

It is so important to check everything out, even what your family tell you. My mother always told me that her grandfather went to the Blue Coat School because his father had been killed in a coaching accident and left young children. As far as I can find out her grandfather never went to the Blue Coat school, and his father didn't die leaving young children as he shows up on every census. Also even the local paper and local books make mistakes as my great grandfathers brother was knighted and various references to his parentage link him with another well known family with the same surname. I've gone right back to the 1500's with this other family [thanks to the paper] and there is nothing to link him with them.

I have to say, when I first started, I took everything that family told me as fact. I've since double checked everything and found inaccurate birth years, inaccurate birth places, and misspelt names. You can tell theyre not a family orientated lot!

Your going to have to go way back to discover links to Sir James Douglas (also known as 'Black Douglas') considering he lived in the end of the 12th and the begginong of the 13th centuary. Or is it this Douglas? 'James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas and 3rd Earl of Avondale (d.1488), 'Black Douglas', brother of the previous, attainted 1455 and all his titles forfeit' Which is even still along way back. I'm abit confused with all the different Douglas's, though out there somewhere there should be a peerage/family tree that might help you if you manage to get that fer back. I think the best thing to do is work backward through each generation, researching fully and making sure you know everything. It may take a while but then you will be able to prove or disprove what you have been told with facts and documents. I like to go with what my family says, check it out to whether its right or not and then add it to my tree/tell them about it. I think nearly everyone discovers things that they have been told that where wrong in someway or another. Good luck with your search Mhairi

I think family stories, even those written near the time, should be treated as good clues, rather than fact, until they are verified through research. On my maternal side, my GGGrandfather (meticulously) kept records, and my own Grnadfather followed by writing a small book with his take on the family history. I have the records kept by GGGrandfather, and am waiting to obtain the book after Christmas, but already some discreppancies have been found. I have also only just today discovered my GGGrandmothers illegitimacy, which somehow got missed from the records lol. On the other hand, my paternal side have had an argument for year as to whether my GGGrandmother was Robertson or Mackintosh. Grandad always said Robertson, his sister said Mackintosh. The certificate showed my Grandad to be right. Take them as clues, which can point you in the right (ish) direction, but be prepared for some facts to be missed out and hushed up.

My mam left me a book when she died, her version of family history, dad side is right bck to 1800, but her side of tree after Gt Gt grandfather is wrong wrong wrong, I have since found out by checking her family one of my cousins twice removed was hanged in /durham, well is that why the records are distroated? I think so, so Isay follow your nose and find the right facts and figures and you won't go wrong

I haven't even been tracing my family tree for a year. I have been relying on older family members to give me information concerning the Family Tree and our Relatives/Ancestors. Which is correct on my Dad's side of the tree, but not sure about Mom's side, she says that we are descendents from the Black Douglas of Scotland, so why can't I find the link? As the story goes my Great Grandad was a Quaker who changed his name to Dagless to be able to go into the army, (because he was a Quaker it was against his religion to go to war.) How could I possibly check this information, and how would I find Gt Grandad Dagless's Father who would have been Douglas? By the way Gt Grandad Dagless was born in Norfolk, so where are the Scottish roots?