Genealogy Chat

I sympathise with you all. I have spent the last month since i joined GC trying to track down Alice Maud Lewarne. Found her hubby and kids etc but came completely unstuck with any info on her. After posting yet another message on trying to find last night a kind lady named Ethel emailed me to say her name was actually Alice Maud SQUIRE!! Rang my dad who said, oh yes that rings a bell right enough, I wonder where we came up with Lewarne?!?! ARGHH!! Pam

My poor mother got her middle name from her paternal grandmother - Maud. However, when the old lady passed away it emerged that wasn't her real first name at all, just her preferred name!! My mum has moaned about the injustice of this for years, but it wasn't until I got into genealogy that we realised she had got off lightly - "Maud" 's first two names had been Ethel Gertrude!

I know what you mean - I'm still trying to find proper details about my husband's gr grandfather - he was called William, or William Henry (like his son), or he may have been known as James......! Mind you, the same mistakes can be carried on if we're not careful. A Robert in my family is known variously as Bob, Rob or Bill by members of the family - his father (Thomas William) was usually known as Bob!!!

Della My mum was nicknamed Topsy too. Because of her mop of curly hair.

Know what you mean my mum thought her grandma was a Rooney but she was a McCrystal when I eventually tracked her down and going further back her grandmother my mother's gg grandmother was a Rooney from Sligo. So although the info I had from my mum was correct it was out by 2 generations but got there in the end oh my daughter is Emma and we call her loolie can't remember why probably she couldn't pronounce something sometime so maybe a future generation will have this problem too. Lol Ann

Hi My MiL is lovely; I don't know how accurate she is at family history, though, as my husband's been doing that side for years. My Nan, though, was brilliant, and lived till 93, and everything she told me was spot on. I have done most of my research since she died, three and a half years ago, and I really wish I could tell her all the stuff I've found out - for example, she mentioned an Oxfordshire connection and last year we found it was her great-grandmother's family, and have now traced them back to the 1730s. My Dad gets loads wrong; I just treat what he says with great caution! He and his sister just seem to make things up that appeal to them, but it's quite entertaining. For example, their grandfather was a lowland Scot - no, Bedford born and bred; their grandmother was a Swan, to do with Swan Hunter - delusions of grandeur here, their great-grandmother was a Swan, but her father was a master mariner, so I doubt he had anything to do with S/H... Personally, it's quite a relief to find I come from "normal" stock!! Lysianne, just down the road from Gerry in Herne Bay

Yet ANOTHER red herring from the M-in L (bless her!!) Her Grandfather was born in Liverpool. It transpires he was born in Ireland. Gerry

Yes my gt aunt was Florence but always called Joan. Nobody remembered until I uncovered it and then all acted like they had always known!! My mum is the worst - according to her my ancesters were from Ireland. Oh no they weren't, they were from Scotland! But "gt grandmother Kennedy was from Ireland" - not so, born and bred in Bermondsey! Other Gt Grandmother was called MacKenzie, er no actually Jolley! Ok then gt grandfather was definately Daniel - er no he was David. Still its nice to be able to put her right ;) Lorraine

Try working out how granny became "Topsy" when her real name was Emily Louisa! Della

hi i,m a mother-in-law, and i tell the stories my gran told me, and now i,m begining to find out that perhaps it was,nt quite as she said,still its good to get my outlaws going,lol marcie

i know whta you mean, my mother said, that her father had a brother called sidney,but i can't find him anywhere, his name would have been sidney parry born between 1895 and 1898 she said she always called him uncle Sid but i have looked in both the cheshire bmd and the north wales bmd and no sign of him, so makes me wonder if he had another name, maybe sid was a second name, also she said that her cousin was born in 1909 and i finally found him yesterday born in 1912/14 only found him after find his mother and fathers marriage in 1911, makes our research longer and hard, june

It is not only memories that give wrong names. My mother is known as Babs real name Jessie and an uncle is known as Jack real name Walter John. how would future genealogists have worked that out? Bob (Robert)

Sometimes what the living relatives are told or advise you is obviously been elaborated over time. Sometimes it sends you completely off course. KIM

Iwas told that my Great uncle was Bert so i looked for all the names that would give the abrreviation for Bert or Burt, no luck, till i looked at the 1881 census, there it was, his name was Harry Ethelbert who would have thought of that.

Well..... My grandfather (who died in 1949) had three sons by his first marriage. My mother, being the only child of his second marriage has 'always wondered'...... I don't have any of their first names because she 'can't remember'! This week she phoned me quite excited saying she had found one of their birth certificates. Dated 1913. Deep joy I thought... then it arrived by recorded delivery from her (bless!) and it is but a fragment... A quarter of a birth certificate and the only information on it is the handwritten bit 'nineteen thirteen'. Oh, how disappointing. Back to the search sites. Looking for Edward, or Ernest, or was it Thomas or George....??!

It's not just mothers in law you have to watch. I have a small family tree in my Baby Book which my mum filled in. My dad's grandmother is down as Margaret and I recently found her son's birth record. Her name was Harriet! I also have a grt, grt grandmother who my aunty told me was called Eleanor. I searched on the IGI and FreeBMD for Eleanor and found nothing. I finally found her, her husband and children on a census and she was called Ann. No wonder I couldn't find her! Mel

My Nan told me about a song her father used to sing. Idena, Adelina, Annie, Ada, Graham. I tried in vain to find all the people, very disapointed I told my Nan I couldn't find them and she said her Dad was always making songs up! I hadn't realised that he was singing about one person!! Found her on IGI!!!

I know what you all mean. I think my mother invented the phrase "leading someone up the garden path". According to her, her grandfather was born and bred in Scotland (because his name was Gray), could only speak Gaelic and she was 110% sure he was born on 14th May 1875 in Fife. After years of searching in Scotland (and spending a fortune) it turns out he was born, bred and died in Lambeth, London, only spoke English and was born on 24th April 1874! Living relatives speak with forked tongue........

Oh yes Gerry. My gran always used to say grandad must be scottish because he loved singing 'I Belong to Glasgow'. He was Southampton born & Bred, as was his father! Great auntie Nell? Her name was Alice! Uncle Bill (still alive) real name Charles - my mum named him Bill and it's been that for the last 64 years!

My Mother-in-Law (yes her again) was telling me about her two cousins both called Sissy. The one I recognised from my research but the second I could not identify. Why? because she was talking abour Florence!! It seems Florence was called Sissy by all her brothers (because she was their sister) and the rest of the family took it up. MiL had forgotten, until I questioned her that Sissy was not the real name!! Gerry