Genealogy Chat

Is it the one your currently obsessed with tracking? Perhaps you've got a famous writer in the family Perhaps you've got one with a shady past, or someone who was transported for stealing a loaf of bread. Mine's my US GG Grandmother- Why did she end up here?Tomorrow it'll probably someone else. What about You? Caroline

This week it's Amelia Lamb,my G Grandmother, who is supposed to be an ancestor of Charles Lamb the essayist, she seems to change her age from one census to the next, and has a variety of children of all ages. I cannot find her parents and only know she was born in Brixton then in Surrey,and she married George Maggs she's a bit of a mystery, but when I find out her background I'm hoping she has a story to tell. Lynda

Proberbly my great grandfather as I new so little about him before I started this all did know was that he died during ww1 and now the only thing I don't know is when he married my ggrandmother. sue

it has to be the (so far) unproved connection that might be a Irish Romany .... Liz

My favourite is probably Isabella Thompson nee Little, I can't find her death or the marriages of her children. So far I know she had 4 children though there were probably more. George

It seems that our favourites are often the ones who give us the most trouble. Mine is probably Abraham Allen, born in Belper Derby and Christened in 1808 he was my Gt Gt Grandfather, he attended the Strutt School, attached to Strutts cotton mill and eventually worked as a cotton spinner. He married my Gt Gt Grandmother Ellen (Helen) Nightingale and had four children (one of whom died), then the family ended up in the workhouse minus Abraham who the records say had 'absconded'. He obviously absconded to France and Ellen followed, we think, as my Gt Grandfather, Seth, was born there in 1844 (according to a couple of censuses). Although I haven't been able to get a birth cert for him yet (another mystery). After the birth of one more son, another William, I lose sight of both Abraham and Ellen, can't find a death for either of them. Seth and William and the other children are back in the workhouse in the 1851 census and the school record against one of the children says 'from France' in the entry column. So, did he stay in france? return to Derbyshire? Return to another part of the country? why were the children alone in the workhouse if the parents returned. How did the children get back from France? On their own? why did he abscond? Or did he run off with another woman and leave Ellen? Was Ellen not Seth's Mother? If he left Ellen, why did she leave the workhouse at the same time as he absconded? Why are neither of them on the 1851 census. Lots of mysteries caused by one person which is why he is my favourite. Ann Glos

nudge

Mine is so far two of my ggrandfathers Henry (Harry) Falkus and Frederick Smith both died WW1 so little known about them but the brick wall is not a big as it was and this will probably lead to a trip to France Sally