General Chat

My gtx5 grandmother was a publican in the east end of Sunderland down by the docks. She had 4 children who she raised as her husband had died. Needless to say I get the impression she was a formidable character as back then in the 1840's-50's that area was notorious and extremely rough! And to have a pub there - I wouldn't have messed with her! I'm obsessed with her. I often wonder what she looked like. I would love to have a time machine and visit her in her pub! Anybody out there with a similar obsession? Carole

That's fascinating. It does make you wonder about why he travelled so much doesn't it? It makes me wonder what our ancestors would say if they knew that we had these fascinations for them! Carole

Husbands 2xg.grandfather was a cordwainer. His father left him a boot shop but within about 2 years our cordwainer was off - trailing his family with him. In and out of Wiltshire/Hampshire and in IOW - he was working as a photographer's assistant! His children were born everywhere he rested his head. 1881 finds him in Southwark and he died in Greenwich in 1890 of asthma of all things. I want to know why he wandered so much - did he have a problem - drink/gambling. Was he dodging the landlord/tallyman did he have a problem with employers? What? I would dearly love to talk to him. One of his g.sons died on Titanic - I would like to talk to him too - he did not survive.

I've just googled cord wainer and its a shoe maker/leather worker originally specializing in cordovan leather which is from horses not cows! You learn something new everyday! Carole

This any use Cordwainer. http://www*thehcc*org/backgrnd*htm Cordwainer / Cordiner / Corviner / Corvisor Shoemaker. Originally, a leather worker using high quality Cordovan leather from Spain for such things as harness, gloves and riding boots. By the 19c it had reduced to a shoemaker - as distinct from a cobbler, who repaired shoes Marion

Eliza Wilkins from Priors Hardwick, Warks. Born illigitimately in 1840, her father was a soldier. She was the only one in her family never to go out to work, and she could read and write, unlike the rest...so maybe he provided well financially for her somehow. Her mum left her with her grandparents, married an ag lab, and had many more children, but never took little Eliza back to live with her. Eliza married, but then disappeared off the face of the earth a year later, her husband too. Im thinking they moved abroad, his mum was French. Would love to know if she had children, and what she looked like, and if she resented her mum or had a good relationship with her.

Two people actually Carole.....one is a gt.gt.grandfather who spent 10 or so years in a Lunatic Asylum and died at the age of 60....he had lost 6 of his 8 children.....I don't know whether this caused the breakdown, or he just had a mental state.....poor man.... The other was a gt.gt. granny on the other side......she was the famed 'Irish Granny' that I had been looking for......when I found her I gave a bit whoop of joy, because I thought it had been a story after all......she had married my g.g.gfather who had also come to Scotland from Ireland, and had several children.....she was missing from a census, so I looked for her death.....their children were being brought up by g.g.gfathers parents......her husband re-married and started a new family, away from his parents and previous children.....and I found her......in a Lunatic Asylum......one year after giving birth to a daughter who was named after her...... She died of TB.....now did she go into the Asylum because of post natal depression, was she depressed because of her large family, was it a mental disorder, or did they in those days take poor people into Lunatic Asylums to die......she would not be allowed in a normal hospital, and maybe she was taken in so as not to spread it among the other children.......I will never know....

Thats so sad. The thing is,quite often, people were put into asylums because there was no place for them anywhere else and they in turn became institutionalised. You cannot begin to understand what they would've gone through. carole

One of my ancestors Rachel late 1700's, apparently she had son to a man who was already married, but when the child was 12 she married the father of her child. What I would like to know is, did she work for this man, or was she desparate for money that she had sex with him. it just bugs me for some reason. Yvonne

Yvonne, Not knowing anything about it but it could be that she loved him. If he was married at the time of the birth but then married her 12 years on, it could be that his wife had died and they could finally be together. Or is that just me being a hopeless closet romantic :-) Carole x

Another thing I find upsetting......on the OPRs under births I found lawful son of, or natural son of......meaning the parents were married or not......but on a death certificate it had scrawled across the bottom......illegitimate.......so she carried this stigma, even to her grave.... I am so glad I live in these times....

Whose death certificate was that, the sons? I've never come across that before (and I have quite a few illegitimate births in my family). Carole

Margaret Amelia Rose, my gg grandmother. She was the illegitimate child of Ann Rose. She had her first child at 14 (in 1858) and had three by 18. She went on to have at least another 7 children, all apparently illegitimate although I suspect that the last four or five were the children of her lodger as she used his name from time to time and the children were known to use his surname locally. She did marry briefly in 1863 but it doesn't look like any of the children belonged to the husband who seems to have disappeared completely by 1867. Apart from the first one, she registered the births of the children herself, the first few by the same registrar. I would like to ask her what happened to the husband and who fathered the first few children (the third one was my g grandfather). Although I could be completely off the mark I think that she would have been a matriarchal figure that expected her family to do as she wished. For some reason I also get the impression that she was closer to the younger children than she was to the first three and I would like to know if this was because of their fathers. Doesn't it drive you mad to know that you will never find out! Andrea

Which is why someone should hurry up and invent a time machine ( but only let people who are researching family trees use it!!) I have a situation (which I'm right at the moment researching) where my gtx3 grandmother had a child out of wedlock but she was living with the father, and on a census record she claimed he was her brother! (that caused a few surprises when we first came across her!). I'm trying to find out if they ever got married but I don't think they did. I'd love to ask her a few questions! Carole

Rose, Its heartbreaking isn't it? My gtx4 grandmother was married to a bookbinder with his own premises in Westhoe and she ended up dying in Sunderland Workhouse. It makes you desperate to know how she ended up there esp as at the time of her death the family business was still up and running in the same premises. what happened to these people to make them end up the way they did? Carole

Yes Rose, their business address is still there. Keep meaning to go and visit. I'm intrigued to know whats there now. I've found it in a couple of business directories from the mid 1850's. Carole

Really?? Do you know of Waterloo Vale? Thats where the Bunns lived above shop. Carole

Sally Moonchild, on 'my' Eliza's baptism cert it had 'Illegitimate' written under her name. Im disappointed the vicar would do that.

Rose, REALLY long shot but have to ask. You don't have any rellies by the name of Bunn do you? Carole

Also a bit gutted that it's pulled down :-( last I heard it was still there. Totally been misinformed. Carole