Re: Hey Farml, Rob, David and All..

FarmI wrote:

> My family is somewhat similar in that 2 brothers married 2 sisters so
the 
> cousins can sometimes remember stories about one or other of our mutual 
> ancestors that weren't told in my family and vice versa.

Oh oh, if one of those names startes with a H and is a unique spelling 
that traces back to Northumberland(?),then we are close cousins. OTOH, 
that wasn't uncommon 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters or similar.


> LOL.  I know exactly what you mean!  Mine are a dull lot generally -
lots of 
> non conformists so missing records all over the place and others of
other 
> forms of religious zealot but a few people of historic interest which I 
> still can't connect into the family.  That sounds totally daft coming
from 
> someone who claims to have an interst in genie, but from 2 widely 
> geographically dispersed sides of the family who never had any contact,
I 
> have the same stories about a Lord Mayor of London who was a rellie,
however 
> the stories they have told about other things have al been deadly
accurate 
> so I'm not prepared to yet discount the story.  Besides which there
would be 
> no kudos at all in claiming him unless he was related as other than
being LM 
> of L, he's as dull as ditchwater.

That is what I meand about just letting people tell the stories as they 
remember it. Overtime, it can be "reinterpreted" but if you get two 
slightly different tales, you can sometimes uncover this. I had a 
mixture of "daughter of a govenor" and "related to the govenor", which 
turned out to be "cousin of the govenor".

Some stories do hold a grain of truth, such as descended from French 
nobility was actually that "name" was the Norman Era lord of the area 
and there is a village of the name in France
> 
> The other connection which both sides also told me about and which I
really 
> would bust a gut to claim, is a family connection to Jane Austen. I
nearly 
> fell off my chair when one old dear told me that and said that she had 
> bought Jane Austen's book.  When I asked which one, her response was
"You 
> know, the one she wrote.".  I still don't know which of Austen's books
she 
> has :-))

Lol, sometimes you have to research other things to crack the mystery. 
My common problem 10 generations back is that it really need a whole 
village to be do***ented to determine if that earlier chain is mine or 
not. Such as were there two Thomas Bakers in the town or just the one 
and he remarried when the first wife died
> 
> 
>>Farmers and gardeners basically, until after 1950s.
> 
> 
> Snap!  But in additon to Farmer's (and Lace Manufacturers), one lot were
the 
> dreaded Ag. Labs. and I have had no luck so far in getting very far with

> them at all.

Unless those Ag labours went to church, then you are kind of stymied. 
Even then it can be a mystery. Lol, we can trace our name back to 
Somerset and know descendants of the other known child but neither can 
work out much more. Yet, her family name was described as "all over the 
church" at Kingsbury Episcopi. Go figure.
> 
> 
>>The only tip I give people is to sit down with people and just get them
to 
>>take about what they remember and tape it. Do not do question and answer

>>stuff. So many people learn their family history as stories, or sayings
or 
>>yarns, which they can repeat very easily. I did that with my fathers 
>>parents for a couple of sessions and I'm still have eureka moments when
I 
>>work out what some phrase actually meant. Things like "he stood up for 
>>him" turned out to be that the great-grandfathers above were bride and 
>>groom at a wedding. No one younger realised what it meant but just 
>>repeated what they were told.
>