General Chat

If I had unearthed something like Huntingdons Disease or some other degenerative illness that could start to kick in at any time and which had skipped a few generations I know what I would be doing with bricks right now!

My OH great grandmother had two legitimate boys, then after her husband died had three girls by different fathers, then another three by a man she lived with till she died, but never married.

All hushed up in the family until we started doing the family tree, all the other relatives also doing the family tree could not care less. All the ones that did the secrecy now dead, so we are not hurting anyone.

Mo

I've got a couple of suicides, someone marrying their dead wife's sister before it was legal, an under age marriage and a possible bigamous marriage.
Plenty of pregnant brides of course.
What a naughty lot! Lol.

I would be fascinated and want to know, is there nothing in family stories that would suggest what it was?
I know when I became pregnant when living with my boyfriend, my father especially was horrified that I had brought the family name into disrepute, not sure why, it was 1974 and he didn't live in the area he was born in so no one needed to know except anyone he told in his side of the family who we weren't that close to, but now I am doing our tree I have found out from an elderly relative that one of my Dad's aunts was cast out of the family for becoming pregnant whilst unmarried and no one knows what happened to her, except that she had a daughter and brought her back to the village when she was older to show her the family district. Don't think she stayed in touch with anyone tho, would love to find out about her, Kate Woodford with a daughter possible called Joan, if anyone has her as a relative in their tree.
Lizx

Hi Tootsie

Even the "hard men/women" struggle to accept what happened years ago!

He may have thought that "cousins marrying was a sin"

Or maybe he , or one of his parents or grandparents was illigitimate.

I know that whilst doing my tree an elderly Aunt told me that another member of the family was also tracing the tree, and was doing well, I was hoping to be able to share info...BUT apparently they had found that the eldest child, born in 1900, was illigitimate and registered in the mothers name.....the son of this illigimate daughter refused to discuss family any further and ordered them to stop doing the tree.

He believed that his whole life had been a "lie" and was really distraught about it. In our more modern times, there isn't "usually" such secrecy about illigitamacy etc...but for the older generation it can be hard for them to handle.

Lol soz for rabbiting on...but you get my drift? It may not be anything too "sinister" for us...but for an elderly guy.....well!??!

I was really excited to find a couple of murderers.....(although i feel for the victims descendants, and have also tried to trave the victims via censii) but when you spend years an years finding Ag Labs, Miners, Farmers and nowt exciting...its nice to have something a bit more interesting.

Quote...He can't have got very far back as he didn't have a computer

Do you think people only started their trees when computers came out,

I think sometimes marrying cousins was frowned upon, I may be wrong.

But will love to hear any further news, its interesting. :)

Tina x

I'm actually having difficulty with this side of my family. iI've managed to go back to 1780 on my dad's side but now need to get parish records to get further. On my mom's side I'm not getting far at all - I've only got back to my gt grandad. I'm looking at something at the mo though which I need to get my head around as it looks like two cousins in the family got married. Can't see that would bother my grandad though.

Will let you know when I find anything out.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Tootsie, have you not found out anything yet? As you say we have use of computers these days. Anything unusal? How far back have you got with yours?

Tina x

It would depend on his age, but i suspect it was something about himself which he didn't like and may also explain why he "wasn't the nicest of people" as they often became nasty when trying to hide something.

He could have found someone of a different religion - or found out HE was illegitimate!
I started doing my family tree over 20 years ago - and found out a lot at the local records office!

Tootsie to quote
he was not the nicest of people either so I can't imagine him being scared by finding a mass muderer or serial rapist in the family.

I can't see him bothered about interbreeding either then unless he was the result. So at a guess mental illness or mixed race is a good guess. Think it would depend on the rest of his nature as to what would frighten him. ie a toff attitude discovering he comes from the slums.
or better put an Armini life style with Primark origins.
I think you have covered most in your guesses and can't come up with anything else

edit to say I would want to know also so you aren't goulish

My grandfather started to research his family tree a long time ago (he died about 18 years ago) and he stopped because he found something that frightened him. I am wondering what on earth it could be. He can't have got very far back as he didn't have a computer - he was not the nicest of people either so I can't imagine him being scared by finding a mass muderer or serial rapist in the family. The only other things I can think of are mental illness throughout generations, interbreeding/incestuous births, mixed races (he was born before we became a multiculteral society) or witchcraft.

I hope I don't come across as ghoulish but I am really interested to find out what it is. Does anyone have any other ideas on what it could be?