Anyone done a family tree? How far back did you get? Any surprises

[MartinQ]

I notice that we had a few of them in our tree...........when I was a kid that was really frowned upon but maybe more acceptable then.
We also had an ancestor that spent some time in "the House of Correction"..........naughty boy.

The distant grandparents appear to have liked to drink and some violence, then the G*father died and the G* mother stole some stuff to get by and changed her name as well (for ... reason). Their daughter got in with a married man and they had a knife fight with each other (and her 3 month old by some other guy) and the guy (distant G*father) got convicted for that. There was some family euphemism about this time, but I'm not sure they'd really heard the details.

Ohh, forgot to say a load of emigrants to oz which is probably not surprising given the number of miners in the family and the living conditions at the time.

Think the oldest we got was when I linked into the Vitty family who came from Yorkshire. Fairly unusual name and the records seem to go back to the 1600s. Apparently, even if you can trace/guess the records back that far, quite a lot were lost in the civil war.

 

[classic33]

The distant grandparents appear to have liked to drink and some violence, then the G*father died and the G* mother stole some stuff to get by and changed her name as well (for ... reason). Their daughter got in with a married man and they had a knife fight with each other (and her 3 month old by some other guy) and the guy (distant G*father) got convicted for that. There was some family euphemism about this time, but I'm not sure they'd really heard the details.

Ohh, forgot to say a load of emigrants to oz which is probably not surprising given the number of miners in the family and the living conditions at the time.

Think the oldest we got was when I linked into the Vitty family who came from Yorkshire. Fairly unusual name and the records seem to go back to the 1600s. Apparently, even if you can trace/guess the records back that far, quite a lot were lost in the civil war.

Any connection?
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1881-e.../transcript/john-vitty?id=gbc/1881/0022745865

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1881-e...s/transcript/ann-vitty?id=gbc/1881/0022489539

 

[classic33]

@Dave7, remember this one?

 

[MartinQ]

Any connection?
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1881-e.../transcript/john-vitty?id=gbc/1881/0022745865

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1881-e...s/transcript/ann-vitty?id=gbc/1881/0022489539

Almost certainly but will check my records and see if I can see your record properly as I'm not a member. The Vitty's came from ~Catterick in the 1700s and my Vitty (Elizabeth 1841) married a Wilson, George (1839, married in 1862) and then moved to Durham which is where my father's family stopped for ~100 years. Lots of coal to mine ... Elizabeth's father was George Vitty and her grandparents were David Vitty and Alice Hindmore. A guy called Duncan McBurney has done a ton of research digging up and photocopying baptism, marriage & burial records, hence the trace past the 1841 census.

Quick check and while I don't have John Vitty on my tree, it is the right area and a rare name, so he will be a descendant of a common ancestor, at some point.

 

[gbb]

Dad's family all hail from Bristol and outside that and the west country there are very few that have our surname.
He had traced back to the pre 1850s and found our surname forefather came from somewhere further south, working on the then new fangled railways, probably 1830s, 40s or 1850s...settling in Bristol.

 

[Chris S]

I've a second cousin who traced our family tree, they've been living around the Fermanagh/Monaghan border since at least the 1790s. One of my ancestors was awarded the Victoria Cross but he still ended-up being buried in an unmarked grave.

 

[BoldonLad]

My brother did quite a lot on our family tree. Got back as far as early 1800’s. Nothing remarkable, mostly agricultural workers, miners and shipbuilders a few “questionable” pregnancies, a couple of sad things (twins killed within days of each other WW1). One surprise was the degree to which they moved from place to place, at a time when travel was presumably arduous. Presumably the forerunners of Norman Tebbits cyclists, ie, looking for work.

 

[Dave7]

@Dave7, remember this one?

I do indeed.
Am I missing a connection here?

 

[Julia9054]

On my mother's side are a long line of cotton mill workers from Carlisle. My great grandmother went to Australia in the early 1900s aged about 20. She married a butcher who was killed in an accident. She came back, discovered he was pregnant on the voyage and my Grandmother was born in Manchester.
Or that was how she told it.
My mum was contacted by an Australian man tracing his family. Turns out great grandmother went to Australia under a false surname. She had an illegitimate baby who was put in a Sydney orphanage. The man was his son. It also turns out that her husband did not die but had a daughter with almost the same birth date as my grandmother. He went on to remarry and had several more children. His granddaughter from this second marriage has done a fabulous job tracing the family tree back to 1750 including all the bits she is not directly related to.
My great grandmother died in 1974 and i remember her as a prim and proper old lady. We'll never know the reasons behind the false surname and the bigamous marriage.

 

[DCLane]

Back to 792 AD on one side apparently (not done by me), early 1800's on the other.

 

[Asa Post]

I've got back as far as the 1500s on one line, and most lines have been traced to the 1700s or earlier. The biggest hole is the illegitimacy of one of my grandmothers - her mother never revealed the father's name so a huge part of my ancestry is untraceable.

I have murderers on both sides of the family.
My mother's great-great uncle knifed a man to death in a pub after a fight about a card game. He escaped and a reward was offered for his capture, but he was never heard of again.
My father's great-great uncle robbed a man he met in a pub of cash that even today would be worth less than £20. He then beat his brains out with a wooden post to prevent the man identifying him. He was seen and quickly caught. He pleaded guilty to murder and was hanged 14 days after the crime was committed.

My great-great grandmother was a rape victim. She said the man saw her on the road between villages, and assaulted and ravished her. The man claimed that he'd paid her for sex on previous occasions, but this time he refused to pay so she reported him. The jury believed her version and he got 6 years penal servitude.

In contrast, hundreds of other ancestors seem to have lived ordinary, uneventful lives. I'm still fascinated by them though, and over the years I've spent a fair amount of money and an immense number of hours tracing them. I love it.

 

[Dirk]

My dad did a lot of research when he retired.
Got my paternal side of the family back to the 15 th century in Pinvin, Worcestershire with proven traceable evidence and the family name, or variants of it, back to the 12 th century. Nothing remarkable, agricultural workers moving to the towns during the Industrial Revolution with the odd Prime Minister thrown in along the way.
Maternal side traced back to the early 1700s in Northamptonshire.

 

[classic33]

I do indeed.
Am I missing a connection here?

Surname!

 

[Dave7]

Surname!

You mean H*******
Cos that was my s.i.l surname.

 

[classic33]

You mean H*******
Cos that was my s.i.l surname.

Not that Joey then?