DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
I believe you do, obviously it’s not possible right now, but maybe something for when they reopen
My great, great, great grandad :)
- Thread starter Dave7
- Start date
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newts
Veteran
- Location
- Isca Dumnoniorum
My Great Grandfather Reuben (centre back) circa 1904, no great scandal apart from his eldest son Robert was born less than 6 months after he married Maria 1871. My Grandfather is back right served with the Royal Engineers, he died when i was 2 in 1967 so never got to know him.
His youngest brother Fred (centre front) suffered shrapnel wounds & gassing.
I'm sat in front of Grandad 63 years later outside the same front door, the porch was probably built in the 1920's.
My late father is also pictured & tomorrow would have been his 101 birthday
Family history is a wonderful legacy.
His youngest brother Fred (centre front) suffered shrapnel wounds & gassing.
I'm sat in front of Grandad 63 years later outside the same front door, the porch was probably built in the 1920's.
My late father is also pictured & tomorrow would have been his 101 birthday
Family history is a wonderful legacy.
classic33
Leg End Member
I've a "balloon buster" who was in the RFC, another on the other side of the family who was considered unfit for the trenches(shell shock/gas) who was returned to Ireland to deal with the uprising. Last records show him in the Dublin area. Not talked about much, the black sheep if you like.
Go back to the other side, and we've one who was in the IRA(1916 into the Free State, family member against family member), ended up on Presidential protection in later life before he died.
Go back to the other side, and we've one who was in the IRA(1916 into the Free State, family member against family member), ended up on Presidential protection in later life before he died.
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
My grandmother looked pregnant in her wedding photographs. The fox fur would cause more outrage today.
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gbb
Legendary Member
- Location
- Peterborough
My dads side of the family did some research and went back to the very beginnings of the initial construction of railways being built, early to mid 1800s perhaps. My Gt or Gt Gt grandfather made his way across the south of England, following the rail laying. He ended up in Bristol, where he settled and a good many Whittocks now live....an unusual surname outside Somerset.
Grandad fought in WW1 in France and Gallipoli, mum and dad used to have a brass shell head that fell near him on the beaches and he picked it up (i must ask mum what happened to it).
He was gassed, survived and became Chief Of Works at Bristol Docks with probably hundreds of men under him. A master carpenter and artist, a very Victorian man in his manner. I used to wonder what his dad was like, did etc etc.
Grandad fought in WW1 in France and Gallipoli, mum and dad used to have a brass shell head that fell near him on the beaches and he picked it up (i must ask mum what happened to it).
He was gassed, survived and became Chief Of Works at Bristol Docks with probably hundreds of men under him. A master carpenter and artist, a very Victorian man in his manner. I used to wonder what his dad was like, did etc etc.
Reynard
Guru
- Location
- Cambridgeshire, UK
Ah yes... Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat it.
My history "thing" is 20th Century military history.
An unusual interest for a girl, but then I'm not your usual girly girl. 
Although I've had some fun cooking WW2 era recipes - and some are actually surprisingly good.
Oldhippy
Cynical idealist
Mine is German politics and military 1930 through 1945. I have bookshelves heaving under the weight of books on the subject. Also ancient, Egypt and before history. What ancient civilisations did with what we know they had is astonishing. I am hoping one day we can prove much older civilisations that provide the proof of kickstarting the ones we currently know of. You'd figure that in 4.5 billion years the possibility is there.
Bazzer
Setting the controls for the heart of the sun.
- Location
- On the edge of reality
Nothing spectacular:
A great uncle who died in the Burma campaign.
x4 great uncle who married and immediately left Lincolnshire to emigrate to the US. Built and lived in a wooden cabin like in the cowboy films, (I have a picture of it after he moved out), and made his fortune owning land that was required by a railway company for a line and railhead.
On my late Dad's side, not being able to keep it in the pants, or at least if precautions were taken, them failing, before marriage, seems to have been a common occurrence from at least the late 18th C. As were big families. Oddly for the side I can trace of my Mum's family, neither marriage while pregnant nor large families, was the case, despite, or possibly because of, being Catholic from at least the early 19th century.
I suspect one of my Dad's relatives in the late 19th century caused a bit of stir in the Fenland market town where the family lived, having at least 7 children by fathered by different men and never getting married.
On Mrs B's side there was a canal boatmen He was serial bigamist, something he was jailed for.
My Mum's side seemed blessed with skills in every generation; solicitor in Newcastle, toolmakers for miners in the Durham coalfield, seamstress and dressmaker, teachers, baker and confectioner, newspaper editor, sculptor and woodcarver.
A great uncle who died in the Burma campaign.
x4 great uncle who married and immediately left Lincolnshire to emigrate to the US. Built and lived in a wooden cabin like in the cowboy films, (I have a picture of it after he moved out), and made his fortune owning land that was required by a railway company for a line and railhead.
On my late Dad's side, not being able to keep it in the pants, or at least if precautions were taken, them failing, before marriage, seems to have been a common occurrence from at least the late 18th C. As were big families. Oddly for the side I can trace of my Mum's family, neither marriage while pregnant nor large families, was the case, despite, or possibly because of, being Catholic from at least the early 19th century.
I suspect one of my Dad's relatives in the late 19th century caused a bit of stir in the Fenland market town where the family lived, having at least 7 children by fathered by different men and never getting married.
On Mrs B's side there was a canal boatmen He was serial bigamist, something he was jailed for.
My Mum's side seemed blessed with skills in every generation; solicitor in Newcastle, toolmakers for miners in the Durham coalfield, seamstress and dressmaker, teachers, baker and confectioner, newspaper editor, sculptor and woodcarver.
WW1 deaths can get very depressing when you find families who lost all their sons or lost the sole wage earner for a family of of young children. I did find one, though, no less tragic but at least rather different from all the others.
Mrs R had a great great uncle who was well known in the family for being an unpleasant character. He had been prosecuted for ill-treating his horse in the course of "furious driving", plus he had some other brushes with the law. He had deserted from the local militia in 1900 and when eventually tracked down, he was forced to buy his way out. This wasn't that uncommon - the militia was a forerunner of the TA and not looked upon in the same way for desertion as it would have been if in the regular Army. People would just not turn up for their day or so a week if it meant losing pay.
No more was known about him or at least survived the telling but I found that he was called up in WW1 and courtmartialled for multiple incidents of insubordination and disobedience before even getting to France. In early 1916 he was courtmartialled again but now in France and he was sentenced to death for desertion. This was commuted to a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour. A month later he was killed in action on the Somme, just a few days into the Somme offensive. Presumably, they wanted every soldier they could get, even those in prison! His record card is marked as "Deserter" which has been scribbled out and KIA written in its place.
Mrs R had a great great uncle who was well known in the family for being an unpleasant character. He had been prosecuted for ill-treating his horse in the course of "furious driving", plus he had some other brushes with the law. He had deserted from the local militia in 1900 and when eventually tracked down, he was forced to buy his way out. This wasn't that uncommon - the militia was a forerunner of the TA and not looked upon in the same way for desertion as it would have been if in the regular Army. People would just not turn up for their day or so a week if it meant losing pay.
No more was known about him or at least survived the telling but I found that he was called up in WW1 and courtmartialled for multiple incidents of insubordination and disobedience before even getting to France. In early 1916 he was courtmartialled again but now in France and he was sentenced to death for desertion. This was commuted to a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour. A month later he was killed in action on the Somme, just a few days into the Somme offensive. Presumably, they wanted every soldier they could get, even those in prison! His record card is marked as "Deserter" which has been scribbled out and KIA written in its place.
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LarryDuff
Guru
- Location
- Hillsborough Co Down
I found out while researching my history that my great great grandfather died after he choked on a piece of potato.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
I recall reading about one WW1 soldier who just got out of the trenches, and walked off behind the lines, he was arrested and charged with going AWOL and was going to be shot for desertion, until at court martial he said he’d done his time and wanted to go home, check my attestation papers, they did and were very surprised to say the least that he volunteered for service till the end of the war,or 3 years whichever came first, he’d done three years and they had to let him go
About 60 years ago, an aunt got a job at registry office and started tracing family tree at lunchtime.
One day, at home, she announced to the assembled family “I discovered something very interesting today. Auntie .... and uncle .... were never married.”
Granny slapped her on the face, said “We don’t talk about that, how dare you”, and didn’t speak to her again for over a year.
One day, at home, she announced to the assembled family “I discovered something very interesting today. Auntie .... and uncle .... were never married.”
Granny slapped her on the face, said “We don’t talk about that, how dare you”, and didn’t speak to her again for over a year.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
A distant Victorian relative was a well respected pillar of the community. His relatives were later told that he died a very sick man after diving into the Thames to save a drowning woman. Years after, it transpired that he had caught syphilis in the Southwark brothels.
