Family Tree

You can find irony in your ancestry too.

I never knew my maternal grandfather as he died before I was born. However, my mother said he was very strict (being a born Victorian of course) and told her never to bring home anyone who was Irish or a Catholic. He wasn't actually in the Orange Lodge, but apparently, he had very similar attitudes.

Having traced his ancestry back, I found that two of his ancestors were a Catholic couple who married in a Catholic church in Dublin in 1800. You don't get more Irish or Catholic than that. I couldn't help but grin at that.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
My sister did some research that discovered that my gran had a child in 1926, when she was 14. And this child was brought up by her mum (my great grandmother) as her mum’s own child. And so my dad and his brother knew her, but thought their sister was their auntie. They all lived in Hulme together, when there was lots of social interaction.

She died alone, in a home for people with mental difficulties in 1983. My dad and his brother both visited the grave of their sister.

My gran would be absolutely mortified about this discovery!
Click to expand...

My friend discovered that her "Aunt" was actually her half sister, shortly after her Mum died in 2011. My friend is the youngest of 7, and whilst the older sibs knew...she didn't.

When you throw DNA tests and matches into the mix loads of "secrets" come to light.
I discovered some years ago that my Dad was fathered by a man that wasn't his mum's husband. And only this week I have been contacted by a man whose father was adopted. All they had was the name of the biological mother but our matches showed a third cousin link. Within 10 minutes, with the use of the Free BMD website we knew the biological mums parents and extended family etc.

It's so easy these days, but like you say I do wonder how these women would have reacted had they known their secrets would be exposed
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
My sister did some research that discovered that my gran had a child in 1926, when she was 14. And this child was brought up by her mum (my great grandmother) as her mum’s own child. And so my dad and his brother knew her, but thought their sister was their auntie. They all lived in Hulme together, when there was lots of social interaction.

She died alone, in a home for people with mental difficulties in 1983. My dad and his brother both visited the grave of their sister.

My gran would be absolutely mortified about this discovery!
Click to expand...
It happened a lot this I think back in the day. My mum was convinced that my dad wasn’t a child of my Nan but that she looked after him and brought him up as her own once born. Never proved either way and I don’t suppose ever will be, as all parties are now gone.
 
The wife used familysearch.org you have to register but it is free, she also used ancestry on a free trial and paid for a month here and there.

She is of Jewish descent, so she didn't have a lot of living relatives, obviously.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
My sister did some research that discovered that my gran had a child in 1926, when she was 14. And this child was brought up by her mum (my great grandmother) as her mum’s own child. And so my dad and his brother knew her, but thought their sister was their auntie. They all lived in Hulme together, when there was lots of social interaction.

She died alone, in a home for people with mental difficulties in 1983. My dad and his brother both visited the grave of their sister.

My gran would be absolutely mortified about this discovery!
Click to expand...
Not uncommon at all, despite what we are led to believe lol the wife's family is full of underage mothers, just discovered a grandma also left her 3 kids in an orphanage while she got remarried, she had assumed they were in temporarily but turns out it was nearly 6 years, she was shocked and disappointed lol
 
People have always had children outside of wedlock since wedlock was invented. We can pretty much be certain we are all descended from such people - I know I am.

My great-grandparents adopted a girl who was treated as a daughter. She was a complete mystery as up to the 1911 census they gave her their surname, although it seemed odd she was younger than her siblings by some way and no one in the family had mentioned her at all.

In the 1921 census, she was put under her 'real' name, and a distant cousin of mine was then able to find her mother, a widow who had been 'caught' a year or two after her husband's death. We think this widow must have been a family friend and my great-grandparents took her daughter on and pretended she was theirs.

To be honest, I've done a lot of work on my collateral relations in the Victorian era and one family in particular was like something out of Catherine Cookson. There was a lot of stuff going on, and not all of it could be kept secret. However, for children to be taken on by suitably-married family members was quite common.
 
BrianW said:
People have always had children outside of wedlock since wedlock was invented. We can pretty much be certain we are all descended from such people - I know I am.

My great-grandparents adopted a girl who was treated as a daughter. She was a complete mystery as up to the 1911 census they gave her their surname, although it seemed odd she was younger than her siblings by some way and no one in the family had mentioned her at all.

In the 1921 census, she was put under her 'real' name, and a distant cousin of mine was then able to find her mother, a widow who had been 'caught' a year or two after her husband's death. We think this widow must have been a family friend and my great-grandparents took her daughter on and pretended she was theirs.

To be honest, I've done a lot of work on my collateral relations in the Victorian era and one family in particular was like something out of Catherine Cookson. There was a lot of stuff going on, and not all of it could be kept secret. However, for children to be taken on by suitably-married family members was quite common.
Click to expand...

Indeed. My dad was born in 1945 too which obviously adds to the intrigue. Warrington was full of American soldiers based at Burtonwood and my auntie would have been around 16/17. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility.
 
mackenzie said:
My friend discovered that her "Aunt" was actually her half sister, shortly after her Mum died in 2011. My friend is the youngest of 7, and whilst the older sibs knew...she didn't.
Click to expand...
I should have said that she was my dad’s full sister as my grandad was down on the birth certificate as her father. Think he was 16 at the time!
 
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