oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2002
- Posts
- 56,017
My wife and I are researching our respective family histories.
We have very different families.
My family, paternal and maternal, spread around the English-speaking world and my ancestors have descendants in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, a large number in various US states from New England to Kansas, and small family groups in other countries such as Belgium, Argentina, and South Africa. Ships' passenger lists show family members, including me, leaving the UK for a variety of destinations, some to settle, some for work.
One woman from her family was a WWII GI bride and went to the US. A couple of men went to Western Australia before and after WWI and started farming on their own land. The rest of her family groups tended to stay together, moving en masse from Sussex to Yorkshire, or from London to South Wales and back again.
My family were generally boring solid citizens who didn't make much impact on the records except for one 14-year-old boy who was transported to Australia for stealing greengroceries. No. He didn't steal a cabbage. He stole the shop's whole stock! My ancestors married, stayed married for life, had children, lots of them, most of whom survived to adulthood, and they had children and all of them lived to considerable ages.
Her family seemed to have unfortunate wives who died early in childbirth. The husbands remarried, their second wives died, and the husband remarried again... Except one who couldn't wait, and killed his wife. The judge said manslaughter. The family thought the judgement should have been murder. One of the 1910s wives wasn't prepared to die in childbirth like her husband's previous wives and ended in prison for assaulting him when he wouldn't accept a headache as an excuse.
The relationships, the distant cousins meeting, marrying, producing many children who met distant cousins who married... It is possible that if our research goes back far enough we will find that both of us have one or more common ancestors. We already have the same surnames appearing on both or family trees. However, I have already established that from one marriage in my tree in the early 1600s there are probably 2,500+ living descendants.
But our research is giving me ideas. How did 17th Century Lettice from Suffolk meet Jonathan from Sussex when the roads were so bad? What made the greengrocery thief steal several cart loads? How did he meet and marry a girl in Australia? I know he did. I met 50 of his descendants in Australia.
What were the family gatherings like in the 18th century? The 19th? Were there any arranged marriages or just frequent meetings of cousins eventually leading to love?
How did my wife's male ancestors acquire successive wives and father children at (then) advanced ages? Or were they the fathers of their young wife's children? One man had children with his first wife, none with his second who was a widow with two young children when they married, and three with his third wife who was younger than any of the children of his first marriage. One suspects outside assistance...
Two brothers married two sisters. The third brother wanted to marry the third sister but the girl's father said that two sons-in-law from one family was enough. The third sister married a local lad who had a shared family tree with her from three generations back. The third brother married the third sister's cousin. It isn't incest but it is certainly a close family group. Luckily for my wife's family genes all the children of those marriages decided to choose spouses well away from their families. Perhaps they were fed up with trying to work out the complicated relationships?
The history suggests multiple story plots. Should I use them for Romance, Erotic Couplings, Loving Wives (shudder!), Group Sex, Mature, Incest or Interracial?
Og
We have very different families.
My family, paternal and maternal, spread around the English-speaking world and my ancestors have descendants in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, a large number in various US states from New England to Kansas, and small family groups in other countries such as Belgium, Argentina, and South Africa. Ships' passenger lists show family members, including me, leaving the UK for a variety of destinations, some to settle, some for work.
One woman from her family was a WWII GI bride and went to the US. A couple of men went to Western Australia before and after WWI and started farming on their own land. The rest of her family groups tended to stay together, moving en masse from Sussex to Yorkshire, or from London to South Wales and back again.
My family were generally boring solid citizens who didn't make much impact on the records except for one 14-year-old boy who was transported to Australia for stealing greengroceries. No. He didn't steal a cabbage. He stole the shop's whole stock! My ancestors married, stayed married for life, had children, lots of them, most of whom survived to adulthood, and they had children and all of them lived to considerable ages.
Her family seemed to have unfortunate wives who died early in childbirth. The husbands remarried, their second wives died, and the husband remarried again... Except one who couldn't wait, and killed his wife. The judge said manslaughter. The family thought the judgement should have been murder. One of the 1910s wives wasn't prepared to die in childbirth like her husband's previous wives and ended in prison for assaulting him when he wouldn't accept a headache as an excuse.
The relationships, the distant cousins meeting, marrying, producing many children who met distant cousins who married... It is possible that if our research goes back far enough we will find that both of us have one or more common ancestors. We already have the same surnames appearing on both or family trees. However, I have already established that from one marriage in my tree in the early 1600s there are probably 2,500+ living descendants.
But our research is giving me ideas. How did 17th Century Lettice from Suffolk meet Jonathan from Sussex when the roads were so bad? What made the greengrocery thief steal several cart loads? How did he meet and marry a girl in Australia? I know he did. I met 50 of his descendants in Australia.
What were the family gatherings like in the 18th century? The 19th? Were there any arranged marriages or just frequent meetings of cousins eventually leading to love?
How did my wife's male ancestors acquire successive wives and father children at (then) advanced ages? Or were they the fathers of their young wife's children? One man had children with his first wife, none with his second who was a widow with two young children when they married, and three with his third wife who was younger than any of the children of his first marriage. One suspects outside assistance...
Two brothers married two sisters. The third brother wanted to marry the third sister but the girl's father said that two sons-in-law from one family was enough. The third sister married a local lad who had a shared family tree with her from three generations back. The third brother married the third sister's cousin. It isn't incest but it is certainly a close family group. Luckily for my wife's family genes all the children of those marriages decided to choose spouses well away from their families. Perhaps they were fed up with trying to work out the complicated relationships?
The history suggests multiple story plots. Should I use them for Romance, Erotic Couplings, Loving Wives (shudder!), Group Sex, Mature, Incest or Interracial?
Og
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