Finding stuff out about your family

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My granda was a GSM in the DLI during World War Two, and as far as I was concerned he was the famous one in our family. Everyone called his wife (my grandma, obvs) Diamond Lil which I assumed was a nickname... until I found out she actually WAS Diamond Lil the music hall/stage star. Bless her.
 


Some cracking history on this thread. Makes me want to investigate mine further.

Me and Mrs MacT (no, btw) had a quick check of our family trees years ago. Bout the only interesting things we found was that our ancestors had lived in neighbouring villages, about 5 miles apart, down in Norfolk in the late 1700s.
Also one of my ancestors was born "at sea"

Would love to find out more about my grandad who died in WW2 somewhere in Italy
 
Great thread starter by the OP. Love these types of stories, especially the war ones.

My brother is tracing our family history and has gone back to the 1600's .
 
Great thread this. Loads of interesting bits of history.

My mam has done loads of work tracing my maternal family - loads of wrong'uns and a few dead ends along the way.
 
Never really spoken to my family about family trees and that. Some stuff has come up over the years mentioned in conversation but I'm not sure how true it is.

I know my Granda was in the army, my da mentioned he drove while he was but never got a 'proper' licence once he wasn't. Didn't stop him. Must've been during the late 50s, he'd have been in his teens. The same Granda was apparently a cousin of Jack 'Cast Iron' Casey. Again, verified only by my da :lol:
 
One of my cousins researched my mams side of the family. She managed to trace our Mams cousins who they were separated from during the war evacuations. They all met up about 15 years ago - fabulous event.
 
Tuono said:
Anyway through being on the Ancestry.com DNA list
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whats that like? you send them your DNA and they trace for matches?

my family on my nana's side apparently are related to Rob Roy MacGregor, but it was never confirmed :) my nana was doing her family tree the old way back in the 90s before she died. got the urge to look into it now
 
ouro said:
My granda was a GSM in the DLI during World War Two, and as far as I was concerned he was the famous one in our family. Everyone called his wife (my grandma, obvs) Diamond Lil which I assumed was a nickname... until I found out she actually WAS Diamond Lil the music hall/stage star. Bless her.
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Which battalion mate?
 
Some Random Guy said:
@MackneyHackem did his a while back, the side of the family we share had fuck all of interest going back hundreds of years IIRC, other than revealing that their (our Mams) belief they are of Irish descent is absolute bollocks.
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As far back as the 1700s on both sides of the family everyone was born/raised/died in pit villages in Co Durham or Northumberland.

I'll be delighted to be able to buck the trend by dying in a crack den in East London.
 
Grandmother was very secretive her whole life and only when she thought she was on her deathbed did she reveal that she was from the northeast and had runaway from home down south at 15 and never been back since. She also left a brother behind and so never saw him again. She survived, went quiet about it again then died around 3 years later. She was also absolutely batty.
 
PallionPeasant said:
Found out about two years ago that my great great granddad was Ted Ditchurn, the former Sunderland Chairman during the 50's when we got an astromical fine for his troubles as well as being the Mayor of Sunderland at one stage . So I'd like to apologise for the bent bazza getting Sunderland a world record fine and plunging us into a state that we've arguably never recovered from😂
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I just discovered that my Great-Great-Grandson invented time travel. Don't worry I will put this wrong to right and fix the club!!!
 
Aye as others have said, interesting when you get into it.

I’m doing a bit of my family now, I was born late in life me mother was 43 and me dad was 54 – I know a mistake, been said before. Was never told much about the familys and by the time I was old enough to hear most of them were dead.

Done a bit research for my FIL on his uncle who was killed in WW1, he’s named on the fulwell war memorial – was 16 when he volunteered in 1916 telling them he was 18.
 
tunstallhill said:
whats that like? you send them your DNA and they trace for matches?

my family on my nana's side apparently are related to Rob Roy MacGregor, but it was never confirmed :) my nana was doing her family tree the old way back in the 90s before she died. got the urge to look into it now
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You need to join Ancestry.co.uk first then you can do the DNA test and they'll give you a list of all your matches and how much DNA you have in common with them. 4th cousins and closer are the most interesting ones, I've found 2nd and 3rd cousins from all around the world who I had no idea existed. It makes you realise how intertwined the whole world is especially when you have shared genes with Asians, Africans, Amerindians, everyone in fact. Once you go back a few centuries you could be related to just about anyone in the world, I've got direct DNA ancestry going back to a Swedish King but an actual family line connecting us is impossible to trace. Basically we're all relate to one another somehow. We're all a bunch of mongrels, I've traced my ancestors back to Vikings in Shetland in the 1500's, Irish from Mayo/Sligo in the 1830's, lots of Scots from the East coast and English from London and the south coast. It all fascinates me. I really believe memories are passed down in our DNA, all my family on my mothers side were fishermen from the east coast of Scotland and England, my fathers side of the family were mostly Shipwrights and carpenters. I'm a carpenter who loves fishing, it's in the DNA I tell you.
 
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