Family Folklore and Secrets

[New York Red]

A cousin of mine just dug up an arrest record of my Great-grandfather at the South Glamorgan archives. There he is with his big mustache and scruffy clothes. He got nicked for trying to break down a door. I don't know much else about him other than he died of cirrhosis of the liver when he was 53.

 

I've got loads of mad stuff like that in my family though, on both sides of the family. My great aunt was supposedly offered to adopt the Marquis of Bute's illegitimate daughter in the early 1900's. My Aunt Joan's biological father was also executed in New York in the 1920's for murdering a guy on the Lower East Side. And, when my old man ran a pub in Tiger Bay, one of his regulars was one of Tapscott and Widdecombe - two sailors who were adrift after being torpedoed in WW2 and supposedly ate the galley boy to survive. The blokes in the pub would bust his chops late in the evening when they were all oiled up.

 

Anyone got their own?

[Cam]

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

[Buttles]

Only found out this story fairly recently, quite a few years after he passed away. When my grandad was growing up in Belfast as a 10 year old boy, he and a friend skipped school and took a rowing boat out to the Titanic which was having its finishing touches in dock. He and his friend carved their initials into the hull.

[Ed the Wool]

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

Jesus f***, Cam. That is horrendous. 

[Cam]

Jesus f***, Cam. That is horrendous.

Yep, I never get invited back to parties when I roll it out.

 

It properly haunted me for some time. We had a wood-burning stove fitted earlier this year and for the first few weeks the girlfriend just loved watching the flames - creeped me right out.

[stressederic]

And, when my old man ran a pub in Tiger Bay, one of his regulars was one of Tapscott and Widdecombe - two sailors who were adrift after being torpedoed in WW2 and supposedly ate the galley boy to survive. The blokes in the pub would bust his chops late in the evening when they were all oiled up.

 

Anyone got their own?

 

It would have been Tapscott as Widdicombe died in '41. The galley boy bit is probably not true but the details of their time in the lifeboat are fittingly horrendous.

 

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

 

f***ing hell, Cam.

[Dan]

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

 

f***ing hell man I hope this story has been exaggerated over the years (not by you obv). Horrendous.

[Cam]

f***ing hell man I hope this story has been exaggerated over the years (not by you obv). Horrendous.

In all honesty I fully suspect it wasn't that uncommon up until about 50 or 60 years ago. Fires, drownings, suffocation, drops, disappearances etc. I would be surprised if almost all families didn't have such an occurrence; it's probably an unknown & hidden success of the NHS.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Only found out this story fairly recently, quite a few years after he passed away. When my grandad was growing up in Belfast as a 10 year old boy, he and a friend skipped school and took a rowing boat out to the Titanic which was having its finishing touches in dock. He and his friend carved their initials into the hull.

This is brilliant.

In all honesty I fully suspect it wasn't that uncommon up until about 50 or 60 years ago. Fires, drownings, suffocation, drops, disappearances etc. I would be surprised if almost all families didn't have such an occurrence; it's probably an unknown & hidden success of the NHS.

Like when midwives used to not force newborns to breathe if they had obvious deformities...?

[Senrab_nhoj]

My grandfather was a member of the communist party not that unremarkable, but he tried to fake his own suicide once a la reggie perrin for the insurance... the results of that as a fact have been lost in the countless mistellings over the years so unclear how it actually got resolved.

[D.Boon]

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

Holy f***ing f***.

[charlie clown]

In all honesty I fully suspect it wasn't that uncommon up until about 50 or 60 years ago. Fires, drownings, suffocation, drops, disappearances etc. I would be surprised if almost all families didn't have such an occurrence; it's probably an unknown & hidden success of the NHS.

 

I think general that may be true, My missus was recently looking up local murders in to 1850-1914 kind of era - the number of times young kids were thrown into the Mersey and drowned around Warrington was/is unbelievable.

[New York Red]

When I was a teen we would occasionally visit great-aunt Milly (in her 80s) in a care home. I hated going because it was just hugely dull - she would just sit there for a couple of hours, saying nothing and just staring at the fire. I was told that's all she'd ever done from being a teen herself - just staring at fires or occasionally out of windows.

 

Turns out when she was a teen she got pregnant with twins. When she gave birth to them, at home obviously, her mum threw the babies into the open fire and killed them both. Because Milly was unmarried.

 

She was just watching the flames dancing.

Christ almighty. What a story to come out of the gate with Cam! My guess is that stories like that were not unprecedented in those days. The value on life just wasn’t there.

[kop205]

Only found out this story fairly recently, quite a few years after he passed away. When my grandad was growing up in Belfast as a 10 year old boy, he and a friend skipped school and took a rowing boat out to the Titanic which was having its finishing touches in dock. He and his friend carved their initials into the hull.

 

.. right at the spot where the iceberg hit it'

[New York Red]

It would have been Tapscott as Widdicombe died in '41. The galley boy bit is probably not true but the details of their time in the lifeboat are fittingly horrendous.

.

I didn’t know that. It was apparently a brutal crowd at the old man’s pub. Sailors from all over the place who had seen all sorts. Tapscott would just sit in the corner drinking on his own and by the end of the night when everyone was all steamed up, they’d start muttering “who ate the galley boy?”

 

By the way, wasn’t cannibalism pretty common among castaways in the 17 and 1800’s? I seem to recall reading in a book about whaling that it wasn’t frowned upon.

[Redwire]

Only found out this story fairly recently, quite a few years after he passed away. When my grandad was growing up in Belfast as a 10 year old boy, he and a friend skipped school and took a rowing boat out to the Titanic which was having its finishing touches in dock. He and his friend carved their initials into the hull.

 

What did he have with him?  An oxy acetylene kit?

[Gethin]

Not as as some of these but.....

 

South Wales has a decent sized Italian community dating from the mid 1800s onwards, including my Grandfather's family. He changed his surname as a young adult from the Italian sounding one (which his brothers and sisters still have) to a more British sounding one (which is the surname I've ended up with). The story in the family was that he did it before enlisting in WWII as he didn't want to be going into the British Army with an Italian name.

 

When Grandad died a few years ago my Uncle mentioned this in the eulogy at the funeral. At the wake my Grandad's old business partner comes over after a few drinks and tells us that the story was "a load of b******s" - turned out he'd changed his name when he qualified as an accountant "'cos no bugger could spell the Italian name properly"  

[Molby]

What did he have with him? An oxy acetylene kit?

Yeah. No wonder the Titanic sank if you can just carve the hull with a penknife

[stressederic]

I didn’t know that. It was apparently a brutal crowd at the old man’s pub. Sailors from all over the place who had seen all sorts. Tapscott would just sit in the corner drinking on his own and by the end of the night when everyone was all steamed up, they’d start muttering “who ate the galley boy?”

 

By the way, wasn’t cannibalism pretty common among castaways in the 17 and 1800’s? I seem to recall reading in a book about whaling that it wasn’t frowned upon.

 

Yeah Tapscott and Widdicombe washed up on the Bahamas as the only survivors left in their lifeboat. The rest had died or put themselves over the side to drown. They recovered there for a good few months and Widdicombe was put on a ship returning to Britain. It was also torpedoed in the Atlantic and everyone aboard died.

 

Not sure about the cannibalism aspect in the 18th & 19th century though. Well outside my area of knowledge!

[Tommok]

Yeah Tapscott and Widdicombe washed up on the Bahamas as the only survivors left in their lifeboat. The rest had died or put themselves over the side to drown. They recovered there for a good few months and Widdicombe was put on a ship returning to Britain. It was also torpedoed in the Atlantic and everyone aboard died.

 

Blimey he didn't have much luck, poor chap.

 

There's a lot of people that probably wished his 20th century namesake, Ann, had suffered a similar fate.

[stressederic]

Blimey he didn't have much luck, poor chap.

 

There's a lot of people that probably wished his 20th century namesake, Ann, had suffered a similar fate.

 

His wife received news that he'd drowned (having already believed him to be dead once before) just as she was about to head to Liverpool to meet him. The ship sunk only a day or so from British waters.

[New York Red]

His wife received news that he'd drowned (having already believed him to be dead once before) just as she was about to head to Liverpool to meet him. The ship sunk only a day or so from British waters.

My Dad told me that he ended up killing himself. I don’t know if that’s true. He was a totally broken man.

[stressederic]

My Dad told me that he ended up killing himself. I don’t know if that’s true. He was a totally broken man.

 

That might be true about the other chap actually. I can't entirely remember but it sounds about right.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

good f***ing god Cam

[New York Red]

That might be true about the other chap actually. I can't entirely remember but it sounds about right.

 

 

Well, well, well. No galley boy got on the lifeboat. Tapscott committed suicide in Cardiff in 1963. Never stop learning.