Genealogy

[charlie clown]

On 21/04/2020 at 03:30, cocknose said:

Nice post mate.

A DNA kit arrived today from ancestry.com for me so that is a massive coincidence, I am going to send the saliva kit back and see what comes from it and maybe start looking up the tree.

I was estranged from my Mum, and not a huge fan of the majority of her family, they were all from Limerick, mentioned on here before that we were due to meet up again and potentially reconcile after a long time apart a week after she died, lots of unanswered questions from her side but not sure I want to know, the stories she told me when I was young about children's homes and abuse were pretty bad, pretty sure she only has a half sister left now in Milton Keynes.

My Dads side was different, would have loved to know them more but most died before I was born (He was 55 when he had me) He died 9 years ago now and I regret so much not asking him more questions near the end but I didnt know he was going to die  , he had a pretty colourful past from the stories I did listen to as a kid, he arrived in Liverpool from Belfast during the war as a 16/17 year old pulling bodies off boats he once told me, he ended up in County London as they used to call it by the time I came along and I grew up between Brentford with my Mum during the week and Uxbridge with him at weekends.

I am sure I have loads of family in the Belfast/Crumlin area from his side but all his siblings died by the time I was 12, I did find his Dads grave last time I was back there to scatter his ashes.

Will be interested in how you get on.

We've been discussing DNA tests at home over the past few days and that prompted me to have search on here and of course, this turned up. So, Cocknose, were the results what you expected? Was it worth doing? I've red that a lot of them are so generic that they aren't really worth bothering with but some are really, really good and well worth the money...

[cocknose]

Hey mate, yes pretty good.

The report came back 85% Irish, 8% Scottish, 7% nordic, I didnt think much more of it and then a few months later I had contact from a lady in Canada, said she thought we were related and amazingly she was the granddaughter of my Dads sister.

I literally joined it hoping I might get in touch with my Dads long lost family in Canada and I did, he always told me about his sister who moved away from Belfast in the 30's because she was with a protestant fella, they both set up in Canada and were doing really well but he lost touch so honestly when she got in touch it was pretty amazing, my Dads sister has passed now but her son is still alive etc, we are facebook friends now etc.

 

Well worth doing mate

[charlie clown]

That's really cool. What social media is good for.

[Molby]

I was going through my mum's things and found a letter written in Czech, to my grandad from about 1950

it must be his sister or a cousin...different surname

and it's from New South Wales, where they obviously settled, having gone there just before the war -  or after, having survived the camps, whereas my mum and grandparents came to the UK

anyone speak Czech? I need to find them

I guess the grandkids are full on Aussies but I want to know what the letter says

 

[Murphman]

Unreal reading this again and the new stuff. I've sort of given up because as Bootser says you can't really get past 1820 in Ireland unless you were rich. I discovered my Great Grandmother Sarah Murphy's maiden name was Sarah Murphy when she married Michael Murphy. two Murphy's marrying does NOT make things easier!

 

I also obtained a marriage certificate for Sarah's mother Rosanne Gallagher who married Patrick Murphy in Liverpool, neither Rosanne nor her witness could read nor write, both simply 'made their mark (a cross) which was quite sad and made things real. I couldn't find Rosanne for ages because she was in the Census records as Rose Ann, she couldn't spell her own name bless her, what times they lived in.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Murphman

[cymrococh]

What are you using for this Murph? My Dad's dad left them when my dad was very young, my dad had no memory of him; and I'd like to try and track his side of the family down.

 

[cocknose]

16 hours ago, charlie clown said:

That's really cool. What social media is good for.

Another thing that will show you they arent just generic.

I have a half sister in Brighton, we arent close at all, my My Mum had her a long time after my Mum and I lost touch, however we have got together 2 or 3 times over the last 10 years but havent spoken in at least 2 years.

 

My Mum and Dad were both Irish, but her Dad is Pakistani so we wouldnt be obvious family, well she sent me a message on Facebook the other day from a DNA test she had done and it had thrown me up as her brother, neither of us had filled out any sort of family tree on the site, its pretty cool

14 hours ago, Murphman said:

Unreal reading this again and the new stuff. I've sort of given up because as Bootser says you can't really get past 1820 in Ireland unless you were rich. I discovered my Great Grandmother Sarah Murphy's maiden name was Sarah Murphy when she married Michael Murphy. two Murphy's marrying does NOT make things easier!

 

I also obtained a marriage certificate for Sarah's mother Rosanne Gallagher who married Patrick Murphy in Liverpool, neither Rosanne nor her witness could read nor write, both simply 'made their mark (a cross) which was quite sad and made things real. I couldn't find Rosanne for ages because she was in the Census records as Rose Ann, she couldn't spell her own name bless her, what times they lived in.

Yeah I havent really tried to go any further than my Dads family, he was born in 24 in Belfast so I dont think I would dig much up, havent bothered at all with my Mums side.

I am pretty happy with finding the Canadian family, was hoping they would be mega rich and offer me a job in the family firm so we could all move to Canada, but alas, no, pretty ordinary.

[charlie clown]

@ Murph - sorry if you've already posted this but what tool or where on the web are you using to document your tree? We've got ours on My Heritage and it it's really helpful confirming links and details (by cross-referencing with other people's trees or by offering checks against official records).  Just wondering if that kind of thing might help to get past your 1820 block if you can get access to a tool that interrogates parish births/death/marriage records and the like...  

[Jonesy]

17 hours ago, Murphman said:

Unreal reading this again and the new stuff. I've sort of given up because as Bootser says you can't really get past 1820 in Ireland unless you were rich. I discovered my Great Grandmother Sarah Murphy's maiden name was Sarah Murphy when she married Michael Murphy. two Murphy's marrying does NOT make things easier!

 

I also obtained a marriage certificate for Sarah's mother Rosanne Gallagher who married Patrick Murphy in Liverpool, neither Rosanne nor her witness could read nor write, both simply 'made their mark (a cross) which was quite sad and made things real. I couldn't find Rosanne for ages because she was in the Census records as Rose Ann, she couldn't spell her own name bless her, what times they lived in.

pffft! My mum was a Jones and so was my dad. They're both from Old Colwyn.....that gene pool is more of a puddle!! Explains a lot. 

[Captain Chaos]

Similar with me, my paternal Grandfather was Griffith and one of 9 children and my paternal Grandmother was Griffiths and one of 8 children - all from Holyhead my Father and his siblings all took the name Griffiths after their mother!

[charlie clown]

20 hours ago, Molby said:

I was going through my mum's things and found a letter written in Czech, to my grandad from about 1950

it must be his sister or a cousin...different surname

and it's from New South Wales, where they obviously settled, having gone there just before the war -  or after, having survived the camps, whereas my mum and grandparents came to the UK

anyone speak Czech? I need to find them

I guess the grandkids are full on Aussies but I want to know what the letter says

 

I know a Slovak which I guess must be pretty close... can't think of any Czech acquaintances though. 

[Gethin]

13 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

Similar with me, my paternal Grandfather was Griffith and one of 9 children and my paternal Grandmother was Griffiths and one of 8 children - all from Holyhead my Father and his siblings all took the name Griffiths after their mother!

Got a different problem on my mum's side, my Grandfather's branch of the family is from Naples and moved to Wales mid/late 1800s (so bugger all chance of going back further there) but he changed his surname from the original Italian.

The family story was that he'd done this before enlisting in the British army in WWII, not wanting to have an Italian surname whilst potentially being sent to fight them. At the wake after his funeral a few years ago, we were talking to his old business partner and it turns out he did it after the war when he went into practice as an accountant because, to quote his partner, "no b*****d could spell the Italian name"

Edited March 17, 2021 by Gethin

[Murphman]

4 hours ago, charlie clown said:

@ Murph - sorry if you've already posted this but what tool or where on the web are you using to document your tree? We've got ours on My Heritage and it it's really helpful confirming links and details (by cross-referencing with other people's trees or by offering checks against official records).  Just wondering if that kind of thing might help to get past your 1820 block if you can get access to a tool that interrogates parish births/death/marriage records and the like...  

James - I'm on Find my Past. I'm not very good at this to be honest, I upgraded to access Irish records but to be honest looking for Murphy's in Wexford is challenging to say the least, I suspect that whilst 1820 is most definitely the point it gets tougher My Heritage, Find my Past and the rest are possibly all capable of delivering more information, it's my brain is the problem, I don't fully understand the search process well enough.

20 hours ago, cymrococh said:

What are you using for this Murph? My Dad's dad left them when my dad was very young, my dad had no memory of him; and I'd like to try and track his side of the family down.

 

Sion As above, Find my Past. It's been really good but I've absolutely no doubt there are forumites much better at this than me, I suspect you might get more out of it. Good luck.

 

-Edit- I should have said. There is a link on the site to obtain the record of an event e.g. if you find a marriage, death or birth, you can order the certificate online, they cost around a tenner. I discovered loads from these, some of it very upsetting. You can never underestimate what terrible lives a lot of them lived.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Murphman

[Bootser]

I’ve spent months delving into both my Paternal and Maternal trees. Ran up some blind alleys in good faith but took the less than easy route to keep it all honest. 

I can take the Paternal side back to c1810 but not beyond. The issue is that they were not land owners nor farmers. On my Maternal side I believe that my Granny was adopted as a child from a home for unmarried mothers in Dublin. My memories of her are slim but very warm. I do know that she was everything’ that epitomised a Granny. She was loving, kind, funny and affectionate and made up the most wonderful stories which always included myself and my brothers. She came to live with us in her latter years and died in our house. RIP Granny Courtney.

[Molby]

8 hours ago, Bootser said:

I’ve spent months delving into both my Paternal and Maternal trees. Ran up some blind alleys in good faith but took the less than easy route to keep it all honest. 

I can take the Paternal side back to c1810 but not beyond. The issue is that they were not land owners nor farmers. On my Maternal side I believe that my Granny was adopted as a child from a home for unmarried mothers in Dublin. My memories of her are slim but very warm. I do know that she was everything’ that epitomised a Granny. She was loving, kind, funny and affectionate and made up the most wonderful stories which always included myself and my brothers. She came to live with us in her latter years and died in our house. RIP Granny Courtney.

My Nan lived with us too

pint? 

[Murphman]

On 25/03/2021 at 12:23, Molby said:

My Nan lived with us too

pint? 

My Nan gave me some advice once. 'Get your teeth out as early as you can, I put mine in a glass and tell them every night, 'ache you buggers, ache'.

[Bootser]

On 25/03/2021 at 12:23, Molby said:

My Nan lived with us too

pint?  Oh a pint would be a thing of beauty. Hopefully, when this s*** storm is over and we get to a game, I’ll take you up on that

 

[Murphman]

My best mate just got his DNA test back and found out his 'Dad' isn't his dad at all. He had suspicions all through his life and is all over the place with it. His mum married his dad when she was 2 months pregnant, his Dad was Polish, his mother Irish, his DNA test has come back as being 98% Irish. He's all over the shop with it, quite angry too.

 

Dangerous game this DNA test...

[Tommok]

25 minutes ago, Murphman said:

My best mate just got his DNA test back and found out his 'Dad' isn't his dad at all. He had suspicions all through his life and is all over the place with it. His mum married his dad when she was 2 months pregnant, his Dad was Polish, his mother Irish, his DNA test has come back as being 98% Irish. He's all over the shop with it, quite angry too.

 

Dangerous game this DNA test...

Blimey that's a bombshell for him

[Gethin]

Bet there's absolutely loads of families with untold stories like that out there. Sometimes it's probably better not to know.

[PaulMcC186]

Why did he get a DNA test?

[New York Red]

I’ve been going into mine lately. It’s mental. I literally can’t get beyond my great-Grandparents on my Mother’s side. It ends in Barbados and Cardiff.

But on my Fathers side it’s f*cking nuts. Goes back to 400 AD. Some fellas with one name. That sounds special but it really isn’t. Two to the power of thirty is millions of people. We are all related...

[muleskinner]

3 hours ago, New York Red said:

I’ve been going into mine lately. It’s mental. I literally can’t get beyond my great-Grandparents on my Mother’s side. It ends in Barbados and Cardiff.

But on my Fathers side it’s f*cking nuts. Goes back to 400 AD. Some fellas with one name. That sounds special but it really isn’t. Two to the power of thirty is millions of people. We are all related...

How have you traced back 17 centuries?

[Murphman]

15 hours ago, PaulMcC186 said:

Why did he get a DNA test?

He's always had doubts about his Dad since we were teenagers, they had a strange relationship and he was a bit odd. He's really angry, I'm waiting for him to calm down and am going to talk with him, he's my best mate.

[New York Red]

5 hours ago, muleskinner said:

How have you traced back 17 centuries?

Just the website I signed up to. You just keep clicking back. If you have a notable ascendant, then it just all falls into place. It’s the MyHeritage website.