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Phoenix
11-03-10, 15:45
I find it rather sad that I don't know what most of my ancestors were known as.

Was at a funeral yesterday & met up with a second cousin who is suddenly interested in family history.

She said "I started off by asking Mum what her grandparents were known as, and she said 'Bill and Emma' "

And they become real people. (If only I'd asked the same question, not "what were their names?")

maggie_4_7
11-03-10, 16:30
To be honest its not possible to know is it really.

My maternal grandmother had a few choice names for some of them that she imparted :d and some usual derivatives i.e. Polly, Jack and one really obscure one 'jewel' that turned out to be someone we think was called Martha that I'll probably never get to the bottom of!

What I'd like to see is some photographs of some of mine. I have none past my maternal grandfather and only one of him and I'm beginning to doubt its him anyway! I have none of any of the others, anything above my maternal grandmother I haven't any photos on either side or any of my grandmother's peers in her family.

Rachel
11-03-10, 17:34
Ahhhh photographs :confused:
How I long to discover if the original photos of the Gt Gt Grandparents still exist.
All I have are two not very good photocopies, for which I'm very grateful ..... but ....... :rolleyes:

Until a few years ago, one of the Gt Grans (Elizabeth) seemed a very serious, boring and 'worthy' person but after contact with a distant cousin, she became Lizzie and what a difference that's made !
She has a real personality + I had a tiny B/W pic of her which I'd never bothered to look at properly and when enlarged, discovered a cat on her shoulder :D
Now I think she must have been lively and fun and not the dour Scot I imagined.

At the risk of boring everyone again .... here she is



http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o228/rachelscand/Lizzieweb.jpg

maggie_4_7
11-03-10, 17:42
What a brlliant photograph although I must say the cat looks like its sitting on the dogs head rather than 'herself's' shoulder ! :)

ElizabethHerts
11-03-10, 17:45
Ahhhh photographs :confused:

Until a few years ago, one of the Gt Grans (Elizabeth) seemed a very serious, boring and 'worthy' person but after contact with a distant cousin, she became Lizzie and what a difference that's made !
She has a real personality + I had a tiny B/W pic of her which I'd never bothered to look at properly and when enlarged, discovered a cat on her shoulder :D
Now I think she must have been lively and fun and not the dour Scot I imagined.



Rachel, my rather fearsome 2xgt grandmother was also Elizabeth, but after I found out she was always called Bessie I had a slightly different view of her!

My grandmother was christened and registered as Muriel Mary. However, she was always called "Mimi"! (from both names)

ElizabethHerts
11-03-10, 17:47
Oh, and that reminds me, my grandfather's first name was Cecil, which my grandmother, Mimi, didn't like - she always called him John!

Thankfully my mum told me this snippet because I never knew my grandfather as he died before I was born.

anne fraser
11-03-10, 19:22
One of my grandfather's sisters was Emma Louisa known to her brothers as Lemonsqueeser.

Since the ggggrandparent challenge has rekindled my interest in family history I have discovered several millitary records which include a physical description. Knowing that some one was five foot tall and giner or five foot eleven and blond helps bring them to life.

marquette
11-03-10, 21:25
My nanna was Eleanor but was always called Nell, but so was her mother, who was baptised Helen. Eleanor's daughter is Elaine - she isn't called Nell, but the names are all variations of the same, but I don't know if they realised it at the time.

My grandfather (not Nell's husband who was Jimmy), was always called Bob, but was registered as Cecil Alfred Herbert. His siblings were Tom, Dick, Bill, Kit and Gypsy - only Bill being anything close to his real name - Kit's real name was the same as her mothers.

Mum only knew her great-aunt as Aunty Cissy but her name was Rebecca - the only girl in family of seven.

Then there's my husbands grandmother who was called Ruth, but for some obscure reason, her husbands family always called her Jean.

garstonite
12-03-10, 08:05
This is very true..."if only"...I am fortunate to have photos of my grandparents and we were a close family,,,,but...one thing I will never know why...because I didn`t ask..
my mum was
Enid Miriam Anson.....and her dad (my grandad ) always called her DEL
Where do you get Del from Enid Miriam ?.....I`ll be wondering the rest of my life.....allan

Phoenix
12-03-10, 10:43
[QUOTE=maggie_4_7;63297]To be honest its not possible to know is it really.

QUOTE]

But if you can find out, I feel you should make the effort. When I started, I was interested in the genealogy, rather than the fh side. Progressively, I feel that some ancestors might not recognise the thumbnail sketches I have of them.

All the Edmunds I have in my tree... when they appear as Edward in a census, it must mean that they were known as Ned or Eddie - but which?

And yes, I value photos hugely. Physical descriptions I am a little more wary of. I watch men shrinking, then growing again. Hair colour changing, even eyes. Some must have been more accurate than others - but which?

Rosie Knees
12-03-10, 15:51
Rachel, I love that photo!

Alan, perhaps your grandad thought your mum was a DELightful daughter. If it was his pet name for her I'm sure it was something nice that prompted it.

My board name is what my mum always used to call me. I hated it as a little girl but as I got older used to love it, and the way she always introduced me as 'and this is my baby' as I was the youngest.

Rachel
12-03-10, 17:18
Rachel, I love that photo!



:D Me too :D It's become one of my favourites and I still can't figure out just how she got pussy to stay there. Tiddly little photos are no longer overlooked ~ they often have hidden depths :)

The dog's name was Jack ~ he's mentioned in one of gt gran's letters but she doesn't say who Jack might have been and I puzzled over his identity for ages. Mystery solved :D phew

Nell
13-03-10, 21:50
My grandmother had an aunt who she called "Aunt Polly Em". Her name was Emily Esther and she was called Aunt Polly because she had a parrot!!!!

Langley Vale Sue
14-03-10, 11:30
My family seem to mainly have stuck to the names they were born with, apart from the usual Nell(ie)s for Ellen & Helen(a), Great Uncle Jack who was really John and my Dad. He was named Edward Roy, but always known as Roy because, although Grandma named him after her 'baby' brother who was killed in WW1 two and a half years before Dad was born, she couldn't bear to call her baby by her brother's name. Oh yes, almost forgot about Dad's younger brother William who was always known as Flip! :eek:

OH had a Great Aunt Cissie who's daughter was also Cissie. They were known as Big Cissie & Little Cissie! Big Cissie was really Elizabeth, but I've no idea what Little Cissie's real name was!

Just before Christmas I went to visit my 99 year old Great Aunt (Uncle John/Jack's widow) and her son had a photo album with photos of my Great Great Grandparents, his Great Grandparents, in. I'd never even seen photos of my Great Grandfather, who died in 1937, let alone his parents. My cousin once removed promised me copies, but they haven't materialised yet. He isn't very computer literate but luckily his children have an interest in the family history and hopefully they will scan & email me some copies. I'll have to write a 'threatening' letter otherwise ;) or go to his house & 'steal' the album :D
I remember one of the photos shows my Great Grandparents, with some of their children including my Grandad, in 1911 outside the house they were living in when the census was taken. The house is long since demolished, but it really made it real to see what it, and they, looked like almost 100 years ago.

Kit
19-03-10, 07:30
Phoenix I understand how knowing what someone was known as may make them seem real but knowing someone was called Bill will not help you trace their family.

When I started Mum would talk about Uncle Jack or Uncle John etc. I did some research and went back to her saying I can't work out where your Uncle's fit into this family. She'd have a look and say that Martin there, he was Uncle Jack married to ... There was no relation to their name.

Of all the uncles she talked about only one had a name that was similar to their actual name.

Phoenix
19-03-10, 14:06
But I've done that bit of it, Kit. I have a line of James Broomfield. Five of them. They all had sons called James, William & George. There's not a stivver of difference between them but the names of their wives. And that isn't family history anymore, it's just genealogy.

I still don't know why Uncle William was called George & Uncle George Joey, and I haven't a clue which of my Dad's cousins was Jock. But it is the sort of detail, like photos, that you are only likely to find within the family, so much more precious than censuses or certificates as it can so easily be lost forever.

Jill
19-03-10, 17:22
I had some detective work to do the other way round, finding the "real" names of Gypsy (Florence Campbell Crisp) and Darkie (William James Crisp).

I also had the pleasure of being given a little ragged piece of newspaper which contained the marriage announcement of my great grandmother which gave both her given name and nickname of Queenie.

Kit
20-03-10, 02:23
I still don't know why Uncle William was called George & Uncle George Joey, and I haven't a clue which of my Dad's cousins was Jock.

You have me wondering. I wonder if Mum knows why they were called Jack or John?

Tom Tom
27-03-10, 16:59
We've got all sorts of funny little names for various different family members.

My gg grandparents were called Old Man and Old Woman by the family :)

GG aunties have all sorts of funny nick names (Bussie - because she wore a bussle, Flick Eye because she winked at people, Kittens because she liked cats and Dushie (although noone knows why!).

Other nick names include - Dick (for someone called Harry), Cooz (for someone called Tom), Bunty (for a William).

JayG
27-03-10, 23:07
I've got several people in my tree with pet names & nicknames but the best find was my great great grandfather's death notice in the paper, George Hall better known as Grieves. His mother wasn't married when he was born but the Grieves on the death notice lead me to finding his birth, then his mother's 1st, 2nd & 3rd marriages!