Do you know much about your gr grand parents and before?

simu

I'd say I know a fair bit about mine - my mother, some of my aunts and my grandmothers used to tell me stories about them when I was growing up so I'd know a fair few anecdotes and stories about their lives. However, other people I know seem not to have been told much about their dead ancestors. I'm wondering which experience is more typical in Ireland. Does your family try to keep the memory of the dead alive or is it a bit of a taboo subject?

WindSock

Im trying hard to research the family history. I havent got further than late 1800's yet. A lot of records got destroyed too in the civil war, which sucks but works as a metaphor for new beginnings and all that. All I can get in the meantime are snippets from relatives memories. My late Grandfather I'm sure had plenty of stories, but he was very much a he won't tell you and you don't ask him person.

monkeyfudge

I tried to research my family history but I was blocked from doing so many times.... there's just too many secrets that people are afraid will come out.

Gazza22

I only know about one great grandfather, who was in WW2. My mother was very close to him so i've heard all about him. He's a man i would have loved the opportunity to meet.

I know of my other great-grandparents and a bit beyond them, but not in detail as it is unfortunently a bit of a taboo subject concerning them. They did nothing wrong, but my grandmother is reluctant to talk about them and a great deal of secrecy concerns them which i don't like at all!. AFAIK They were pretty involved in our republican movements and it's a bit of a mystery that some day i hope to crack open.

The little i have heard about them and their parents before is very interesting. It is one of my goals actually to fully research my family tree, i just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Ruu_Old

My grandad, who is 90 next year, has some wonderful stories to tell about his war days and the number of countries he has travelled when on duty. I hope to make an effort to get home to see him again soon.
I can't remember hearing a whole lot of my great grandparents, must attempt to do some looking into it.

Gazza22

monkeyfudge wrote:

I tried to research my family history but I was blocked from doing so many times.... there's just too many secrets that people are afraid will come out.

Mind if i ask you why you were blocked or by who?

I does seem strange that family members who could possibly give you your whole family tree from their heads, tend to sometimes keep it to themselves. They can't be forced but at the same time, the information can't just get lost in time.

arseagon

I only know that one of my grandfathers was in the original IRA and was one of the members resposible for burning down Castleboro house which my father (his son) thinks is reprehensible as do I. And my great uncle on the other side of the family flew in the RAF. I think as a gunner but broke his back trying to land a plane when the pilot was shot. Well that's the story I was told. Never heard a lot else about older realatives

monkeyfudge

Gazza22 wrote:

Mind if i ask you why you were blocked or by who?

I does seem strange that family members who could possibly give you your whole family tree from their heads, tend to sometimes keep it to themselves. They can't be forced but at the same time, the information can't just get lost in time.

One Aunt in particular got in my way a few times.

There does appear to be a lot of dark secrets in the family history from the few I managed to find out about... and there is also a whole hidden Jewish lineage in there as well. All my grandparents are currently dead so there aren't too many places to find any information now.

simu

Btw, for my question - it doesn't have to be stories of historical events - it can just be anecdotes from daily life or random things that happened to your ancestors or phrases they used to say - in other words, anything that gives you a sense of them a person.

monkeyfudge

I had one great aunt who would blurt out lots of information in the form of non sequiturs.

She would say things like:

"And over there used to be a lovely bakery and when I was a girl my mother jumped off a table onto my belly to give me an abortion and isn't the price of bread terrible these days?"

WindSock

My great Grandmother went to America in the late 1800's and came back to Kerry with cash she earned which she gave to the local priest in for safekeeping because her husband was a drunk and stole it from her. The priest ran off with the cash and gave it to his relatives towards their hotel. She died not long after this happened, I felt so angry when I heard this last year. I so would love to go back in time to help her out.

hairyfairy00

Both of my gr grandfathers married twice so it has been hard to trace either side of my family. A lot of my maternal grandmothers ancestors went to America, she's had success tracing some distant relitaves there, 2 or 3 of them work for NASA, obviously the brains didn't stretch to my family
My maternal grandfathers family apparently changed the spelling of their surmame ( to prodestant version ) to avoid getting taxed during the plantation, the money grabbing side did stretch to some of my family though

Ziycon

Aint got a clue about anything about them!

brianthebard

My granda said **** all about the past until this year...my granduncle, his brother was dying and he was trying to find the family grave, so he managed to find out all sorts of crazy ****, apparently his grandfather went to the USA, fought in a war(imo the civil war, given the dates) and came back, then had some kids and was never talked about again...even to my grandda, I think he may have been a suicide, I can't think of any other reason not to talk about him....

Heyes

My cousins may have been told stories, but as one of the younger memories of the family i havent really been ever told anything, yeah stories from my parents youth and how things were then, but i dont recall ever been told things about my great grandparents.

To be honest id love to know, my dad since my grandfather died has a couple box's of slides that im dieing to see, hopefully will some day soon, if anything just to get a real picture of how things were.

Mossy Monk

i was never told a thing

but then i never asked either

tallus

My great grandfather came to Ireland from Norway as an orphan and took an Irish name. He became very rich and then disowned my fathers mother for marrying a poor catholic, (they were protestant). That's all I know about that side. My mam talks about her father sometimes he was a member of the old ira back in the day, she has photo's of him in uniform.

luckat

zippy28 wrote:

I only know that one of my grandfathers was in the original IRA and was one of the members resposible for burning down Castleboro house which my father (his son) thinks is reprehensible as do I. And my great uncle on the other side of the family flew in the RAF. I think as a gunner but broke his back trying to land a plane when the pilot was shot. Well that's the story I was told. Never heard a lot else about older realatives

Castleboro House - this is the huge place in Wexford, rebuilt around the time of the Famine to resemble a Venetian palace, yes? The Carews' place?

Perhaps it might be interesting to find out more about your grandfather?

seamus

Don't know a whole lot about anyone past my grandparents. I know one great-grandfather was a warden/prison officer in Mountjoy in the early 1900s. He used to bring messages and secrets in/out to IRA/IRB members in the prison.
The authorities of the day knew this went on, and attempted to have him transferred to a different prision. However, there was a rule back then that the officer couldn't be transferred if a family member was sick in a local hospital. So he spoke to his good friend the Matron at Crumlin hospital (I think), and my grandmother went into hospital for six months as a child, despite there being nothing wrong with her...

frizzefreckles

I can still vaguely remember my great grandmother on my mother's side, as she only died when i was 5/6. There are lots of stories of her flying around in the family, i don't know much about her husband as he died when my nana was only young. On my fathers side i only know some stuff about his dad and brothers, my granda was in the british army and was posted in india for a while and his brother was a runner for the IRB in 1916, but died around Easter Sunday and my Grandfather blamed De Valera for his death.

Burning Eclipse

Know a fair amount tbh, I'm 24 next month and all 4 grandparents, all 80+, are still alive. My parents live next door to one pair, the others, bout 40 min drive away so i'm in regular enough contact.

Anybody here older than me with all 4 grandparents alive??

EDIT: Should possibly specify that I know about my great grandparents through my grandparents. My dad has 1 brother, 2 sisters, they're all named after their grandparents. Wonder if that happened a lot?

_blank_

I knew one of my Great-Grandmother's on my dad's side. She lived to be a hundred and one.

She used to bring guns for the IRA around the city under the matress in the pram with my dad's mam, my grandmother, sitting above them.

Some of my cousins kids on the same side know their Great Grandmother - my grandmother who is in her nineties and still a sprightly old thing.

I could pretty easily trace the ancestors of one side of my mam's lineage I suppose, her family is the only family in the country with the surname.

Merrick

I know a bit about my great great grandfather, he fought in WWI and died in the trenches in France. And I've been told a few stories about my great grandparents, but beyond that I don't know a great deal.

brown*eyed*girl

I know very little about my Father's parents as he fcuked off when I was 6 months old but I do know his Father's name because he stood for me.

On my Mam's side I know a lot about my Nan & Grandad plus their lives. Myself & my Mam lived with them until I was 13 and I half lived with them until my Nanny passed away in July 1992. My Grandad is still alive & is 83. I was very very close to my Nanny. She used to tell me lots of stories about her childhood and her parents. Her name was Josephine Swift but because she was always late in school the nun used to call her Josie Slow! My Nanny's Mother's name was Kate Green and her Dad's name was Jack Swift. My Grandad's surname (which I still have as my Mam married when I was 16, plus I'm not married) is very unusual and we seem to be the only ones in Ireland, most of which are based in the south-east.

I have tonnes of stories from both my Grandad & Nanny and used to love hear them reminise about how they met etc. My Grandad was only telling me recently how they first met at "the hop". Also my Grandad remembers walking to school in his bare feet & can show me the house he was reared in when he was a child and tells me all about his parents. Don't seem to be any secrets in our family because we're all very close which I love about being part of this family. My daughter never got to meet my Nanny but I tell her about her great-grandmother the whole time and she loves hearing the stories. My daughter has gotten her great-grandmothers personality and is always the life and soul of the party and is very confident.

Also I think my Grandad said our surname it French which could explain why a lot of my family are very tanned with dark hair and eyes. This thread has inspired me to do some more research.

_blank_

brown*eyed*girl wrote:

Also I think my Grandad said our surname it French which could explain why a lot of my family are very tanned with dark hair and eyes. This thread has inspired me to do some more research.

Hmm, a lot of my Dad's side look fairly Mediterranean, to the point that when away on holidays in Spain and Italy my dad and sister often get stopped by other tourists asking for directions etc.

My Dad's family name (my surname) is from the west - around Roscommon / Sligo - and the story goes that some of the Spanish Armada lads washed up there and intermarried with locals and this is where the dark skin/hair in the family comes from.

Even my own mates refer to my sister as "Spanish" Katie (Katie is not her real name).

brianthebard

I've never heard of the armada being washed up in Sligo tbh sean, I'm fairly sure it was Donegal...

thelordofcheese

Isn't there a cannon from the spanish armada down at strandhill, or did the cunning locals steal one from Donegal and hoped no one would notice?

Heyes

Simu great thread, its really intresting reading about everyones stories.

_blank_

brianthebard wrote:

I've never heard of the armada being washed up in Sligo tbh sean, I'm fairly sure it was Donegal...

I'm sure the Spanish lads weren't used to the freezing conditions in Donegal, maybe they moved a bit further south to Sligo for the warmth

Look, it's a family story, probably bullshít anyway, but I like telling it. Although, my dad, sister and some cousins are very dark and sallow skinned.

I do know that one of my Grand-uncles had to move to America in the 20s because he was a raging homosexual. That is never spoken about, apart from in a wink wink nudge nudge kind of way.

fobs

Know quite a bit as my grandmother lived until 99 and she used to tell us great stories about her father (he was shot by the black and tans in front of her) and other stories of life growing up in a pub.
My grandmother on my mothers side too we would be very close to and she would tell us stories too. My father is into charting our family tree and has gathered lots of information about our ancesters and has recordings of my grandparents telling events that happened so while don't know loads off by heart have access to lots of information.

Tar.Aldarion

I know nothing much about them, a lot liked to kill, were knights etc.


One wrote the american national anthem or some other one of those famous american song things, amber sky and all that. Can't really recall.

Red Hand

My grandparents and a parent have been dead for many years so I've little idea of my heritage. I do know that most of my father's family (a family that used have big families on small patches of land) fought in the Second Boer war and both world wars. However it was always Granduncles and Great-Granduncles rather than true forebears, yet I have no idea as to their names or whether they were even killed or not (except for one great-granduncle who had some of his possessions robbed in hospital in the 60's when he was old and sick, and he a Boer war veteran).

I have little idea as to my mother's family other than they, too, were pretty poor farmers, yet didn't take the King's schilling like Dad's family.:)

ambro25

Dunno anything about great-grandparents on my dad's side, my dad's dad was from Italy, my dad's mum from Sicily via Libya, they met in Germany, married in Belgium, settled in France.
Know quite a bit about great-grandparents on my mum's side, my mum's dad was from near Alsace, my mum's mum from Britanny, they met in Central/Southern France during WWII, went back to live near Alsace.

My mum's dad was a Lieutenant in FR army May 40, trekked all the way from the Rhine near Starsbourg to Paris to take his company back to their families, then trekked all the way back to his home near Alsace, stayed a while doing some Resistance stuff (help downed airmen escape), then joined his family who had been evicted by Germans (that part of France wasn't occupied between 1940 and 1945, it was actually the 3rd Reich and if you didn't naturalise in 40, they turfed you out to Central/Southern France). Came back in 45 to find the house pretty much gutted, all furniture stolen by neighbours who had stayed, incl. everything that was hidden away. A US bomb had fallen on the barn at the back of house in late 44, and another one fell on the German train that was carrying quite a bit of stuff stolen from the house by retreating Germans, incl. my grandad's priceless stradivarius violin. Our family dogs have been eating off the nazi porcelain (complete with swastika and "made in berlin") left behind ever since

I'm just continuing the family tradition, having lived in Luxembourg, German, Belgium, the UK and now Ireland

watna

My dad is Welsh and I know a little bit about my grandmothers parents because his grandmother (my great grandmother) lived with him for years. My great grandfather died when my grandmother was about 10. He died of cirrhosis of the liver even though he was teetotal. (or so I've been told!). The doctor told mam (my grandmother) that it was because he ate apple pie hot. From then on, for the rest of her life she only served apple pie cold!

My great grandmother moved to a little village then to be a housekeeper to a doctor. They moved in next to a nice family and mam ended up marrying one of the sons, my grandfather. My grandmother's uncle (my great-great Uncle) only died last summer. He was 96. My dad tried to get information out of him about the family but he was reluctant to give any. He said that it was all a long time ago and they were all dead now so it didn't matter. I thought that was really sad. All his close relatives (he didn't have kids) and friends had died. He had people visiting him so he wasn't too lonely but i just thought, there's all these medicines and things to help you live longer, but what's the point if everyone you know is dead?

b3t4

I'd be happy if I knew something about my grandparents not to mind great grandparents. 3 of my grandparents were dead before I was born and the one remaining lived too far away to really develop any relationship with him. My knowledge of my parents' lives is also quite sparse.

I've tried asking but my parents just can't think of anything to tell me or just don't see the point in it.

I did get to see some pictures my paternal grandmother had taken back in the day and they really are a snippet of history. I'd liked to have met her.

A.

arseagon

luckat wrote:

Castleboro House - this is the huge place in Wexford, rebuilt around the time of the Famine to resemble a Venetian palace, yes? The Carews' place?

Perhaps it might be interesting to find out more about your grandfather?

Not sure about the Venetian palace bit but yeah it was home to the Carews. I'll do some digging and see what I can find out about him.