Your ancestors? Who were they and what are their stories?

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Quite a few poachers and gamekeepers and some hwo switched between the two as opportunities arose.

I came from england in 1988.

Otherwise farmers, miners, textile workers. One ancestor born 100 years before me is listed as a coal miner in the census age 12
 
Pessimistic said:
Quite a few poachers and gamekeepers and some hwo switched between the two as opportunities arose.

I came from england in 1988.

Otherwise farmers, miners, textile workers. One ancestor born 100 years before me is listed as a coal miner in the census age 12
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Coal mining at age 12, bugger that.
 

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My parents are norwegian, and while we haven't had any super important ancestors that I know of, my grandad was in the merchant navy in ww2 and had some ridiculously close calls. He was on a lot of different ships, 2 of the ships he was on were torpedoed with him being the only survivor. He once gave up his place on a ship to a guy who was desperate to go home and see his family. That ship sunk with no survivors.

In total 5 ships he should have been on, but wasn't for various reasons, went down with no survivors. On top of the 2 times he was an only survivor.

He then lived to a ripe old age.

I hope I've inhereted his luck but I'm yet to see any proof ;)
 
The_Reaper said:
My maternal grandfather in Penang always claimed descent from a Chinese Opium War general.

I've never seen any evidence for or against it.

I also know that something serious happened to my grandmother back during the Japanese occupation but I was never told (because I was too young). I just knew that something happened.

And that my mother had me taken out of learning Japanese in high school because she thought her mother would be rolling in the grave over one of her grandchildren getting forced to learn Japanese.
I personally don't have any hard feelings against Japan or Japanese people though I must admit that due family stories (from family members who lived under both British colonial rule and Japanese occupation) that I do get pissed off whenever little graham likes to pretend that Britain and Australia were responsible for Japanese actions during the war.
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On this my eldest aunt recently died and whilst I haven't been told anything I can put two and two together.

I never actually knew how old she was but now I know she was born in September 1942. But I also knew from earlier that my grandparents hadn't married until after the war.
The Japanese occupation of Penang began in December 1941.

Given that my family thought I was too young to be told about this family history and that I know my aunt always had issues with my grandparents relating to something or another and my mother's belief that my grandmother in particular would have issues with one of her grandchildren getting forced to learn Japanese and it's fairly obvious that my aunt was half Japanese.

I'm not sure of the exact time by my grandmother was born sometime in 1927 or 1928.

Even though it happened well before I was born it's still really jarring to figure out that sort of deep dark family secret and I have to admit that now my feelings on WWII are now pretty similar to the sentiments expressed by vonn earlier in this thread.
 
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Kangaroos4eva said:
I'll put my pitchfork away then. Well where do l begin. My family had historians trace back my family's heritage back to Norman times for one side of the family. My mother's father's side came from Normandy after some point after the Norman invasion in 1066 and had the name of Finche and dropped the e along the way and several family served in the Australian military during the twentieth century in both World Wars. One served in France in the First World War and my Great, Great Uncle served as a pilot in North Africa in the Second World War against the Desert Fox.

My father's mother's side has linkages to the lower Prussian nobility and 'junkers' of the late 18th century around the Brandenberg-Berlin area. One member on this side of the family fought on the German side in both world wars (most of them left just before the rise of Hitler and during) and was killed in 1945 after his involvement in the 20th of July plot against Hitler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Fromm



That's a pic of him here.



But most of members of my family have been in Australia for generations, with my mother's side being part of the first fleet in 1788.
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And all I have are Ag-Labs
 
Chief said:
Once you go back past people you know, such as grandparents and maybe great-grandparents, does it really matter who your ancestors were?

What is it that draws people to study their family tree?
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So I can say to my children , these are the people who came before you. Hopefully they then get a sense of place and or belonging.

And maybe they wont marry a 3rd cousin
 
Wiltshire, Kent , Suffolk , Lincolnshire , Leicestershire, Cornwall , Gloucestershire , Aberdeen and Edingburgh. Ireland. Germany.

Mostly ag-labs and farmers and sawyers. Best I can do is my great grandmothers cousin won a VC in WW1. I share a common ancestor with this man
 
Italian, English and Irish, first came to Australia in the late 1850's, probably some of the first Italians on the goldfields, 3 brothers from Italy, one went up to QLD, 2 moved to Collingwood and became bookies, publicans, sly groggers and boot clickers, made a living anyway they could, reading old trove newspaper reports gives me a bit of a laugh, they certainly didn't mind giving the cops a bit of a run.

Have not been able to trace much before they came to Australia.
 
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