JellyBelly
01-05-2009, 10:04 PM
My father's family all originate in Nottingham. They go back as far as the eye can see from Nottingham and most were Miners.
My great, great grandmother (Lucy) gave birth to an illegitimate son (Fred, my great grandfather) in Nottingham and then seemingly disappeared. Fred was brought up by his grandparents and it was assumed that Lucy just died either during childbirth or shortly after as she appeared in no census we could find after his birth. I have only been researching for 18 months but this assumption wasn't good enough for me. I needed to find a death record to confirm this and there wasn't one so I decided to create a fantasy where Lucy ran off, got married, had a family all of her own and lived to a grand old age. It was up to me to prove it. Lucy became my obsession.
Tireless searches for marriage records UK-wide (the surname was constantly mis-spelled) and 12 months later, I could prove my fantasy true. She married a Derbyshire man, moved to Essex and raised 5 children. She lived to 82 (even outliving Fred) and by all accounts had a wonderful life. How do I know this? Because through the wonder of the internet, I found and am now in touch with her grandson who is, himself, 76 years of age. Despite the surprise that Fred and the Nottingham family existed (revealed as sensitively as possible, of course!), her grandson has shared real memories of my great great grandmother and has even sent me photographs of her and her husband, his own aunts & uncles and his father (Lucy's children). He has furnished me with more information than I could ever have hoped to acquire and it has also given me a new fantasy -that one day I can do the same for someone else.
My great, great grandmother (Lucy) gave birth to an illegitimate son (Fred, my great grandfather) in Nottingham and then seemingly disappeared. Fred was brought up by his grandparents and it was assumed that Lucy just died either during childbirth or shortly after as she appeared in no census we could find after his birth. I have only been researching for 18 months but this assumption wasn't good enough for me. I needed to find a death record to confirm this and there wasn't one so I decided to create a fantasy where Lucy ran off, got married, had a family all of her own and lived to a grand old age. It was up to me to prove it. Lucy became my obsession.
Tireless searches for marriage records UK-wide (the surname was constantly mis-spelled) and 12 months later, I could prove my fantasy true. She married a Derbyshire man, moved to Essex and raised 5 children. She lived to 82 (even outliving Fred) and by all accounts had a wonderful life. How do I know this? Because through the wonder of the internet, I found and am now in touch with her grandson who is, himself, 76 years of age. Despite the surprise that Fred and the Nottingham family existed (revealed as sensitively as possible, of course!), her grandson has shared real memories of my great great grandmother and has even sent me photographs of her and her husband, his own aunts & uncles and his father (Lucy's children). He has furnished me with more information than I could ever have hoped to acquire and it has also given me a new fantasy -that one day I can do the same for someone else.