Some family stories seem to be pure wishful thinking: examples might include being related to rich or famous people with the same surname, having Huguenot ancestors (and/or ones who came with the Conqueror), having lost a fortune in Chancery, etc. etc.

But there are other stories which may contain a grain of truth . . . some may have started out as factual but by Chinese whispers have over the years got garbled. Others may have been stories right from the start, invented to cover up skeletons in the cupboard.

Here's one from my family. My grandmother could tell me nothing of her great-grandfather, surnamed Carter, except that she thought he was called William and that he had "left his wife, who was very beautiful, and kept having affairs. He became a sheep farmer in Australia."

With hindsight I know this story belongs in the Fiction category, but I took it at face value when I first heard it. It was only later that I began to wonder if William's journey to Australia had been voluntary. Eventually I discovered that he had been transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1838 for stealing a parcel of bank-notes. His wife (who was left behind in Sunderland) managed to go on having children without him.

What I'd love to know, but probably never will, is when the cover story was invented. His son, from whom I am descended, was only 2 years old when his father was transported, and (as far as I know) never saw his father again. His mother may never have told her children what really happened to their father. Or perhaps it was a later member of the family who decided to lock this skeleton away in the cupboard.

What family stories were you told, and were they true?