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Post by Queen on Jan 24, 2024 3:16:18 GMT -5
(seriously though, imagine how brave - and desperate - you would have to be to sail to the other side of the world to look for someone you hadn't heard from in years?) My understanding is that promises had been made... and that it had taken her all the years to save the money for the tickets. And of course having arrived she couldn't exactly get on plane and fly back the next day. She and her daughter stayed. Eventually they went their own way independently of my family, and it was only after the woman died that the daughter sought out her father's family. By then her father had died but she got all of us. Must have been a lot of joy for her that day
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 24, 2024 3:27:39 GMT -5
I rather enjoy the status of being the dark secret in my biological family. While most of them have been very welcoming, I have a couple of aunts who think I am after the non-existent family fortune. They don’t realise that, even if it existed, I have no legal claim to it.
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Post by Queen on Jan 24, 2024 3:43:55 GMT -5
I rather enjoy the status of being the dark secret in my biological family. While most of them have been very welcoming, I have a couple of aunts who think I am after the non-existent family fortune. They don’t realise that, even if it existed, I have no legal claim to it. I had a few very presbyterian great aunts on my Mum's side who would get very lemon-lipped about the "dark secrets" ... including one great aunt who told my uncle (her nephew) not to go digging around the family history as it was NOT HIS BUSINESS. Turns out that there's a bigamist in the family line (although no marriage cert so possibly just a fake marriage). But from my parents generation onwards things are far more relaxed and we just enjoy the bonus family members and the level they want to be included in our family. Sometimes it's been enough to know, other times the person has wanted more contact and more info. All good. Actually my generation is the only one that there are no known "fence jumpers" perhaps because any woman who became pregnant out of wedlock (hate that word) had options. I doubt we were having less sex than previous generations.
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Post by kneazle on Jan 24, 2024 4:49:38 GMT -5
To be fair in my family we had two secret children come out of the woodwork in my generation.
Aunty was living in Auckland and got pregnant moved to Australia and had the baby adopted out. Then got pregnant again in Australia and adopted baby no. 2 out. This would have been early told 70's.
No one knew anything about it until my uncle (brother of the Aunty) got a phone call asking if he knew her and the person asked for her number. He said 'no you tell me who you are and what you want and I'll get her to phone you.'
He immediately phoned my Aunty to ask if she had any children in Australia she hadn't told us about.
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Post by romily on Jan 24, 2024 6:24:34 GMT -5
I think looking into genealogy is much more common in English speaking countries - nobody I know in Germany really cared - but that could obviously also have a lot to do with the rather current past, nobody who doesn't know already wants to dig into what their grandparents did during the NAZI regime?
But I guess generally there was much less migration, so for somebody in the US/AUS/NZ its' much more interesting, likeliness in my area of Germany is that your family stayed in the same boring little place forever.
I can't even explain why it is of interest to me now when I never cared before, probably to do with Mum being gone and trying to understand her life better more than anything.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 24, 2024 6:45:29 GMT -5
I know a couple of Germans into genealogy. In both cases they have family that emigrated to the US. In particular, my friend M discovered that her grandfather (or was it great-grandfather? I'm not sure) was the only member of his family NOT to cross over to the US. She found names and photos of some of his siblings and via Facebook got in touch with the American descendants. It turned out that she had a great-aunt still alive, who was delighted to hear from her, and any way, long story short, last summer she took her husband and kids to Michigan and met the American relatives and they had an amazing time and keep in touch regularly via Facetime. Some of the Americans, who have never travelled internationally (not even to Canada, which is right there if you're from Michigan!), now want to come to Germany!
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Post by romily on Jan 24, 2024 7:20:38 GMT -5
Oh if I had any hint anybody in my family ever emigrated I would have been all over it, it was a dream of mine to find a relative in the US or abroad so I could escape there to visit, or go to school there for a year!
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Post by psw on Jan 24, 2024 10:18:22 GMT -5
My paternal grandmother's point of pride was that she was the first girl in her village to learn to read and write.
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Post by romily on Jan 24, 2024 10:44:46 GMT -5
That is actually pretty awesome psw.
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Post by whothingie on Jan 24, 2024 15:20:18 GMT -5
Basically our lot are all variations of English/Scottish combinations and while I wasn't greatly interested other members of the family have traced various branches. I'm sure all the "black sheep" were left out of the finished articles.
I'm the holder of the 175 old (this year) family bible as it's unusual in being handed down to the eldest daughter and not the eldest son, and outlines that wish, written in beautiful script in the letter to the donors daughter to celebrate her wedding. I only have a photo copy as the original paper started to fall to bits. I had the bible restored about 15 years ago as the leather and the clasps were showing wear. It should be in a museum but they get dozens of them so I keep it. Comes out for readings at weddings (not all that often now) and at funerals (far too often). I read from it at my mothers funeral.
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Post by tinaja on Jan 24, 2024 16:09:19 GMT -5
Reading through this made me realize that the disappeared great grandfather seemed to come from Germany alone. I never thought to research if he had siblings left in Germany. That could be interesting.
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Post by lisamnz on Jan 24, 2024 17:18:59 GMT -5
My great aunt (that littleM is named after) was one of the first female police officers in NZ. The most interesting story I've heard is when they were trying to catch a rapist, and the few female police officers (including my great aunt) were told to act as bait. I believe they caught him, I must ask my mum who I think knows the detail of the story. There's a newspaper clipping somewhere.
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Post by fishface on Jan 25, 2024 17:15:18 GMT -5
Lisa, is there anything on your aunt at the police museum in Porirua? if you haven't already, consider visiting thr museum next time you're in Welly and with access to a car. It's pretty neat, albeit small.
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Post by kneazle on Jan 25, 2024 17:28:37 GMT -5
My Grandad was a cop and it was before they had undercover cops.
Because he was new to Auckland he was used to bust a brothel because he could go in there without anyone knowing he was a cop.
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Post by lisamnz on Jan 25, 2024 22:03:07 GMT -5
Lisa, is there anything on your aunt at the police museum in Porirua? if you haven't already, consider visiting thr museum next time you're in Welly and with access to a car. It's pretty neat, albeit small. Oh I don't know, I'll have to ask my mum! Thanks fish.
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Post by lisamnz on Jan 28, 2024 15:07:05 GMT -5
My Grandad was a cop and it was before they had undercover cops. Because he was new to Auckland he was used to bust a brothel because he could go in there without anyone knowing he was a cop. My mum said yes, there's lots. She was also one of the first female police officers to be allowed to marry (previously they could no longer be police officers once married) and also had to get special permission to marry her husband because he was also a police officer.
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Post by tzarine on Jan 28, 2024 15:10:14 GMT -5
apparently a document exists of my line of lees dating back hundreds of years & was saved during the cultural revolution
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Post by rikita on Feb 2, 2024 12:00:38 GMT -5
some people in my family, among them my grandfather, had some interest in family history. don't know that much about the results, though, but remember talking to him about his theories of the origins of our family name ...
when i was a kid, i read a journal of an ancestor of mine, who migrated to the US in 1850, but returned 8 years later after having been very sick and promising God that he'll return if he gets well. some of his siblings had migrated with him; they remained there.
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Post by tzarine on Feb 2, 2024 16:35:16 GMT -5
my dad lived in san francisco, trained to be a flyer, returned to china for the northern expedition we have a cool photo of him in a leather helmet in front of his plane
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Post by tinaja on Feb 2, 2024 19:15:02 GMT -5
I find it interesting that I have relatives with the last name of Lee, but somehow it comes from General Lee of the US civil war. There are people who would have been on both sides. I can see how some would have been on the southern side and others who split off north mainly because they were younger siblings who didn't get inheritance.
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Post by tzarine on Feb 2, 2024 22:11:27 GMT -5
I find it interesting that I have relatives with the last name of Lee, but somehow it comes from General Lee of the US civil war. There are people who would have been on both sides. I can see how some would have been on the southern side and others who split off north mainly because they were younger siblings who didn't get inheritance. so were related?
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Post by vinnyd on Feb 3, 2024 11:59:08 GMT -5
Samuel Phillips Lee, a cousin of Robert E Lee, was a commander in the US Navy before and during the Civil War. When asked why he had not joined the rebellion like his cousin, he replied: "When I find the word Virginia in my commission I will join the Confederacy.."
The house that his wife Elizabeth Blair grew up in and which they eventually inherited, across Lafayette Park from the White House, is Blair House, where guests of the president stay.
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Post by romily on Feb 3, 2024 13:09:58 GMT -5
I really regret not asking more questions and writing stuff down when Mum was still alive, so much memories and history are now lost forever.
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Post by romily on Feb 3, 2024 13:14:09 GMT -5
I really regret not asking more questions and writing stuff down when Mum was still alive, so much memories and history are now lost forever.
Her sister literally emailed me back saying I should have asked my mother. Stupid cow.
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Post by tzarine on Feb 3, 2024 16:45:39 GMT -5
I really regret not asking more questions and writing stuff down when Mum was still alive, so much memories and history are now lost forever. Her sister literally emailed me back saying I should have asked my mother. Stupid cow. yes what a stupid cow i think i am related to all the lees around the world. my senegalese fam is spelled ly. mr ly of our saigon hotel, said of course, "we are related, we are a very big and very old family"
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Post by sophie on Feb 3, 2024 17:31:56 GMT -5
Isn’t Lee the most common surname in the world? I vaguely remember reading something like that.
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Post by tzarine on Feb 3, 2024 21:03:27 GMT -5
these are some spellings lee le ly leigh li
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Post by sprite on Feb 5, 2024 19:14:34 GMT -5
Bloody hell, Romily. What a horrible thing to say!
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Post by romily on Feb 6, 2024 3:42:20 GMT -5
I am so looking forward to the family get together in May for my nephews confirmation.
Not only will stupid aunt be there, but my sister also invited my father with whom she had no contact for ages (I had loose contact) and who is excited like there is no tomorrow, but my stepdad is also there and my father hates him. Somehow I feel I will have to look after my father as nobody else wants to talk to him (his bitchy wife comes as well) and won't be able to spend time with the others. I am so not looking forward to it.
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Post by riverhorse on Feb 6, 2024 6:10:36 GMT -5
That sounds awfully stressful, romily! Just don't stretch yourself too thinly thinking you have to keep everyone happy!
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