1. "Victorian Roots"
Posted by Tina-Kate on Jun-9th-03 at 10:55 PM

I was wondering if anyone knows about their own families during Victorian times & would like to share some stories with us.

I'm sure 1 of my reasons for being so fascinated by the Victorian Era is the fact I can't trace any of my roots past Edwardian times.  My dad was adopted (born 1928) & he knows virtually nothing of his background.  On my mother's side, her parents divorced around WWII, so she knows nothing re her father's side & there's some kind of mystery re my grandmother's side, so her own mother never told her much.  My mother does have some Edwardian photos & only a few memories of her grandmother (no one knows where this woman came from & she was reported to be psychic!)

I was wondering if anyone does have some knowledge about their roots.  Where were your ancestors during Lizzie's time?

(Message last edited Jun-10th-03  1:15 PM.)

Mine were definatly making babies, chasing one another around with shotguns, and being hauled out of barrooms in manacles. Its documented. Ask anybody.

Interesting question, Tina-Kate!  What I know of my family ancestry from around Lizzie's time was that my great-grandparents were being born in the 1890s in Switzerland; a small town in the Alps, Ireland, Lithuania and Naples, Italy.  They were all recent immigrants to the U.S. through Ellis Island.  My Italian great-grandmother's first child was born in American waters and became an American citizen that way.  Before that, there was from my dad's side of the family, a general in Napolean's army. And, a Jesuit priest, who I believe died in the 1890s in New Orleans.

My mom has a few sepia tone photos of my Lituanian great-grandmother holding my grandmother in her christening gown with the godparents;  He has a huge handlebar mustache and is wearing a straw boater and she is wearing a ridiculously huge hat and this wonderful dress that from the notation beneath states that it was pink.  There is one other of my grandmother as a small girl with her mother, she is wearing high button boots with a HUGE bow on the back of her head.  From what my grandmother told me, the bigger the bow, the more in style you were. 

Thanks for sharing guys -- for a while there I was wondering if the question was too personal (or, like me, a lot of people simply don't know).

Kash, if the rumors are true, yr ancestors certainly lived.

Susan, you know quite a LOT.  I love that.

& I love old pictures.  The 2 I recall (my Mum has them) are 1 of my grandmother (b. 1908 or so?) as a child with a big bow & pinafore style dress.  The other is a group of people on the porch of a suburban London Victorian, all dressed in simple, linear-looking Edwardian clothes.  Alas, my Mum sez a lot of pics were lost in a flood @ my grandmother's house in the 70s.  She had them in a cardboard box on the back porch!!!

I'm pushing 70 now, and my maternal grandparents were young children when the Borden murders happened.  Lizzie would have been a contemporary of my great-grandparents on that side.  On the paternal side, my grandparents were a whole generation older and would have  been roughly Lizzie's contemporaries.  My mother was born in 1911, and I have a wonderful picture of her with her mother and sister.  All of them are dressed up to the nines to have their picture taken.  My Aunt Margaret has a parasol.  Mother was a baby, so the picture would have been made about 1912.  I have a picture of my father taken about the same time, but he was ten years older.  He and his younger brother are little barefoot country boys in short pants.  Almost the whole Weeks family -- parents, children, and a sprinkling of the older grandchildren -- is spread out across the front of their not-very-elegant house.  One of the older boys is standing on the lefthand end, holding the family horse by its bridle to make sure it stays put for the picture.  It's a wonderful slice of life.

All four of my grandparents came from Massachusetts and were born in the 1870s and 1880s. When I was a teenager and my paternal grandmother was in her eighties I asked her if she remembered Lizzie Borden. My grandmother grew up in the Boston area and was 12 or 13 when it all happened. She remembered Lizzie, the murders, and the trial vividly! I had become interested in the Bordens several years earlier and at that time firmly believed Lizzie was not guilty. After all, she was acquitted and how could she have done such a thing? Anyway, my grandmother told me she thought Lizzie was guilty and had gotten away with the murders. It was an interesting conversation! One of my aunts happened to overhear us and was almost scandalized that I would bring such a topic up but it did not seem to bother my grandmother at all. And I have the memory of talking about Lizzie to a person who was alive and remembered the case as it unfolded.

(Message last edited Jun-10th-03  9:28 PM.)

Yes, I always listened to my mom's mom as a little girl to her stories of life and how it was for her growing up, fascinating stuff, you don't quite get it in history books.  And my dad has done the family tree on his side as much as he could, apparently there are hundreds of his family still in the Swiss Alps and one relative living in New Zealand.  On my mom's side I'm not sure, but, I believe we still have relatives in Romania and in Italy, would love to check it out one day.

Oh, and as for old photos, one of my great uncles, Carminucci(sp?) has quite a packet of Victorian and Edwardian family photos!  Would love to get a peek at them one of these days. 

Wow, this is great.  I enjoy reading about these things, thanks!

That's amazing Doug.  Interesting how yr aunt thought it was such a scandalous conversation.

I always think it's so wonderful to have those old pictures for posterity.

We have a family mystery -- in my great great grandfather's
bible he has his children listed -- my great grandfather is
listed as having been born in 1885 & then he has three sisters,
but one of them nobody has ever heard of. We don't know what
happened to her. They moved from the Ohio/West Virginia area
to Tennessee in 1904 & brought the entire family (great great
great grandparent's & all) and Rosa, the mystery lady, would
have been 17 -- maybe she was married off? Nobody ever heard
anyone say a word about her.

My family are the Enochs' of Nobel County, Ohio & the boys
hopped over the line & married southern girls in West Virginia,
the Ritchie County area. If anyone who is related should
surf in -- it would be great to hear from you. I also know
that my great great great grandmother was a Forshey. And, that
is about it.

http://www.archercousins.com/ArcherAssn/mba.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvritchi/indexr.htm

My father's father was born in London (in 1860s or 70's?).  His family moved to NY when he was fairly young. I never met him as he died in the flu epidemic in the mid 1910's.

I remember my mother telling me that he was a member of the Knights of St. George or the Sons of St. George or something similar and we as descendents were entitled to join.  I've never looked into it to find out anything further.

There are a number of sites concerning the "Knights of St. George" and similar orders.  This is one:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13350a.htm

The trick is probably figuring out which of the Orders is the one in which you have inherited membership!  (It may be kinda like those things I get in the mail that say, "You have been preselected...")

Thanks Edisto for the URL.  The trouble is I wouldn't know which one it was if I tripped over it.  My mother didn't have that much knowledge of it either. My father's side of the family was somewhat close mouthed and not all that friendly. We were sort of the black sheep of the family.

It's funny how you never think to ask the questions until it's too late.

Our mother's father had a Scottish nane with the "Mc" removed, to add the "son" at the back.
When we got to Scotland and asked for our Tartan, there was a whole table full of differing plaids, all for our mother's maiden name.
So because we would not know which tribe within the clan, or the other way 'round?  We just picked the one in her name which we liked the best.

Speaking of tribes -- my grandfather's (Victorian era) family
was from northern Georgia -- his mother was a Native American
and his father was Jewish.