One of the first pieces of advice those new to family history research are given is to collect family stories from living relatives. I think the second should be, and then discard them (the stories – not the relatives).
I had always understood that my great grandparents, George and Kate Revel, were Irish. They were married at the Roman Catholic chapel of St Canice in Kilkenny on February 4, 1895. Their first daughter, Hanoria Emily, was born on January 3, 1896 at Kate’s parents’ home in Rathkeale where George was described as a discharged soldier.
By 1898 the family had moved to London where a second daughter, Catherine Christina was born on December 17 at 19 Townshend Road, Marylebone. George was at this time working as a railway servant.
But then everything was to change with the outbreak of war in South Africa. George was recalled to service with the Royal Irish Fusiliers, leaving Kate pregnant and with two small daughters. A son also named George (my grandfather) was born on May 16, 1900. Sadly, his father Lance Sergeant George Revel died 13 days later, he probably never knew he had a son.
George’s military records reveal that he served with the 2ndBattalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. He was posthumously awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps for service at Cape Colony, Tugela Heights and the Relief of Ladysmith. He died, like so many others, of enteric fever, and was buried in Woodstock Hospital, Capetown. His body was subsequently exhumed and re-interred in Maitland Cemetery where his name appears on the Woodstock Memorial.
I knew none of these people, not even my granddad who died more than ten years before I was born, but their stories lived on. My dad was raised as a Roman Catholic and although his own childhood was fractured by his mother’s desertion and a period spent in an orphanage, he drew comfort from the large, extended London Irish family to which he belonged.
When I began researching my family history more than twenty years ago Irish records were not so readily available and I must admit I eventually gave up, promising myself that one day I would take a trip to Dublin for a glorious researchfest.
Then this August Bank Holiday I responded to a tweet from an Irish researcher I follow on twitter. We got chatting, she accessed some records and would you believe it, my Irish great-granddad wasn’t Irish at all. I had made all sorts of assumptions on the evidence of oral history without questioning the records or thinking creatively.
My twitter friend revealed that great granddad was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire and that previous generations of the family had originated from East Anglia. Census records and parish registers were checked and before you could say ‘Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt’ I was back in 18thcentury Suffolk.
And what have I learned from all of this? That twitter can be an amazing research tool; that family history researchers are generous with their time and help and to take all those family legends with a hefty pinch of salt.
On the down side, my notions of a romantic Irish family history have come crashing down (although of course there is still great-granny). On the plus side, Suffolk family history is considerably easier to access, especially now I am no longer barking up the wrong family tree.
My grateful thanks to Tara @MsFrugalone. Meet her this evening (Tuesday) on twitter #AncestryHour 7-8pm.
