Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
I'm trying to trace my grandfather born c 1860. We always believed that his mother's name was Ellen Spencer and his father Andrew Glendenning. My grandfather died in 1942, before I was born, but his stories live on! He always said that his mother was a gipsy who met up with a 'man of letters'by the name of Glendenning. The 'married' and her twins were born 'under an apple tree somewhere on the road between Durham and Leicester'. One of the twins died but my grandfather survived. Then Andrew either disappeared or
died and Ellen went on to marry a man named McGrath and they supposedly settled in Leicester. Then she died of an asthma attack and Arthur James (known as Jim) was brought up by Mr McGrath. Somewhere in the story my grandfather maintained that he wasn't registered until he was five years
old. Anyway, McGrath ended up in London with the family and my grandfather came into contact with someone who had smallpox so was quarantined on a ship moored at Deptford Reach. He was convinced that he would end up with smallpox if he stayed on the ship so he jumped overboard and swan to shore.
He then went 'on the road' and ended up in Durham where he maintained he found his mother's family and travelled with them for years and learned their ways. He was back in London by 1894 because he married my grandma, Sarah Marr (Maher).
My cousin has been searching for 'Jim' for over 20 years!
If anyone can help unravel this mystery I would be extremely grateful for any help.
Many thanks
Joy Farrow
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:No followups yet |
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/glendenning/messages/256.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|