Anyone done the ancestry thing, possible interesting motorcycle connection

[rowdy]

Wondering if anyone on here has done a family history check on one of the websites and if they are any good.

I’m not really connected with my family and don’t really know how many relatives I have out there.
To put across how family naive I am, before my wife and I were married we shared a flat with a female friend. Her dad had a team with a couple of bikes running in world endurance. We parted ways but as close friends stayed in touch, and she fell pregnant with her other half that rode in her dads race team.
When she gave birth her other half was away racing and wouldn’t come home.
My wife was birthing partner and I went down later that day to pick our friend and her newborn up and take them home.
On the way home I was telling my friend that my dad had run out of petrol and got a lift home in a van with a fella and his missus and it turned out he was dads cousin.
My friend said no way that was me and Mark. So having known the guy several years I didn’t know we were cousins.

So the interesting link.
I grew up in a village and had heard that Casey Stoners grandfather was born and raised in the same village. I’ve known that for a few years now.
A few weeks ago I was watching the MotoGP and my mum came round, and mentioned she had read in a local magazine that Caseys grandfather lived in our village.
I found a copy of the magazine online and read the article. He did indeed live in a house his father built, 500yds from the house I grew up in.
What she did say makes me wonder about doing a family history check, it turns out her mothers maiden name was Stoner, a name that was predominantly from around a 20 mile radius of where I, and Caseys grandfather grew up.

[Craig380]

Heh, that's amazing.

[gadget]

That's pretty cool.
I did the family tree trace thing a while back, it took several days of searching the net for information about our family, apparently we ( my father's sir name) are related to Abraham Lincoln! Waaaay back my father's ancestors went over to America as they were farmers in England and pretty much flourished in the USA rearing beef live stock, they sold it to the army, the government and just about anyone who wanted to buy it, they cut out the middle men by employing butchers and slaughtermen to work in their own beef slaughter houses that had gone to the US from Sweden, apparently they made copious amounts of money and rubbed shoulders with some very influential people including government figures hence the involvement with the Lincoln family. It was a really involved but interesting research as was my mother's maiden name, apparently she is also directly related to the Dunlop clan of Ireland.
The strange thing is .... two hundred or so years later I became a butcher by trade and still am, and I've always been mad on bikes (Dunlop.. joey)!! and this was way before I knew anything about my family history! All I knew previously about my 'substantial ' family up till this point was ... they get very drunk very often and start fights at weddings and funerals! Nice to know our lot haven't always been about as useful as a handbrake in a canoe!

[rowdy]

That’s cool, Joey has always been one of my idols, I would be well chuffed if I found out I had a family connection with him.

I know a bit more from my dads side, we used to joke we probably descend from Baldrick and turned out his ancestor way back was a rat catcher so not far off! Although back then it was a fairly prestigious job as only wealthy could afford a dog.

Any particular websites you found most useful?

[gadget]

Originally Posted by rowdy

That’s cool, Joey has always been one of my idols, I would be well chuffed if I found out I had a family connection with him.

I know a bit more from my dads side, we used to joke we probably descend from Baldrick and turned out his ancestor way back was a rat catcher so not far off! Although back then it was a fairly prestigious job as only wealthy could afford a dog.

Any particular websites you found most useful?

Tbh I'd be pretty chuffed if I found out that I was related to Baldrick, would be a considerable step up for some of my family! No particular Web site, I just started googling my sir name and went from there, it kind of 'snowballed' really. My sir name changed a few times for various reasons over the years but only by one letter which made searching and researching a bit more involved. It was just a case of gathering lots of information and then cross checking against what I had already learned. Strangly though... I couldn't find much more info on our name before 17th century, so could only assume we are a relatively new family name.

[Dave20046]

I've never done an Ancestry thing but my Gran once brought me some old newspaper clippings of some motorcycling records the men in her family held.

They weren't super notable things, but were specific like 'Longest continuous motorcycle ride'(or it might have been quickest landsend-John o'groates...struggling to recall) and "first person to exceed 55mph on a BSA" but fairly interesting...

[rowdy]

Well I’ve just found the link.
So my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather is the father of Casey Stoners great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.
That’s pretty cool ��

[rowdy]

Well that was an interesting morning.
Having searched the family trees when I started this thread I was missing the name of Caseys great grandfather, but had all others leading to whereI believe my x times great grandfather also happens to be Caseys x times great grandfather.
In between then and now I managed to find the name of Caseys great grandfather and grandmother.

When I started this search I emailed the editor of the magazine that ran the article to see if they might by any chance have the name that I was missing.
After not hearing anything for a month or so I had given up on hearing from them but was satisfied I had filled in the blanks.

Then, last night I received an interesting email along with some valuable information. This morning I received a phone call from the person that sent the email via WhatsApp.
It happened to be Caseys grandad himself, and we had a good long chat about both of our histories growing up in the same village, albeit almost 50 years apart.
It turns out not only that we seem to be related but he also grew up with my wife’s side of the family too.
He did email me his family tree which I am pleased to say is identical to the one that I had managed to work out.

[gadget]

That's pretty awesome tbh, since posting my last message I've also just found out I have distant relations up in Yorkshire, apparently a family run company of chicken farmers with my exact surname, even stranger is their location... it is in the same area as where my wife was born.. Driffield!
Spooky!

[rowdy]

It is strange what goes around comes around. Jim told me a story about his headmistress at the school we both went to (I even remember his head mistress riding along the village in a mobility scooter in her old age) that he once put a drawing pin and piece of wire in her chair to make her jump, as he had be labelled a teachers pet. He got the cane for it.
Although I wasn’t the teachers pet I did exactly the same thing to one of my teachers. I didn’t get the cane but that is a bizarre coincidence!