General Chat

Thanks Whippet, I would have missed it otherwise. iplayer isn't the same. lol

Yes, her grandparents led such interesting lives.

10 minute reminder :)

40 minute reminder

an interesting programme tonight, Kim's mother was very bitter about what her father did. The youngest daughter was the one I felt sorry for as she hadn't seen her father at all as she was too young. Glad that the family has since made contact with their half siblings.

I could understand their reticence at contact though. I can't imagine what their lives must have been like and after 72 years finding out that he appeared to not have given a flying fig to their welfare. Even after all that time it must be galling to think that their father loved and cherished his second family more than them.

What an awful situation for everyone involved.

You can't blame Kim's mother for being bitter especially as they had to starve some days as she can remember the day he walked out on the family.

And their father was more or less living a life of luxury compared to what they had.

Bet he only disappeared to Australia because he knew he could have been caught and charged with Bigamy.

This happened to my Mum. She was an only child: her father vanished in 1944 when she was 11. She never knew much of what happened to him, although she knew he had gone to Wales . She knew he had a new family though but was never divorced from his wife. I have to say she never recovered from this.

I have found him and his new family, and I know a lot about him: sadly my mum died before this.

Helen, that is so sad - but would your mum have wanted to know?
How soon after the bigamist has a new family can you contact them?
I expect it happened a lot.
My g grandparents married in 1924 after having 10 children.
They waited until my g grandad's first (childless) wife had died before marrying.

Tonights WDYTYA was one of the best in my opinion.

Thought Kims mothers name was unusual, checked Ancestry to see she was born Gladys Baugh........
I guess she preferred Shane

Smiley, wouldn't you lol? I did wonder where that name came from with the others being Dorothy and Marjorie?
I wonder how the 'Australian' half siblings took the news of their father's bigamy and first family.

Lizx

I too thought Shane was unusual when her sisters had normal names,

I had all sorts of feelings for last nights programme as its a similar outcome to mine. My mum and her 2 siblings were born in New Zealand. There was a big flood and her mother drowned so her father brought her and 2 siblings back to Scotland to be brought up by their grand parents and aunts. THis was in 1931. My grandfather remarried 1943.When I started researching 6 years ago I found that my grandmother hadnt drowned. She to had remarried and had 6 more children. My first thought was that they had both been bigamists until I found out a while later that they had divorced in 1933. So now I had the task of explaining to my mum at the age of 78 that she had 6 more siblings..

Maggie, yes, she would have wanted to know about him. She used to say there was a boy and 2 girls in her Dad's new family and they had gone to college but she had lived a very poor life, cousin's cast-offs, etc. she didn't seem bitter, just sad.
The new family were convinced their parents had married but I don't think so - unless it was bigamously - because "Grandad" came to see my Nan in the late '60's to ask for a divorce, which she refused, and I don't think you could get divorced until 1972 if one partner objected? And my grandfather died after a long illness in 1972.

Little Lost, I sympathise. My newly discovered relatives stopped all contact when they started looking for divorce and marriage certificates....

30 minute reminder

Well, yet another good programme.
It showed a little more insight to getting records(certs, census etc)
I think that was the last of this series, what we will be watching at 9 next week??

maybe we should have a WDYTYA for the ordinary folk on here.

I must admit I did enjoy the series but still need to catch up on the week before lasts on iplayer. However, I've only got 7 days to watch it.