Your own personal mysteries.

[Carnation]

Not yet, no. That was going to be my next step - look for the parish records in the area of London where they lived and probably would have married.

Ah, searching the churches and dusty record halls of London, searching for clues to a mysterious ancestor.   A stranger, yet so near and dear.

Will Miss Vertigo find the keys to the past?  Or something....more....sinister?

This could be the makings of a great mystery/romance novel.

:::Scurries off to design cover::::

[snowfire]

We have a new one.

Who was the person who left two 24 port 100 base T switches on our front porch Monday?

We have talked to all the techie friends we can think of, but none of them did it.

[LeeLee88]

Who was my grandfather, and what happened to him after my father was born? We have no idea. Literally no idea.

My father never knew him. Never met him. Was always told 'your father is dead'.  We have a name and that is all and we know he was an Irishman. He was married to my grandmother and then poof - disappeared. My father remembers seeing his parents' marriage certificate, as a child. He can tell me details of what was on that marriage certificate, details he wouldn't have known had he not seen it. My grandmother's death in 1955 was registered under her married name so all things point to them having been married. And yet despite searching all the online genealogy resources I know how to search I can find absolutely no record whatsoever of a marriage between his parents. No record of a death (or divorce) around the period my father was born.  It's the darndest thing.

I would love to trace his details and find out more about him - from what I can work out he served in the Irish Guard  (oh, and that's another thing - I can find no military records either) and that's why he was in England, so I'd imagine his would be an interesting story, but without a rough idea of his age at the time of marriage, without the elusive marriage certificate that seems to have vanished from the records, which would allow me a rough stab at finding a birth certificate, we're still in the dark.

One day, I will become famous, go on Who Do You Think You Are and then someone will work all this stuff out for me.

(And as an aside: why did my smoke alarm above my bed, where I'm currently sitting, and which has *never* gone off before, ever, completely randomly go off for about five seconds then stop while I was typing this?!?!)

 

Call the Ghosthunters!!  That's fantastic!

LeeLee, it gets weirder. A few minutes after I hit post, I dug my father's birth certificate out of the drawer and as I was reading it, the smoke alarm went off again.

AAahh!!  No way!  Oh this is incredible! 

[LeeLee88]

Check the smoke alarm battery. Different brands have different ways of warning you that the battery is low.

Oh, I see you introducing logic, darn it all! 

[Miss Vertigo]

Not yet, no. That was going to be my next step - look for the parish records in the area of London where they lived and probably would have married.

Ah, searching the churches and dusty record halls of London, searching for clues to a mysterious ancestor.   A stranger, yet so near and dear.

Will Miss Vertigo find the keys to the past?  Or something....more....sinister?

This could be the makings of a great mystery/romance novel.

:::Scurries off to design cover::::

Hahah. Bagsy the film rights 

[HushHush]

Where is my box of sovieners from our cruise to Mexico, Honduras and Belize?  I know I saw it in my parents garage a few years ago but haven't seen them since. 

Where is the photo album that had all the baby and childhood pictures of me?  I'm 99% positive I took it with me in the divorce but I can't find it anywhere.  Every single picture of me as a child was in it.

[RocketScientist]

Several years ago I lived by myself in my first apartment after college.  It was a gated community, so in order to access the property, you had to have an access card or call someone living in the complex from the call box who would then buzz you through the gate.

My phone rang one evening, and when I answered it a guy said cheerily, "Hey, I'm here!"

I said, "Okay!" and buzzed him in.

I have no clue who that man was.  I wasn't expecting anyone and no one came to my apartment that night.  I've also wondered why in the world I buzzed him in if I didn't know who he was. 

[Luci45]

Check the smoke alarm battery. Different brands have different ways of warning you that the battery is low.

Oh, I see you introducing logic, darn it all! 

But . . . it makes the truly creepy stuff even better!

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

Mine is probably my over active imagination!

My greatgrandfather was killed during the Great Depression.  He was an Irish immigrant living in South Boston with his wife and four children.  On payday, in the winter, he was struck and killed by a car/truck/snowplow in a blizzard.  His pay (cash) was never found, but he was pulled out of a snow bank (dead) three or four days later.   If this happened today, I'd think it was a random tragedy.  In the 1930s though, few people had vehicles in Southie, a working class neighborhood.  The Irish mob was also incredibly active.  My grandma was 8 when it happened and never discussed this horrifying, life-changing tragedy.

So, was it an accident?  Was it a mob hit?  If it was an accident, how did his money go missing when he was pushed so far into a snow bank?  Of course, I love reading up on the antics of Whitey Bulger (who was a toddler when this happened); he wasn't arrested for a good 10 more years for any crimes.  The Irish mob was active though.

[Carnation]

Several years ago I lived by myself in my first apartment after college.  It was a gated community, so in order to access the property, you had to have an access card or call someone living in the complex from the call box who would then buzz you through the gate.

My phone rang one evening, and when I answered it a guy said cheerily, "Hey, I'm here!"

I should have thought of this last week.  I was at my cousin's and when I tried to call her, the phone was busy.  Finally, some guys came bopping down the hall and I knocked on the foyer door and they let me in.

They admitted they weren't supposed to do this (housing for the disabled).

I should have just pushed random buttons.

[aventurine]

Where's my book of poetry?

When we were first together, DH wrote lots of poetry (lots about me  ) and I put them all in a scrapbook with pressed flowers, locks of hair, etc.  I haven't seen it in years.  It wasn't in storage when I went out to get it.

It was sweet.  I miss it.   

[MDefarge]

I should have just pushed random buttons.

Lol, please don't! Our apartment is always getting buzzed when we aren't expecting people over....and it is NEVER for us....turns out the little sign that says "Ring here" & points up at all of the buzzers for the apt points directly at *our* apt buzzer - so instead of buzzing on the letter/# of whichever apartment they are trying to reach they buzz ours   (but really you know your friend lives on the 2nd floor, why would you push the 5B button??)

[Kaora]

Genealogical mysteries... we only have a minor one, and would appreciate any info.

I have a great x 6 (or so) grandfather who immigrated from Ireland.  He was born on my birthday in 1857 (I was 1987 ) and family legend holds he buried his guns before running off to America with his British Lord's daughter as his wife.

Name is Marrow Ash, and we honestly can not find a record of the wife's name, or the children's, but we know he had children because I exist! 

Or, honestly wondering if anyone found those guns he buried. 

[Brentwood]

I'm the only person I've ever heard of who has experienced non-terrifying sleep paralysis. It's probably happened five times, and each time I was not afraid. Just couldn't move.

*raises hand* As I said in the recent thread on the subject, mine isn't scary, just seriously annoying.

For me it's scary not because of frightening hallucinations, but specifically because I can't move. I'm willing myself to move, and I can't. And I'm aware that I can't, which scares me.

[Carnation]

Lol, please don't! Our apartment is always getting buzzed when we aren't expecting people over....and it is NEVER for us....turns out the little sign that says "Ring here" & points up at all of the buzzers for the apt points directly at *our* apt buzzer - so instead of buzzing on the letter/# of whichever apartment they are trying to reach they buzz ours   (but really you know your friend lives on the 2nd floor, why would you push the 5B button??)

Oops, sorry.   I used to live in a duplex and people would ring my doorbell asking if I knew where the other tenants were.