Hi again, folks Here's another thread to get you going. As a great non-believer in family myths and oral tradition (never believe anything until it has been proven to your complete satisfaction several times in print, is my motto!) I have to say that just occasionally, very occasionally, family folklore tales do turn out to be true - well, almost! As a child back in the 1940s I spent long summer holidays with my maternal grandparents, as my folks ran a busy pub and had little time for me. My grandfather was a professional musician, a violinist in pit orchestras in the old-time music halls, and a lovely man. One of his most treasured possessions was an old military drum with a faded coat of arms and military-style cord ribbing down the sides which he always told me one of his ancestors had played at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Well, of course, I took no notice of that at the time, except that I loved the old drum because grandad let me march up and down their little cottage, banging away on it. Many years later when I got into family history, I remembered the old drum and asked my mother about it. My grandparents were long dead by then and it turned out she had given it away to a friend who was a collector of military memorabilia. Aaaargh!!! Anyway, of course I recalled grandad claiming it had been played by an ancestor at the Battle of Waterloo but I still totally disregarded this at the time. It was many years later, in fact quite recently, when I came to pursue that particular family line seriously. To my astonishment I discovered that my grandfather's gt-grandfather - my 3-times gt-grandfather, in other words - had been a drummer in the 53rd Regiment of Foot, which fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War in Spain!!! So dear old grandad was telling the truth - apart from one thing, unfortunately. The Battle of Waterloo is probably one of the most recorded battles in history, so I looked up the records. The 53rd Regiment of Foot weren't there! However, they did apparently form part of the garrison on the island of St Helena, to which Napoleon was exiled after his defeat. So perhaps my gt-gt-gt-grandfather did see Napoleon in person after all ! Still, grandad almost got the story right and what I would give to have the drum still in the family now. Anyone else got any family myths that turned out to be actually true, or almost? Roy Stockdill Editor, The Journal of One-Name Studies The Stockdill Family History Society (Guild of One-Name Studies, FedFHS) STOCKDILL PREST YELLOW BOLTON WORSNOP GIBSON MIDGLEY BRACEWELL SHACKLETON BRADLEY MOODY in Yorkshire North & West Ridings MEAD YOUNG in Somerset, Wiltshire & Gloucestershire Web page of the Stockdill Family History Society:- http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roystock ”Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you. If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith (scholar and humorist 1771-1845)