Has anyone been able to trace their Poolieness any further back than I have? My Great Great Great Great Grandfather, Daniel Moore, was born in Hartlepool in 1766, and married in St Hildas in 1796.

Nope I'm 2 gens maximum from what I've been able to establish.

Surely anyone from the Headland wins this, invariably they have many many generations. Unfortunately they're not always in the correct order.

Not so Mr I ........ been doing the family tree stuff and as most came from the headland, I made the natural assumption they'd always been there..... but people don't realise that ports were the places that were on the equivalent of todays motorways....going back three generations I discovered thry'd arrived from Berwick, Yarmouth, Ireland and even Germany.

I've only traced back on my dad's side at the moment, and his mother's family go back 6 generations in Hartlepool, the worrying thing is that his dad's family takes me back to Birstall, just south of Leeds & Bradford, the shame of it!!

Traced mine back- five generations in Hartlepool and all looking good. Fair bit of Irish and Scottishness introduced to keep the inbreeding at bay. Then discovered that two generations further back my only confirmed relative was a single mother who lived on the beach at Seaburn. I'm the spawn of a mackem beach hut dweller .

Traced mine back to one of the brickies that was working on the original monastery that was at St. Hilda's in the 7th century. Beat that!

my dad's side of the family were almost exclusively old Hartlepudlian stock, his mam and dad and goes back ad nauseum from that area

My mam's side is very different, my mam's mam is West Hartlepool but her mother came from North Yorkshire. My mam's dad's family is from Carmarthen, where my mam was born

So as a result if I'd been a bit more rubbish at playing footy I could have represented Wales.

As can my son young Freddie, who would still qualify as Cambrian stock as a third generation descendant of a Welsh grandma (my mam), who incidentally worked in the same local Govt department as Eiffion Williams until she retired last year.
She doesn't speak Welsh like him though

I'd assumed my dad's family had 'always' been headlanders, too, until I got hold of a copy of the 1850 census and couldn't find any trace at all of anyone of his name. Apparently, seamen/sailors weren't included in censuses in those days, though, so that's another possible reason for a name's absence, as well as immigration.

My maternal grandfather was from Dundee, and he collected his wife (my granny) from her place in Sunderland before setting up in West. In amongst all this, someone who was always known as 'the Irish granny' lived with my grandparents at one point. Don't quite know where she fitted in.

I think the two towns probably were a bit like the Wild West in those days...people moving in from all directions, leaving their roots, looking for work.

there were always non blood relatives living with my dad's aunties/great aunties etc... it just seemed normal!! Most of them have died now, but there were 4 or 5 people "taken in" by the family... more than likely the illegitimate (hate that term) children of affairs etc

I know my grandmother always doubted she had the same two parents as her other sisters

Their lives did seem to have a lot of colour and character, with lots more relatives than nowadays mucking in together. I suppose there're pros and cons as usual, and I'd probably have hated not having me own space, but it just seems sad that so many old people live on their own now.

You sure they weren't just on the game, the dirty cows?

they only had a bout four teeth between them all... and three of them were blokes!!!! One was a toilet attendant at the old bus station on the Headland

just read that back, and it sounds like three of the teeth were blokes ha ha!!