Christmas Order Details

Christmas is coming!

I know it may not feel like it now, but the truth is that December 25^th is less than three months away!

And what do you want to give this year, as a special present?

What about something which is:

• Special
• Personalised
• Unique
• Thoughtful
• Heartfelt

I still have room for Christmas orders of Family History research packages.

But the absolute last date for Christmas 2017 orders is 31st October 2017.

The earlier you order, the more time I will have to make it special and uncover more about your (or the gift recipient's) family's past.

It's also advisable that if you want a common surname researched (Jones, Smith, Williams, etc.) you order early!

It takes time to unravel the details of numerous individual William Jones'!

While I have other services available, I recommend either my branch or double-branch packages – which make a beautiful and unique gift.

So check out my services on familyhistorybycerys.co.uk, and then get in touch via the e-mail address on the site!

Don't be worried if you're not sure how to start - just drop me an e-mail, and I can discuss your research with you!

WDYTYA? - Ruby Wax

After an impromptu (and unexplained) break, Who Do You Think You Are? was back last night with the final episode of the series, featuring Ruby Wax.

Ruby's parents were Jewish Austrians, who fled Vienna in the 1930s.

Unfortunately, the story of persecution and hardship was pretty continuous throughout the episode. Ruby's family struggled through some of the worst times in history, and perhaps it went a little way to explain her parents and their problems to her.

Ruby's parents travelled, as refugees, to the USA. They were lucky in being able to get visas, as the US (and many other countries) were less than friendly to those fleeing the persecution.

Their marriage, and Ruby's childhood by extension, was deeply unhappy. We can only speculate that her parent's lives were altered, and damaged, to a great extent by their experiences of persecution, torture, and fear. If you put people through hell, they aren't always going to be ok afterwards.

Ruby also found answers about mental health problems within her family.

She seemed to have found the process quite beneficial, joking that she didn't need to spend so much money on therapy when she could've just done genealogy!

This was a striking episode, rounding off the series similarly to how it began (with Charles Dance's amazing family revelations.)

Hopefully it won't be too long before we get another series!

WDYTYA? - Lisa Hammond

Lisa Hammond's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured a lot of interesting stories!

The stories included were Hollywood-worthy, moving from World War Two, to the East End of London, to Seventeenth Century Wales!

The most poignant of these stories was perhaps the most recent of them - the story of Lisa's grandfather, Harry, who was a Prisoner of War.

Interesting too was the details of Harry's return to the UK, at a time when mental health care for the military services was starting to develop.

Most of Lisa's family were from London, which she was happy about, given that she considers herself a true Londoner.

Given that, it was really funny to see her reactions to finding rural Welsh family - and even more amusing to see her reaction to cows!

A really interesting episode, with only one episode now left in the series.

WDYTYA? - Noel Clarke

Firstly, Noel Clarke's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? wasn't the penultimate of this series - sorry to my Facebook followers! Oops! - the penultimate is actually next week.

Anyway, Noel Clarke's episode of WDYTYA? was a tour of Caribbean islands, including Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada. 

This was actually a really interesting episode - covering history that we often don't get to hear about while still being human and relatable.

Unfortunately, the spectre of slavery is rarely avoidable when it comes to the Caribbean.

It's hard to believe that people were ever treated like this. It's sad but true, and at least this story had some hope in the form of Noel's 4x great-grandfather, Glasgow Bedou, who was born into slavery but lived to own his own land, as well as his freedom.

Overall, a really important and truly interesting episode.

WDYTYA? - Fearne Cotton

Fearne Cotton's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured two ancestors involved in the medical profession.

From both her maternal and paternal families, these were men who struggled through poverty to follow their desire to help those in need.

In the case of her paternal great-grandfather, this was something that led not only to work in medicine - but also to a prison cell.

Conscientious Objectors in WW1 were imprisoned and punished severely for their beliefs. For many, the stigma never left them.

Still, the coal miner from Abertillery stuck to his principles.

And he made it through. He trained as a chemist, and lived out his life in that profession.





On her mother's side, Fearne traced the life of another chemist, an Irishman who later became a doctor.

Although, 'became' indicates that he trained as a doctor... in his case, it was more like, 'decided he was a doctor, so now he was a doctor, ok?'

Still, he was apparently a skilled one!

WDYTYA? - Lulu

After a small break, Who Do You Think You Are? was back yesterday at the earlier time of 8pm.

This time around, it was the turn of singer Lulu to trace her family's roots.

Lulu focussed on her mother's side of the family - which held a lot of secrets! Her mother had been the only one of seven children to be adopted out of her birth family - and Lulu was keen to research her biological family's background.

This episode was firmly centred in Glasgow, and the city's social history.

Glasgow's history of tensions between the Protestant and Catholic communities was the curring theme here, coming up again and again.

This was a unique one though - think Romeo and Juliet meets Peaky Blinders!

Sometimes fact is truly stranger than fiction.

WDYTYA? - Emma Willis

The last episode of Who Do You Think You Are? before the series takes a short break next week featured Emma Willis.

Emma is a presenter, known for her work on The Voice and Big Brother, as well as being married to Busted/McBusted member Matt Willis.

WDYTYA? is notorious for tears - very few people get away with dry eyes.

So when, within the first five minutes, Emma was already letting slip the odd tear, I did worry for a while! Luckily, Emma held up a lot better than I thought she would!

Emma's story focussed on two aspects - her Birmingham family, and an Irish line of her family.

The Irish line, in turn, split into two lines - a Catholic side, and a Protestant side.

The Protestant side of the family held tales of wealthy land-owners.

Unfortunately, it also reflected the cruelty and harshness of Ireland's colonial and sectarian-strife-riddled past.

It can be difficult to find things in your family which you'd rather you hadn't known. But it can be so rewarding to learn about and understand the past through a personal lens.

And you will always find good people in your family somewhere!

Who Do You Think You Are? returns in a few weeks, and I'll be back then with more little write-ups! :)

WDYTYA? - Adil Ray

Adil Ray's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was extremely interesting.

Following the African and Indian-African parts of his family, Adil uncovered tales of hard-working and generous people, as well as the adversity of racial prejudice within the different communities of the British Empire.

Adil's grandmother was Ugandan, with an Asian father and a Ugandan mother.

Because of her heritage she faced both a heart-breaking separation from her mother after the death of her father, and prejudice after her marriage to Adil's Indian grandfather.

This episode gave us a chance to hear more about Ugandan history.

I readily admit that I knew nothing about Ugandan history at all! It was very interesting to get the chance to learn a little but about it.

Overall, this was a great episode!

WDYTYA? - Clare Balding

Clare Balding's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? existed mainly to make the rest of us feel common and unconnected.

Apparently this was the less posh side of the family. Wow.

Basically, Clare Balding is very, very, posh.

She is the descendent of socialites, Earls, Lords, and Madison Avenue types (literally - as in, they actually lived on Madison Avenue in the 20s.)

It turns out part of Clare's family is also very American.

We always tend to think of her as a British treasure, but her grandmother was from the state of New Jersey, and fell for a young English polo player.

And there was a look into the social life of another of Clare's family members, Malcolm Bullock, MP.

Malcolm, with very fancy friends, had had a relationship - almost certainly romantic - with the painter Rex Whistler, at a time in which same-sex relationships were illegal.

An interesting and solid little episode.

WDYTYA? - Craig Revel Horwood

Craig Revel Horwood's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, while not as dramatic as last week's episode with Charles Dance, was quite interesting.

I personally think his 100-year-old grandmother is simply amazing, and he should definitely visit her more than once in four years! (You couldn't make it for her 100th birthday, Craig?! Come on!)

The episode was very much a case of rags to riches (and then back to rags again,) with Craig's part of the family missing out on a sizeable inheritance because they're descended from the female line.

It's sad but true that to many patriarchs of the past, a daughter or granddaughter was literally worth less than a son.

For me though, the highlight was the image conjured by a newspaper ad; of men from the North of England having a dance-off in a rural sheep station in Australia.

That's worthy of a Monty Python sketch, surely!

WDYTYA? - Charles Dance

Phew! What a start to the series!

Charles Dance's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was... wow!

The first half was dedicated to his mother's family - artisans, originally from Europe - with one of his female ancestors, in his own words, looking like him 'in drag.'

(Seriously, the resemblance was amazing.)

It was the second half of the episode that hit hard though.

Charles' father died when he was very young - leaving him with very little information or connection to the man.

As he started to delve into his father's history, many things started to surface - not least that his father was much older than Charles had thought, and was actually born in the 1870s!

More surprises - about close family he never knew he had - followed thick and fast.

In true WDYTYA? style, Charles was overcome by it all, more than once - but then wondered why it hit him so hard.

He clearly needs to be kinder to himself. Because if I learned, within a few days, all that came to light for him, I would be a wreck!

An excellent start to the series, then. One of the more interesting episodes of recent years.

And if you missed it, you can catch up on the BBC's iPlayer.

Who Do You Think You Are is Back on Thursday!

Who Do You Think You Are? returns this Thursday on BBC1 @ 9pm.

(Yes, I know, it seems like I only blog when WDYTYA? is on - but I'm busy tracing all your families for you!)

Series 14 kicks off with Charles Dance, and will be split into two half-series.

The other celebs are:

• Craig Revel Horwood (off of Strictly)
• Clare Balding
• Adil Ray (aka Citizen Khan)
• Emma Willis (presenter on the Voice and married to that feller from Mc/Busted)

The second half of the series will air later in the year.

I'm hoping to give you all my usual little write-ups... and hopefully not lose any episodes along the way like I somehow did with the last episode of series 13!

WDYTYA? - Warwick Davis and Sunetra Sarker

Warwick Davis' family history was a mixed bag of revelations, making for an interesting episode.

From the confusion of bigamy, to the joy of finding a performer in the family, to the mixed feelings (i.e. uncomfortable horror,) of a modern perspective looking back at the realities of the blacked-up minstrel shows of the 19th Century, Warwick Davis' episode was certainly intriguing.

Plus, the man himself is a lot of fun.




Sunetra Sarker's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was the story of the formation of two countries - modern India, and Bangladesh.

An interesting episode covering topics not widely-known in the west, it also told of the violence that led to the formation of Bangladesh, with the reminder that these atrocities took place in the relatively recent 1970s.




This week's episode is the last of the series, and features Sophie Raworth.

WDYTYA? Catch-Up Post - Cheryl, Ricky Tomlinson, Sir Ian McKellan, and Greg Davies

Looks like I got a little behind on these - ironically, I'm a genealogist with very little time at the moment!

Anyway, let's just give you a short round-up of the episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? that've aired since my last post, and then we can get back on track for the last two!

Cheryl (Tweedy, Cole, Fernandez-Versini,) found that she truly is Geordie through-and-through, with family based around the docks of the North-East, and a tragedy related to their seafaring profession.



Ricky Tomlinson discovered his connections to his working-class Liverpudlian ancestors, and the beginnings of worker's rights - something which he himself has been a passionate advocate for.



Sir Ian McKellen's was another tale of the apple not falling far from the tree, as he discovered that his family had an acting past that he had never known about.

Oddly enough, the various experts in theatre history seemed just slightly thrilled to meet him!



Greg Davies' family story was one I recognised - I've been researching similar stories of Welsh ancestry for over a decade now. Granted, I've never come across medieval royalty in any of the trees I've researched! (Yet! I live in hope.)

There's also plenty of family skeletons in Greg's tree (metaphorical ones,) including illegitimacy (which wasn't as uncommon in the 19th Century as you might think,) and running to the Rhondda to avoid scandal (as you do.)






The next (and last) three episodes of WDYTYA? will feature Warwick Davis (I love him!), Sunetra Sarker and Sophie Raworth.