WDYTYA? - Amanda Holden & Liz Bonnin

OK, this is going to be my write-up for both last week's and this week's episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? because, as a busy genealogist bee, I didn't have chance to write-up Amanda Holden's episode last week.

Amanda Holden's episode focussed on France - a connection to wine in Bordeaux which Amanda seemed thrilled with, and an interesting story of a an ancestor with a colourful character and a French wife.

Also in France was the tale of Amanda's paternal grandfather - a serviceman in WW2, he was caught up in the sinking of the Lancastria.

Not many people have heard of the Lancastria - a commandeered cruise ship which sank with thousands of people on board after being bombed.

More lives were lost on board than on the Titanic and the Lusitania combined, but it's less widely known because of the reporting ban Churchill placed on the event - too much tragedy was seen as bad for morale.



Liz Bonnin's episode was a fascinating tale of the double-edged sword that was colonialism. Colonialism brought oppression and servitude, but also, in many cases, opportunities - as Liz found when she traced her Indian-Trinidadian ancestors.

Another morally uncomfortable part of history is slavery. And Liz visibly struggled to reconcile the various aspects of slavery - that people were owned, and people were owners - with her own family on the French colony of Martinique.

History is something that must be learnt from yes, but also accepted. We can't change the past - it's simply the things that happened.