One of her main family lines originated in Gibraltar - which, if you don't know, is a British dependency off the coast of Spain.
Gibraltar was largely evacuated in WW2, due to both its strategic importance, and it's vulnerable position in the heart of Europe.
The civilian refugees - people who, though largely Spanish-speaking, considered themselves Brits - were sent to many locations, including the UK mainland.
These British citizens found themselves in the odd position of being treated as foreigners on the British mainland - strangers in their own country.
Another Gibraltarian ancestor had emigrated from Genoa in Italy, alone, at the age of just 13.
He worked his way to a moderately successful - if slightly on the edge of the law - business at the port.
A separate line of Michelle's family hail from her own native Manchester, where Michelle found that one of her ancestors was a suffragist.
I think that a little more could have been made of the differences between suffragists and suffragettes, since this seemed a bit rushed-in at the end, but I guess it can be hard to decide what to include sometimes!
The BBC are doing one of their patented random gaps between WDYTYA? episodes, so I have no idea when the next one's on!
No comments:
Post a Comment