Who Do You Think You Are? — Katarina Johnson-Thompson

 

Last Thursday’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? rounded off the series with athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s episode.

Katarina was keen to follow her father’s family in the Bahamas, where Katarina herself was born before moving to Liverpool as a small child.

We got a glimpse of Bahamian history — though perhaps if the episode had spent a little more time on this part of the family’s story, it would have made it even better — before following Katarina’s ancestors as they emigrated to Miami in Florida.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Harriet Walter

 

Harriet's ancestor, Marie Carandini;
National Library of Australia / Wikimedia Commons

Last Thursday’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured actress Harriet Walter, whose family are undeniably posh.

Much of this episode featured on the exploits of an Italian ancestor — the son of a noble family, who had the grandest of educations, but was drawn to ballet and the stage.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Diane Morgan

 

Last week's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? wrapped up the current series with actress and comedian Diane Morgan.

Diane is possibly most well-known for mocking TV history programmes by playing hapless historian Philomena Cunk - which is somewhat ironically fitting for this programme.

Diane's personality is what carries this episode forward - there was a genuine element of wondering what she would say next, with a gladness that we were coming along for the ride.

Her family's stories, though, are equally compelling. 

And it turned out that her father's ancestor, German Charlie was, (spoiler alert!) actually a German man known as Charlie - which Diane seemed more genuinely surprised at than I would have guessed.

There are also poignant moments relating to a lost love, killed on the battlefields of World War One.

The stand-out feature of the episode though, is Diane's Scottish ancestor Isabella - who had something of a reputation in her community.

It took a large amount of strength and obstinance, though, for a 19th Century woman to take a man to court over child support payments - often known as maintenance or affiliation

.

It's often surprising to people that there was a mechanism in place to provide child support for unmarried mothers - it somehow doesn't chime with our modern view of Victorian society. 

Making the father pay for the child, though, made it less likely that these children would become a 'burden' on the parish or poor law union (i.e. the state and the taxpayer) - which many saw as a win.

A lot of women were reluctant, however, to come forward and stand before a court - and often to have the details of their love lives cross-examined and then reported in the local press - due to the stigma attached to being an unmarried mother or 'ruined' woman.

To take several different men to court, then, as Isabella did, would have taken some serious gumption on her part!

All in all, this was a highly-entertaining episode to end the series with; let's hope we won't have to wait too long for the next one!

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details. 

Who Do You Think You Are? - Aisling Bea, Fred Sirieix and Will Young

 

I have three episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? to catch up on with my little write-ups

 - sorry for the delay, but I've been busy the last couple of weeks, researching my wonderful customers' families.

Comedian and actress Aisling Bea's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was, unsurprisingly, focussed on Ireland.

Aisling wasn't surprised at all - though she had been hoping for some variety in her family's past, the result was one she had been expecting. Her family are and were, very Irish.

This was a solid Irish-centred episode, taking in the famine and the fight for independence.

Especially notable was the link to the Irish language as a form of resistance and cultural heritage, as well as the uncomfortable history of those who benefitted from the famine - including Aisling's relatives.

History is not always as straight-forward as good and bad, and what Aisling found was the story of a young widow doing her best for her family, against a background of disaster.

Much as Aisling's episode was definitely Irish, TV personality Fred Sirieix's episode was most definitely French.

It made for an interesting episode - we rarely get to see history from a French perspective here in the UK, and as one of our closest neighbours, we should perhaps know more about French history than we do.

We covered a lot of ground here - both wars, Bordeaux wines, and Parisian orphans were all on the roster, and Fred led us through them all.

The explorations of the wars were particularly interesting - we are, of course, familiar with the history from the British perspective, but the 'home front' was very different in France, and that difference is important for us here to understand.

Will Young's family history also included tales of World War Two - which has been something of a theme this series.

In fact I think that Will's grandfather, considered by many in the family to be a 'bit of a loser' was one of the few relatives Will thought he could be proud of, by the end of the episode!

Will's family were very, very, posh.

And very, very, involved in the British Empire. Including the slavery part - and it just kind of got worse from there.

It's not often that the celebrity is actively hoping for their ancestors to get their comeuppance... but Will had good reason to, in fairness.

Another reminder that history is what it is - much as we'd sometimes like to change it!

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details. 

Who Do You Think You Are? - Layton Williams

 

Actor Layton Williams' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired last Monday, rather than Tuesday, due to BBC scheduling conflicts.

Layton's episode was a lot of fun - and worth the watch just for the energy and personality he brings to everything.

The episode looked at both Layton's British family and his Jamaican roots, starting with the British side.

On his British side, Layton carried on the theme of Ross Kemp's episode last week by following the World War Two experiences of his great-great-grandfather.

He learned that the family moving to Bury (where Layton was born,) was as a direct result of his ancestor's war work.

(The name 'cat nana' to describe Layton's beloved great-grandmother in this part of the episode is extremely cute!)

Beyond the war, the episode looked at Layton's links to London and an ancestor with musical links.

Moving on to Jamaica, Layton follows his father's line into the dark history of slavery.

Although the link is not 100 per cent certain due to the lack of record-keeping in some periods of Jamaica's history, there is a high likelihood that the show was able to trace the enslaved people in Layton's ancestry.

One of his likely female ancestors in Jamaica was recorded as having been born in Africa, meaning that she would have been transported against her will to Jamaica aboard a slave ship.

The history is poignant, and important, and Layton's positivity shines through without dulling the truth of an inhuman situation.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Mishal Husain

 

Journalist and broadcaster Mishal Husain's surprising and interesting episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA?) aired last Tuesday.

Mishal started her journey where she expected to - in India and Pakistan, in the days of the British Empire. 

From there she followed the 'Anglo'-Indian (or, in this case, Irish-Indian,) part of her family, and a hard-working doctor named Thomas Quinn.

Thomas managed to break the barriers placed in the way of mixed-race people in British India, eventually becoming the private doctor to a maharaja.

Following her European ancestry, Mishal learned of her family's life in a Danish-Indian trading port, as well as in French-Indian settlements.

The big twist (and if you haven't seen it - you might want to stop reading here!) - came when she learned that one of her white ancestors was not European... but American.

Travelling to the USA, and clearly more than a little surprised by the turn of events, Mishal ended up in the prestigious halls of Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and beyond that to the founding of the United States as a whole.

This was an extremely interesting episode - not only in its own right, but also as an example of how interconnected we all are, across many different countries, whether or not we know it.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? Series 22 - Andrew Garfield

 

You can be forgiven for not knowing that the new series of Who Do You Think You Are? is up and running - I didn't, and ended up watching Andrew Garfield's episode on iPlayer when I realised I'd missed it.

I'm glad I was able to catch-up because this was a solid episode to open the series.

Actor Andrew Garfield followed his father's family on both sides of the Atlantic, with a search that encompassed Poland, Britain, and the US.

The episode highlighted some of the more tragic aspects of researching Jewish family history - the Holocaust, the ghettoes, and pogroms - as well as featuring some of the glamour of old Hollywood.

The mix between the glamour and the tragedy clashed a little - but I think in less skilled presenting hands, it would have been more jarring.

Andrew Garfield did a lot of the work to bridge the tonal gaps and connect the family's story, bringing perspective to the family's lives in America, and the poetic justice of a cousin who worked with the famous Monuments Men in World War Two to reclaim art stolen by the Nazis.

The beating heart of this episode was undoubtedly Garfield's trip to Treblinka, where masses of memorial stones represented ghettoes - each standing in for thousands of people murdered at the camp.

Family stories such as this provide some small piece of justice to the Holocaust's victims, by preserving the names and stories of those who were murdered senselessly by the Nazi regime.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Olly Murs

 

Legendary Olympian Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill came to the Who Do You Think You Are? treatment eagerly, and that energy really infused itself in her episode.

First up we looked at the English side of her family, and the mystery of a mother (Jessica's great-great-grandmother) who left one day with a suitcase, and never came home.

Things in this story were complex - every time Jessica discovered an element of the story, it turned everything she had learned up to that point on its head.

(I love stories like this - it shows that there's always more going on than meets the eye!)

So, I won't go into too much detail because this really is one that needs to be seen as it unfolds to be truly appreciated, but it covers several difficult topics in a frank and non-judgemental way, and made the episode well worth the watch for this section alone.

The other half of Jessica's episode also dealt with some difficult topics, as she made her way to Jamaica with her father to investigate her side of the family.

The sad inevitably of finding enslaved people in her family tree didn't take the sting away for Jessica, but this story was, ultimately, one of hope and survival. It finished the episode well.

Singer Olly Murs' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was truly fascinating.

Olly's grandfather originally came from Latvia, a country which I admit I know extremely little about - but more than I did, thanks to this episode!

What followed was a couldn't-make-it-up story that encompassed the circus, extra-marital affairs, war, and the horrors of the USSR.

At the moment, this is the stand-out episode of the series to me.

It's a story that's full of colourful and vivid details, as well as the tragedies of 20th Century history and the lives that got caught up in its wake.

..And that's before you even consider the circus stuff!

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Paddy McGuinness

 

Last Thursday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured comedian and presenter Paddy McGuinness.

At the beginning of this episode, Paddy knew extremely little about his family, being unsure of (or, in some cases, simply not knowing,) his grandparents' names - and, it seems, his uncle was also unaware of the names of his grandparents.

What seems even odder is there doesn't appear to be any specific reason behind the family not being talked about in subsequent generations - simply a quiet forgetting among the hardships of daily life.

As well as learning that his maternal grandfather was part of the vital workforce that constructed aircraft - including the spitfire - for World War Two, Paddy also followed the story of his paternal grandfather, who fought in the Boer War in South Africa.

William McGuinness, it seems, was far from the ideal soldier. As well as a lengthy prison sentence, with hard labour (which, under modern standards, would probably be considered torture,) for insubordination, William's military records describe his character as 'Bad.'

In my experience, that's quite impressive. No-one in the British army is 'Bad.'

The character assessments of the British armed forces rarely, if ever, call someone 'Bad,' in plain English. They prefer to be much more circumspect about the whole thing.

The main positive assessments are 'Excellent' and 'Very Good' (and sometimes there's more than one 'Very' stuck in, just for luck.) 

The negative reports are 'Good' (yes, 'Good' is bad,) and 'Fair' (which also sounds like it should be good, but like 'Good' is bad - I know, it's confusing.)

To actually have Bad on a record suggests that William was a consistent thorn in the sides of his superior officers - which may, from a modern perspective, not actually have been a bad thing at all, given the questionable conduct and rigid classism of many British army officers at the turn of the 20th Century. 

On the other hand, William may have committed crimes at every barracks and billet he ended up in - which would be bad, regardless of whether you're Edwardian or not. Or he may have been relatively poorly behaved and a thorn in the sides of the higher-ups. Without more information, we simply can't know for sure.

Other highlights from this episode were the (eventual) Ireland link and Paddy McGuinness' genuine attitude throughout.

It's clear that McGuinness is more than comfortable in front of a camera, and that makes the whole episode flow with more ease than it might otherwise have done, and gives the historical details and stories the presentation they deserve.

All in all, a 'Very Good' episode!

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Vicky McClure

 

Who Do You Think You Are? series 21 kicked off last Thursday with British actress Vicky McClure.

A lot of this episode focussed on relatively recent history - Vicky's grandparents and great-grandparents.

Often there are holes in our family stories that affect our understanding of even close family members, and Vicky was keen to know more about the things that made her grandmothers who they were.

First we turned to her paternal grandmother.

The mystery here was in her grandmother's parentage, and the circumstances which led to her being raised in a less-than-ideal environment by someone who wasn't her biological mother.

Poverty and infidelity created a circumstance where the way to save the marriage was to give up the child. And, as was pointed out repeatedly, the ability to vet the child's new parents at the time was almost non-existent. An impossible situation.

Afterwards, the episode shifted focus to Vicky's maternal family, and her PoW great-grandfather.

Life as a coal miner was sadly book-ended by his assignment to a Japanese PoW mine in Taiwan, where he would become the first of the prisoners to lose his life amidst the atrocious conditions.

As Vicky points out, little is known by the general public about this aspect of history.

Partly this is because it's a recent, horrible, part of history - it's uncomfortable and often disturbing to know what happened to these men, and Vicky understandably felt nervous.

I think this episode dealt well with this aspect of family history - the things that we find out aren't always pleasant, but that doesn't mean they're not important.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Lesley Manville

 

This series of Who Do You Think You Are? finished off with the story of actress Lesley Manville's family.

Though a solid enough episode, given how many excellent episodes this series has had, it would perhaps have been better situated in the middle of the series. But that's just my opinion, of course.

Lesley's family tended to border on the non-conventional - on both maternal and paternal sides of the family, there were stories of couples who lived together but were actually still married to someone else.

Perhaps it's a sign of the upheaval of the times that they lived in - the period during and after the First World War for one couple, for example - that they felt able to live as man and wife, despite not legally being man and wife. 

Divorce was, of course, still strictly regulated, and inaccessible to many people.

Most of the episode, though, focussed on the life and fate of Aaron Harding, a participant in the Swing Riots that spread across the country in 1830.

The Swing Rioters protested poor pay and working conditions for agricultural labourers, as well as being staunchly anti-mechanisation, and often destroying farm equipment such as threshing machinery which they saw as a threat to their jobs.

The riots that Aaron Harding participated in seemed to be more about conditions and pay, rather than any real shift towards automation, and the ire of his group of rioters was directed primarily at the local workhouses, then known as poor houses, which represented the failing poor relief system at the time.

Due to the value placed on property over people in this period, the destruction of a house was actually a capital offense.

That meant that the penalty was death.

Luckily, Aaron's sentence was commuted... to transportation for life in Australia. And it's to here that Lesley follows his story.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Chris Ramsey

Last week's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured comedian Chris Ramsey, who describes himself as pretty lucky.

Was his family as lucky as him? Well, they survived some pretty horrible situations - and that's pretty lucky, at the end of the day.

The luck angle is nice - but it feels a little bit forced in the editing. 

I think it's trying just a touch too hard instead of playing it cool - but that's just my opinion, of course.

Much of the episode was based around military careers - an ancestor who served in the Royal Naval Division during the First World War, and another who served in the Navy during the Second World War.

The Royal Naval Division was essentially the Navy's land-army - and it was this division that Chris' paternal great-grandfather served in.

Miraculously, he survived the action at Gallipoli in 1915, and missed the Battle of the Somme due to a case of scabies (...which probably didn't feel that lucky at the time, since scabies is pretty gruesome, but probably was grateful for in the end.)

Chris also looked into his grandfather's war service in the Second World War.

As well as being part of the gruelling Arctic convoys - and receiving a Russian medal for his service - Alf Ramsey was one of the first people to visit Nagasaki after the detonation of the second atomic bomb.

Slightly lighter fare came in the form of a lottery one of Chris' ancestors entered - and won - in order to give birth in a charity hospital.

Medical care for pregnant women is now, thankfully, pretty standard, but it wasn't always so, and Chris' ancestor had to go through both morality-based interviews, and the lottery process, in order to have the chance of giving birth in an environment which had much better survival outcomes for both mother and child than most families could dream of.

Yet another reason to appreciate the NHS.

When you think of it, we're all pretty lucky to be here at all - given what our ancestors had to go through to get us here.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Bear Grylls

 

TV personality, and head UK Scout, Bear Grylls' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired last Thursday. 

The episode started by looking at his grandfather's work with the military, which during World War 2 saw him become an expert in tanks.

After the war, his grandfather remained in the Army, ending up in a joint American-British taskforce known as T-Force.

This was something of a murky group, ethically, being formed primarily to obtain German scientific, technological, and sometimes commercial, assets. These assets included experts who were often given little choice about working with the Allies, and also those sometimes forcefully recruited by British and American businesses.

It's a tricky thing to consider from a modern perspective, especially when there were clearly ethical questions raised at the time, and Bear Grylls did quite well to navigate the thorniness of it.

As the episode moved on, he seemed quite surprised at how posh his mother's family turned out to be.

It was quite surprising just how surprised he was, to be honest: I think that if your grandfather was the son of the headteacher at Harrow - one of Britain's poshest private schools - you're going to be at least a little bit posh, Bear.

It was this Harrow headteacher who also provided a link with the Scouts, having been involved with them in the early days - something which Grylls had no inkling of prior to making this programme.

The family on his maternal line proved to be even more auspicious in prior generations, with Bear Grylls discovering ancestors amongst the nobility and clans of Scotland.

This was a truly impressive lineage, leading back to Robert the Bruce himself.

But, more importantly for Bear Grylls, apparently, was the justification of him wearing kilts. He really likes kilts.

...Which is one benefit of researching your family history which I had not previously considered, but to each their own, I guess.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Claire Foy

Actress Claire Foy is perhaps, appropriately, best known for playing historical figures in period dramas.

And while none of the family members who featured in her episode of WDYTYA? on Thursday were of the ranks of nobility - unlike Andrew Lloyd Webber last week - their stories were definitely drama-worthy.

There was tragedy in her maternal line - beginning with her charming Irish grandfather having lost his father at a young age in a motorbike accident.

That great-grandfather had, himself, lost his own father to a tragic accident.

It was this great-great-grandfather's accident that Claire turned to first - in England, rather than Ireland, to the site of a military training exercise which went terribly wrong, leading to the drowning of several men in a treacherous stretch of river.

Perhaps most heart-breaking was how close rescue could have been - the bank where their bodies came to rest being only a short distance downstream from the point where they went into the water.

On her paternal line, Claire turned to her father's biological family - the Foy family being his adopted line.

Moving further back in this line, Claire discovered an Irish veteran of the British army, who settled in Manchester.

She learned that he and his brother were arrested in Manchester in 1867 following an attack on a police van carrying prominent Fenian prisoners, during which a policeman guarding the prisoner transport, a Sergeant Charles Brett, was killed.

The Fenians, also known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, were a movement fighting - often via violent means - for home rule in Ireland.

Over 40 men were arrested in the days following the murder of Sergeant Brett.

28 men were charged with joint enterprise murder - which did not require the accused individual to have actually shot Sergeant Brett, but only that they were involved in the violent disorder that resulted in Brett's death; at the time this carried the death penalty.

To begin with, the case against Claire's relatives seemed suspicious, but as she learned more and more about the circumstances, the question became whether they were guilty... or simply Irish.

The addition of a police sketch artist to this episode was really quite entertaining, and added more realness to the story of these two men, on trial for their lives.

It's definitely something that the shows producers should consider incorporating in future episodes, where appropriate.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Andrew Lloyd Webber

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber kicked off series 20 of Who Do You Think You Are? last Thursday with a strong episode.

Though it may have come as a surprise to him, many people would probably have assumed Andrew Lloyd Webber - a Lord who composed music for the recent coronation - had nobility in his family's background. He is, after all, very much an establishment figure - though his own personal background is far more humble.

His mother's side of the family, though, revealed a knighted hero from the Battle of Waterloo - commemorated in the official paintings of that event, no less - and, further back still, a woman whose wardship (essentially a form of custody for nobles,) was sold by Henry VIII to a man who would marry her in her teenage years. 

This was a state of affairs even the Spanish ambassador felt worth mentioning, since her 'guardian' and husband was in what we would now consider middle-age at the time of the union.

Her second marriage, after being widowed, appears to have been for love (and more power to her,) and it's from this second marriage that Andrew Lloyd Webber's family is descended. Things were not all plain-sailing however, with the family having to flee the country during the reign of Queen Mary I due to their staunch Protestant faith.

Further back, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's working-class paternal line, is where the most interesting stories come in, though 

- tales of show-men and musicians from the Magito family, making their names in the world of 18th Century European entertainment.

There were odd parallels between Andrew Lloyd Webber's distant ancestors and the lives of himself and his brother, Julian, Britain's most well-known cellist. 

Not least the existence of Alexis Magito - a Dutch cellist, often known as 'Mr Alexis,' who composed and performed in England.

While the other parts of the episode were entertaining enough, it is this last focal point of the Magito family that truly makes this episode fascinating, and well worth the watch.

Ready to start your own family history journey? I offer a range of professional genealogy services, check out my website for more details.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Ralf Little

 

The last episode of Series 19 of Who Do You Think You Are? featured the actor Ralf Little.

Ralf Little is best known for roles in TV series like The Royle Family, Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps, and Death In Paradise.

Much of Ralf's episode was a little like a Boys' Own adventure - full of aeroplanes, war, and football!

As seems to have been quite a theme this series, Ralf found out previously unknown-to-him things about his grandparents.

He had known that his grandfather did 'something in the war,' but not what - or that his service with the Royal Navy's air division involved working as an engineer on 'Seafire' aircraft. The Seafire was the Naval version of the well-known Spitfire planes of World War Two.

His grandfather had made his way to the Royal Navy as a medical assistant, a job that continued his prior medical experience - namely working as a male nurse in a mental hospital.

This entire episode in Ralf's grandfather's life was unknown to him - but vital to the history of Ralf's family, as this was where his grandfather had met his grandmother, who was working in the hospital laundry.

What really thrilled Ralf, though, was the story of another ancestor - who played international football for Wales.

...Although it's safe to say that his ancestor's relationship with football was not straight-forward, being entangled, as it was, with one of the (several) Welsh religious revivals.

Traditionally, football is a less popular sport than rugby in Wales - certainly in a 'national sport' sense -  in part due to the dislike of football by many Welsh chapels and religious leaders. 

The links between football and hooliganism, foul language, and a culture of drinking, meant that many chapels saw the sport as a bad influence on young men.

The most Puritanical of chapels saw sport in general - and football in particular - as taking away time that could be spent in the service of God and the community. 

For most, though, it was the culture of alcohol and gambling that caused them to try and divert their congregations away from the sport.

Looking for your own family's story? I offer a range of genealogy services. Feel free to drop me an e-mail to discuss your research needs.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Matt Lucas and Anna Maxwell Martin

Presenter and comedian Matt Lucas' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was focussed on the experiences of his Jewish family during the terrible events of the Holocaust.

Specifically, he wanted to know about his Jewish grandmother's experiences in pre-war Berlin, and what had become of her extended family afterwards.

Recent history can sometimes be the most devastating, affecting, as it does, people we knew and loved.

Like many, Matt Lucas' relatives sought safety in a place that they thought would be safe - Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Sadly, The Netherlands did not remain safe for long - despite being a neutral country, Germany invaded and occupied the country from 10th May 1940. 

This meant that Dutch Jewish communities were also persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust. The safety of Amsterdam was no longer safe.

A big surprise came when Matt found that one of his family members had known, and lived with, Anne Frank and her family before they went into hiding - and in fact Anne had mentioned him in her diary.

It's another example of just how personal the past becomes through the lens of family history.

Actress Anna Maxwell Martin's episode also featured difficult events in the lives of her grandparents.

Following her Irish paternal family, her uncle explained a little more to her about how difficult it was for their grandparents when one of their three sons died of Leukaemia. 

It was also interesting that her uncle's view, as the older brother, was a little more measured than the experiences of Anna's father, who was younger when their brother died and felt more of a coldness in their collective childhoods than Anna's uncle did.

Turning to her maternal Scottish family, Anna looked into the family of her grandfather, Maxwell - whose name she took as part of her stage name.

Maxwell's upbringing was harder and more cruel than Anna had imagined. As a five-year-old child, after the death of his mother, Maxwell had been sent to an orphanage - where he was separated from his sisters, due to a policy of splitting boys and girls.

His father - Anna's great-grandfather - was still alive at the time, which led Anna on a journey of finding out why he had not been able to care for his younger children.

What followed was a tale of drunkenness and severe domestic abuse - for which Maxwell's father went to prison several times.

He was obviously returning to his wife when released from prison, as many of their large family of children were born after his first recorded offence.

Which may explain why, despite having died in her 40s, the picture of Maxwell's mother looks like an elderly lady. Her life was not an easy one.

One of the more difficult things about family history is that we can't change the past.

We can only try to understand and honour what our family members have been through.

Looking for your own family's story? I offer a range of genealogy services. Feel free to drop me an e-mail to discuss your research needs.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Sue Perkins and Richard Osman

Who Do You Think You Are? series 19 kicked off at the end of May with Sue Perkins' episode.

This episode was an excellent start to the current series, having that classic WDYTYA? combination of good story and charming celebrity.

Comedian and actress Sue Perkins kept the episode moving with her fun commentary, accompanied partly by comedy partner Mel Giedroyc.

In a story that, as Sue points out, you couldn't make up, the episode followed Mel's family as they were swept up in the tide of history.

Sue's family story is one of immigration, hard work, and bad luck.

It's also one of war - both the First and the Second World War.

Sue's family members found themselves either 'too German' or 'not German enough,' in the eyes of those around them, their fates decided by their birthplace and heritage at every turn.

There's also a devastating discovery of the death of one of the family's children, who had a learning disability, amongst the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazis' plan of so-called purity.

Family history makes the past personal - knowing that family members were caught up in historic events makes those events more real, and harder hitting, to our modern eyes.

Sometimes it can even make us see things from a new perspective.

Richard Osman's episode also featured war as author and broadcaster Richard looked into his beloved grandfather's service record.

This, in many ways, was more personal even than Sue Perkins' episode, because of the bond that Richard and his grandfather had throughout his life.

The attention-grabber in this episode, though, was the involvement of some of Richard's ancestors in a murder enquiry.

Aptly for a crime writer, the tale had it all - grisly discoveries, amateur sleuths (comprising mostly of Richard's family,) and a dramatic criminal trial.

The level of detail in the 19th Century press when it comes to murder - both in the traditional newspapers and the infamous penny broadsheets - is often a bizarrely quaint combination of coy and gruesome.

If nothing else, it seems likely that Richard got a fair few novel ideas out of his Who Do You Think You Are? experience!

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But What Is Genealogy?

 

Image: Tentes/Pixabay

A lot of people have never even heard of genealogy.

So I thought I'd take everything back to basics and explain a little of what it is that I do.

Genealogy is, simply, the study of family history - of lines of descent and 'pedigree.'

Your line of descent is your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, etc. going back in time until you reach a point when you can't find any more (accurate) information.

Centuries ago, nobility would hire genealogists to draw up family trees showing their lineage (and therefore how posh they were and whether they could use the family coat of arms!)

Over time it's become more than just a long list of ancestors and their perceived 'good breeding,' and more about the stories that family trees contain.

Family history creates a real and tangible connection between us and the history that we hear about at school or in documentaries.

It's one thing to hear about the industrial revolution, and another to learn about an ancestor who was killed in dangerous working conditions, or a relative who lost children to the extreme poverty and disease of the Victorian slums.

It makes a difference to know that we wouldn't be alive today if these series of events hadn't taken place in the ways that they did.

Family history - genealogy - makes history personal, because it is.

We are the result of all the historical events that came before us - products of chance and circumstance - without history, each of us, as individuals, would not be here, and would not be the people who we are today.

WDYTYA? Series 18 - Pixie Lott

 

Tuesday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured singer Pixie Lott.

Pixie seemed to approach the whole thing with a level of eager naivety that was quite refreshing!

Originally believing her family came from Italy, the exploration of that particular part of her family soon revealed the truth.

Pixie's family had, indeed, been part of an Italian church in London. But they were Irish. They worshipped at that church because it was their nearest Catholic church. 

Which shows how things can become muddled, years later, in the telling. 

It's also entirely possible, if not likely, that Pixie's relatives had picked up some words of Italian during their time worshipping with their Italian congregation - which may have further muddied the details passed down in the family.

The reality of the lives of Pixie's ancestors, as it was for so many Irish immigrants in the 19th Century, was extreme poverty.

Pixie learned that they ended up in and out of the workhouse, and was understandably upset to learn the policies regarding families in most workhouses - children separated from parents, boys separated from girls, and sometimes younger children separated from older children.

Children could also be sent to different workhouses, or to foster homes, without their parents being consulted, and sometimes not even notified.

Workhouses may have been the start of our welfare system, but the Victorian view of poverty and the poor often lacked humanity.

We jumped around quite a bit with this episode, also touching on the World War One POW status of one of Pixie's ancestors on the Lott side of her family.

Many people forget that there were POWs in the First World War, as well as the Second, and what many of these, mostly men, suffered was deeply traumatic and incredibly horrible.

We ended on a much brighter note though, with Pixie finding several of her military forebears also had musical ability, being members of the military band.

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