Who Do You Think You Are? - Amy Dowden

I had the opportunity, this week, to briefly appear on BBC’s Points of View to discuss this episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

You can see that on iPlayer here, with the WDYTYA? section starting around 8-10 minutes into the programme.

Family History on TV - Wales' Black Miners and New Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA?) Line-Up

 

There's some great TV shows for history fans coming up on the BBC!

Ex-Welsh footballer Nathan Blake explores the history of Wales' Black Miners tonight (5th October 2020) on BBC One Wales at 8pm.

It will be available on the iPlayer across the UK after airing.

I think it's important that we remember that Wales does have a multicultural heritage - and that BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) people have contributed to our beautiful country, and worked alongside us, for generations.

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? (season 17!) will start next Monday (12th October 2020) on BBC One at 9pm.

There are 4 episodes this series - I have to assume that Covid has halted their production a little - but they look like good ones!

This year's celebrities are Jodie Whittaker, the first female Doctor Who, David Walliams, actress Liz Carr and Welsh actress, writer, etc. Ruth Jones.

I'll be writing my summaries/general chats about the episodes starting next week, so look out for that!

A reminder, also, that my last date for Christmas orders is 31st October 2020.

This gives me time to actually do the research before Christmas!

Details of my packages can be on familyhistorybycerys.co.uk - please get in touch if you're interested!

Some TV For History Fans

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well, enjoying their bank holiday, and keeping safe during the Lockdown.

Just thought I'd let you all know about an interesting TV series starting on BBC2 tomorrow (May 26th 2020) at 21.00 -

Each series of 'A House Through Time' focuses on a different house, and its inhabitants, throughout the history of the building.

This series' house is located in Bristol - a City with a colourful and often controversial history!

David Olusoga usually does an excellent job at presenting a careful and compassionate view of historic events - so hopefully it'll be another great series!

WDYTYA? - Jack and Michael Whitehall

Jack Whitehall is a lot of fun - and his Who Do You Think You Are? episode with dad Michael made me laugh.

While their family's history was a lot less posh than I was expecting, there was also some serious money involved in latter generations!

Jack & Michael's episode was another that examined uncomfortable truths about the past - uncomfortable for Jack anyway, Michael was less bothered!

We started off with a tale of syphilis and early death, before moving to look at another side of the family.


Jack & Michael's ancestor, Thomas Jones Phillips, was on the wrong side of history, and generally came across as... an unpleasant sort of person.

When the Chartists in Newport* - those beloved Welsh heroes and martyrs - were attacked, and in some cases killed, by the military, Phillips was very much on the side of the establishment.


*The Wikipedia 'Newport Rising' link is useful, but its description of the WDYTYA? episode, at time of writing, confuses Sir Thomas Phillips with Thomas Jones Phillips - two different individuals.

Welsh research is full of completely different people with the same name!


It's strange to think, now, that the idea that people (or, at the time, men, as this was long before the Suffragettes,) should be allowed to vote regardless of whether they owned property was a radical one.

Many saw it as a highly dangerous idea - in the 19th Century many thought that the place in which you were born in society was pre-determined by God. Therefore, God had placed the upper classes in a position to decide what was best for the lower classes; the lower classes were too stupid to make decisions for themselves, and should not be educated as this would be too much for their brains to handle (the same arguments that were used against women for centuries.)

Thomas Jones Phillips was what Jack described as a 'massive Tory' and it was quite refreshing to see how irritated Jack was with what Phillips had done.


My favourite part of the episode, though, was Jack and Michael trying to decide whether the word 'mandrills' meant that the Chartists were trying to take ducks to the Uprising!

Our Culture, Our Heritage - Tenby Museum

We need to support our own culture.

Tenby Museum and Art Gallery is a lovely little museum in the Pembrokeshire town of Tenby. I've been there more than once, and it's both interesting and affordable (£4 per adult for an entire year, and free entry to children.)

There's a range of archaeological finds, art - both modern and fine, and objects which illustrate the long history of the town. It's a little treasure trove.

Unfortunately, the museum faces funding problems - like so much of our cultural institutions, so I urge you - if you're in the area - to pay it a visit.

Your ticket will be valid for a year. It's worth it!

Coming Home - BBC Wales

BBC Wales has it's own answer to Who Do You Think You Are? - it has Coming Home. Coming Home is a series of half-hour programmes looking into the Welsh roots of the famous and semi-famous.

Series 10 (oh yes, this is a long-running series,) features a four-episode run, starring actress Sian Phillips, journalist Jeremy Bowen, comedian and actor Ben Miller, and sports star and One Show presenter Iwan Thomas.

The series starts tonight at 8.30pm on BBC1 Wales with Sian Phillips' episode - the episodes will be available after airing on the BBC's iPlayer for people living in other UK regions.

I usually find the series to be well worth the watch - so if you're interested in history, give it a try.

Some Things Never Change

Truly, some things are pretty unchangeable. The sky is blue, and boys will be boys and do stupid and dangerous things on bonfire night.


This article from The South Wales Echo on 15th November 1900:

REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF

NOVEMBER

-----

Some Barry Boys are not likely to readily for-

get it. They attempted to celebrate Guy Fawkes

night by letting off fireworks in the street, and

this morning were called upon to appear before

the magistrates at the Police Court. Five lads -

John Ash, Henry Williams, William Harris,

Emmanuel Williams, and Alfred Williams -

were each fined 5s including costs, while Ree[s]

Jones, a Cadoxton juvenile, who disobeyed the

summons, was ordered to appear at the next

sitting of the court.

 

 

I hope no-one is planning the same on this November 5th - keep yourselves and your pets safe!

A Political Statement from 1909

'...What measure of success he had attained - he did not say this boastfully, but to encourage others - was due to consistent hard work. He entered public life because he thought it the duty of every citizen to render some service to the parish or the town where he lived, and the greater the privileges they enjoyed in this respect the greater were their responsibilities.'

 

Cardiff Times, 27 March 1909, detailing a speech made by Alderman Lewis Morgan, Lord Mayor of Cardiff

The day the people wanted politics

The chartist uprising of 1839 was an important part of Welsh history and the history of people and politics in this country. It wasn't just suffragettes who had to fight for the right to vote. The Newport chartists wanted everyman of the age of 21 and over to be allowed to vote - not just the wealthy. Because of property restrictions on eligibility to vote, the poverty stricken did not have that right - and therefore were alienated from a system which largely ignored them and their needs.

Tonight at 9pm on BBC 2 Wales, the actor Michael Sheen presents a programme on the Newport Rising. It will be available on iPlayer for those in other regions.

178 year old family Bible is returned to its owners

Hi everyone!

I found this interesting short article about how a piece of one Welsh family's history (a 178 year old family Bible) was returned to them. Hope you enjoy it!

Tales of Impropriety

People have always been people - and the Victorians were less shocked by what went on in their towns than you might think. For example, I found this quite casual newspaper report from the Cardiff Times on 4 October 1879:



Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

MERTHYR

 

A CASE DISMISSED - At the police-court on

Monday - the Stipendiary on the bench - Mary

Evans, a prostitute, was brought up charged with

stealing a dress, the property of another frail

sister named Elizabeth Jones. As prosecutrix

did not appear, the prisoner was discharged.

'Frail sisters' was a common euphemism, as was 'nightwalker' or 'lady of ill repute.'

Tales From China

Image Courtesy of sakhorn38/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The notorious China area of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, was one of crime and prostitution. In 1862, the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian reported on how a fool and his money is often parted.

A boatman named Evan Salathiel had gone to 'a house of illfame' (essentially a brothel, or a lodging-house used by prostitutes,) in China with Ruth Lloyd, who is described as an unfortunate. It looks like Ruth saw her chance when he'd had a bit to drink, and seems to have stolen 10s. 6d. from him, for which she was sentenced to three years.

I found Evan Salathiel in the 1861 census, about a year before this, working as a boatman in the hamlet of Rhydyboithan, Eglwysilan. His address is Walnut Tree Bridge, which would put him somewhere in the 'Walnut Tree' part of Glyntaff, on the canal. He was a married man with three sons, Taliesin, Jachomis (sic) and John.

Ruth Lloyd meanwhile, in 1861, lived in China with her 4 month old daughter, Milla. She claimed to be a widowed dressmaker, with a lodger by the name of Jane Davies who apparently worked as a washerwoman; Ruth and Jane are likely to have been prostitutes. The street had no need of more dressmakers, washerwomen, charwomen, or lodging-house keepers. There are also a few general labourers (men,) a huckster (female,) a few iron-workers (unisex) and what appears to be a handholder (though the writing is bad so it may be something else) and a yard girl (I think; again, the writing isn't the best, I also don't know whether a yard girl was innocent or not, particularly in a house with several washerwomen.) 
Whether Milla lived through her childhood is unclear. Certainly, living in the poorest of conditions with her mother in prison, in an age where child mortality was high would not have left her in good stead. What her fate would have been beyond childhood is another question mark, maybe she would have been able to make something of her life or maybe she would've become another dressmaker or washerwoman in China. I like to think the poor girl made it, somehow, to happiness, but I guess that's the optimist in me.

Bye for now!

Friday Quick Tip

Ok then, here's this week's quick family history tip: books on local history can show you how your ancestors lived, and details on the places they would've seen in their day-to-day lives.

Stranger than Fiction

I recently read a (fictional) book about the Pendle witches (Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt, for anyone with a reading habit to rival my own,) and it made me think, is historical fiction as interesting as historical fact? I have to confess to loving both - I am both a reader and a researcher after all.

For anyone interested in the true and very strange story of the Pendle witches - there's good background information here about the Pendle witch trials, which, after all, came before the famous trials at Salem.

Social, Local, Family

I seem to be looking more and more lately into the circumstances surrounding family events and getting background information - the social circumstances can reflect what was actually going on. I think sometimes you can't get the full picture without looking at it from different angles. If there are several members of the family working in the same industry was it the main industry for the area? Is this what everyone worked at? Or was the family the exception?

Local history is very linked with family history - how could it not be when the families of the area created the local history? And social history can show the general mood of the country, and also how your family members would have been thought of if they did certain things!

Bye for now!

2013 Anniversaries

Image Courtesy of Simon Howden/

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Found this list of 2013 anniversaries from The Telegraph - and yes, there are a lot of them. I'm guessing the picture of Henry VIII on this page with a caption about Henry IV is a mistake.

It's a page full of interesting bits and pieces - like, did you know it's the 100th anniversary of the birth of American runner Jesse Owens in 2013? Me neither.

I also didn't know that David Lloyd George was born in the Manchester area - I think the name and the Welsh nationalism had me fooled. I'm pretty sure you can still be counted as a Welshman if your parents were Welsh and you grew up in Wales - don't you think?

There's more about Lloyd George here if you're interested.

It's always nice to think about finding someone notable in your British family tree, but the lives of ordinary people can be just as interesting - not least because they're related to you.

Looking Into the Past

I've just been browsing through the fantastic BBC 'Your Paintings' site - well worth a look, some amazing pictures held by local councils etc. around the country. Plus, technically these paintings belong to the public - always nice.

'Remember Scarborough' by Edith Kemp-Welch really caught my eye - well, it's quite striking after all, given the amount of red in the picture, but there were also a couple of other things that got me thinking...

Firstly, I couldn't quite tell if this was propaganda or not at first - since looking at it, I've found out that the image was used on an enlistment poster, so I guess it was. At first though, while it was obviously patriotic, I couldn't really tell if this was from 'the establishment,' or not. What do you think?

Secondly, why Scarborough? Turns out Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough were raided by the German navy in 1914. You learn something new every day.

Another thing that struck me was that it was painted by a woman - not unheard of in this period, though not common either, particularly as the stereotypical war artist is a man. There's a brief video from the IWM last year on the subject of women war artists here.

If your ancestors were from Scarborough, maybe they witnessed the raiding - could you imagine that? Or maybe there's a woman artist hiding in the branches of your family tree, you never know.

See you next time!