Wait... It's That Time Already?! Christmas Order Dates

It's time to think about Christmas!

Don't panic! You haven't fallen into a time-warp, it's still October, I promise!

But in order for me to have your research all wrapped up and shiny under the tree, I need time to do it in!

That means that my Very Last (with capital letters) order date for that special Christmas gift is 31st October.

After this date, I just can't get it done in time.

And of course, the earlier you order, the more time I have to make that gift extra-special!

Check out my website, with updated prices and order information, and get in touch to discuss your research!

I can also arrange gift certificates for those of you who've left it too late!

This is something that I personalise to the order and to the recipient, so be sure to get in contact if you want a gift certificate, and I'll see what I can do for you.

WDYTYA? Series Finale - Jonnie Peacock

Last Monday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was the last in the series and featured Paralympian Jonnie Peacock.

I have to admit that I'm a big fan of Jonnie Peacock, so I was looking forward to this episode!

Jonnie's episode actually showed what a lot of the episodes this series have shown - that the poverty of the past, and the living conditions of many of our ancestors, were exceptionally poor.



One key frustrating note (for me at least,) that seems to crop up a lot is the celebrity being completely bemused when people sign with an X.

So, to clear this up and spread the word, let me explain:

If someone signs with an X it usually means they are illiterate. The only other explanation, really, would be if a disability affected someone's ability to write.

Early records, particularly among women, and among lower/working-class people, are usually signed with an X.

So now you know!



I think the interesting thing to me with this episode was the connection with anthrax, and its relative prevalence at the time.

Just goes to show that health and safety is there for a reason, I suppose!






So that was it for this series of Who Do You Think You Are? - I'll try to add some blogposts between series this time, but if I'm quiet it's because I'm busy researching your ancestors!

WDYTYA? - Marvin Hulmes + Robert Rinder

As I didn't have time to do my write-up of Marvin Hulmes' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? last week, I figured I'd combine that write-up with the write-up for this week's episode, featuring Robert Rinder.

Marvin Hulmes' episode showed the difficulty of coming to terms with the past from where we are in the present.

Slavery is, and was, wrong. But it was not only white people who owned slaves.

As Marvin learned during his time in Jamaica, free black people also often owned slaves. Coming to terms with that is not the easiest of things to do, especially from Marvin's position of being descended from both black slaves and black slave owners.

Marvin's episode also showed that it can be unfair to judge people - such as his mother's grandfather, known as 'Old Man Buckingham' and thought of as grumpy and standoffish - without knowing their stories.

Old Man Buckingham's story was one of the worst kinds of luck, encompassing workhouse stays, abandonment by his parents, a painful disease as a child, and being shipwrecked twice. Such a background is enough to make anyone a little standoffish.



Robert Rinder's episode explored a lot of the same themes, albeit from a completely different aspect of geography and history.

Judge Rinder's family story covered the horrors and uncertainties of the 20th Century, and their affects on the lives of those who lived through them.

The Holocaust, as his grandfather's old friend and fellow Holocaust-survivor told Robert Rinder, is something that should never be forgotten - what the Jewish people and other victims of the Holocaust suffered is something we should never let ourselves forget, so that we never, ever, repeat it.

It also showed, very clearly, that the rules are sometimes meant to be broken. Rinder's grandfather lied about his age in order to be allowed to move to the UK, and re-start his life. As uncomfortable as it made Rinder, it seems an exceptionally small sin when compared with those committed against him.

WDYTYA? - Shirley Ballas

Strictly Come Dancing's new head judge Shirley Ballas featured in Monday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

I have to say, it was one of the better episodes of recent years!

Rumors of possible Black ancestry took Shirley to South Africa and a complex history.

Her family were originally Muslim, probably brought into Cape Town, South Africa, as slaves before slavery was abolished.

I found it quite amusing that the Deacon of the Cathedral didn't mention Jesus at all when asked why the Muslim Caroline Otto and her family would convert to Christianity - he was refreshingly honest in admitting that their motives would likely have been an improvement in social status.

I did find this episode quite naïve when it came to the parentage of the Otto family.

There were several generations of the Otto family born to single mothers, no fathers being mentioned.

An  ex-slave-owner, Isaac DaCosta, left one of the generations of ladies named Caroline Otto an inheritance in his will, as well as her children, who were all named individually.

Esther DaCosta, Isaac's daughter, also witnessed an Otto marriage.

There's nothing invalid about the conclusion put forward on the programme, that the DaCosta family valued the Otto family as friends and excellent servants - but it seems impermissible to ignore another strong possibility.

Relationships that are this close between servants and their masters would be rare, especially when the servant was previously a slave, and in such a race-defined society as pre-21st-Century South Africa.

Where servants were that close to their master, I would expect the bequest in the will to contain the words 'to my servant' or something similar. An absence of this doesn't prove anything, but is interesting.

The whole set-up, to me, suggests more of an intimate obligation on the DaCosta family - possibly even a familial obligation, if one of the DaCosta family was the father of one or more of one of those fatherless Otto children.

Again, that's just my take on things, and just a theory at that!

WDYTYA? - Boy George

Boy George's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired last Wednesday, was one of those episodes which show the true tragedy that many families faced in the past.

This can be exceptionally evident in the case of Irish history.

Men who were hung as traitors under British rule in Ireland are now seen as Irish national heroes - which does show how history is often simply a matter of perspective.



George was clearly affected by the scene of his great-uncle's hanging. With good reason.

Sometimes the past can be truly hard to face, not least in terms of the hardships and harrowing circumstances that members of your own family may have had to live through.



Likewise the poverty faced by many Irish people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is difficult to fathom from where we stand today.

The slums of nineteenth century Dublin were the poorest of the poor, but the places to which children were removed by the NSPCC weren't always better. Often, they were far more abusive than the homes which the children had left, which were poor but loving.

This was an interesting but sad episode, with a highly likeable celeb.

WDYTYA? - Lee Mack

Lee Mack's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired on Monday, starting us off with Lee finding out about his fellow comedian, ancestor Billy Mac.

Billy's story encompassed both variety/music hall performances, and the Western Front in World War One.

Billy performed with a gallows-humour style comedy troupe called 'The Optimists' on the front lines.




Also part of Lee's episode was a look at his maternal family in Ireland.

Life wasn't that easy for his ancestors, and Lee was perhaps a little quick to judge an unmarried mother who emigrated to Canada while leaving her son in her parents' care.

Often, family members who emigrated would send money home to their relatives - additionally, not having her as another mouth to feed would also have benefitted the family financially.

Of course, not knowing the exact circumstances, it may have been just as Lee suspected at first - or something else entirely.

That's the thing about trying to understand the actions of people in the past - without more context, it can be very difficult to understand how acceptable something was.

Lee did begin to wonder whether he was being too harsh, and judging his ancestor too much by modern standards, when the conditions and economic difficulties his family were in became clearer - it can be worthwhile to understand that survival is often the top motivating factor behind the actions of our forebears!

WDYTYA? - Olivia Colman

Monday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured actress Olivia Colman.

For me, Olivia's bouncy attitude is what made this episode worth the watch - she really did make it interesting just by being there!

Of course, her family's story was also really interesting!

This episode really benefitted from a family that could've waltzed straight out of Dickens or Austen, encompassing India, Portugal, and France, and death, divorce, and some very strong women.

And of course it's hard not to be at least a little envious when someone's family were posh enough to have actual painted portraits!

This episode had all of the amazing twists and turns you would hope for in a episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and hopefully is a great indication of the standard of the rest of the series.

Again though, what really made this episode was Colman's investment in not only the highs, but the lows as well.

Yes, there were the patented Who Do You Think You Are? tears. Many of them, in fact!