WDYTYA? - Kate Winslet + Catherine Ryan

I have two episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? to write about this week, to play catch-up!

Hollywood actress Kate Winslet's episode featured a lot of tears but, luckily, no ships hitting icebergs.

Kate's maternal family were from Sweden, and it was interesting to hear about the history of a country we don't hear much about here in the UK.

The stories of desperation and poverty, however, will be familiar to many families.

Interesting to see also was the 'son/sen' and 'dottir' system in Sweden, not dissimilar to the 'ap' system in Wales, and other 'son of' names going further back in history.


Catherine Ryan's Who Do You Think You Are? episode, on the other hand, featured a lot of laughter!

Comedian Catherine was hoping to find that her family were English, because she lives in England... and Canada is cold!

Mostly, and much to her annoyance, her family were Canadian. And before that Canadian. And before that... Canadian.

Much like with Jack and Michael Whitehall, what made this episode a joy to watch was the humour she brought to every situation - along with her charming unpredictability!

I particularly enjoyed when she was mocking her Victorian teenage ancestor's 'poetic tantrum!'

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!

WDYTYA? - Naomie Harris

Actress Naomie Harris' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured a common dilemma with family history - how to deal with the uncomfortable truths of the past.

Naomie's Carribbean heritage showed she had both slaves and slave owners in her family's history.

While finding an ancestor was a slave can, of course, be distressing, finding that an ancestor was a slave owner is troubling in a different way.


We all like to think that our ancestors were good people (or at least, that their indiscretions were more roguish than just plain bad,) but when presented with the reality, that isn't always the case.

People are people, and facts are facts. People do things that later generations are horrified by - and we have to accept that, much as Naomie did, by understanding that history is what it is, but the present and the future are ours.


A small issue I had with this episode was the DNA references. I'm by no means an expert in this as it's not my area, but I do know a little more than the general public.

Many, many, people get confused when using DNA for the purposes of family history.

Yes, Naomie's DNA showed Nigerian ancestry of 48%. Yes, she found an ancestor who is likely to have come from Nigeria.


No, this isn't 'the Nigerian link' in her family tree. It is a Nigerian link.

The DNA inherited directly from a 5x great-grandparent would likely be under 10% (possibly even less than this - as I mentioned, I'm not an expert!)

A 48% Nigerian result therefore would mean that there are several different hereditary lines of Nigerian DNA that go into making up Naomie Harris.


Several different individuals have contributed DNA to her make-up which is common to the area now known as Nigeria.

That's far less simple, I know, than proclaiming 'THIS is where your DNA comes from' - but it's also far more accurate.

(And I personally think DNA testing companies need to do more to help people understand the science and meaning of their results - but that's a pet peeve of mine!)

WDYTYA? - Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired on Monday, starting the series off with high levels of drama.

Having made their fortune in the jewellery trade, Daniel Radcliffe's ancestors were doing well in Hatton Garden. Until the robberies started.

Heists at Hatton Garden are nothing new - a high level of gold and jewels concentrated in a fairly small area are always going to be a target.

After about the third robbery, however, the police began to suspect Daniel's ancestor of insurance fraud, and became convinced that this was the case on circumstantial grounds, highly coloured by their prejudice.

Daniel's ancestors were Jewish. And the anti-Semitic sentiments of the 1930s meant that the fact that the family were Jewish was taken to be evidence against them.

Hopefully, in modern Britain, any informant's letter that says someone must be committing fraud because they are Jewish would be entirely written off as bigoted. Sad to say, in the 1930s, the police didn't much care if the Jewish jeweller had legitimately lost his diamonds and gold, and the fraud explanation seemed to be an easy one for them to fall back on.

That's not to say that financial desperation hadn't driven Daniel's ancestors to fraud, as he himself admits. But the justice system was very clearly stacked against them.

The story ends even more sadly, with the distressing suicide note of Daniel's ancestor. (Viewer discretion is definitely advised with this episode.)

I've come across suicide more than once when researching customers' family histories. It's never an easy thing to explain, and deciding how to present the information and the circumstances surrounding the events takes a level of metaphorical tightrope-walking that can be very tricky to get right. (Hopefully I manage it.)

Daniel Radcliffe's episode also includes stories of the First World War, and plenty of people who have a particular look on their face - a look that says, 'Oh my God, I just met Harry Potter!'

Where Did the Time Go? + WDYTYA? New Series

I have to apologise, apparently I haven't posted here since last December! Oops!

Still, I've been busy researching and compiling packages so I think you'll excuse me!

So, why am I back now? Because there's a new Who Do You Think You Are series starting tonight, and I had to tell you all about it!

(It may seem like all I do is watch history TV shows, but that just happens to be what reminds me to blog! Most of my time is spent researching, completing family trees, presenting research, etc.)

The line-up for series 16 (16!) of WDYTYA? looks excellent - as usual:

• Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
• Sharon Osbourne (please, can we have Ozzy in series 17?!)
• Kate Winslet (going v. Hollywood this series!)
• Paul Merton (comedian)
• Katherine Ryan (comedian)
• Naomie Harris (Bond actress)
• Mark Wright (The Only Way Is Essex... apparently)
• Jack and Michael Whitehall (comedian(s?))

The series kicks off with Daniel Radcliffe tonight at 9pm on BBC1.

I'll be doing my little write-ups/summaries again, after each episode!

Last-Minute Christmas Presents?

We've all been there - you're wrapping up the presents and suddenly you remember that you forgot to get anything for Aunt So-and-So, or Uncle Whatsisname.

Or wait! Your sister said she was gonna be away for Christmas! And now she's not! You haven't got her a present yet!

What do you do?!

Well, instead of running out to grab the last battered box of chocolates in the shop, or a bottle of bargain booze, why not turn that last minute panic into something special?

I can help you out.

If you e-mail me with the details before December 24th, I can create and e-mail back a personalised gift-certificate.

Sounds good, but what does it mean?

Let me break it down:

• You tell me what package you want (details of my packages are available on my website)

• You tell me what you'd like the gift certificate to say

• I create the gift certificate and e-mail you a PDF (printable) copy, along with an order form for the recipient to fill in with the information I need to start researching.

• You print out the certificate and form (or e-mail it,) and give it to the intended recipient.

• I will invoice you for the full amount of the package you selected, plus £10.50 P&P. If the recipient wants extra copies of the research, or for it to be printed in a different format, that will incur extra fees.

• Once I have payment, and the information I need from the recipient, I'll get started on fulfilling the special gift you ordered!

As long as you e-mail me BEFORE 24th Dec 2018, I should be able to help you out!

If you're not sure, feel free to ask any questions you want; my e-mail address can be found on the order information page of my website.

Have a good Christmas everyone!

1918-2018 11.11

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

- Anthem For Doomed Youth, Wilfred Owen

One hundred years on from the moment when the guns finally fell silent, it's too easy to forget just how young the boys were who died in the First World War - many of the fallen were teenagers, or in their early twenties.

Of all the beautiful and touching memorials we've seen this year, I think one of the most haunting and the most poignant is the 'ghost sculptures' in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, standing guard at the graves of the young men buried there.