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? - Ross Kemp

 

Actor and TV presenter Ross Kemp's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired last Tuesday.

Much, though not all, of Ross' episode was focussed on his great-grandfather, 'Pop,' (short for 'Popeye,' because he was a sailor,) and his war-time service in the Merchant Navy.

The Merchant Navy is a civilian force of trade vessels - one which did vital work during both world wars in terms of supply chains and troop movements.

Ross was especially keen to find out why his mother seemed to have a memory of Pop returning from sea in a US army uniform

 - something that I'm not going to spoil here, and which you'll have to watch the episode to get to the bottom of.

Other stand-out moments of the episode include the story of a previously unknown great-great-uncle who had a problem with alcohol that led to other problems.

...Not least the problems between himself and his parents and siblings, who were threatened by his often violent and unpredictable behaviour.

This was a solid episode on the approach to this series' half-way point, and certainly worth the watch if you have an interest in the history of seafaring and World War Two.

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? - Gemma Collins

 

Series 21 of Who Do You Think You Are? brought down the curtain with reality TV star Gemma Collins.

This was a solid episode, but after Olly Murs' cracker the episode before, it felt a little anti-climactic.

Still, it probably didn't feel that way to Gemma - and that's what matters!

Gemma's episode featured some difficult discussions surrounding foster care and mental health.

Mostly these were done well - explaining that our modern understanding of schizophrenia is a lot different to the understanding of the condition in the 1950s. 

Sadly, a lot of 'normal' teenage behaviour, i.e. rebelliousness, skipping school, back-talking, - especially pertaining to teenage girls - was caught up in the pathology of the day. This lead to a lot of people becoming institutionalised with no medical need.

I think the episode missed, though, that along with those who were unfairly and wrongly entangled in the system, were people who were genuinely unwell.

Was Gemma's biological grandmother one of them? It's not clear - we don't have her medical notes, and the only first-hand accounts we have are from people who were children at the time, and unaware of their aunt being a patient at mental health hospitals.

It's impossible to tell whether or not Gemma's grandmother was treated fairly or unfairly without having more information - but that ambiguity wasn't really, in my opinion, made clear enough to Gemma. 

She seemed to come away with the conclusion that her grandmother had been one of those who were institutionalised for normal, frowned-upon, behaviour - which is entirely possible.

The circumstantial evidence of her teenage pregnancy and the known attitudes of some of the medical leaders at the institutions she was a patient at, strengthen that possibility.

But it's also entirely possible that her grandmother was extremely unwell. Because that also would have resulted in her becoming a patient at those same hospitals.

We sadly can't know - with the information presented - what the reality of the case might be, and it would have been better, in my opinion, to make that more clear.

Other parts of the episode included the criminality and poverty of London at the turn of the 20th Century, and Gemma's roots in Essex.

The latter was probably one of the less surprising features, but the remoteness and uniqueness of the Essex island Gemma's family came from was interesting enough.

Again, this was a solid episode, but probably would have been better off in a different place in the running order.

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