I agree with everything that everyone says here, which must be a first. Yes, it's incredibly annoying when people say "ancestor" for "descendant". It's always that way round, nobody ever says "descendant" when they mean "ancestor".
My wife and I laughed more than we have ever done before during previous episodes of this series, which have been more likely to provoke tears than laughter. But I agree that Ann Reid's continuing defence of her naughty ancestor began to be annoying when you consider that he was a drunkard and a criminal who first of all neglected his school classes then defrauded a relative and left others, the people she was running down, to bring up his family.
It had a particular resonance for me, as I also had a great-great-grandfather from Fife who was a rogue, and who ended up in Tasmania, tho' he wasn't transported at the King's pleasure. He twice made a local girl pregnant, and in 1855, when she was about to have their second child, he skedaddled to Tasmania with his brother and never came back. The brother became a respectable farmer and is mentioned in a book about the pioneer settlers in the Sassafras area, but my ancestor became the town drunk in Launceston and I have read about his court appearances and jail sentences in Tasmanian newspapers which have been digitised and put online.
I managed to contact some Tasmanian descendants of the respectable brother, who knew that their ancestor had come over with his elder brother, who died a bachelor, and imagine their surprise when I told them that he had left some of his DNA behind in Scotland, and his descendants (not ancestors!) are a sizeable clan.
Harry
