WDYTYA Series 13: Sophie Raworth

[coombs]

She thought she was a descendent of Isaac Mott a piano maker who rubbed shoulders with royalty but was the descendent of his cousin Samuel. Better than nothing as Isaac is her extended family.

Love the bit about her Dissenter ancestor from Birmingham who went to America with his wife and died over there after just a couple of years and his son went back to England after both parents died of yellow fever. I have 2 direct ancestors who spent time in America, one even fought for the British during the War Of Independence.

[LizzieL]

I thought this was one of the best of the series.
I always like Sophie as a presenter of the Chelsea Flower show afternoon slot.

[Primrose11]

All those letters!!! How amazing that some archive, we weren't told which and how, had those. They formed the basis of the story of Samuel and his family. I liked Sophie too, she came over as very natural and sensible.
P

[Pheno]

I liked the fact that, prior to the programme, the family had based thier ancestry on the wrong ancestor - how often have any of us done that!

Pheno

[Caw1]

I thought it was a great episode, she such a lovely person and she looked so deflated when she was told that her ancestor wasn't the Mott she thought he was but what a story about Samuel and his family. Far more interesting than someone who'd made & played the piano with the king!

All those letters too, what it would be to find something like those? A pity that we didn't know where they'd all come from though. I've just read a book called Golden Hill by Francis Spufford all about 1700's New City, very good, written using style of language of the time but reads very easily.

I'm so pleased for her that her gt grandfathers family had a great deal to do with horticulture as she and her family are very envolved with Kew.

Think this was the last one wasn't it?

This has been a good series on the whole with a lot more depth to it. Pity Sophie never did any research herself as it's always such a great thing to find information yourself.
Caroline

[healyjfch]

I loved the letters written by Sophie's ancestors
Enjoying the series

[andrewalston]

I think that this has been an enjoyable series, with some excellent storytelling.

What a pity that the BBC seem to have just about abandoned it. It took 5 months to fit in 10 episodes! Cancelled because of football, day of the week changed.....

They may just have given up on family history altogether. Radio programmes "Tracing Your Roots", "Look Up Your Genes" and "Digging Up Your Roots" have fallen by the wayside, and BBC Wales TV "Coming Home" Series 11 seems to have consisted of exactly ONE programme.

[halhawk]

One of the best programmes from a generally above average series     I have enjoyed the whole series, and learned a great deal about various events in history from some of them.  Overall they seemed to cover some different areas which made a nice change from some recent series.

I don't record the programmes, and Sophie travelled round so much that I lost track of where each visit took her, but I noticed in the credits at the end mention of a Mott and a Crowder.  That led me to wonder if the documents came from family archives, although the record of the fruit trees and pineapples could have come from the records of the recipient's family. 

A Google search threw up a BNA blog article suggesting that the Mott piano firm may have folded in the 1840's

blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2017/03/09/shared-passions-in-sophie-raworths-family/

But perhaps the family kept correspondence?


Google also came up with an article from The Genealogist saying that Abraham Crowder's grandson Anderson relocated to Lincolnshire.

www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2017/who-do-you-think-you-are/sophie-raworth-471/

And the same search located Crowder's nurseries in Liincolnshire, in business since 1798 ... presumably founded by Anderson or a relative?

[LizzieL]

Anderson Crowder was mentioned when Sophie was looking through the register of Botanists and Horticulturists. He  was a nurseryman and seedsman in Horncastle Lincs. He was grandfather of the Edgar C Crowder who worked at Kew for a short time