"Who Do You Think You Are", Series 14: #2 Craig Revel Horwood

[Daffodilica]

So, what did everyone think of tonight's episode? I have to say it was refreshing to see someone who seemed to take everything in his stride and came across as genuinely interested in his history. No tears - hurray! Off topic - I also found myself admiring his t-shirts!!

[Ayashi]

Didn't she look well for 100?

I did think to myself though- how many of us have an ancestor that we associate with? How many strange links and parallels? In my case, I don't think there are any... I was an animal care assistant as my first job and the closest any of my ancestors got to working with animals was either an ag lab or a butcher. I now work in the Environmental Services department at a rescue and many of my female ancestors would have been cleaners and housekeepers etc in domestic service... but still, there's nobody I've found that I've really thought "you are like me, I am like you".

Maybe I'm secretly adopted 

[sleepybarb]

I really enjoyed it, didn't have the foggiest who he was as we don't watch Strictly. Might be tempted to now. He showed a real interest in his family. And I loved his Grandmother.
Barb

[healyjfch]

To me His Granny was the highlight and the clogdancer.
Granny looked so well and great she was living with family at 100.

I had a cousin who worked in same part of a government department, many miles from either of our birthplaces. She was retired 30 years from that Office before I joined it.
She was in her 90's when I did meet her.

Jfch

[ChrissieL]

I agree. I really enjoyed his refreshing and interested approach. It was an interesting story on both sides of his family, the gold mining and the clog dancing. Those folks travelling so far from home in the mid 1800s were very brave as I'm sure they wouldn't have any idea what sort of life they would be going to.  I absolutely loved his grandma. What a lovely lady. 

Chris

[panda40]

Found it very interesting. I would have liked them to have gone and found the relatives that traveled out to Australia from Essex in the records available here.
Regards panda

[Gillg]

Great clog dancing and an interesting view of Craig without any of the fancy stuff (except the occasional "Darling").  I now look at him in a different way and found him refreshingly relaxed but also clearly fascinated by his ancestors' history.  Since most of them originated from England, it should have been possible to trace them further back, but there was a lot of information to process.  I, too, had relatives prospecting for gold in Ballarat, so knew a bit about that, but it was interesting to see the pictures and to discover that mining was still going on there at the same spot where Craig's ancestors had worked.  I enjoyed this one, especially Granny.

[dowdstree]

I enjoyed this episode too. He seemed to have a relaxed approach and I loved his T-shirts too - absolutely Fabulous Darling 

What a life it must have been mining for gold. The programme gave a good insight into this. What rotten luck that the granddaughters were not left a share of the family fortune.

When he found his link to dancing I really thought the clog dancing looked great fun.

As others have said his granny was the star of the show. 100 years old and still very much alert. Good for her.

Dorrie

[Citizen Smith]

I really enjoyed this episode. Craig seemed like a really nice, normal guy who was genuinely interested in the stories he was being told. And the dance link was treated well, not over-egged and laboured but a fun coincidence.

Like other posters, I also wanted to go further back but I can see why they chose to stick with Australia instead. It's only an hour and good to see records in another country. I'm researching New Zealand which is absolutely new to me so the information about reasons for immigration during that period was really helpful.

Sarah