WDYTYA - Johnnie Peacock

[KGarrad]

Nobody else has started a thread . . . so I will

Another good episode, I thought.
Although Johnny came over as a bit naive at first - e.g. "Why did she mark with an "X"?"; but I suppose we all had to start somewhere.

The episode covered a lot of what we think of as basics - but to the General Public, it would have been a good introduction to FH.

I was surprised that the researcher didn't come up with the obvious answer to the unmarried female relative with 4 children? Maybe, just maybe, the young lady was a prostitute? That has to be considered?

I really liked the format of 30 minutes to paternal; 30 minutes to maternal sides.
Never became too boring.

All-in-all a very good series this time.

[jaywit]

I watched that episode with interest as my Gt. Gt. Gt. Grandmother gave birth to 4 illegitimate children in the 1840's / 50s.

She lived in a small village in the Midlands.

Looking at the marriage certificates of her 2 sons one just has blank in the father's name the other my Gt. Gt. Grandfather had ' Illegitimate ' written across it by the vicar.

She was never described as an agricultural worker anywhere just Servant or Cook, in fact at one time she was the cook at the local workhouse.


I have never found any mention of her in local newspapers or Bastardy records and only one  of the girls had a surname as a given name, so very few clues.

This series though has produced documents and I hope newcomers don't get the impression that documents are easy to find.

[StanleysChesterton]

I was waiting for somebody on Rootschat to start it - as it's "her family", who she's been researching years; they got in contact with her to ask what she had.  Gillg is the username I expected to start a thread.

[LizzieW]

gillg has commented on another thread about WDYTYA in general and didn't see the programme.  She was waiting for the researcher to let her know when it was on.

[Alberbury]

Did I miss the census returns for the Cambridgeshire side of the family?

Is Voss a local name, on google it could be dutch or German?

[sallyyorks]

Did I miss the census returns for the Cambridgeshire side of the family?

Is Voss a local name, on google it could be dutch or German?

Seems to be local on this name map (1881). According to gbnames website
'English - Locational Name'
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Map.aspx?name=VOSS&year=1881&altyear=1998&country=GB&type=name

Maybe it comes from the word 'Fosse'?

A long, narrow trench or excavation, especially in a fortification.
Origin-Late Old English, via Old French from Latin fossa

[sallyyorks]

Nobody else has started a thread . . . so I will

Another good episode, I thought.
Although Johnny came over as a bit naive at first - e.g. "Why did she mark with an "X"?"; but I suppose we all had to start somewhere.

The episode covered a lot of what we think of as basics - but to the General Public, it would have been a good introduction to FH.

I was surprised that the researcher didn't come up with the obvious answer to the unmarried female relative with 4 children? Maybe, just maybe, the young lady was a prostitute? That has to be considered?

I really liked the format of 30 minutes to paternal; 30 minutes to maternal sides.
Never became too boring.

All-in-all a very good series this time.

Yes agree it was a good introduction for the general public just setting out on family research.

But again, I can't help being disappointed by the accuracy. Since when was 'Bootle', where the maternal side was from, 'in Liverpool'?
On the Voss side, why describe 'agricultural labouring gangs' as if that kind of labour wasn't the norm. 'Ag Lab' was the top listed occupation on the 1851 census. We have all got them haven't we?
Not sure that illegitimacy was as uncommon, or as shameful, as the series keeps making out. Going by the amount of pubs at the time, I doubt most people were sat at home reading the bible on an evening

Wasn't surprised by the 'whipping' of labourers or descriptions of them as 'slaves'. It is mentioned in many contemporary accounts

[KGarrad]

Bootle has always been in Liverpool in my lifetime?

Bootle-cum-Linacre was a township in Walton-on-the-Hill parish; which also contained Everton, Kirkdale, Bootle-cum-Linacre, Fazakerley, Kirkby, Simonswood, and Formby townships; and a  considerable part of Liverpool borough.

Sounds like Liverpool to me

[carol8353]

When they visited the street where his ancestors lived in Bootle, it had an L Postcode on the street sign. Doesn't L stand for Liverpool?

Illegitimacy wasn't uncommon for the odd baby,but for a girl to have had 4 illegitimate children by what appeared to have been 4 different men,was certainly not the norm