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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Clarkey500 on Monday 09 July 18 19:49 BST (UK)
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Just a heads up as I've only seen 1 advert and that was yesterday!
The new series starts tonight on BBC1 at 9PM with Olivia Colman. It looks like it will be on every week without a gap as well - apart from Michelle Keegan last month!
Edit to modify title after broadcast
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Here in Wales it's not on until 10.40 !!
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Excellent. I set up a series link so all episodes get recorded. Would advise doing that if you can so you never miss any. You can choose "new" or include repeats. I do them all as like to watch the old episodes too, any you don't want can be deleted. Sorry that sounds like an advert for tv recording devices :-[
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Another posh/wealthy lot that have had the time/money to do this themselves!
EDIT: Well, that was very watchable - and didn't leap about all over the place like some do. A pleasurable bit of "entertainment" that was easy to watch.... had to snigger when she ended up visiting the house that was even larger than her own parents' large house. Must've been a bit of a biggun as they didn't show the approach on camera :) I think we can easily tell what that relative's hobby is .... bet his wife's moved into the shed as the only space left!
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I really enjoyed Olivia's enthusiasm and how family tales can be half right.
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Yes good show.
Olivia a delight to watch.
Such interesting bits of family History and those letters ... wonderful.
xin
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I thoroughly enjoyed it; her enthusiasm was genuine and a joy to see. A really interesting programme.
Of course the people featured in this series have a bit of money; if they weren't famous in some way or another, we wouldn't be interested, and I don't suppose the BBC would bother to investigate Mr Bloggs from Railway Cuttings, East Cheam .... (or was that Hancock ??!)
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I enjoyed the fact that different researchers had found different parts of the story.
The chap in the big house in Scotland, despite writing a book about the family, hadn't heard about the large bequest to "India".
We all have interesting snippets just waiting to be found. :) :)
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What a fabulous story. The individual glimpses of the past have reduced me to tears.....
How fortunate to have those family letters - and such a lovely response from Olivia and also from the various experts and family members!
Just what we all do family history research for.
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Of course the people featured in this series have a bit of money; if they weren't famous in some way or another, we wouldn't be interested, and I don't suppose the BBC would bother to investigate Mr Bloggs from Railway Cuttings, East Cheam .... (or was that Hancock ??!)
Some years before WDYTYA there used to be a very interesting BBC 2 series Bloodties which documented family history of ordinary people. It was pulled after one series.
Cheers
Guy
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Blimey - I'm obviously old and decrepit! Who the h.... is she? Never heard of her, and as far as I am aware never come across her in any of her roles :-X Now I'll just go away :-X
Added: perhaps I should watch more TV :-X
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Any of these ring a bell......Rev, Broadchurch, The Night Manager?
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Blimey - I'm obviously old and decrepit! Who the h.... is she? Never heard of her, and as far as I am aware never come across her in any of her roles :-X Now I'll just go away :-X
Added: perhaps I should watch more TV :-X
Excellent actress. I shall never forget her in the very final episode of the very first Broadchurch......
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A really enjoyable episode - gosh wasn't she excited! :)
I liked the one odd mention by her family about a 'French woman' - then the link is made towards the end. So weird that we all have these 'someone mentioned so-&-so...' in our own family history searches - hopefully many of us will one day find the link that proves the rumour 'true'!
A very good episode indeed! (Although my daughter had hoped that there was a Polish twist - she loved Olivia Coleman's performance as a Polish Resistance hit-woman in the BBC radio comedy about Bletchley Park - called "Hut 33" :P)
Stoney
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I have seen her on TV with Dr. Who....fella..
This programme actually proved to me that she could act.
Because the lady in the Programme -- 'wdytya' hardly resemble the lady I had seen acting with that there fella.. whose name has gone..
:)
Broadchurch yes he was in that with her.
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Dr. Who......David Tennant.
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Any of these ring a bell......Rev, Broadchurch, The Night Manager?
No!!! :-X :-X I did say that I was "old and decrepit" ;D
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I really enjoyed the programme. Olivia Colman came across as very natural and genuinely interested in her family story. How wonderful that all those letters were still there for her to read. I'd love to find something like that in my family!
Chris
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Dr. Who......David Tennant.
Thats the one :) thank you
xin
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Think we are all envious of those fantastic letters and portraits !
Thoroughly enjoyed Olivia's ancestry trail. She was obviously both thrilled and moved as each new piece of info was revealed. Even my husband (usually not in the least interested in WDYTYA :P) was hooked by this episode.
Looby :)
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I loved this one because there were so many similarities to my own story. My line had links to East India Trading Company, one of my relations was a Captain in the British Army at that time. There were quite a few journeys back and forward from India to Britain. I always thought my family came from my home-town forever but it wasn't true. There was also a lot of money and large houses but it didn't filter down to me. There are quite a lot of documents that exist including pictures and it's possible to work out a lot of detail from them. There is also a 'local Indian woman' named as mother on birth records but she isn't heard of again.
Overall I found it very interesting but it was a shame there were so many tears. I had never heard of Olivia Colman and still don't know who she is but that doesn't matter. The story was interesting.
Rishile
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Any of these ring a bell......Rev, Broadchurch, The Night Manager?
No!!! :-X :-X I did say that I was "old and decrepit" ;D
Hi
I wanted to see WDYTYA and simply forgot to turn on the TV, so one for catch up.
Was she like his British Intelligence contact in the Night Manager, all I can remember is the lead character wheeling & dealing arms and that lusty love scene against the wall with another actress, who gets killed off.
Mark
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Even though in Australia I have seen Olivia in many English TV Roles.
I downloaded the episode and found it one of the best I have seen.
I really dont mind if I know the person at all, I can always google them, but just enjoy the Family stories :)
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India Harriet's mother's will was subsequently discovered - in the Berkshire archives, in the papers they held for her uncle's son... her mother had died in 1810, so, rather than her being "sent away from her mother", which they implied, it would appear she was a complete and proper orphan.
So they now know the identity of India Harriet's mother and what happened to her.
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India Harriet's mother's will was subsequently discovered - in the Berkshire archives, in the papers they held for her uncle's son... her mother had died in 1811, so, rather than her being "sent away from her mother", which they implied, it would appear she was a complete and proper orphan.
So they now know the identity of India Harriet's mother and what happened to her.
That's an interesting twist. Where did you discover that?
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A really interesting start to the new series, and I loved her enthusiasm and obvious interest.
But how amazing to be able to read all of those old letters, and to actually see a photo of 'India Harriot'... I bet this doesn't happen with most people's family history research! Perhaps it was just because they'd obviously always had a lot of dosh?
Romilly ;)
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India Harriet's mother's will was subsequently discovered - in the Berkshire archives, in the papers they held for her uncle's son... her mother had died in 1810, so, rather than her being "sent away from her mother", which they implied, it would appear she was a complete and proper orphan.
So they now know the identity of India Harriet's mother and what happened to her.
That's an interesting twist. Where did you discover that?
The Berks Archives posted it on their Facebook page.
"Olivia Colman was searching to find Harriet Slessor's mother. Well we can reveal that her mother was in fact a lady called Seraphina Donclere, who died in 1810. We hold a copy of her will which mentions 'her beloved daughter Harriet Slessor'."
"The will has ended up in our collection as it is within the records of Pitman Bazett of Newbury, solicitors. "
"Harriet’s second husband was a Bazett, and his nephew was a solicitor in Newbury."
Link: https://www.facebook.com/berkshirerecordoffice/posts/1991269454217038
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Oh dear ---
did they have to 'lie' to us then -- because they surely must have known about the Mother. :( ::)
Was it because of limited time to produce the information.
But whatever the reason, that is a big failing not to have added the 'truth' ..
I am --- disappointed. Serafina - seems to have cared greatly for her daughter and has been totally wiped out -- ignored.. Why could they not just say that India Harriet was an Orphan ---
:-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\
xin
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You can read the will of Seraphina Donclere in the British India Office Collection on FindMyPast. The documents are dated 8 Oct 1809.
Interesting points to note are that she had another daughter called Charlotte Hunter and was pregnant at the time of writing her will.
Her executor was William Slessor but it goes on to say "that the said William Slessor died shortly after the said Seraphina Donclerc without having proved the said will". There are also inventories and an entry in the death duty registers for 1884 ... with the executor named as Harriet Bazett.
William
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A really interesting start to the new series, and I loved her enthusiasm and obvious interest.
But how amazing to be able to read all of those old letters, and to actually see a photo of 'India Harriot'... I bet this doesn't happen with most people's family history research! Perhaps it was just because they'd obviously always had a lot of dosh?
Romilly ;)
Hi Romilly
I don't feel having photographs is always down to having loads of dosh. It is down to family members, to override others and save them!
My Mother has her family photographs going back to about 1860 and the more recent Albums have been divided to three of us.
However I'm afraid the wall mounted photos and numerous loose 19th Century photos in drawers were only saved because I went through and secretly spirited them all away in my car last visit, before the house clearance men arrived. My intervention to save pictures & documents was not liked, by the firm who were clearing the house for free.
Although managing an Estate 1830, they had no great wealth, but some great photos 1860 to 1900.
Some family paintings and photographs get shared out down the generations and disappear to siblings and descendants of their lines.
What we can't understand, but I'm afraid it happens, is that family photographs end up with someone who considers them family junk and throws them out.
Of far greater value to me, are the documents, pictures and photos. These have low monetery value, but are irreplaceable and therefore absolutely priceless.
Mark
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That is heartbreaking to read.... It seems she was pregnant when writing her will .. and died very soon after.
There is more to this -- somewhere.
It is going to be a great story when it does appear.
I read the Inventory for William Slessor too.. -- Felt .. wrong reading someone elses personal stuff.
Wasn't it mentioned that he was killed by a Knife wound...??
I have to watch and discover more..
As I say a 'film in the making'
xin
Bowani Junction comes to mind ---- oooo exciting..
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i Really enjoyed this one. I've no connections with India /Dutch East India co., or similar, but the feel of the history was right.
Probably the researchers were not looking for the mother's will in England.... they may have felt that they'd gone far enough / done enough there. What a delightful pile of information to have on one's family, though, especially the Scottish chap, with whole stairwells full of family portraits...
As someone else said, even my hardly interested OH watched this with interest, even making comments as it went along.
Of course the families are usually interesting and well-documented. There wouldn't be much of a programme in it if it was simply "All your ancestors were poor undocumented farm labourers who worked and lived in Mugglesworth on the Mire, never went anywhere or did anything.... and we couldn't find any documents other than a few census returns, and a few B M Ds..."
There must have been many more people than programmes are completed on, where some research has been started, but simply found to have too little interest in it, and that person abandoned.
TY
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I love it.. All --- it does make me want to dig really deep
But then I have found some wonderful people along the way - good - bad and adventerous...
Its great.
xin
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The "trouble" with archives is - they don't know what they've got.
I'd imagine the programme makers might've contacted the archives with an outline of what they were there for ... so you do wonder if they did/not ... Harriet/husband's surname in the 1871 Census was the surname of the local solicitor whose papers the archives held. An unusual name, so must have been easy to do a lookup of "Do you have anything in this odd name here?"
It does make you wonder how hard they really work on any case as I'd have thought, upon being contacted, the archives would've said "Well, we've 3 boxes of stuff from that family name ... might be something there if you want to dig about a bit".
And/or maybe they've accepted offers of "dig about a bit" in the past, only to discover boxes of old tat ... and nothing relevant.
I guess the budget gets blown on travel/hotels and not researchers at the archives... after all, that's all a bit "dusty and dull" ... when we could all be flying around the world and filming :)
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Of course the families are usually interesting and well-documented. There wouldn't be much of a programme in it if it was simply "All your ancestors were poor undocumented farm labourers who worked and lived in Mugglesworth on the Mire, never went anywhere or did anything.... and we couldn't find any documents other than a few census returns, and a few B M Ds..."
Hello
I think my family are pretty standard working class. Then I got stuck about 20 years ago, which we've had another go at, in the last three years.
But while searching for the next ancestor backward from circa 1785, I've found a stack of stuff during the last three years and Rootschatters have found some more bits and added information, which have really put some flesh on the pretty standard family history bones (bringing my family almost to life) instead of just the usual pre Census Registers, odd Wills and early Census with BMD Certificates.
If I hadn't of been stuck, I'd never have found all this supplementary stuff and the smaller documented details about my direct family ancestors, whilst attempting to break the brickwall.
Mark
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Of course the families are usually interesting and well-documented. There wouldn't be much of a programme in it if it was simply "All your ancestors were poor undocumented farm labourers who worked and lived in Mugglesworth on the Mire, never went anywhere or did anything.... and we couldn't find any documents other than a few census returns, and a few B M Ds..."
There must have been many more people than programmes are completed on, where some research has been started, but simply found to have too little interest in it, and that person abandoned.
TY
I think Michael Parkinson was one of those whose ancestors were considered too dull.
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But realistically, simply the "higher" the income and the social class, the better the chance of well-documented ancestors.... that is, unless they're really persistent criminals, in which case.......?
TY
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I really enjoyed this episode - it definitely had the right feel to it.
Like Roshile, I have ancestors who were part of the East India Company, so I had that extra interest in this one. She certinly seemed interested in the research the researchers had found for her, but she didn't really do any research herself which was a shame. The researchers did really well to find the photos and letters. Regarding the unmentioned will, it just goes to show that there is always some information you may not have found, like how her Scottish cousin didn't know about the small fortune left to Harriet.