WDYTYA - tiny gripe

[Daonnachd]

I don't tend to get too worried about the evidence in the programme, it is only intended as entertainment after all.

What does interest me is when they start talking about the social, cultural and political background to their ancestors lives. Social history is one of the reasons I do this stuff. Much more interesting to me than which King married which Princess!

As to being descended from nobility - I'm not too worried about that either. I'm sure anyone with European ancestry has a good chance of being descended from one noble or another - they had so many mistresses between them! (Official or otherwise).

[KGarrad]

For me this was the worst programme I've seen where assumptions were made with no documentation for evidence.

Have you seen ALL the documentation unearthed by the various researchers?
They do say that for every 1 hour programme, 10 hours of filming end up on the cutting room floor
And we have no idea how many hours of combined research goes into each programme.

[coombs]

Many, many people migrated to London from other parts of Britain in the 1800s, and before and after. Yet when Barbara Windsor found a Suffolk ancestor, she acted like it was the most unusual thing ever. I suppose her immediate roots are in East London and she just was unaware that many Londoners do not come from a long line of them. I guess by 1900, about a third of London born people had at least 1 grandparent who was not born there.

Aw! Leave Babs alone We are related in some long-winded fashion
I also have links to Bures St Mary and John Constable (RA).

JC's grandmother is also my 6xgreat-grandmother

I never said anything about Babs that was critical.  I just said she did act surprised that she had Suffolk roots. BTW I think I am distantly related to her through her Deeks line.

[jim1]

The only thing that surprised me that there wasn't a trawl for a dancer in the family so we could get an Oooh! that must be who I get it from as we've seen in the past.....perhaps they did but couldn't find one.
I agree too many assumptions.

[nanny jan]

For me this was the worst programme I've seen where assumptions were made with no documentation for evidence. There was no evidence that 4x great grandma (Caroline) had come from Madagascar as a slave, or that she was a wet nurse or that Isaac was her owner who had become so grateful to her  that he left her property in his will. Yet Shirley jumped on all these things as being true. And did I miss something but were we ever told who had fathered her children?


I'm not sure these women were as strong and moral as Shirley thinks they are!

A television reviewer (D.Telegraph) was also curious about the reason why  Isaac left Caroline so much in his Will............

[heywood]

I wondered if Isaac was the children’s father but I would imagine that this was researched and not confirmed and those explanations offered.

An interesting article about the Otto family with a slavery connection here
https://www.stamouers.com/stamouers/surnames-n-to-q/381-otto

[Rishile]

I think I found this one the most irritating of all I have seen.  'What does 'patient' mean?  Can you explain that?'.  And 'what does 'mixed race' mean'.  As she was trying to prove she was from mixed race I thought this a stupid comment.  She didn't seem to care at all that Caroline may have been a slave and made up the story as she wanted to hear it.  I hope the rest of the series is better.

Rishile

[Daonnachd]

I missed this episode, glad I did by the sound of it!

[aghadowey]

Have you seen ALL the documentation unearthed by the various researchers?
They do say that for every 1 hour programme, 10 hours of filming end up on the cutting room floor
And we have no idea how many hours of combined research goes into each programme.

In the episode I refereed to earlier I know exactly what research was done and what was filmed locally. The program makers chose to ignore vital information (they were sent copies of original records, copied some of it when filming but completely left it out of the story). One bit they were given was ignored in the interest of making the ancestor appear to be dishonest rather than adventuresome.