New Series of Who Do You Think You Are

[LaliqueSaltGrinder]

Anyone watching? I liked the Zoe Ball episode, interesting story on both sides ofher family and she came across very well.

The Amy Dowden one was interesting but there was a fair amount of her leaping to conclusions such as people being hard working, or the motives for murder when there was no evidence for it. She did come across as very engaged with it all though.

Many were but you are falling into the same trap as Amy Dowden did of extrapolating and building your own narrative. It could just have easily been a one night stand, a casual boyfriend, an affair with a married man. It was interesting that they did not mention Beatrice's father at all, it was all about the maternal line.

I thought it was sad too that she was out cleaning other people’s houses for a living at her age.
It was nice that she trusted that man to be her executor.
I do hope that Ruth and her family add her name to the headstone where she was buried with her father and put a headstone of some sort on the unmarked grave. It’s the least they deserve.
What hard lives they had.

Yes loved the Ruth one. I think my favourite was Danny Dyer who was so thrilled to be related to royalty! Plus Josh Widdecombe was good as well.

I enjoyed the Gemma Collins' one. I loved the way she really engaged with it all. It's such a massive privilege to be selected to be on it so I get pissed off with celebs looking bored by it. Looking at Katherine Ryan and Chris Moyles.

To me, one of the most intriguing things was how Henry the embezzler got another job in insurance and even rose up the ranks! Not to mention him raising all the kids himself. He would be an interesting one to look into further. I was hoping Ruth might comment on him when she visited the grave. Wonder if they will add Adelaide’s name to the stone. And I wonder what she thought of her father?

Huh? I remember Katherine Ryan being very engaged. She was of course also reconnecting with her childhood sweetheart in her home town at the time though (and went on to marry him) so I guess she had a lot going on!

As someone else said the father could have been anyone she had a relationship or one night stand. This is far more likely than it being the man of the house.

I have just finished watching Ruth’s episode which I found very moving not least because Adelaide’s story echoes my own grandmother’s life. She was in service and gave birth to my illegitimate mother in London despite being from the North West. She then (had to) let her go and live with an older couple with no children of their own although kept an eye out from a distance.

I did some research into it about 15 years ago as my mother had no clue her biological family had any contact with her. We went together to the town her mother gave as her address on my mum’s birth certificate and she realised she lived there till she was about 8 and being there - in the church and on the high street - unlocked so many forgotten memories for her. She thought she had been abandoned as a baby until then but realized she had lived there with her mother and her partner until the blitz started. I am hoping to dig into her family more when I have time.

I’m just watching the Amy Dowden one and she’s really irritated me.

She was SO happy and excited about the prospect of finding out all about a murder!

Later finds out that it was her own relative that had been murdered and she completely changed her tune. She had thought that one of her relatives had been a murderer - and was evidently more than ok with that. Positively excited. No thought of the victim.

When I heard the story of a 17 year old boy ‘accidentally’ shooting a 14 year old girl my first thought was that he had impregnated her and didn’t want to get in trouble for it.

You sound like a lovely daughter @Choux helping your Mum discover her roots.

Re Adelaide in Ruth's story. I've often wondered about women and particularly girls who got pregnant out of wedlock years ago. (Including my own grandmother and two great-grandmothers😬.) Obviously, there was a huge taboo around bearing an illegitimate child. So surely girls would have been v reluctant to have sex outside marriage. I wonder how much ignorance of basic biology but also coercion may have been factors. It's a deeply uncomfortable thought. I daresay a lot of couples had some sketchy notion of 'natural' family planning and that this may have been the man's argument - 'it will be safe if we do it at this time'. And wasn't, obviously, in many cases, still not recommended as a reliable method!

Isn’t Ruth Madeley SO nice. And she’s so beautiful - got such a lovely look about her. And I loved her Dad too - what a dear man.

Adelaide’s story was so bittersweet, wasn’t it. Having to give up her daughter but keeping close by. And she had all that maternal love for the little girl of the house she cleaned for. Bless her.. They just had to get on with it in those days, didn’t they. No matter at what personal cost.

My favourite one ever was Olly Murs. It was very moving and ended in a beautiful state cemetery in Latvia where his female ancestor was buried. She had had an incredibly hard and sad life.

The 1891 census shows that a distant ancestor of mine was a servant to a wealthy French family in London. The following year she gave birth in the workhouse. She gave her baby boy the same French first name as her former employer's adult son. On the birth certificate the father is not named, but it doesn't take much to work out what probably happened there.

I think ignorance was definitely a factor but also so many girls in service were preyed upon by the 'masters'. My grandmother was one. She left and married someone she wasn't really in love with because she feared he would rape her.

God! Poor girl. We can only imagine how vulnerable and scared she must have felt in that workhouse. It’s heartbreaking what some young women have been through. And meanwhile, Monsieur Adult Son remains free as a bird to live his best life.

My favourite episodes were Patsy Kensit, one of whose ancestors was a bishop, Nigella Lawson, who was related to the founders of Lyon’s Corner House chain of restaurants, and Barbara Windsor who was a distant relative of John Constable. I wish some of the earlier seasons could be shown on iPlayer too

It's horrible, isn't it? Although we will never know whether she and the employer's son were in love and his father disapproved, or whether he 'took advantage' of her. But she did get thrown out on the streets and the workhouse was the only place she could go.

Anyway, that little baby was my step-grandfather.

The 'we'll never know' is frustrating. My great granddad's sister gave birth in the workhouse in 1901 and the baby was very poorly and died. I know she had been in an industrial school prior to that and when she was released, her mother had fled her horrible drunken violent father and ran away to Ireland with the younger children. I wonder how she got pregnant and who the father was. I really hope it wasn't her own, but he sounded such a bastard it was a possibility. So many tragedies and no-one looking out for the vulnerable.

Truly awful times for women.

It's so important to keep an open mind and not construct your own narrative about what must have happened. It is frustrating when you just don't know but such is life and you have to accept that there is no way of finding out.

With DNA you can often get the "who" of which person was the father, but cannot know the ins and outs of the relationship. All families have these sorts of stories, my husband's grandfather was born 2 months after his mother's marriage, the man she married was not the father. We can never know whether he knew or not.

I think that’s a tale as old as time. How many men have unknowingly been ‘father’ to children who were not biologically theirs.

Also, how many kids have been brought up by their biological granny, not knowing that their older sister is really their mother.

Women did what they had to do to keep the wheels turning, didn't they. Didn’t have the choices and support available to us today, God bless them. I find it all absolutely fascinating.

When watching the Adeel Akhtar episode last week I thought, my word there is so much research to be done to get to this stage of insight and information.
I also watch My DNA Journey but prefer WDYTYA.
I wonder if the American WDYTYA is available and if so on what network.
Sadly I don’t have access to the BBC Iplayer as I don’t live in the UK.i’m looking in to getting a VPN so i can watch.

Danny Dyer's was absolutely the best. His face!

I did actually see that one. It was great.
And Josh Widdecombe’s one. Aldo great.

Some episodes of the American one are on YouTube. The executive producer was Lisa Kudrow. Hers, Alison Janney's, Martin Sheen's and Rob Lowe's stories are great.