A new series starts on ITVI on Tuesday June 25, made by Wall To Wall Television, the same people who make Who Do You Think You Are? This will focus on celebrities who are horrified/shocked/appalled (choose your own phrase) to discover they had an ancestor who ended up in the workhouse. I read a whole-page blurb in yesterday's Weekend magazine (the Daily Mail's TV listings mag). The stars featured include Felicity Kendal, Fern Britton and the novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. These are some of the stories..... Felicity Kendal, discovering her great-grandmother was branded a woman of low repute because she had two illegitimate children, though she also had nine other legitimate ones. Kendal makes a "pilgrimage" to an unmarked grave of one of the children who died young. "It's heartbreaking" she says. Fern Britton is "visibly distraught" when she discovers her great-great-great-grandfather went into a workhouse at 91. His son Jesse died in a workhouse and his body was given for medical research. Britton is described as having tears pouring down her cheeks. Barbara Taylor Bradford (who started out as a journalist in Leeds, tough as old boots, one imagines) is similarly upset, "her features becoming more and more pinched", as she discovers her mother was put into a workhouse by her grandmother. And Scottish actor Brian Cox apparently became furious and outraged when learning that his great-grandfather ended up in a Scottish workhouse, "at one point Brian looks as if he might punch the archivist"..."B******s!" he declares as the full horror of his family history is laid bare. Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure it will be an interesting series, I know some of the Wall to Wall People (indeed, I was in one of their programmes about the comedian John Bishop) and I recognise the exigencies of television demand a bit of emotion! However, am I being unfair in thinking these showbiz luvvies can turn on the tears and emotion to demand? Clearly, none of them can be family historians since people such as ourselves would take it all in our stride! Wouldn't we??? -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

Roy Stockdill wrote:     <snip>   "B******s!" he declares as the full horror of his family history is laid bare.   <snip>     Now there's an image!       Chris

At 12:22 16/06/2013, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: >A new series starts on ITVI on Tuesday June 25, made by Wall To Wall >Television, the same people who make Who Do You Think You Are? >This will focus on celebrities who are horrified/shocked/appalled >(choose your >own phrase) to discover they had an ancestor who ended up in the workhouse. Thanks for pointing this out Roy. I would have thought that for many of us it is almost a "badge of honour" to find someone in our tree in a workhouse. My wife was somewhat devastated to discover that one of her GGGrandfathers had died in the Thrapston workhouse at the age of 81. [in 1882 via 1881 census] When the next generation had all the appearances of being reasonably genteel. Then we worked out that there were probably two factors:- . He had remarried and drifted away from his first family . Towards the end of the century Workhouses were more like hospitals than prison camps Gordon +Z [+Z] <http://www.adshead.com/> Gordon Adshead <gordon@adshead.com> [+Z] Beaumont House, 2 Goodrington Road, Handforth, Cheshire, SK9 3AT, UK [+Z] Tel:Fax:Msg:+44-1625-549770 Mob:+44-777-6145602

On 2013-06-16, at 4:22 AM, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: > > Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure it will be an interesting series, I know > some of the Wall to Wall People (indeed, I was in one of their programmes > about the comedian John Bishop) and I recognise the exigencies of television > demand a bit of emotion! However, am I being unfair in thinking these showbiz > luvvies can turn on the tears and emotion to demand? Clearly, none of them can > be family historians since people such as ourselves would take it all in our > stride! Wouldn't we??? Some older genealogists can still remember the chill of fear in the voices of their parents and grandparents when workhouses were mentioned. My discovery that two of my 3X Gt Grandfathers were both on the Board of Guardians of the Ulverston (Lancs., now Cumbria) workhouse in the middle of the 19th century was a surprise for which I was unprepared. Meanwhile, forbears from some of my other lines were inmates in that same workhouse (as well as others) at the same time period. But that doesn't surprise me at all as many of my ancestors were desperately poor. I deduce the two who were Guardians followed the route to that position by virtue of being churchwardens in their nearby home parishes. They were yeoman farmers, not gentlemen. I hope they were decent fellows (in the context of their time) who did not let power go to their heads. I've found contemporary newspaper advertisements asking for suppliers to bid on providing various essential items to that workhouse. Shrouds figure prominently in the list, as I suppose they would for all workhouses. But it's still a reminder that the workhouse was often the end of the road. Genealogy's often all about the saints and the sinners, isn't it. And that makes it wonderful. But which was which! Lorraine