<roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> wrote in message news:mailman.0.1371381989.681.genbrit@rootsweb.com... >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 It's often forgotten that poor people went into the workhouse because they needed medical attention not because they couldn't support themselves financially. One of my great great grandmothers who had been living with one of her daughters, did just that and died there. I remember discussing this with a distant relation who was quite upset to think of it despite my pointing out that this was quite normal. Brian Austin