The highlight of the evening was Do you think you know who you are South Shields Sarah Milligan who forged a nationally recognised career for herself after her marriage broke up and wanted to know if her family had always lived in the north east and she discovered two to great great ancestors. The first born Whitstable on the South East Coast is shown to have been a diver and this leader her finding that he was one the first divers anywhere in world which commenced at Whitstable and led him to join an expedition to Holly Island where there had been a major sinking and loss of life off Holy Island involving a passenger steamer from Hull. Sarah was initially concerned that her ancestors had profited from raising belonging of those who died at the going rate of 40% but a notice in the Shields Gazette reveals that he brought up belongings free so they could be sold to provide for children orphaned in the tragedy.
The man had stayed in The North gaining secure and respected employment on River Tyne locating wrecks and other underwater threats to shipping. He had married and had five children but there was no money as thought at one time within the family.
The second relative was born in the Orkney islands and had then accepted a five year contract as a labourer with the Hudson Bay Fur company in Canada but because if competition had been sent across country in winter 350 miles to an outpost at Albany but because local fishing failed to provided enough food the ancestor and been sent back only for the man to found almost dead and with severe frostbite by an indigenous local. However it was necessary to sever both feet to save his life. He had eventually returned to Britain where he married and had children. Both men had triumphed over great adversity and both men were shown to have had good hearts, married and raised children, with good messages for Sarah to be proud of.
I have noticed a new direction in the most recent editions of this excellent series where the basic information about a family tree is found out in advance by a professional genealogist rather than showing or encouraging individuals to undertake this aspect themselves and thus reducing business for this growing profession as a consequence of the programme although as from my experience the professional genealogist can make mistakes, especially if they are acting for someone at a distance.
The programme is now concentrating on individuals within family trees who offer the prospect of recorded occupational or other information such as travel information of interest which is of interest to the subject and will make good programme viewing. In the instance of an Asian Indian whose family had been an Kenyan Asian the subject about whom I missed the introduction and therefore knew nothing of his celebrity nature. The programme went first to Kenya to learn why his grandparent had come to England and also to India to learn something why the move was originally made to Kenya. The majority of those of Indian nationality came to Kenya when recruited by the British to build a railway and where the work was such that an very high percentage were killed or severely injured and only a small proportion elected to stay when their contract ended. His grandparent had become an early general shop keeper in on the new towns that had sprung up along the railway line. When the country gained independence the Indian population were given the opportunity to stay and become full citizens of the new state, giving up their British passport or losing their ability to own property and occupational status, Many chose to come to the UK and many if not the majority opened the local all hours corner store as well as the Indian food restaurant and Indian food supply provisions that play such an important role in our community today, although many of their generation have progressed into all aspects of the employment society. Back in India he went to the village of his roots bringing him a better sense of identity and understanding of the courage and effort of his ancestors. In the instance of his mother/grandmother he learned that her mother had been a child bride at the age of six to a boy of ten and that although she borne many children only 2 survived, unusual even for India likely because of the very young age when she was likely to have commenced giving birth.
It is now Thursday September 12 and we shall see if it is to be a cricket day let alone a good cricket day from the Durham viewpoint.
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