It's won't be focusing on the Irish famine or British oppression. His mothers story is a lot more interesting than that.
According to the BBC it seems again its a concentration on one ancestor - his grandfather
"My own family history, I know a bit. The stand-out story of the O’Carroll side was the murder of my grandfather in 1920 I believe it was, and that he was shot and it was for Irish freedom and it was my granddad... what happened that night?”
A lot of people just don't talk about the war so it does not surprise me. Also I know from my own experience that I when I started researching my own family history I found many quite major things that I was just completely unaware. I have spoken to others who know very little about even their Grandparents - I never met one of my own Grandmothers and did not even know who she was (she did not die until the late 1970s).
Grandparents on both sides of my family had died before I was born, and no one seemed to talk about family members, so I knew very little when I started researching my own ancestry. When I read about my father's war experiences it was like reading about a complete stranger. Recently I began to research my brother in law's ancestry on behalf of his son, and was stunned to discover that his father's grandfather was German and one generation further back, both paternal & maternal ancestors were German.
I'm sure that the celebs featured in WDYTYA are consulted all the way through, but I'm sure there are still some suprises.
A lot of people just don't talk about the war so it does not surprise me. Also I know from my own experience that I when I started researching my own family history I found many quite major things that I was just completely unaware. I have spoken to others who know very little about even their Grandparents - I never met one of my own Grandmothers and did not even know who she was (she did not die until the late 1970s).
I am five years older than my sister and she relies on me to fill in the blanks when it comes to discussing our grandparents and others. I know a lot of the family history because I am
1. Nosy
2. Have an almost photographic memory
3. Was given a camera at the age of ten and took tons of photgraphs of family, friends, anyone! My father developed the photos and kept a huge sack of my photos in his attic. And I was also given a cine camera with which I filmed my siblings etc. And I recently found some undeveloped cine film of family trips etc. Great memories.
If I could give just one bit of advice....take a camera everywhere.....although young people have already been doing that...although not all take pics of the older family members.
Wicked British being nasty again! Fancy interning enemy aliens during wartime - I'm sure the Italians were being supernice to any Brits living in Italy during WWII - especially if they were Jewish.
I can understand someone not knowing about internment, but Tamsin seemed unaware that Italy were our enemies during WWI - surely you wouldn't be that ignorant if you were of Italian descent?
Hasn’t she ever picked up a book and read it? And I would argue on the point that people who lived through the war don’t talk about it. There are many programmes on TV about the subject. The World At War is a great place to start discovering the history of WW2.
Hasn’t she ever picked up a book and read it? And I would argue on the point that people who lived through the war don’t talk about it. There are many programmes on TV about the subject. The World At War is a great place to start discovering the history of WW2.
I still say lots of people have very little knowledge of either world war or history in general. Many never read any non-fiction books.
Hasn’t she ever picked up a book and read it? And I would argue on the point that people who lived through the war don’t talk about it. There are many programmes on TV about the subject. The World At War is a great place to start discovering the history of WW2.
"The World at War" was an outstanding series - shame that I can't imagine ITV making something like that now. Its been remastered for the 40th anniversay so would be an ideal purchase for anyone wanting a great overview of WWII.
*I noticed in my earlier post that I've put Italy being our enemies in WWI - of course this was a typo - they were our allies in WWI and were our enemies as part of the Axis powers in WWII
Hasn’t she ever picked up a book and read it? And I would argue on the point that people who lived through the war don’t talk about it. There are many programmes on TV about the subject. The World At War is a great place to start discovering the history of WW2.
My parents lived through the war and were both in the services. They never stopped talking about the war (especially my Dad). I got tired of hearing about it all the time. Yet I know there are some people who never talked about it and had lived through it.
I am five years older than my sister and she relies on me to fill in the blanks when it comes to discussing our grandparents and others. I know a lot of the family history because I am
1. Nosy
2. Have an almost photographic memory
3. Was given a camera at the age of ten and took tons of photgraphs of family, friends, anyone! My father developed the photos and kept a huge sack of my photos in his attic. And I was also given a cine camera with which I filmed my siblings etc. And I recently found some undeveloped cine film of family trips etc. Great memories.
If I could give just one bit of advice....take a camera everywhere.....although young people have already been doing that...although not all take pics of the older family members.
I agree with all of this. I have been taking photos since I was a small child and have thousands of them and a lot of older family members who are no longer with us. I also have quite a photographic memory and am nosy as the above poster says.
I have always been interested in knowing about family history and would advise anyone to ask questions of the older generation before it is too late. There is so much to learn about former generations. I asked quite a bit, but wish I had asked even more, and it's too late now.
I find it sad when people throw away old family photos. For instance an uncle of mine died this year. He had always lived in the family home and must have had all the old family photos, because I remember there being books of them when I went there as a child. However, there weren't any to be found when the house was cleared. It seems so sad that they have all been lost.
Yes, we will have Brendan O'Carrolls Irish ancestors being mistreated by wicked British landlords and starving in the famine.>:(
That's mainly what happened though. The population of Ireland in 1840 was 8m and dropped to around 5m in the next few decades thanks to gross mismanagement by the authorities.
The main reason there were uprisings and then a full blown War of Independence from 1919-21 with the support of the entire population was because of the almighty mess the British had made of running the country.
I did know about internment but not what it was like or that it was on the Isle of Man so I found that interesting. Apart from that little else. They must have been short of stuff otherwise they wouldn't have spent so much time on ice-cream making.
My parents lived through the war and were both in the services. They never stopped talking about the war (especially my Dad). I got tired of hearing about it all the time. Yet I know there are some people who never talked about it and had lived through it.
My grandfather who recently passed hardly talked about the war. He was in a squad that went ahead and did mine clearance. Three quarters of his squad never came back. We know roughly where he was but maybe in a year or so I'll do some more digging. He did talk about working in one of the offices before he was shipped out and gave himself a 24 hour pass and met my gran up in London.
Got a wealth of stuff from his father's WWI experience including sergeant's stripes as well as a letter talking about sunning himself in a deckchair outside a farmhouse whilst on "holiday" attached to another regiment. It wasn't all rain and mud. He was a stretcher-bearer so must have seen all sorts of nasty stuff. Apparently he never spoke about it.
This series has been pretty boring so far, nobody has grabbed my attention yet. As has been said, the Internment camps on the Isle of Man has been done before with David Badiel. Tamzin seemed to know all of her family history, having visited Barga and her family in Durham as a child. I was surprised that 2% of Scots have Italian ancestry.
She must have done, a lot of it is in her Wiki entry. They seem to do this a lot though, presumably the subject has to appear surprised for the benefit of the programme.
Same with her knowledge of the war and internment camps. Tamzin is an intelligent woman, it's difficult to believe she has lived 40+ years without having some idea about how Italian citizens in Britain were treated after war broke out.
She also appeared to be quite shocked about Italians being interned, what did she think we should have done ? They were actually treated well, it was as much for their own protection as anything else. Feelings against any Germans or Italians resident over here were naturally running pretty high.
I agree with all of this. I have been taking photos since I was a small child and have thousands of them and a lot of older family members who are no longer with us. I also have quite a photographic memory and am nosy as the above poster says.
I have always been interested in knowing about family history and would advise anyone to ask questions of the older generation before it is too late. There is so much to learn about former generations. I asked quite a bit, but wish I had asked even more, and it's too late now.
I find it sad when people throw away old family photos. For instance an uncle of mine died this year. He had always lived in the family home and must have had all the old family photos, because I remember there being books of them when I went there as a child. However, there weren't any to be found when the house was cleared. It seems so sad that they have all been lost.
I am horrified, embarrassed and ashamed to say that I put my grandmother's photo album , (with, of course, some WWI family photos) in the local tip after she died; I regretted it less than half a nano-second after it left my hand
In my working life, as a probate lawyer, I came across a number of clients, of central European origin, who had been interned, but usually only for a short period, till they were cleared. To continue the work theme, you wouldn't be at all surprised at the unseemly haste with which properties are cleared and "rubbish" is dumped
I still say lots of people have very little knowledge of either world war or history in general. Many never read any non-fiction books.
You don't necessarily have to have read non fiction!.... when I was about 17, many years ago, I read a fiction book called Forever Amber, yes it was a 'chick lit' kind of story but! I learnt a lot about King Charles 11, the Plague and the Great fire of London and even Nell Gwyn .... was in it!........ so any kind of reading can and does educate you in the world about you whether it be fiction or non fiction........
Sorry a little bit off track but I thought it worth mentioning!.......
This series has been pretty boring so far, nobody has grabbed my attention yet. As has been said, the Internment camps on the Isle of Man has been done before with David Badiel. Tamzin seemed to know all of her family history, having visited Barga and her family in Durham as a child. I was surprised that 2% of Scots have Italian ancestry.
I visited my Taid in Wales as a child a number of time but only found out the full story (or at least more of it) when I started on my family history. As children everyone is a 'cousin' or 'Aunt' / 'Uncle' but you don't ask how they are related.
I thought the number of Italians in Scotland was well known, even small towns and villages had (and many still do) ice cream parlours, cafes or fish and chip shops with an Italian name. Quite a number of famous Scottish entertainers have Italian names. It just shows how many people have quite a narrow range of knowledge.
I think David Badiel's ancestors were Jewish, the German internment camps seemed to have been quite different to the Italian ones because they separated the hardline Nazis from others just as was done in POW camps.
Yes, I thought that was very strange too. Surely she would have known what part her Italian ancesters played in WW2.
Italy switched sides half way through the war and many Italians would have joined the Allied side, there were partisans even before then. Hardly surprising that people only talk about that part of their war. Rather like the way most French claim to have been in the resistance and few will talk about being Vichy. And of course we regularly read about our brave Russian allies with no mention of them supporting Nazi Germany until invaded (and of course many British socialists indirectly supported the Nazis during this time by opposing the war). People's memory can be very selective.
You don't necessarily have to have read non fiction!.... when I was about 17, many years ago, I read a fiction book called Forever Amber, yes it was a 'chick lit' kind of story but! I learnt a lot about King Charles 11, the Plague and the Great fire of London and even Nell Gwyn .... was in it!........ so any kind of reading can and does educate you in the world about you whether it be fiction or non fiction........
Sorry a little bit off track but I thought it worth mentioning!.......
Blimey - Forever Amber was quite racy: "The book was condemned by the Catholic Church for indecency, which helped to make it popular. One critic went so far as to number each of the passages to which he objected. " (more on wiki !)
Blimey - Forever Amber was quite racy: "The book was condemned by the Catholic Church for indecency, which helped to make it popular. One critic went so far as to number each of the passages to which he objected. " (more on wiki !)
Hehe.... Really?..:o... Yes I do remember there was a lot of sex in it, (as well as the history)...;-)...lol..... I am going to have a look on wiki and see what they have to say about it!, Thanks chestfield........
You don't necessarily have to have read non fiction!.... when I was about 17, many years ago, I read a fiction book called Forever Amber, yes it was a 'chick lit' kind of story but! I learnt a lot about King Charles 11, the Plague and the Great fire of London and even Nell Gwyn .... was in it!........ so any kind of reading can and does educate you in the world about you whether it be fiction or non fiction........
Sorry a little bit off track but I thought it worth mentioning!.......
I read that during the 1960s, and yes is was based on historical facts, I really enjoyed reading it, you could visualise the era that was being written about. I agree that you can learn from fiction. Many writers of historical fiction really do their homework and research their subject thoroughly.
I am a bit confused by some of the comments. There was nothing in the programme to suggest that she was unaware that Italy was an enemy country in WW2; it's just that she was unaware of the details of the internment camps on the isle of Man and elsewhere.
I read that during the 1960s, and yes is was based on historical facts, I really enjoyed reading it, you could visualise the era that was being written about. I agree that you can learn from fiction. Many writers of historical fiction really do their homework and research their subject thoroughly.
Some fiction writers do a lot of research but it is still fiction, I rarely have the patience to read fiction and much prefer to read a factual book.
I visited my Taid in Wales as a child a number of time but only found out the full story (or at least more of it) when I started on my family history. As children everyone is a 'cousin' or 'Aunt' / 'Uncle' but you don't ask how they are related.
.
I had a Taid in Wales as well, named Jones. When I started researching the family tree I told my mother I wasn't doing her side of the family because it would be impossible. Luckily one of my Welsh relatives had already done the Jones side, so that save me a lot of work.
Yes, we will have Brendan O'Carrolls Irish ancestors being mistreated by wicked British landlords and starving in the famine.>:(
Why the angry face Should he rewrite his history so as not to make you angry. Moreover it's all true. It would probably serve you will to read up on it before dismissing it & showing your ignorance. Best to avoid subjects you have no knowledge of.
From what I ascertain, the historians on the programme don't go in for altering a persons family ancestory / historty to appeal to the viewers.
I had a Taid in Wales as well, named Jones. When I started researching the family tree I told my mother I wasn't doing her side of the family because it would be impossible. Luckily one of my Welsh relatives had already done the Jones side, so that save me a lot of work.
It took me some time to get started, I had no idea where he was born and Thomas PARRY is rather a common name! It was his WWI record that gave me the clue that let me find the rest of his family.
Comments
According to the BBC it seems again its a concentration on one ancestor - his grandfather
"My own family history, I know a bit. The stand-out story of the O’Carroll side was the murder of my grandfather in 1920 I believe it was, and that he was shot and it was for Irish freedom and it was my granddad... what happened that night?”
Grandparents on both sides of my family had died before I was born, and no one seemed to talk about family members, so I knew very little when I started researching my own ancestry. When I read about my father's war experiences it was like reading about a complete stranger. Recently I began to research my brother in law's ancestry on behalf of his son, and was stunned to discover that his father's grandfather was German and one generation further back, both paternal & maternal ancestors were German.
I'm sure that the celebs featured in WDYTYA are consulted all the way through, but I'm sure there are still some suprises.
I am five years older than my sister and she relies on me to fill in the blanks when it comes to discussing our grandparents and others. I know a lot of the family history because I am
1. Nosy
2. Have an almost photographic memory
3. Was given a camera at the age of ten and took tons of photgraphs of family, friends, anyone! My father developed the photos and kept a huge sack of my photos in his attic. And I was also given a cine camera with which I filmed my siblings etc. And I recently found some undeveloped cine film of family trips etc. Great memories.
If I could give just one bit of advice....take a camera everywhere.....although young people have already been doing that...although not all take pics of the older family members.
Hasn’t she ever picked up a book and read it? And I would argue on the point that people who lived through the war don’t talk about it. There are many programmes on TV about the subject. The World At War is a great place to start discovering the history of WW2.
Looking forward to the Twiggy one. Which is probably the only one I've been interested in all series. I hope its better than the ones before
I still say lots of people have very little knowledge of either world war or history in general. Many never read any non-fiction books.
"The World at War" was an outstanding series - shame that I can't imagine ITV making something like that now. Its been remastered for the 40th anniversay so would be an ideal purchase for anyone wanting a great overview of WWII.
*I noticed in my earlier post that I've put Italy being our enemies in WWI - of course this was a typo - they were our allies in WWI and were our enemies as part of the Axis powers in WWII
My parents lived through the war and were both in the services. They never stopped talking about the war (especially my Dad). I got tired of hearing about it all the time. Yet I know there are some people who never talked about it and had lived through it.
I agree with all of this. I have been taking photos since I was a small child and have thousands of them and a lot of older family members who are no longer with us. I also have quite a photographic memory and am nosy as the above poster says.
I have always been interested in knowing about family history and would advise anyone to ask questions of the older generation before it is too late. There is so much to learn about former generations. I asked quite a bit, but wish I had asked even more, and it's too late now.
I find it sad when people throw away old family photos. For instance an uncle of mine died this year. He had always lived in the family home and must have had all the old family photos, because I remember there being books of them when I went there as a child. However, there weren't any to be found when the house was cleared. It seems so sad that they have all been lost.
That's mainly what happened though. The population of Ireland in 1840 was 8m and dropped to around 5m in the next few decades thanks to gross mismanagement by the authorities.
The main reason there were uprisings and then a full blown War of Independence from 1919-21 with the support of the entire population was because of the almighty mess the British had made of running the country.
My grandfather who recently passed hardly talked about the war. He was in a squad that went ahead and did mine clearance. Three quarters of his squad never came back. We know roughly where he was but maybe in a year or so I'll do some more digging. He did talk about working in one of the offices before he was shipped out and gave himself a 24 hour pass and met my gran up in London.
Got a wealth of stuff from his father's WWI experience including sergeant's stripes as well as a letter talking about sunning himself in a deckchair outside a farmhouse whilst on "holiday" attached to another regiment. It wasn't all rain and mud. He was a stretcher-bearer so must have seen all sorts of nasty stuff. Apparently he never spoke about it.
She must have done, a lot of it is in her Wiki entry. They seem to do this a lot though, presumably the subject has to appear surprised for the benefit of the programme.
Same with her knowledge of the war and internment camps. Tamzin is an intelligent woman, it's difficult to believe she has lived 40+ years without having some idea about how Italian citizens in Britain were treated after war broke out.
She also appeared to be quite shocked about Italians being interned, what did she think we should have done ? They were actually treated well, it was as much for their own protection as anything else. Feelings against any Germans or Italians resident over here were naturally running pretty high.
I am horrified, embarrassed and ashamed to say that I put my grandmother's photo album , (with, of course, some WWI family photos) in the local tip after she died; I regretted it less than half a nano-second after it left my hand
In my working life, as a probate lawyer, I came across a number of clients, of central European origin, who had been interned, but usually only for a short period, till they were cleared. To continue the work theme, you wouldn't be at all surprised at the unseemly haste with which properties are cleared and "rubbish" is dumped
You don't necessarily have to have read non fiction!.... when I was about 17, many years ago, I read a fiction book called Forever Amber, yes it was a 'chick lit' kind of story but! I learnt a lot about King Charles 11, the Plague and the Great fire of London and even Nell Gwyn .... was in it!........ so any kind of reading can and does educate you in the world about you whether it be fiction or non fiction........
Sorry a little bit off track but I thought it worth mentioning!.......
I visited my Taid in Wales as a child a number of time but only found out the full story (or at least more of it) when I started on my family history. As children everyone is a 'cousin' or 'Aunt' / 'Uncle' but you don't ask how they are related.
I thought the number of Italians in Scotland was well known, even small towns and villages had (and many still do) ice cream parlours, cafes or fish and chip shops with an Italian name. Quite a number of famous Scottish entertainers have Italian names. It just shows how many people have quite a narrow range of knowledge.
I think David Badiel's ancestors were Jewish, the German internment camps seemed to have been quite different to the Italian ones because they separated the hardline Nazis from others just as was done in POW camps.
Italy switched sides half way through the war and many Italians would have joined the Allied side, there were partisans even before then. Hardly surprising that people only talk about that part of their war. Rather like the way most French claim to have been in the resistance and few will talk about being Vichy. And of course we regularly read about our brave Russian allies with no mention of them supporting Nazi Germany until invaded (and of course many British socialists indirectly supported the Nazis during this time by opposing the war). People's memory can be very selective.
Blimey - Forever Amber was quite racy: "The book was condemned by the Catholic Church for indecency, which helped to make it popular. One critic went so far as to number each of the passages to which he objected. " (more on wiki !)
Hehe.... Really?..:o... Yes I do remember there was a lot of sex in it, (as well as the history)...;-)...lol..... I am going to have a look on wiki and see what they have to say about it!, Thanks chestfield........
I read that during the 1960s, and yes is was based on historical facts, I really enjoyed reading it, you could visualise the era that was being written about. I agree that you can learn from fiction. Many writers of historical fiction really do their homework and research their subject thoroughly.
Some fiction writers do a lot of research but it is still fiction, I rarely have the patience to read fiction and much prefer to read a factual book.
I had a Taid in Wales as well, named Jones. When I started researching the family tree I told my mother I wasn't doing her side of the family because it would be impossible. Luckily one of my Welsh relatives had already done the Jones side, so that save me a lot of work.
Why the angry face
From what I ascertain, the historians on the programme don't go in for altering a persons family ancestory / historty to appeal to the viewers.
It took me some time to get started, I had no idea where he was born and Thomas PARRY is rather a common name! It was his WWI record that gave me the clue that let me find the rest of his family.