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Old 03-10-2014, 12:13
J.R
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I seem to recall that Alistair McGowan had a similar story. One of his ancestors had been in India and married a local woman - he even found living relatives in India with the surname Mc Gowan.
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Old 03-10-2014, 12:35
ricardoylucia
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Thoroughly enjoyable episode. The best in this series and one of the best overall.

It was a fact of life that many of our forebears had horrid lives, whether they fought in India, were agricultural workers, transported to Australia etc, etc, we can find someone in our trees whose life was torrid or had a awful life experience.
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Old 03-10-2014, 14:44
snoweyowl
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I thought tonight's programme was fascinating. I have never known anything about that particular period of history in that part of the world.

Billy came over very well; no ridiculous faux empathy or buggering about crying and being all tragic and stricken about forebears having a torrid time of it. Let's face it, anyone who is alive today can tell a similar story, if only they had the budget to support and pay an army of researchers all over the world, as WDYTYA has. All of our recent relations had an awful life. Every one of us, regardless of who we are. Moreover he was pretty sharp and lucid, for saying he's as sick as he is. Good for him.

I must say I was expecting a programme full of more stories of suppression in Ireland and misery and horrors at the hands of the perfidious British.

Mr Doyle legged it out of Ireland and joined the British army at the time of the famine. Which, I daresay was a shrewd move on his part and one that a lot of young men of the time chose.
Spot on.
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Old 03-10-2014, 14:48
Evo102
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His Indian ancestor was identified because she married a British soldier. I suspect any other records of her existence range from scarce to non-existent, unless Indian birth/death/marriage records were on a par with the UK's in the 1800s.
Certainly not as good, but I do recall from previous programmes that some communities in India do keep paper records going back hundreds of years that are maintained by village or religious leaders. I think it was Sanjeev Bhaskar (or perhaps his missus) who found their family record and added their and their children's details to a paper scroll.
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Old 03-10-2014, 15:39
Speak-Softly
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I thought at first that he was going to start a rant about the poor soldiers being ordered by the officers to kill Indians when I am sure they needed little encouragement after finding women and children massacred.

We thought for a time that one of my family had been involved in the Relief of Lucknow but he did not seem to have done so though he had the South India bar on his medal.

I was surprised they did not identify any relatives in India with the detailed records available there.
I think they ran out of time.

Although the program was so interesting, not sure why they spent so much time on the drunk, syphyllis(sp) ancestor when the wife and her ancestors were so much more interesting.

Perhaps she ended up in such dire straights in Britain because she had no idea how to cope here?

And no real references as to what was the attitudes towards marrying an Indian woman. Was that the reason the great, great, ect grandfather didn't return to the UK?

And as he did stay in India, chances are they could have found the grave/where he was buried, ex soldier on a good pension?
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Old 03-10-2014, 16:00
valkay
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He did do another similar programme where he went to Ireland and found the ruins of his ancestral family cottage.

In the early days of India it was quite common for white British to marry Indian girls, it was only later that it became discouraged.

Why were they being P.C and not calling it the "Indian Mutiny" as it was always known.
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Old 03-10-2014, 16:31
daisydee
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Thoroughly enjoyable episode. The best in this series and one of the best overall.

It was a fact of life that many of our forebears had horrid lives, whether they fought in India, were agricultural workers, transported to Australia etc, etc, we can find someone in our trees whose life was torrid or had a awful life experience.


I couldn't watch to the end, I found the details too horrendous.
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Old 03-10-2014, 17:26
lundavra
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His Indian ancestor was identified because she married a British soldier. I suspect any other records of her existence range from scarce to non-existent, unless Indian birth/death/marriage records were on a par with the UK's in the 1800s.
Several WDYTYA programmes have shown how India has excellent records going back many hundreds of years as well as those from the days of the British Empire.
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Old 03-10-2014, 17:33
lundavra
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I think they ran out of time.

Although the program was so interesting, not sure why they spent so much time on the drunk, syphyllis(sp) ancestor when the wife and her ancestors were so much more interesting.

Perhaps she ended up in such dire straights in Britain because she had no idea how to cope here?

And no real references as to what was the attitudes towards marrying an Indian woman. Was that the reason the great, great, ect grandfather didn't return to the UK?

And as he did stay in India, chances are they could have found the grave/where he was buried, ex soldier on a good pension?
They did seem to waste a lot of time.

As always, they need someone to steep in with advice rather than let him go on about the same person being shown as born Glasgow (he did not see to realise that 'Lanark' was the county), Ireland and Bangalore. Did not surprise me at all.

At least his expert fairly quickly pointed out 1s 6d was a good pension at that time. It could be that with lower living costs, he could live quite comfortably in India on that.
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Old 03-10-2014, 17:55
valkay
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They did seem to waste a lot of time.

As always, they need someone to steep in with advice rather than let him go on about the same person being shown as born Glasgow (he did not see to realise that 'Lanark' was the county), Ireland and Bangalore. Did not surprise me at all.

At least his expert fairly quickly pointed out 1s 6d was a good pension at that time. It could be that with lower living costs, he could live quite comfortably in India on that.
I wonder why his other g,g grandfather didn't have an army pension and ended up in the workhouse.?
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Old 03-10-2014, 19:43
Stansfield
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I wonder why his other g,g grandfather didn't have an army pension and ended up in the workhouse.?
I missed a bit of this great episode - so I thought he had been kicked out of the Army.
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Old 03-10-2014, 20:49
lundavra
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I wonder why his other g,g grandfather didn't have an army pension and ended up in the workhouse.?
Not wounded?
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Old 03-10-2014, 22:46
Speak-Softly
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I wonder why his other g,g grandfather didn't have an army pension and ended up in the workhouse.?
I missed a bit of this great episode - so I thought he had been kicked out of the Army.
I think he was dishonourably discharged, pretty sure I heard them say something like that.

But even with a pension, it wouldn't have gone far had he carried on the drinking. And with a wife who had never lived in Britain, she would have no family to help and probably not much idea of how to get help with him.
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Old 09-10-2014, 21:24
penelopesimpson
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Oh dear. I like Twiggy but there really is no story here. They are reduced to looking at great Uncle in a children's home which was a pretty common experience
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Old 09-10-2014, 21:54
cavalli
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Twiggy has the most unpleasant drone of a voice, it really is quite unbearably grating!
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Old 09-10-2014, 22:53
Wolfbridge
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And another workhouse Episode. Hopefully they will come up with some
Interesting stories next season. ID rather have 5 episodes a year with
Some celebs with interesting family history
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:04
seejay63
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I think it was Sanjeev Bhaskar (or perhaps his missus) who found their family record and added their and their children's details to a paper scroll.
It wasn't Sanjeev Bhaskar, it was someone who's in Eastenders apparently. I don't know his name as I don't watch it. His episode of WDYTYA was quite interesting though.
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:10
Layzeegoat
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Interesting or not, I think it's so important for people today to realise how fortunate the vast majority of us are not to have to work as skivvies, prositutes or petty criminals in order to survive. We must never forget all those who fought hard for ordinary working people to have the decent standard of living most of us enjoy today - certainly compared with back then. (Some might say it's gone too far the other way, but it's the lesser of the evils as far as I'm concerned.)

Also, I'd like to defend Twiggy. It's so refreshing to see a 65-year-old celebrity female without any apparent trace of botox or fillers. She looks great and puts those 20-somethings and 30-somethings who feel the need to fill their faces with chemical junk to shame. Bravo Twiggy!!
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:13
LordBobbin
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It wasn't Sanjeev Bhaskar, it was someone who's in Eastenders apparently. I don't know his name as I don't watch it. His episode of WDYTYA was quite interesting though.
Was that Nitin Ganatra? His family came from Kenya, and he managed to trace them back a fair old way. Sadly, it seems to be one of the episodes not up on Youtube..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitin_Ganatra
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:28
maggiek
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I thought tonight's programme was fascinating. I have never known anything about that particular period of history in that part of the world.

Billy came over very well; no ridiculous faux empathy or buggering about crying and being all tragic and stricken about forebears having a torrid time of it. Let's face it, anyone who is alive today can tell a similar story, if only they had the budget to support and pay an army of researchers all over the world, as WDYTYA has. All of our recent relations had an awful life. Every one of us, regardless of who we are. Moreover he was pretty sharp and lucid, for saying he's as sick as he is. Good for him.

I must say I was expecting a programme full of more stories of suppression in Ireland and misery and horrors at the hands of the perfidious British.

Mr Doyle legged it out of Ireland and joined the British army at the time of the famine. Which, I daresay was a shrewd move on his part and one that a lot of young men of the time chose.
Excellent summary. We thoroughly enjoyed the program. Looking forward to Twiggy tonight!
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:44
Layzeegoat
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I wonder why his other g,g grandfather didn't have an army pension and ended up in the workhouse.?
I just noticed your post above so felt compelled to answer. Maybe there was no such thing as an army pension in those days. If you were poor back then, tough luck! There was no welfare state in those days. Old age pensions were introduced for the general public in 1908 (by a Liberal government).
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:48
lundavra
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And another workhouse Episode. Hopefully they will come up with some
Interesting stories next season. ID rather have 5 episodes a year with
Some celebs with interesting family history
I would think most people find people in the workhouse when they start to trace the family back, it always comes as a shock. They should pointed out to her that with older people, and sick people, it could be their only access to medical care
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:50
seejay63
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Was that Nitin Ganatra? His family came from Kenya, and he managed to trace them back a fair old way. Sadly, it seems to be one of the episodes not up on Youtube..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitin_Ganatra
That's the man!
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:51
lundavra
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Interesting or not, I think it's so important for people today to realise how fortunate the vast majority of us are not to have to work as skivvies, prositutes or petty criminals in order to survive. We must never forget all those who fought hard for ordinary working people to have the decent standard of living most of us enjoy today - certainly compared with back then. (Some might say it's gone too far the other way, but it's the lesser of the evils as far as I'm concerned.)
They could have pointed out to her that not that not long before that time, getting involved in counterfeit coins could result in a much nastier punishment.
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Old 09-10-2014, 23:52
seejay63
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Also, I'd like to defend Twiggy. It's so refreshing to see a 65-year-old celebrity female without any apparent trace of botox or fillers. She looks great and puts those 20-somethings and 30-somethings who feel the need to fill their faces with chemical junk to shame. Bravo Twiggy!!
I think she looks fantastic and so natural. I found myself looking more at her clothes than anything else though - I really liked that blue jacket she was wearing (and her blue glasses )
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