who do you think you are

I found the Derek Jacobi programme interesting, I have to quite like the celebrity in the first place to bother watching this though.So, only watch a very few ( I liked the Twiggy one a while back.)the history grabbed the attention, and good to watch Derek Jacobi, obviously moved by the story but not bursting into tears like so many, which is a relief.His ancester was quite a character!

I really enjoyed the Derek Jacobi programme too. Much more interesting and he seemed such a nice bloke.

Derek Jacobi was excellent and I learned a huge amount about the Huguenots etc. And it was interesting to go further back in time. I agree it would have been good to trace the family's "decline." But there was probably insufficient time. And Derek Jacobi was charming and did not have emotional diarrhoea thank goodness.

I sometimes watch the programme even if it is someone I am not interested in as their history can itself be interesting.

Yes the Derek Jacobi episode was very interesting. He seemed so pleased to hear about his prosperous and intrepid Huguenot ancestor and the programme ended on a happy note but this ancestor's family had all ended up in the poorhouse. I'd like to have heard what happened and how this wealthy well connected family plummeted into such penury.
I didn't even bother watching last weeks one. I just wasn't interested in her and it sounds as though I didn't miss much!

And yes, Luckygirl, the 'even I cannot read that' remark grated with me too. As did the artfully posed scene where she sat on the ledge against that huge window overlooking Warsaw (I think it was?). I think she, and the programme producers, forgot for a moment that she wasn't actually acting a part here. Or maybe she was...

Oh good! I haven't watched the latest one with Derek Jacobi yet, so will look forward to that . I have to agree that the WW2 theme has been getting so dull and repetitive - it is history that is really far too recent to make it interesting in this context. The Jane Seymour episode had some very interesting, and terribly sad, content but really it was more to do with the social history of the Polish Jews in WW2 than her personal family tree. I would far rather have seen the programme trace her ancestry back several more generations.

Hurray! Derek Jacobi has rescued this programme for me. Wonderful family story, great research, and some little known historical facts. Never knew about the Huguenots in William 1's army or at the Battle of the Boyne. Lets hope the improvement continues.

They probably took the name of the slave owner, so that could be a clue.

OK will look, but we have no idea of exact location and names of slave owners. Both Malays from Indonesia and black africans. DH was very young when family came over at the time of apartheid as the family was broken apart- and little contact since.

In contact again with the next generation- and hope to visit next year and meet them all.

They have South African archives, granjura. It might be worthwhile looking at what there is before you go.
TNA Discovery shows you how to research.

Thank you both- will have a look- but this was in South Africa- so not sure if it was recorded- and we do not know the names either. We are going to go and visit the Cape next year and perhaps will find out more when we are there. But thank you so much.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/slavery-or-slave-owners/

For you, Granjura. Hope you can find something, I think.

All mine were welsh miners or welsh quarry workers , not one married outside of Wales , oh yes , my chance to name drop, my great Grandfathers cousin married an English girl, but he isn't in my direct line, Sir Horace Evans physician to the Windsors, much to the annoyance of his welsh family who thought he should have healed the sick in Merthyr not in buck house , London

I suppose the children born of 'droit de cuissage' between slave owners and slaves were never recorded?!?

Here's one whose life history is well documented:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Wells

I have Huguenot ancestry too, my maiden name derives directly from Huguenot- so many walked across to the Swiss Jura- whereas other fled to London and even the Cape in South AFrica.

Also really looking forward to the Jacobi one- my mum's dad owned a textile mill here in Switzerland and he used to go and buy cloth from Yorkshire- mum also was invited twice to visit the Jacobi family, I believe in Leeds, around 1926/27. She would ahve been 100 this year- and I often wonder if he was part of the same Jacobi family- the programme will probably tell if they were in weaving/cloth making. Can't wait to see it.

If only we could commission similar research for OH's mother's side, and paternal grand-mother- all issued of slave stock in South Africa- Malay and African. I suppose the children born of 'droit de cuissage' between slave owners and slaves were never recorded?!?

And a second cousin of DH who came to visit last year! (well, she found us)

That was great rosequartz , that you found the photographs not that the programme wasn't shown

Although I may well watch some of the other programmes as they look more interesting than WDYTYA

Thanks Anniebach - I had a look and, although they did all the research and groundwork years ago, it was never broadcast and probably never will be for some reason.
However, I did find some family photos which had been published in the local papers!

rosequartz , yes still doing it. If you wish I can let you know when the next series will be aired - if there is a next series

They did a play as well, but I didn't watch it. Until I spoke to the lady who'd done the research I hadn't realised how much effort goes into doing something like this. She said a lot of war records were destroyed in a bombing attack. If we meet up in a couple of weeks I'l show you the little book I bought. Annoyingly I have a bullet on one of my shelves and there was someone there that could have told me where it came from; exhibition has finished now.

Tegan - country park exhibition sounds very interesting. Glad they wrote their memoirs. I suggest to all older people that they should write theirs as sooner or later someone in the family is likely to appreciate a first hand account of how their forebears lived.

Annie I didn't know BBC Wales were still doing this. I know they were researching one of DH's (famous) relatives, although we weren't part of it and I have never seen it broadcast.

(Actually, his only famous relative, it sounds as if we have several!!)

BBC Wales do their own series Coming Home, it's very good, the researchers go back as many generations as possible Susan Sarandon brought ten relatives with her which was rather amusing . They had been told they had Welsh ancestors and wanted to know if it was so, it was. They only make four programmes a year, wish they did more