Alexander began the show by saying he had always been called ‘posh’ and that he would be disappointed if his research didn’t reveal a ‘posh’ background. As it turned out, he didn’t need to worry…
Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong was born in 1970 - we found Alexander’s birth record in findmypast.co.uk’s records:
Click to enlarge
Alexander started his journey by talking to his parents and revealed that he wanted to learn more about his mother Virginia Thompson-McCausland’s side of the family. Virginia’s mother was Helen McCausland. Helen’s father was Maurice Marcus McCausland, Alexander’s great grandfather, who was born in 1872.
We found Maurice’s birth record in findmypast.co.uk’s record collection:
Click to enlarge
Maurice’s parents were Laura and Connolly.
Alexander wanted to find out how the McCauslands did so well for themselves. He learned that his 6x great grandmother Mary Boughton was a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, confirming Alexander’s solid link to royalty in the 18th century. Mary died in 1786.
Mary had two sons, Edward and Charles. Charles was Alexander’s 5x great grandfather. Edward inherited the baronetcy from his cousin Sir Theodosius in a controversial turn of events.
Alexander discovered a letter which Edward sent to Charles informing him of Theodosius’ death. Edward described the death as ‘wonderful’ news because it meant he would inherit the baronetcy. All was not well, however, as Theodosius’ death was deemed suspicious and his body was examined by physicians, who claimed he’d been poisoned.
Alexander travelled to Boughton Hall to read the records of the trial which followed to see if Edward acquired the baronetcy through foul play.
Alexander Armstrong (Copyright Justin Sneddon 2007)
In the end Edward wasn’t implicated - Captain John Donellan, Theodosius’ brother in law, was tried for the murder instead. He was found guilty of poisoning Theodosius, although Alexander thought it was more likely that he had died from syphilis, as Donellan claimed and medical records supported.
When Edward died in 1794 he left his estate to his illegitimate daughters and left Charles £100 - a pittance compared to the value of his estate. Alexander thought it very unfair that Edward disinherited Charles, describing him as a ‘rogue’.
Alexander discovered that Mary Boughton, his 6x great grandmother, was the great granddaughter of the first Duke of Beaufort, Alexander’s 9x great grandfather Henry Somerset. Today the Beauforts are one of the wealthiest aristocratic families in the country.
Henry’s father was Edward Somerset, 6th Earl of Worcester, who lost most of the family’s fortune in the 16th century during the civil war. Edward donated money to King Charles I from early on in the civil war; he loaned the King more than £70 million in today’s money.
Charles I made Edward the Earl of Glamorgan and made him secret envoy to the Catholic confederates in Ireland. The King’s letter detailing this fell into the wrong hands and he had no choice but deny all knowledge of the mission and accuse Edward of high treason. Edward was imprisoned in Ireland and his home, Raglan Castle, fell. In 1649 King Charles was executed.
Edward never again occupied the family seat of Raglan. Alexander felt that Edward was heroic and didn’t get the reward he deserved.
Edward turned to science in later life. He invented a water commanding engine which harnessed steam power 40 years before steam engines were invented. Edward died in 1667 and it was believed that he literally took the designs for the steam engine to his grave.
We searched our parish record collection and found Edward’s parish burial record:
Click to enlarge
In a bizarre twist 200 years later, a group of engineers took a trip to Raglan in 1861 to exhume a model of the engine from Edward’s grave. Alexander found a detailed account of the mission which stated that the engineers hoped to find model of the engine in Edward’s tomb but after a thorough search failed to find anything.
Finally, Alexander traced the earliest roots of the Somerset family and discovered Edward III 20 generations back in the 1300s. Edward III was a distant relative of William the Conqueror, making William the Conqueror Alexander’s 27 x great grandfather!
I am finding the programmes very interesting but, like life in general, some people are more interesting than others !! But I cannot help thinking ‘Oh! how I wish I could have had the same enormous amount of help from so many researchers when I was trying to find my ancestors’… and I know many who are ‘doing it themselves’ have the same thought. Do hope this programme has another series.
Very interesting programme on Alexander Armstrong. however it is not that unusual to find posh connections through the female line, and this programme went onto the distaff a number of times. remember,if you go to 10 greats , you have 2048 great Grand parents. If you go back to Edward 111 (say 21 generations in my case) you have, by my reckoning , over 2 million ancestors. Since the population of the country was only about 2,000,000 at that time, then most of us are descended from everyone in the country alive then. Hence many genealogists reckon that 80% of the population is decended from Edward 111!
Edward 111th? Wow! Not a king I was familiar with.
Yes I DO THINK THE PROGRAMES ARE GREAT BUT ,WHAT ABOUT US OLDER PEOPLE WHO CARNT GET ABOUT TO SEE THESE DOCUMENTS , NOT THAT I THINK WE WOULD GET THROUGH THE DOOR OF CERTAIN BUILDINGS,BUT DONT SAY THERE ALL AT KEW .I WAS THERE IN 1988 AND UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WONT , IT WAS A NIGHTMARE , AND A LONG DAY OUT ,BUT WE DO HAVE LOTS MORE ON THE INTERNET WHICH IS A HELP TO ALL THE LETTER WRITING YEARS AGO . AND I DO ENJOY , wHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE. I JUST HAD TO HAVE MY MOAN . AS ALLWAYS A HAPPY HUNTER
MAVIS
Great programme. Can you please tell me the name of that amazing tree that was unrolled towards the end of it.
Unfortunately, I have not seen many programmes in this series, but I do have them recorded, so will look at them.
I must admit everything in the programme appears to go very well for the guest.
I have been struggling for over 10 years, to do my family history, and
have plenty gaps in my chart, and find it very frustrating.
Unfortunately, I am elderly and unable to travel any distance, so it
does make me very angry, when your guest appears to find all relevant information with great ease!
I wish I could find information with such apparent lack of difficulty.
Gladys Judd (Mrs)
Sadly I can’t even afford to join Ancestry:(
And Find my past:(
You may be able to use Ancestry at your local library (till the libraries are disbanded!
I would love to watch these programmes but do not seem to be able to do so from Bermuda where I live, even though I have signed up to liveonlinetvradio.
I live in Cheshire and have done a lot of research into my family from Lancashire. Would be very happy to look up some records for you, just let me know.
I would love to be able to go further in finding my mothers family,from Lancashire, where she was born before coming to Australia in early 1900’s, but the cost is too much.
I love the programmes too. I have watched everyone since the original series started several years ago! I do feel though that the programmes do not trace the family as they did in original episodes. Do they really need to find ’something different’ to follow? I too cannot afford to join ancestry and you can only get so far without spending megabucks! I cannot afford to go to London either. I have just cracked a ‘brick wall’ of at least 15 yrs standing which would have happened so much quicker if money was no object. I would love an expert to look into my family history - maybe one day!
As an archivist but not in this particular area it’s always given me a bit of a giggle how these celebrities get their family histories served up to them. I wonder how many research rooms get visited by people thinking it’s as easy as that. Not the people contributing to this thread obviously.
However, genealogy is my crossword & I enjoy the detective work. The internet has helped me find many distant relatives; sometimes all it’s taken is a google search on a name & a place, and then we often share information at no further cost to either party.
Two things: 1. It would be great to get a breakdown of the costs of research done in each episode (and what it would cost to do it yourself), and 2. They should go back and do Michael Parkinson’s boring ancestry (WDYTYA passed on it), and inject a bit of the social history into it to show how those ancestors would have lived.
It would be nice if the program was on the Television. It hasn’t been Screened by SBS for two weeks now and no news of when it is returning to Sunday nights, if at all. Shame really because it was an excellent program.
Yours sincerely
Colleen Cox
South Australia
Hi again Chris! To prove your point my husband pays my Ancestry subscription but you have provided far more information than I have found for myself by e-mailing me details of my Tuckley ancestors going back to the 1500’s!
Thanks again,
Debbie
Although I personally cannot afford to subscribe to Ancestry, Find my Past etc, there are people who do and they will do lookups for you. If you go on to rootsweb.com and look for their message boards and mailing lists, you can join those and post a message giving the details of who you are looking for. It may be that people on those boards are looking for (and have found) the same people and their ancestors. This has happened to me more times than I can remember, and I am very grateful to people who are willing to share their research in this way.
We find “Who do you think you are” fascinating and some of the suggestions made to the relevant celebrities have been taken on by us as we do our particular family history search. Quite possibly our grandparents would turn in their graves as we discover some of their little secrets which they thought had died with them. I love knowing how they improved themselves over the centuries, through education and arranged marriages (and many were arranged, as seen in my own particular family - 18th and early 19th century). Amazing how many women did not marry too.
Just like the the people who have responded, it is expensive and we are currently saving to visit the UK once again for up to a period of 3 months (hopefully next year 2011) to do self drive to those places that will hold the secrets that cannot be obtained over the internet (although that is so much improved). Fortunately we now have found cousins and others with a common interest and hopefully,in the goodness of their hearts, they will open their doors to us as we visit the country.
Keep up the shows, there is always something to learn from them even if one cannot always do the research themselves.
Di and Geoff
New South Wales, Australia.
Brilliant programme. I too have watched every one since the first series. I agree it would be good to feature celebrities with a more mundane family history and research the social history of the time.I seem to recall that a few years ago they did Sue Johnson’s family which didn’t have any royal or migrant connections but was very interesting nevertheless.
On the subject of the cost of joining FH websites can I do a plug for “Lost Cousins” - it doesn’t take all that much effort, basic membership is free and the links you get are really good ones.
I like many others find the programme fascinating but made to look oh so easy, which in reality is not so at all. If money was no object who knows what I would have found out.
I have close relations in Scotland and to use the Scottish site is far easier, also you can print off copies of the entries for the B.M.D which does make checking you have the correct person easier and also less expensive as I sent for a birth certificate for a relation I thought was born in Wales only to find later that she had been born in Staffordshire.
I have used my library ancestry archives but with so many people doing the same thing to get help in there can be a problem at times.
Still the fun is in the chase so they say, but I wish it wasn’t such an expensive one.
I too am descended (on my mother’s side) from Prussian ancestors and knew I would never be able to tackle searching this side of the family - not speaking German was the least of the hurdles! However, I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the subject of one of the programmes of “Extraordinary Ancestors” filmed and shown in 2000. This was very like WDYTYA but with non-famous ‘ordinary’ people. I had a wonderful 5 days filming with Channel 4 in Germany and eventually discovered through the 5 days that my family (Kannenberg) could be traced back to 1620 (through the Geschlechtbuke) - and I received the details of all my ancestors. It was wonderful! A useful source of help for people with German roots is the AGFHS - Anglo-German Family History Society - and I cannot emphasise enough how helpful they can be.
I thoroughly enjoyed Alexander Armstrong’s search - he is such a personable guy. The excitement shone through - as it does for us all on our search, however little or much we discover!
I was always fascinated to watch WDYTYA as I have family history going back to Prussia pre 1870s. My Gt Gt Grandfather brought his wife and 5 sons from a small village in Prussia to England in late 1871. [We think to avoid the sons being conscripted into the Prussian Army]. The family came from a long line of musicians and their musical careers carried on in England.
Because Prussia had become part of East Germany no contacts were possible until after German unification in 1989, but thanks to a local genealogical society I found family details on the British 1881 census and started my search from there. After seeing WDYTYA I became interested in the foreign traces and wrote to the Mayor of the Prussian [now German] village asking for help. He gave me a local historian who JUST happened to be a distant cousin related to MY family. He was actually born in the same house as my Gt Gt Grandfather!!! Two years ago we travelled by car to visit the area and with my distant cousin’s help saw the village and all the church records..Wonderful. However it was not as easy as WDYTYA makes it all appear. The church records are all locked away and only accessable via prior appointments. When produced they were impossible for me to read, being written in old German or old Prussian and in such small script they needed a magnifying glass. My cousin had traced our famiy back to 1590, I saw several of their houses which still remain intact and the beautiful cathedral in Erfurt where many were married. I also visited the local area and got a remarkable feel for the country as it used to be. A truly wonderful trip, my own version of WDYTYA. Well worth a try for anyone, but do get local help as it would have been impossible without it.
The current series of “Who Do You Think You Are?” is very engaging.
It is interesting to follow the lives of others, but as your replies indicate it is also frustrating to realise how much research has to be done to produce these interesting stories. I have worked hard on my own family research and have established links to the mid to late 17th centuries in all but one direct blood line. It has revealed an interesting history closely intertwined with social and cultural practices of the time, as well as geographical and environmental disasters. I was intrigued to find that Patsy Kensit and I share the Dennis family, so that programme was particularly interesting to me. You never know where your information will come from or what it will contain, and that is what is truly tantalising.
I find it all fascinating as well as researching my own birth family which has proved to have opened a Pandora’s box for me. We have travelled all over the country meeting relatives, some are overseas and some we have not traced yet. Similarly to Dervla my great great grandfather was Jewish but I only know his surname.
My close friends have the Somerset name in their ancestry and they come from Ireland.
However when you are an ordinary person you do not get the same help as when the cameras are rolling in archives of large cities, with an actor, We found, the smaller the office the more helpful they are.
Some bent over backwards for me for no fee.Others are beurocratic and jobsworthy. I have spent an awful lot on research doing it myself as I have a very large birth family, I also did my family who adopted me. We prefer to do our own research as it is part of the enjoyment but
it would be too expensive to employ researchers for me. Much of our findings are the success f my partner’s intuition and divine intervention. There have been too many co incidences for there not to be. Norcap Adoption Services were providing help in searching for people on low income, as you have to join and there was a fee for it, which initially put me off, along with my emotional ties but I had to start somewhere. Are believe their is not a fee now and they rely on donations to keep going. All that to say that these programmes are excellent.
I like all the other threads have to agree that it is not as easy as it seems watching the programme. However, that is part of the enjoyment. Although I have joined Find My Past I am not able to travel to find any information (not just because of the money) so rely entirely on the website. Unfortunately I started tracing the family to late to ask questions, if only I had started earlier hey ho. I have also got a little stuck as I now have to try and find records in Ireland and Scotland, not easy and not available on Find my Past. I have tried the Family Search website run by The Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but have not been very sucessful. But do enjoy watching WDYTYA although agree that now they seem to just work on one side of the family, whereas I did enjoy seeing a little of each side. But that is just my preference. Lots more please.
My husband’s family also goes back to Edward III, as so many of us do without realising it. Once you can wade through all the 19th c. Ag Labs and schoolteachers, and follow every single line, male or female, it is often possible to find a link to landed gentry and aristocracy by the 18th century. Once land is involved, it is often possible to find references to families in British History Online, most of which is free, or look at Burkes Peerage in your local library. There are many transcriptions available for free on the internet, but there are a lot of errors and unverified estimations out there too, including in the IGI. For those who feel that subscriptions to sites like Find My Past are expensive, isn’t it worth asking for this as a birthday or Christmas present from family members? The amount of access to records is amazing and increasing all the time. It costs less than a couple of pounds a week overall which is a lot cheaper than having to travel around the country as everyone had to do before. As for the ease with which celebrities “find” their ancestry, this should be accepted and enjoyed for what it is, an entertainment programme with a budget to match.
Like many of the ‘repliers’ I am rather envious of those with wealthy backgrounds from a research point of view. They have albums full of old photos and books full of family history etc., and for me it gets quite boring after a while, because it seems so easy.
On the other hand, I have managed to go back through many generations of farm labourers who were all called William or George, and they all had wives called Elizabeth or Mary, and had sons and daughters called Willam, George, Elizabeth and Mary. Yes I have had to spend some money on subscriptions, but I find that with family history it is the mundane that fascinates me.
Generation after generation of farm workers living in squalid conditions with hardly enough food to survive, and with the poor women giving birth to between 10 and 15 children in a lifetime, the majority of whom often died in infancy. I can’t even begin to imagine what life was really like for those families. Even the ones who survived might catch all manner of diseases that we can cure today.
And yet, despite all this, a few hardy souls survived and their ability to carry on against all the odds is the reason I am here typing this today. I call that a miracle. I would love to go back, give them all a big hug and say thankyou.
But, WDYTYA is television and they are not really interested in the lower classes. Money has always talked.
I also enjoy the programme WDYTYA and am trying to trace my family.It’s is unfair that “celebrities” get it all done for them by BBC researchers all paid for from the licence fee when if they really wanted to trace their family history (before the BBC rang them) they could probably have afforeded to pay someone to do it for them unlike the rest of us who are paying for ourselves.
We have our version of “Who Do YOu Think You Are?” here in America, so it is interesting to read these comments about the UK show, as I agree with all of them! While the shows are fun to watch, those of us who have been doing genealogy for a while know that it can be long and frustrating work, often encountering brick walls.
My mother’s family can be traced back in America for many generations - to the days of settlement. It seems that the county and state historical archives in different states are realizing the interest in genealogy and have become not only rich resources of family detail, but the workers, many volunteers, are helpful to a fault. I have been amazed and thankful for their tireless efforts.
My father’s family all hale from Great Britain and, while I have had wonderful luck with the English records in Warwickshire, the Irish records are more than a disappointment. I spent a week in Ireland, only to find genealogy centres that had closed (though the signs remained on the wall), the employees totally uninterested in helping and, where there were genealogy centres the fees were huge for what amounts to an internet search. I think much of the problem could be resolved by a turnaround in the Irish attitude towards those records we seek. They know that many are missing, but the benefit that both the receiver and researcher could derive could be very lucrative for them. As for me, I have no interest in ever returning to Ireland, because of the way I was treated in these offices. So, my brick walls will remain!
Best wishes to all those homegrown genealogists on the other side of the pond!
How interesting–I descend from John of Gaunt, too. “Who Do You Think You Are? in the UK sounds better than our American version although I watched every episode of the latter and enjoyed every one of them.
I do regret, however, that there isn’t more emphasis on genetic genealogy which could help many people, regardless of family status, trace their male lines and any other lines for which they could find suitable male representatives.
It can also help American families seeking their British roots. Since most of my ancestors arrived in VA in the 17th century, their English origin is unknown, with a few notable exceptions (Delaware-West being one of them), but could be discovered by matching an English family of the same surname.
Right now the greatest obstacle to rediscovery is lack of participation in surname projects by British males. I don’t understand why there isn’t more enthusiasm for testing, since British genealogists stand to gain as much as their American cousins.
Interesting comments here and I can’t stop myself joining in.
I too enjoy the WDYTYA programmes not always because of what is found out but because it encourages me to continue my searches. It’s not
“unfair” that celebrities are treated in this way but it is unfair to Archivists and Librarians that their work is undervalued & invisible.
I know what our US colleague means about Irish roots but encourage her to persevere. I made my first real trip this summer to the Irish area where my Gt Grandfather came from. The local genealogy service was closed and has become a Chinese Restaurant but the public library were very helpful and although on the one day I visited the Archives were not open, a Librarian kindly took my requests unlocked the doors and got books out for me. Recently the local Irish parish records online have helped me a good deal. But talking to people in Ireland has given me good insights into family myth and reality. I don’t want to research way back and enjoy simply visiting the places my near ancestors came from, and then discovering the social history of the period. I really did not enjoy history at school, but this I do. I think looking for our ancestors, though they would never guess our interest, can be fascinating and heartbreaking but it also shows them respect. The village my Great Grandfather left is now clearly in my mind, as it must have been in his when he moved to London.
from when I to first started tracing my family, the cost of the different ancestry sites, has gone up and up. I to have now had to stop because of costs, which is a great shame as I know there is more out there to find, and it is only through sites like genes reunited, and ancestry that I could have done so much, as I am not able to travel the country, let alone the world to find out information.so I have had to rely on sites like these to get as far as I have done, I to have been very lucky to have traced my grandmother on my fathers side, back to Judith, William the conqueror’s niece,so I say thankyou to one and all, and ask if they can think of ways for folk to be able to stay,easier way to pay be a great help, like through the mobile phones, but in the mean time, all take care, and good luck to one and all,
best wishes
viv
I don’t want to research way back and enjoy simply visiting the places my near ancestors came from, and then discovering the social history of the period.
I too have enjoyed the programmes however they can seem rather elitist at times. I suppose that , as a previous person said, it is easier to trace ancestors when there are records of property or public service. I’m constrained by time at the moment and therefore it wouldnt be value for money for me to subscribe to sites such as ancestry.com just for now. I have found the research I have done so far to be fascinating and glimpsing the the social history behind the records is very interesting for me.
I have Scottish/ Yorkshire ancestry and was lucky enough to stumble on a distant cousin who had researched my maternal grandfathers line back to the 17th century. Scottish records are full of detail that English ones omit; cause of death, addresses, next of kin etc- makes it much easier. I have’nt started on my Irish connections (which may just be Scottish moving back and forth to Ireland as was common I believe.
I too have been stuck at points because family names make it difficult to see which branch you should be following but this is part of the fun!. I love WDYTYA as it keeps up my enthusiasm for research when I do get time as is full of tips and warnings. Great stuff.
Need to find my past ???
There are quite a few free sites on the inet, and lots of info posted by people who have done their tree. I use ‘pay per view’ most of the time and find Ancestry.com amazing value because you can search as many records as you like. I think a lot of people are under the impression you can only search the number of credits you buy.Not so.
With so much interest in geneaolgy now I’m surprised no one has done a ‘beginners’ program yet. If someone does, please keep it basic.
Happy hunting
Pat
Absoloutely fantastic programme,but like other comments,it’s made to look so easy and is very hard on the hip pocket.
SBS here in Australia has a bad habit of splitting the series up,especially the english ones.
Happy hunting everyone
As an researcher but not in this particular field it’s always made me smile a bit at how these celebrities get their family histories served up to them. I wonder how many atchives get visited by people thinking it’s as easy as that.
I was involved in an “episode” for Irish TV and the time/effort put in to prepare for my few minutes of “screen time” was quite cosiderable !!
Having said that and looking at it from an entertainment angle these programmes ar very good indeed
I did not see the program but am interested in contacting the author Justin Sneddon - don’t know of any other way to contact - so if possible please forward.
I wonder if any of the people here have actually inquired to see how much a researcher would cost. For over 20 years - I started in 1984 - I was searching for my Grandfather who disappeared in USA in 1919 after having written to his wife for 8 years. I found him on a ships manifest then came to a full stop. It niggled me for years, then someone at the Canadian Archives did some work for me for free and suggested that as she could go no further I employ a Canadian researcher. I just picked one off the list she sent to me and hey presto within a month I had him found, married - bigamously - and dead! Result. How much did it cost me? £25. I was amazed how little it was so I would say to people out there, if you really are stuck, if you cant find a friend to look at your tree in a different way and find the answer, then ask a researcher how much they would charge you, you might be pleasantly surprised like me.
As my maiden name is Armstrong, I was particularly interested to watch this programme to see how far back into the history of the border raiders the researchers managed to extract from Alexander’s paternal ancesters. Although the resulting programme was interesting, this could have been an opportunity to reveal an interesting contrast in his ancestry if it was so.
nice blog keep up the great work.. Found a site that some of your readers might find also good for Things to do and see in Germany Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem
was just watching this episode tonight and i have a family connection to Alexander Armstrong, through the earl of glamorgan and others ,the Earl of Glamorgan ismy fourth cousin thrice removed’s husband’s third cousin thrice removed.
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Diese Sorte kommt ursprünglich aus New York. Soma bekam die ersten Samen von einem Freund……
Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new site layout of some of the larger forum sites that have sprung up around this topic, and I hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.
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