The UK’s biggest family history event returns to London’s Olympia on 26-28 February for its fourth fascinating year, and findmypast.co.uk would like to welcome you into 2010 with an exclusive 2 for 1 ticket offer.

Celebrities from the TV show, including Kate Humble, will be taking to the stage to recount their fascinating family stories and sharing backstage gossip from the show with you, and there is a host of other show features to explore. With expertise available in an extensive workshop programme and one-to-one sessions, special features dedicated to identifying your photographs and military memorabilia, and around 200 specialist exhibitors, Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE has everything you need to find out who you really are.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW – 2 FOR 1 TICKET OFFER!

We’re giving you the chance to buy two adult tickets for £22 – that’s a saving of £22*! To claim this special offer and get your tickets to the country’s biggest and most comprehensive family history event, simply call the ticket hotline on 0871 230 5596 or visit www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk and quote FMP241 today!

*£2 transaction fee applies. 2 for 1 offer ends 19th February 2010. On-door standard entry tickets priced at £22 each. Workshop tickets available free on-site, or in advance at a cost of £2. This is not a BBC event.

Actor and comedian David Mitchell has always had a passion for the past. He studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge and one of his earliest projects after graduating was a show about the First World War. This makes him a relatively well-placed subject for hit genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are?, on which he appears tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

David already knew he had paternal Scottish ancestry, and that the Mitchells were wealthy sheep farmers. Part of his quest on tonight’s show is to discover whether they were involved in the notorious Highland Clearances: one of the darkest chapters in Scottish history.

During the Clearances, which took place in the nineteenth and late-eighteenth century, wealthy land owners cast tens of thousands of men, women and children from their homes, so they could use the land for more profitable large-scale sheep farming. Tenants who refused to leave saw their houses burnt to the ground and were removed by force, at the point of a musket or sword. They were pushed out towards the coast, where they lived in barren plots of land (or crofts), and were expected to sustain their communities by fishing. The result was widespread destitution and starvation, and ultimately the destruction of the Highland people and their culture.

Some of those affected sought a better life across the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Details of their hopeful journeys towards strange new lands can be found in the earlier part of the official Passenger Lists. These late nineteenth-century migrants were the forebears of countless native citizens living in those countries today.

The Clearances, which occurred in several waves, are among the most contentious issues in Scottish history, and still divide opinion today. We’re eager to discover whether David Mitchell’s ancestors played a part, and we’ll be tuning in tonight to find out.

David’s Scottish ancestors

With the help of our sister-site ScotlandsPeople, we decided to do some pre-emptive research, and track down the Mitchells on the censuses.

David’s family owned the same farm, Ribigill in Tongue, Sutherland, for three generations. We found them living there on every available census (apart from in 1871, when they were living elsewhere). In 1901 the head of the household was William Mitchell, a widower living with four grown-up children and two servants:

If, like David, you have Scottish forebears, why not search for them online today?

Popular travel and wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble knew little about her ancestors before she agreed to appear on Who Do You Think You Are?.  And what she found was a colourful history with many surprises. Her paternal grandfather, Bill Humble, was a celebrated RAF pilot and her maternal grandfather was interned in the infamous Stalag Luft III during the Second World War.

But perhaps the biggest surprise and most moving story was that of great-great-great grandfather Joseph Humble, who worked for a colliery in Northumberland.

Kate was first alerted to Joseph Humble’s story through looking at the 1861 and 1871 censuses. On the 1861 census (below) he is listed as a ‘colliery viewer’ living alongside other mine workers in Northumberland.

Joseph Humble on the 1861 census.

But by the time of the 1871 census he had moved to Durham and was listed as a grocer and draper.

Joseph Humble on the 1871 census

There’s nothing unusual in this you might think, except that, as Kate found out he worked at the colliery at the time of the Hartley Colliery Disaster in January 1862. The event is still regarded as one of the worst mining accidents in England, and caused the death of over 200 miners.

We haven’t seen the programme yet, but our curiosity got the better of us and we did some research of our own. First stop was the Durham Mining Museum website where we found that that a ‘colliery viewer ‘is the person who gives directions as to the method of working and ventilating the mine’. In modern terms, he was the colliery manager.

Some research on the accident revealed that it was caused when a cast-iron beam for a steam engine (used to pump water from the mine) fell into the mine’s single shaft, killing several men instantly and blocking off the escape route and ventilation for the others who died of suffocation.

So as the person responsible for the workings of the mine, was Joseph Humble in some way responsible for the accident? Or was there another reason for his change in career?

Contemporary newspaper reports and local records state that Mr Humble, as the pit manager, was one of the first people to see the full horror of the disaster underground. He was said to have been deeply affected and is quoted as having said, ‘Oh, my men, my canny men, they would have done ought for me and there they are all lying dead and cold’.

Could the trauma of disaster have led him to give up his respected position in the community (incidentally, he was also an enumerator on the 1861 census) and change career? Like you, we’ll have to watch the programme (screened tonight at 9pm on BBC One) to find out…

Hit family history series Who Do You Think You Are? made a triumphant return to TV screens last week, seeing off popular entrepreneurial programme Dragons’ Den to claim the most viewers in the primetime 9pm slot.

Over 6.4 million tuned in to watch TV presenter Davina McCall find out the truth behind a family rumour that her great, great, great great-grandfather, James Bedborough, was the illegitimate son of George IV.  Davina could not substantiate the claim, but what she discovered was no less interesting.

There was a royal connection; James Bedborough was the King’s stonemason and responsible for a £1million overhaul of Windsor Castle. Davina was able to flesh out the details of his work life through the occupational records at The National Archives in Kew. You can do the same on findmypast.com using the various occupational records found in our More records section.

From the outside at least, James Bedborough appeared a respectable and successful individual. His obituary in the local press indicated he was popular and respected as Mayor of Windsor, but his will told another story. It seems he left a mountain of debt, which placed a burden on the family that survived him.   This discovery highlights the importance of checking all available sources to gain a fuller picture of an ancestor’s life.

Findmypast.com holds an index to death duty registers for the years 1796-1903. You can search these records for details of an ancestor’s will.

If you missed the first episode of Who Do You Think you Are?, you can view it on BBC iPlayer.

This week on Who Do You Think You Are?

In the second episode of the series, which will be screened this Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One, outspoken Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles examines his Irish Roots.

Watch old episodes on Blighty

Blighty, the UKTV channel available on Sky Digital (channel 534), Tiscali TV and Virgin Media (channel 206), regularly shows reruns of old episodes of Who Do You Think You Are?.  If you’re based in the UK and haven’t seen all the old episodes, it’s a great way to catch up on what you’ve missed.