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WDYTYA? LIVE competition winners

Thank you to everyone who entered our competition at Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE at Kensington Olympia in February. We have now awarded the following prizes – congratulations to our lucky winners!

12 month Full subscriptions – David Applin, Jill Harvey and Terry Riley
6 month Full subscriptions – Joan Pitman, Pam Murdoch, Phyllis Davies, Sybil Lunn, Louise Adams and John Farrell

Competition winners – Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2011

A big thank you to everyone who entered our competition at the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition at Kensington Olympia this year! The prize of a 12 month Full subscription was offered on each day of the show, along with two runner-up prizes of a 6 month Full subscription.

We’re pleased to announce that these prizes have now been awarded to the following lucky winners:

12 month Full subscriptions – Barbara Parsons, Pam Buckmaster and T Marshall

6 month Full subscriptions – Janet Evans, Darren Grosvenor, Robert Moore, Duncan Graham, Barbara Brooks and Janet Pegg.

Hugh Quarshie on Who Do You Think You Are?

Hugh Quarshie’s extraordinary journey into his past last night was intriguing. His evocative story began after discovering that he might have Dutch ancestry. Naturally, he was curious to find out where the bloodline originated from.

Hugh Quarshie (copyright wookie1138)

The Holby city actor was born in Ghana in 1954 and moved to Britain with his parents when he was three years old. His father was a diplomat and his mother was a school teacher. His mother often called herself the Duchess of Abii and nobody in the family ever knew what she meant by that, or what the Royal connection was. It had remained a mystery for many years.

Hugh travelled to Ghana to find more about his mixed heritage. He began by visiting his uncle Jimmy on his 88th birthday. Jimmy is the son of Hugh’s maternal grandfather, William Reginald Phillips. Hugh was shown an intriguing wedding photograph which depicted the Phillips family as being quite wealthy and well dressed in English attire. The image was starkly contrasted, showing an exotic African family looking entirely Edwardian. William Reginald Phillips, it turns out was a successful businessman. Hugh was puzzled as to where William might have got the money to set up a business. He also discovered from Jimmy that William’s mother was called Anna Kamerling. She was half Dutch and lived in a small town called Elmina.

Hugh then travelled to Elmina to find out more about Anna Kamerling. He met some new relatives there, including his Aunt Gertrude who told Hugh that his grandfather’s half brother had been the Chief of Abii. Hugh was astonished that there might be some truth in his mother’s royal claim after all. He then visited the village of Abii to delve deeper. Hugh was told that the village Chieftancy was in dispute and that he must tread carefully. He was introduced to the acting Chief, who told Hugh that a Pieter Kamerling bought the village of Abii for his wife and children. Pieter Kamerling, a Dutch civil service Commander, had married local woman Efua Jensch. The Chief informed Hugh that as he is a ‘son of Kamerling’, he has a right to the stool and claim to the Chieftancy. Hugh politely declined.

After uncovering the Dutch side of his family, Hugh decided to travel to the Netherlands to take his research one step further and find out more about Pieter. Michel Doortmont, an associate professor in International Relations and Africa Studies at the University of Groningen, revealed that everything Hugh had been told by the Chief in Abii was true. Pieter did apply to be a civil servant in what was then called Equatorial Guinea. The records show that he did arrive in Almina in 1856, where he lived for 12 years. After falling seriously ill he returned to the Netherlands but left his family behind. Hugh was shown another record in which Pieter listed the name of his wife – the crucial bit of the puzzle. Her name was listed as Ellen van der Spek rather than Effua, though Michel informed Hugh that it’s likely that Ellen and Effua were in fact the same person.

Hugh was then put in touch with Pieter’s relative Eric Kamerling to shed some more light on Pieter’s life. To Hugh’s astonishment, Eric was able to show him the same photographs he saw in Ghana and also confirmed that Pieter did marry Effua but that she had used a different name. Hugh was shown a photograph of her and told more about Pieter’s life, including the fact that he left everything in his will to his children. This was clearly what helped them set up their trading company and also explains why the family were so well dressed in the wedding photograph.

Overall, it was a thrilling story in which all the dots were vividly connected. We’d love to know what you thought of the episode too!

New series of Who Do You Think You Are?

Don’t miss the start of a brand new series of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC1 at 9pm tomorrow (Monday 19 July). The first celebrity to have his tree researched by the programme’s experts is Bruce Forsyth. The research centres around Bruce’s great-grandfather, a prominent 19th century landscape gardener, who may have been a bigamist. Watch the programme to find out more.

Competition Winners – Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2010

A big thank you to everyone who entered our competition at the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition at Kensington Olympia this year! The prize of a 12 month Full subscription was offered on each day of the show, along with two runner-up prizes of a 6 month Full subscription.

I’m pleased to announce that these prizes have now been awarded to the following lucky winners:

12 month Full subscriptions – Robert Forrester, Pamela Freeman and Katherine Harris

6 month Full subscriptions – Rosemary Atkins, Jeremy Briggs, Mrs B Catchpole, Janet Henwood, Jack Miller and David Taylor

You can read more about the events at this year’s Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition here.

The findmypast.co.uk stand at the upcoming Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2010 exhibition

The UK’s biggest family history event returns to London’s Olympia on 26-28 February 2010 for its fourth fascinating year and findmypast.co.uk will be there. Come and visit our stand where you can take your free seat on the findmypast.co.uk ‘tram’. There will be several ‘departures’ every day, each featuring a talk on how to start your journey into the past. There’s no need to book, just check the ‘departures board’ when you arrive to choose the time that suits you. 

You can also pick up some fantastic deals from our Edwardian shopkeeper in the 1911 shop. Offers include £25-worth of PayAsYouGo vouchers for £19.99, a three month subscription for £45 instead of £50 and a 12 month subscription for £135 instead of £150. These subscriptions include access to the 1911 census records as well as all the other great features we have to offer. When you buy any voucher worth £9.99 or more you’ll get a Family History Starter Pack with a free copy of our new video tutorials, designed to help you get the most out of our site.

There will be free access to the findmypast.co.uk website in our research bay so come along and get stuck into your research – you can meet the findmypast.co.uk team and pick their brains for tips!

We look forward to seeing you there.

findmypast.com at WDYTYA Live

We had a fantastic time at the WhoDoYouThinkYouAre LIVE! show – many thanks to those of you that came to say hello and ask us questions about the service. We only wish we had had more time to talk to you all!

For those that could not make it, we will post our presentation from the 1911 classroom  (which covered how to use the 1911 census and findmypast.com to start building your family tree) on the blog soon.

In the meantime, there are a few more photos available : click on any photo below to get to them.

findmypast.com at WhoDoYouThinkYouAre LIVE