Family tree
I’m generally rabidly averse to any TV programme with a significant ‘celebrity’ element (Celebrity Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity Strictly Come Dancing, or whatever it is), but I’ve been really enjoying Who Do You Think You Are?. I suspect that’s because it’s not really about celebrities at all, but rather about the fascinating lives of the extraordinary, ordinary people who happen to be our ancestors. The celebrities seem to be there to draw in viewers who would normally have no interest in genealogy, and also to provide a presenter who is fairly comfortable and articulate in front of the camera.
The idea behind the series (for those who haven’t seen it) is that that they investigate the family tree of a celebrity, tracing back interesting stories as far as they can, and in the process revealing some very interesting things about social history. You tend to forget that the subject of the programme is famous after a while, and become fascinated by the lives of their ancestors.
Jeremy Paxman’s family on both his mother’s and father’s side had a very hard time: his maternal great-great-grandmother was widowed and ended up on poor relief, only to have even that tiny amount of financial support removed when she committed the great sin of having a child out of wedlock. On his father’s side, his great-grandfather and great-grandmother both died young (of TB), leaving his grandfather an orphan at the age of 10. Arthur Paxman started out at a huge disadvantage, but managed to work his way up in the world to become reasonably wealthy and send his son (Jeremy’s father) to public school.
In the following week’s programme, Sheila Hancock was trying to track down the identity of the mysterious ‘Madam Zurhorst’: an exotic-looking woman whose portrait had been handed down to Sheila by her mother. It was a gripping story, full of twists and turns, but Madam Zurhorst turned out to be Ann-Judith Zurhorst, Sheila’s great-great-great-grandmother. Ann-Judith was seemingly quite a formidable woman, in the linen trading business independently (in the 1830s!) and with uncountable hordes of children. It was a rather wonderful moment when Sheila managed to find Ann-Judith’s grave in Guernsey and so complete the story.
Last week—-appropriately, the day before Holocaust Memorial Day—-the programme traced Stephen Fry’s Eastern European Jewish ancestors. Like many Jewish families, the maternal side of his family tree had huge, beautiful branches hacked off in their prime. While his grandfather Martin left Surany (then in Hungary, now in Slovakia) left for the unlikely destination of a sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds in 1927, Martin’s sister and her husband and children stayed behind. Stephen’s family didn’t know for sure what had happened to them, but suspected that they had ended up in a concentration camp. The moment he found proof that they had either been killed at Auschwitz or died en route to the camp was extremely moving. Suspecting the truth and knowing for sure were obviously two very different things for him. A whole family, smiling shyly from a black and white photograph, just gone.
All of the stories in the series bring home a couple of important points. One is that tiny flutters of fate can determine the course of our family history. It’s obvious when you think about it, but the chances of us being here, and who we are, right now are tiny. The second is that, however much we moan about the pressures of modern life, we are unbelievably lucky to live in the time and place that we do. Our ancestors had incredibly hard lives, faced discrimination, physical hardship, war, danger and disease, and yet somehow made it through.
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I agree about the tiny flutter of fate, as you put it. I am always fascinated by "what-if" histories for that reason. I thought that the Stephen Fry programme was incredibly moving.----- For myself there is an innate nobility in the stories of ordinary people blown about by and struggling with the great currents of history, and often they are just more interesting than the stories of those who supposedly made that history. It is also interesting to see that almost every family contains individual stories of great triumphs, and bitter tragedies.
by ThoughtBadger @ 31/01/2006 1:01 am • Permalink •
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That sounds fascinating, I'd really like to see it. I'll have to watch the BBC America channel to see if they air it.
by bitweever @ 31/01/2006 4:02 am • Permalink •
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Terry Freedman: Yes, it was an excellent one.
ThoughtBadger: Indeed, I was going to mention that, because it stood out very clearly in many of the programmes in this series: from the workhouse to wealth in a couple of generations.
bitweever: Yes, it's worth looking out for.
by bsag @ 01/02/2006 7:03 pm • Permalink •
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I remember hearing in a different programme an ageing aristo arguing that the English class system was rather less rigid than commonly supposed and saying "history resounds to the clatter of clogs climbing up the stairs and the swish of ermine coming down", a delightful image that has stayed with me, despite not really agreeing with him!
by ThoughtBadger @ 02/02/2006 1:03 pm • Permalink •
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Just to show how small the world is, the photograph of Ann Judith's portrait stunned me. This is the portrait that has hung in my family home since forever. We have always known who she was and have her marriage certificate framed, hanging next to the painting. She was my great-great-great-great grandmother. My cousin stumbled across the program while doing family research on our Zurhorst family. We've been in contact with Sheila Hancock and she hopes to come and finally get the chance to see the painting in person. Ann Judith has indeed traveled quite a ways from London and now resides in Key West, Florida, USA where she has always had a treasured spot in the family home. I am grateful to Sheila and the BBC for tracing a part of our family history that we had not been able to trace.
by Toby Blacow @ 13/10/2007 7:02 pm • Permalink •
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I too have been researching my family tree, my father had told me he was related to Sheila Hancock but was not sure how. I subsequently watched Who Do You Think You are, expectantly waiting to hear of familiar names like Cohen, Sawyer or Johnson but in my disappointment none were mentioned. This started me on my family quest. Ann Judith Williams (zurhorst) was my great,great,great,great grandmother too, my great grandmother was Alice Mary Allum, James and Louisa's daughter, Sheila's grans sister. My father met Sheila last year after her show and was at a loss to explain a family connection, Alice went on to marry Henry Cohen in 1894, I believe these were the Cohens mentioned in Sheila's book, my dad was born a Cohen but his mother remarried and the name changed to Marsh. I have since re watched the program and my interest is on a much deeper level because the people Sheila is researching are my ancestors too.
by Michael Marsh @ 23/11/2007 6:29 pm • Permalink •
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That portrait(Ann Judith) immediately made me think of Toulouse-Lautrec...but I can't find the one I was thinking of.... However...I thought the programme was excellent...and wasn't suprised to find out our Sheila came from such a family! No, I'm not related!
by Dee @ 30/12/2007 12:07 pm • Permalink •
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