Tracing Your Roots is the series that helps put branches on your family tree.
Each week Sally Magnusson follows the ancestral trail back in time to uncover colourful stories and hidden slices of social history. Resident genealogist Nick Barratt is on hand with tips and inspiration to help you explore your own family's lineage.
Programme details
21 November 2007
How a musical ancestor can be a bonus for the family historian
Having an ancestor who was a musician or composer offers a fantastically vivid link with your past as their work might still exist today – either as a recording, or as sheet music.
This week’s programme delves into the musical archives and explores the resources available for family historians with musically gifted ancestors.
Organist to European royalty
As a music conductor, Jamie Burton was fascinated to learn that his great-grandfather Arthur Berridge had been a prolific composer and organist who, amongst other things, had written for a royalty-studded event in Copenhagen in the 1880s. Our reporter Claire White took Jamie to the British Library to see if their vast archive could reveal more about him, and they then visited St Margaret’s Church at Westminster Abbey for a personal performance of the Copenhagen piece played by organist Christopher Cromar.
Enderby Jackson is a legend in the world of brass bands, an impresario credited as being one of the biggest influences in popularising this form of music-making in the 19th century. His great-grandson John Jackson knew little about him until he inherited some documents including Enderby’s diaries and a handwritten autobiography.
Trace Race update
We catch up on the progress of our family history novices – BBC reporters Geoff Bird and Henrietta Harrison – who’re racing against each other to see who can find out the most about their ancestors. Our resident genealogist Nick Barratt speaks to both competitors after they spent a day interviewing relatives and doing background research. Find out more about the Trace Race or read the Listeners Top Tips.
Stage Names
If your ancestor was on the stage, he or she may have used a stage name. This can make searching for them in public records tricky, as listener Jackie Mabbott discovered for herself. But as Nick Barratt explains, detective work and lateral thinking can pay off…
Tracing Your Roots is the series that helps put branches on your family tree.
