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
17 September 2008
Witnesses to History
This week we share your family stories with the wider world – after all, our personal tales are the stuff of history, so we shouldn’t be keeping them to ourselves.
Sally and Nick hear stories which, by casting famous figures in a new light, take on significance for the rest of us.
Stories in this week’s programme …
A Royal suicide bid?
Lynda Hodge’s great great aunt kept a secret for more than fifty years. She eventually told her family that she’d nursed Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII, in the wake of a suicide attempt. Now, Lynda wants to find out if her ancestor’s story is true and can, at last, find a place in the history books
Shackleton rewritten
A simple letter written home by Gill Edwards’ grandfather shows a new side to one of our most famous explorers. Soldier Harry Brazier was with Sir Ernest Shackleton in northern Russia in 1918, and this letter, says biographer Roland Huntford, gives new insight into the great man’s caring character
Sheep dip and rabble rousing
Wendy Lewis knows the true value of a commonplace book handed down through generations of her family. She’s put this priceless piece of local history in the care of the Herefordshire county archive. Archivist Rhys Griffith welcomes her decision, which gives this unique blend of bell ringing, sheep dip and radical politics a wider readership
Writing history
What do you do when your family tree holds the murder of a king, the theft of the Crown Jewels and the memories of Queen Victoria’s doctor? You write a novel, of course, and Liz Wicken, with the help of David Stephenson of the Open University, explains how and why she set about this monumental task.
Dramatic ancestors
Graham Howes is an actor, so the stage is the obvious place for him to share his family story. He thinks he’s related to Admiral George Anson, father of the modern navy and the reason the English are known as ‘limeys’ – but first he needs to confirm his links with such a famous figure. Nick is on hand with advice on ‘gateway’ ancestors
Tracing Your Roots is the series that helps put branches on your family tree.
