Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall have returned for the third series of ITV’s Long Lost Family series.
Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall have returned for the third of ITV’s ‘Long Lost Family’ series, sponsored by Genes Reunited.
Often reuniting adopted children with their biological parents, the series is an immensely personal rollercoaster ride of emotions – sometimes making uncomfortable viewing.
The series, which is genealogy-lite (often only making passing reference to research techniques), is hosted by two Who Do You Think You Are? veterans – with Nicky’s episode detailing his own adoption.
Episode One follows the stories of mother Sue and daughter Kerry, and Alan and his search for his mother Pat.
Celebrating Father’s Day this weekend – check out my photo gallery of 14 of my ancestral fathers.
It’s Father’s Day here in the UK this Sunday, so in the same way that I marked Mother’s Day with a photo gallery, I thought that I would do the same for my paternal and maternal fathers.
Interestingly, there are fewer photographs of my male ancestors. This will of course be down to one or two instances where illegitimacy leaves them absent, but maybe the luxury of late-19th and early-20th century meant photography was only afforded for their wives?
Paternal Fathers
My Father, Dec 1950.
Paternal Grandfather, Percy Martin (1914-1991)
Paternal Great Grandfather, Alfred Sydney Newman (1883-1969)
Paternal Great Grandfather, Herbert Martin (1884-1917)
Paternal Great Great Grandfather, James Martin (1851-1934)
Paternal Great Great Grandfather, James Gilbert (1848-1916)
Paternal Great Great Grandfather, Alfred Newman (1849-1933)
Maternal Fathers
Maternal Grandfather John Edward Dewey (1931-1991)
Maternal Great Grandfather, Ernest Edward Thomas Dewey (1896-1991)
Maternal Great Grandfather, Ernest Herbert Barber (1902-1983)
Maternal Great Great Grandfather, John Freeman Dewey (1856-1943)
Maternal Great Great Grandfather, Edward Moden (1867-1932)
Maternal Great Great Grandfather, James Yarrow (1875-1946)
How The Eagle and The Lamb became extinct in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and how my ancestors survived it.
I get a sense of comfort or closeness in knowing that I am visiting somewhere where an ancestor once worked, lived, or even died. I don’t think I am alone in this, but it’s frustrating when you can’t see or visit the place they once knew.
Since then, my goal of seeing a photograph of her now demolished pub had drawn a blank and I aptly put it ‘on ice’. However, I recently received an email from a Robert Flood who had seen my request somewhere online, and had a photograph of the pub on file. This was Vine’s home and business. This was The Eagle and Lamb on Cambridge Road in Ely, Cambridgeshire.
The Eagle and Lamb just before demolition in the 1980s.
You can be sure it’s the same site, going by the distinct chimneys of the house next-door, and that the pub site was also home to the Eagle brewery, part of which has been incorporated into one of the few houses that the newer development contains. The photo is sad, and I can probably understand why it was demolished in 1987/88. The pub closed in September 1932.
The modern day site gives little away – the lampost has seemingly moved a few feet, and perhaps some brick wall survives, but aside from this, there’s no other mark of this once being a place where many patrons enjoyed getting slightly (respectfully of course) sloshed, and where my Great Great Great Grandmother ‘Vine’ Cross and her husband George worked and lived, and for a while seemingly brought up their daughter’s Moden family.
Between George and Vine, the couple had the second longest landlord holding of the property (12 years). They were beaten only by Charles Scarr who held it from 1873 to 1889.
As for the wider history of the site, I turn to ‘Ely Inns’ by Patrick Ashton. As part of his book he has documented its past from the land purchase in 1848. He says:
.. on 7th April 1856, Richard Porter, freehold brewer, purchased the site for £700 and ran his business from there until he sold the premises to Morgan’s Brewery Co. Ltd on 24th June 1889 for £1250. Morgan’s closed the brewery part of the business in 1902 but used the site as a distribution depot until 11th May 1920 when Ely brewers A&B Hall purchased the premises for £5000.
My Great Great Great Grandfather George Cross was landlord from 1892 until his death in 1898, afterwhich he was succeeded by his wife ‘Vines Cross’, who then held it from 1899 to 1904.
In 1901 Sabina appears as ‘Vina Cross’, a 48 year old widow. Joining her at The Eagle and Lamb, are a ‘roadman’Richard Ingrey (67yrs), and William Lemon (44yrs) a ‘railway platelayer’. In two rooms, it is listed that her 30 year old married daughter Mary Ann Moden, was living with there with her husband Edward and their three daughters (one being my Great Grandmother, Susan Jane Moden).
Calling time on pub life
Ten years later, she’s still on Cambridge Road, but living further along on the corner with Barton Road. She’s living alone, aged 58 years, and working as a shop keeper.
Sabina/Vine died in March 1916.
The shop was handed on to her daughter Mary Ann Moden who lived nearby, and the site remained as a shop until the 1980s (during which time I visited it once as a child, but was completely oblivious of my connection to it). It is now a private house.
What next for my Eagle and Lamb research
I hope to now find more records relating to George and ‘Vine’s time at The Eagle and Lamb, and also seek out an old photograph of Vine’s shop whilst it was under her ownership. It seems that there may be a trail of brewery documents to follow, but for now, it remains a mystery.
If you use Google to search for the Eagle and Lamb in Ely, Cambridgeshire, you pretty much only get search results for content that I’ve created. Surely there’s more information waiting to be discovered?
BBC looking for individuals who have video footage of their family in their own family archives.
I’ve had an email from the team over at Video2DVDTransfer, who are helping the BBC find personal archive video footage for use in a BBC2 documentary.
They write:
Help us help the BBC.
The BBC is looking for individuals and/or families who have charted their lives with a video camera – spanning decades and changing formats and technologies.
This is for a unique and fascinating BBC2 documentary that will hope to tell the story of a family by using their video archive.
Perhaps you know of a video enthusiast in your family who owns a camera and is prone to film big life events as well as the mundanity of day-to-day life? Whether it is filmed on Super 8, 16mm, VHS or digital, we are open to all formats.
You may have hundreds of hours of family archive sitting in your loft of you, your parents, cousins, siblings waiting to be pieced together – if this sounds like you or someone that you know, we would love to hear from you.
Video2DVDTransfer recently converted a 1987 primary school christmas play (starring yours truly in copious solo singing moments) from video to DVD and video file format. They did a great job of it, and carefully looked after my video tape and returned it with speed and care. You’re not going to see it though!
Utilising my search skills to see if i can find the celebrities that will feature in the 2013 BBC UK series of Who Do You Think You Are?
The internet is full of the great news and excitement that the US version of Who Do You Think You Are? has been picked up again by network TLC.
This has got me wondering who will be featuring in the forthcoming 2013 series of the UK edition of Who Do You Think You Are?, so I thought that I would employ my research skills to see if I could find out (naturally, I checked Twitter for those on-set spoiler tweets).
Sarah Millican (Comedian)
Comedian and writer Sarah Millican couldn’t be lured into giving any revelations about what is lurking in her ancestry – even after I offered my own prediction:
Gary Lineker (former Footballer, Sports TV Presenter, crisp advertiser)
Gary’s involvement was confirmed earlier in the year, after he tweeted about it, joking ‘..I’m a descendant of The Elephant Man. Would explain a couple of things.’
Filming Who do you think you are. They won’t tell me anything about what we’re doing over next fortnight
One helpful follower pointed out a possible ancestral trait (his ears) that might originate from the African plains!
Prediction: The Lineker ancestors will turn out to have invented the potato, which they originally used to kick around, as they didn’t realise it could be eaten.
Hollywood A-lister, Minnie Driver, turned heads at Stockton Library when filming her episode back in February this year. The article quotes her as researching her father’s family.
In a short series of tweets, she added this (amusing?) snippet of information:
staying at Crathorne Hall in Yorkshire, visiting my Dad’s past. Its basically Downton. Rather sad the dresscode is so informal
In the meantime, while we wait for the new series, turn your speakers on, press play on the video below and close your eyes…. and imagine your very own episode..
Denny Abbey and The Farmland Museum are hosting two workshops on 5th October 2013 for adult family history enthusiasts.
Denny Abbey and The Farmland Museum has announced that it is hosting two half-day workshops for adults interested in genealogy.
On Saturday 5th October, Michael Williamson and Ann Wise will be leading workshops for adults interested in getting started with their family tree, and methods for dating photographs.
Michael Williamson explains how to get started with researching your family tree
2.15pm – 3pm: Dating Your Old Family Photographs
Ann Wise will explain how to use clothing clues within a photograph to work out when it was taken. You can also bring your own photographs along.
Denny Abbey – its architecture hints at its rich and varied past.
Based near Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, the site runs a yearly programme of education events, and this year I plan to attend the above event, and also hope to attend the basketmaking course – a skill that was my own Great Grandfather’s profession that kept a roof over his family’s heads.
This week, the Surname Saturday theme stops at the story of the 18th Century unusually named ONG family of Stuntney and Ely, Cambridgeshire.
This Saturday we’re on the trail of the unusual surname of Ong.
The earliest reference that I can find for my Ong family, is the first marriage of my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather, Thomas Ong to his first wife Martha Jennings in Stuntney, Cambridgeshire in April 1757.
Stuntney parish church, 1806.
I’ve not found any earlier record for him, but estimating his birth to have been in the 1730s, I have found a few potential matches via familysearch.org in the neighbouring county of Suffolk in its villages of Hepworth and Hinderclay – themselves neighbouring parishes.
Martha was already heavily pregnant when she walked the aisle with Thomas, and they soon welcomed their first son – John Ong – into the family, with him being baptised at Stuntney just four months later.
The couple and their baby shift from Stuntney, to the nearby Ely which it overlooks. Sadly, this happiness was to be short-lived, and Thomas’ luck was going to take a long-running bad turn.
Within seven years, Thomas had lost his wife Martha (d. August 1764), and three sons: John (1757-1758), Thomas (1760-1764) and John (1763). No doubt deep in grief, a widower, and childless, he vanishes for 9 years, returning to parish registers in 1766 at Ely.
In January 1766, he marries spinster Martha Feast, and they are joined by their first child Mary. Sadly, Thomas’ bad luck continues – claiming the lives of their first three children: Mary (1767-1769), Thomas (1769-1773) and John (1772-1773).
It’s not until Thomas’ 7th child (and Martha’s 4th) – Mary Ong – born in 1774, that a child survives into adulthood. Mary was to live until she was 85, and is my Great x 4 Grandmother.
Thomas and Martha continue to grow their family with another 4 children: Martha (1776-?), Thomas (1778-1781), Margaret (1780-?) and Thomas (1783).
Whilst it’s unclear as to what became of Mary’s siblings Martha and Margaret, Mary seems to be the only child of 10 to survive – perhaps accounting for the rarity of the Ong surname.
Mary goes on to thrive – marrying my Great x4 Grandfather Thomas Cross in Ely in 1790, and bearing 14 children (only 3 of whom are known to have died as children).
Mary outlived her husband Thomas Cross by 13 years, dying in February 1859, aged 85.
Variants of Ong
I’ve only spotted two versions of the surname whilst rummaging in the records of Ely and nearby Stuntney.
Ong – the main version
Ing – making one occurrence
However, the surname is so infrequent, that I am suspicious. Only one other ‘Ong’ appears, and as yet, she (Margaret Ong) remains unconnected – but probably the sister of my Gtx5 Grandfather Thomas. At the same time, and in both Ely and Stuntney, are rather a lot of parish register entries for the Long and Young families, and so with little imagination and some illiteracy, you could easily lose a letter or two, throw in an thick rural fenland accent, and you’re soon staring at an ‘Ong’ in a parish register.
