Arriving late at 11am (cutting it a bit fine as the show starts at 11am!) I met Derek Trinder from the Berkshire Family History Society http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/ and we went straight in to meet Anne Diamond who was very welcoming, relaxed and friendly. The programme went at breakneck speed and as usual seemed to go by in a whirlwind of talk, news, music and sport.
Anne said,
'Karen has uncovered a series of compelling mysteries in my family history. Today she's going to to tell us what she already knows and outline the questions she really wants answered about her extraordinary relatives. Derek will offer advice to Karen about where to go next and how to find some answers to her questions'.
We discussed all the threads of the family stories that need to be pulled together and with Derek's help will be confirmed - or thrown out as rumour and family nonsense!
The Big Questions
1) We discussed the fact that Florence Clegg my great-grandmother on my paternal side was rumoured to be a suffragette and used to campaign and protest alongside Emmeline Pankhurst. I would love to find some evidence to verify this and learn more about what my great-grandmother did for the suffragette cause. Florence had studied at Whitelands College in London in the early 1900s and had a first class qualification in Divinity. Her daughter, my grandmother Olive Ashworth went to Leeds University, as I did, but way back in 1932...very academic for those days.
2) Then for the revelation everyone is especially interested in, that my grandfather Harry Butterworth (sometimes called David Henry Butterworth) was married to my grandmother Olive, but he disappeared while serving as a civil engineer in the Far East during the war. Olive later discovered that he had turned up in Portsmouth and married a second wife. I have letters between the two women in which his second wife expresses her shock at finding out that he was already married and movingly describes Harry's death. I really want to find out more about what happened to Harry during the war years when he disappeared, before he later re-emerged on the South Coast. I have lots of letters to delve into and photos to dig up to explore what emotional backlash this unleashed.
3) Who was my maternal grandfather? My mother (now deceased) was born out of wedlock during the war (1942). There would have been huge stigma attached to this and my mother suffered as a result. My grandmother Marjorie Richardson changed her name by Deed Poll to Pennington, but that's the only clue I have to the possible identity of my grandfather.
4) After the war Marjorie worked in an asbestos factory up North in Rochdale where she met a Polish refugee called Franciscez Dudek and they married in 1950. The stories handed down to me suggest that Franciscez was liberated from Dachau Concentration Camp. There are old family photos in which he still looks painfully thin. Marjorie and Franciscez emigrated to Philadelphia but he died shortly afterwards of stomach cancer, thought to be brought on by malnutrition.
I would really like to find out more about Franciscez and how he came to be in Dachau.
FURTHER BACK IN HISTORY
5) Is our family descended from Hugenot nobility? My grandmother Olive Butterworth found a family crest and there is a family legend that the Butterworth's (my father's side) are descended from one Sir Roger De Boitworth, a French knight.
6) I believe the family on my Mother's side are descended from a wealthy family of strict Quakers, linked to Elizabeth Fry. Could this be true?
Then in 3 weeks we go back on BBC Berkshire with other "experts" in their field to reveal what we've been able to find out and to offer some fascinating background to the story of my family.
Anne said,
'Karen has uncovered a series of compelling mysteries in my family history. Today she's going to to tell us what she already knows and outline the questions she really wants answered about her extraordinary relatives. Derek will offer advice to Karen about where to go next and how to find some answers to her questions'.
We discussed all the threads of the family stories that need to be pulled together and with Derek's help will be confirmed - or thrown out as rumour and family nonsense!
The Big Questions
1) We discussed the fact that Florence Clegg my great-grandmother on my paternal side was rumoured to be a suffragette and used to campaign and protest alongside Emmeline Pankhurst. I would love to find some evidence to verify this and learn more about what my great-grandmother did for the suffragette cause. Florence had studied at Whitelands College in London in the early 1900s and had a first class qualification in Divinity. Her daughter, my grandmother Olive Ashworth went to Leeds University, as I did, but way back in 1932...very academic for those days.
2) Then for the revelation everyone is especially interested in, that my grandfather Harry Butterworth (sometimes called David Henry Butterworth) was married to my grandmother Olive, but he disappeared while serving as a civil engineer in the Far East during the war. Olive later discovered that he had turned up in Portsmouth and married a second wife. I have letters between the two women in which his second wife expresses her shock at finding out that he was already married and movingly describes Harry's death. I really want to find out more about what happened to Harry during the war years when he disappeared, before he later re-emerged on the South Coast. I have lots of letters to delve into and photos to dig up to explore what emotional backlash this unleashed.
3) Who was my maternal grandfather? My mother (now deceased) was born out of wedlock during the war (1942). There would have been huge stigma attached to this and my mother suffered as a result. My grandmother Marjorie Richardson changed her name by Deed Poll to Pennington, but that's the only clue I have to the possible identity of my grandfather.
4) After the war Marjorie worked in an asbestos factory up North in Rochdale where she met a Polish refugee called Franciscez Dudek and they married in 1950. The stories handed down to me suggest that Franciscez was liberated from Dachau Concentration Camp. There are old family photos in which he still looks painfully thin. Marjorie and Franciscez emigrated to Philadelphia but he died shortly afterwards of stomach cancer, thought to be brought on by malnutrition.
I would really like to find out more about Franciscez and how he came to be in Dachau.
FURTHER BACK IN HISTORY
5) Is our family descended from Hugenot nobility? My grandmother Olive Butterworth found a family crest and there is a family legend that the Butterworth's (my father's side) are descended from one Sir Roger De Boitworth, a French knight.
6) I believe the family on my Mother's side are descended from a wealthy family of strict Quakers, linked to Elizabeth Fry. Could this be true?
Then in 3 weeks we go back on BBC Berkshire with other "experts" in their field to reveal what we've been able to find out and to offer some fascinating background to the story of my family.
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