BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 8 Episode #5: Rupert Penry-Jones

[mshrmh]

I quite enjoyed this one - I thought Rupert came across as polite and well-mannered with the way he seemed to shake hands & thank everyone he met - not the same style as the previous Rupert. Like others I'd like to have known the source of those letters - are they with an institution or with descendants? I'm moderately interested in the Indian angle as OH had an ancestor there with the British army slightly earlier, but otherwise I'd say interesting but others have been more so - no reflection on R P-J.

(Did the original researcher in England make any one else nervous as she was pointing and tapping documents with her pencil!)

Yes I was cringing!

[Finley 1]

I loved it... He seems to be a really nice down to earth man.. and the things he was able (ok with much  help) to discover where very interesting.

xin

[Suffolk Mawther]

Rupert and Dervla's children now have a good insight into their ancestors on both sides of the family.

Pat ...

[turnup4thebooks]

(My 1st post)
It doesn't really bother me that the 'celebrity' they are featuring isn't ALL that famous; it doesn't make it any less interesting.

So RPJ discovered he has Indian blood, albeit no more than about 0.25% according to my calculations. I just had visions of Alistair McGowan screaming at the TV "Call yourself an Anglo Indian!"

Personally I was interested as I have Thorne ancestors from Dorset (Weymouth) and was wondering if there could be any connection.

[Maggie1895]

Welcome to Rootschat turnup4thebooks -
brilliant name!   I always kick myself that I didn't think up something really creative when I registered
Now you know something of that branch of the Thorne family why not post what you have on one of the boards and see if anyone here can help finding out if there's a link?

[lizdb]

Actually, I found the whole programme rather boring.

I do agree to a point
I found the first half very slow going. Whilst grandad and his ambulance career in the war was interesting it seemed very repetative, he seemed to say the same thing (grandad saved many lives, etc) over and over again. This could have been condensed.
The Indian half was a lot better, but I just hate the assumptions !!! (that seem to be in all the episodes)
Because the indian connection was not found in one generation it was assumed that it must be the mothers side a generation further back - why not the other line? I think they did this a couple of times, just ignored the fact that someone had two paretns and followed just one of them looking for the Indian connection.  OK they knew the end result ... but not a good example.

[Simon G.]

I was shouting at the TV, no it's not suspicious most of the baptism records on IGI don't show a mother's surname.

Likewise.  I was more than a little miffed about this.  I mean for goodness sake, we all know that the people on the program didn't do the research themselves...and he would have been directed to the IGI by the program makers.  Surely someone at the BBC could have pointed out that not only does the IGI generally not show the mother's maiden name, but indeed that it's relatively unusual for even an original baptism entry to even give this information!

[LizzieW]

Interestingly, I've just received an e-mail from FindMyPast where they precis last night's programme and show some BMD entries that can be found on FindMyPast.  There are a couple of comments on the programme, one which I found very interesting:

Looking at the Familysearch website where they found Louisa Smith baptised to John Smith and Susannah two lines under the entry for her baptism is her death record for 1836.

Their appears to be a flaw in the research

My suspicion sent me in the direction because anybody with the surname Smith or Jones has to be treated with extra caution

That comment is very pertinent and I wonder if in fact they have researched the wrong Susannah, oops Louisa or at least found the baptism of the wrong Susannah. Louisa.

Lizzie

[LizzieW]

Looking at the precis on FindMyPast it makes no sense.  They state that Thomas Johnstone married a Louisa Todd, when she was 15.  That bit I remember.  Then it states that Rupert found out that Louisa TODD's parents were John SMITH and Susannah (no surname shown on IGI).  Then he traced Susannah's marriage to John Smith where it stated she was Indo English and found her parents were called Collum.

So where did Louisa Todd's parents suddenly become Smith?

Lizzie

I think FindMyPast have got the whole precis muddled.