« Reply #50 on: Wednesday 07 May 25 15:35 BST (UK) »
I wonder if the Great Famine of Ireland in the 1840s makes some people wonder if they have an Irish ancestor who came over to the UK, or it sparked rumours that people are descended from the immigrants who came over in the famine. Ross Kemp was told his 2xgreat grandad was likely from Ireland but he was born in Portsmouth in 1850, as was his parents, and his wife and her parents. I often do some follow ups from WDYTYA once the show has aired. I am sure many genealogists do. I am sure the researchers for WDYTYA delved further into John Chalmers ancestors and found no Irish.
It is a case of John Hurt all over again, thinking he was descended from the Marquis of Sligo.
June Brown said in her autobiography that her great grandad James Butler came to Peterborough from Ireland in the 1840s during the famine, when I looked him up and manged to find where his parents were born, and they were all born and raised in the Peterborough area. No Irish in the blood. I guess why let facts get in the way of a good story about supposed immigrant ancestry. June's Jewish line in London is correct as that was documented when she did WDYTYA.
Researching:
LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain
