Who Do You Think You Are?

[John Wright]

John I just wondered what he looked like - to catch the eye of the companion, cross the class divide etc....a theme more recently explored by, er, Downton Abbey

Indeed our Johnstone/Leslie side of the family seems to have lived in a Downton Abbey circumstance. Our coachman and his young Lady in the manor eloped and my brother has just found their marriage certificate on the internet, they were married in 1760 in Graitney, Dumfriesshire, and yes that's what we now call Gretna Green! Doesn't get more romantic than that eh?

Working as domestic servants for the Maxwell manor house (Springkell House) continued for generations right up until my own mother who was an 'occasional nanny' to the family for a while in the 1930's.

[Richard Tarleton]

A great bit of research, John!

Re Vinteuil's #74, the '45 seems to have caused internal division in more than one family. I quote from The Clan Ranald of Knoydart and Glengarry by Norman H MacDonald, the official history of the clan to which I am related, the MacDonells of Glengarry. There was a cadet branch, the MacDonells of Lochgarry....

During the '45, Donald, 2nd of Lochgarry, was 2nd in command of the Glengarry regiment, and commanded it on Bonnie Prince Charlie's march south into England. After Culloden he went into exile with Charles and subsequently became Lieutenant-Colonel of one of the Scottish regiments that made up the Scots Brigade in the service of the French. He later served in Portugal. Donald's eldest son John (3rd of Lochgarry), much to Donald's disgust, returned to England and Scotland and became Colonel of a regular Highland regiment, the 76th. Donald laid a particularly grim curse on him: "My curse on any of my race who puts his foot again on British shore; my double curse on he, who of my race may submit to the Guelph [i.e. the House of Hanover, currently King George lll]; and my deadliest curse on he who may try to regain Lochgarry". At this (they were in Calais at the time), Donald threw his dirk after his son, "and turned his back for ever on him he had loved the best". Lochgarry was restored to John in 1784 (having been forfeited after the '45 rebellion), and he built a fine new mansion there, but it was evidently haunted by the old man's curse and had to shut up the house and retire to London where he died unmarried in 1790.

My 4xgreat grandfather David MacDonell, who served in a Portuguese regiment under Wellington in the Peninsula War, was the third generation of MacDonells to serve directly in a Portuguese regiment (most of the British officers therein were seconded from the British army). The brother of the 15th Chief, James, was a colonel in the Coldstream Guards and commanded the detatchment which defended Hougoumont Farm all day at Waterloo (saving Wellington's right flank and thus the battle), earning the sobriquet from Wellington of "the bravest man in the British Army".

Mists surround the career of the 13th Chief, Alastair Ruadh, who was too young to have taken part in the '45 but joined Bonnie Prince Charlie on his subsequent travels in Europe. It is possible that he was the notorious "Pickle the Spy" who kept the Hanoverians posted on Charlie's movements. This was alleged in an 1896 book by Andrew Lang, with a lot of circumstantial evidence, but vigorously challenged by my antiquarian cousin Harold MacDonell (who died in 1965)

Great fun, this family history!

[Nick Armstrong]

I urge anyone with a taste for the incongruous, the absurd, the downright funny, let alone a taste for genealogy and history, to watch the first of the new series of this programme on Mr Danny Dyer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...3-1-danny-dyer

I've always found him pretty ludicrous, and he is, but ... well, I've laughed more at this than any programme lately. Some priceless lines and situations in the second half of the show.

Balderdash of course (as discussed earlier in this thread) but...

... watch out Bbm!!

[BBMmk2]

I urge anyone with a taste for the incongruous, the absurd, the downright funny, let alone a taste for genealogy and history, to watch the first of the new series of this programme on Mr Danny Dyer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...3-1-danny-dyer

I've always found him pretty ludicrous, and he is, but ... well, I've laughed more at this than any programme lately. Some priceless lines and situations in the second half of the show.

Balderdash of course (as discussed earlier in this thread) but...

... watch out Bbm!!

Haha! :) Yes a friend of mine pointed this out! haven't watched it yet but I could hazard a guess! :)

[Richard Tarleton]

I urge anyone with a taste for the incongruous, the absurd, the downright funny, let alone a taste for genealogy and history, to watch the first of the new series of this programme on Mr Danny Dyer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...3-1-danny-dyer

I've always found him pretty ludicrous, and he is, but ... well, I've laughed more at this than any programme lately. Some priceless lines and situations in the second half of the show.

Balderdash of course (as discussed earlier in this thread) but...

... watch out Bbm!!

I caused consternation in Tesco when buying my Radio Times - the checkout girl was looking excitedly at the cover and commenting about it to her colleague, I asked who Danny Dyer was, having no idea. I then had to say I'd never seen East Enders, not one episode, at which she practically fell off her swivel stool. Who else is on? Must check.

[gurnemanz]

I caused consternation in Tesco when buying my Radio Times - the checkout girl was looking excitedly at the cover and commenting about it to her colleague, I asked who Danny Dyer was, having no idea. I then had to say I'd never seen East Enders, not one episode, at which she practically fell off her swivel stool. Who else is on? Must check.

I watched the programme because they can be really fascinating, sometimes with real insights into social history but I also never watch Eastenders and tend to find the programmes less riveting if I don't know the subject involved.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I put the programme on about twenty minutes in, and thought I was seeing an episode of 'enders ("So, where did the money go, gran?" "I don't know - nobody found out") - a pity that the soap opera doesn't have storylines closer to how this WDYTYA ended up. ("You're not my mavver!" "Yes One is!" <dmmp dmmp dmmp dmm-dmm- doodoodoodoo ... clangyclangyclan-gy--clang> )

[vinteuil]

.

... I shall be very gentle when I let Mme v know that she is related to Mr Dyer

( ... she is, of course, related to our very own BBM )

[Sir Velo]

I then had to say I'd never seen East Enders, not one episode, at which she practically fell off her swivel stool.

I think I caught about 15 minutes of one episode back in 1996 or 7 - can't remember which now, as the lady friend a cette epoque was smitten with some Italian: Gianni? Luigi? some such. I seem to remember a lot of bald, red faced men getting exercised over something, and a short guy with glasses Called Lofty - or am I getting confused with some other programme?

[Cockney Sparrow]

I think Lofty might have been in Coronation St during the few years the family decided to follow it (seemed to be a few murders that caught their interest, if I remember correctly). (Edit - see next post - I was wrong - it was E Enders!)

I watched a few of the early episodes of E Enders when Arthur had dark nights, well evenings, of the soul in his allotment shed but afterwards never watched an episode. I did however annoy my children mightily by always pointing to the spot where I was raised for the first seven years of my life - before the aerial in the intro(sig. tune) view started rotating and just before I switched channels.

(I went back that way a few years ago - walking out of the front door nowadays I would have a direct view of Canary Wharf (the main pointy skyscraper) and at that time, to my left and not far away the aerial deck of the DLR as it made its way to my favourite place as a child - the Island Gardens ( favourite, that is apart from the Cutty Sark across the river). Its all changed hugely from the varnish and dark paints of that time - I was forbidden to play on the bomb sites - which it has to be said had been mostly levelled to the ground.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Lofty was in 'enders (married to Michelle):



Curly was in Corrie:

http://i3.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article558140.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/C_71_article_1136673_image_list_image_list_item_0_image.jpg

[P. G. Tipps]

I think I caught about 15 minutes of one episode back in 1996 or 7 - can't remember which now, as the lady friend a cette epoque was smitten with some Italian: Gianni? Luigi? some such. I seem to remember a lot of bald, red faced men getting exercised over something, and a short guy with glasses Called Lofty - or am I getting confused with some other programme?

Match of the Day ... ? ...

[Serial_Apologist]

I think Lofty might have been in Coronation St during the few years the family decided to follow it (seemed to be a few murders that caught their interest, if I remember correctly). (Edit - see next post - I was wrong - it was E Enders!)

I watched a few of the early episodes of E Enders when Arthur had dark nights, well evenings, of the soul in his allotment shed but afterwards never watched an episode. I did however annoy my children mightily by always pointing to the spot where I was raised for the first seven years of my life - before the aerial in the intro(sig. tune) view started rotating and just before I switched channels.

(I went back that way a few years ago - walking out of the front door nowadays I would have a direct view of Canary Wharf (the main pointy skyscraper) and at that time, to my left and not far away the aerial deck of the DLR as it made its way to my favourite place as a child - the Island Gardens ( favourite, that is apart from the Cutty Sark across the river). Its all changed hugely from the varnish and dark paints of that time - I was forbidden to play on the bomb sites - which it has to be said had been mostly levelled to the ground.)

Both of us are familiar with that district from childhood - me from the late 1940s/50s when large tracts were bombed sites - fancy! Where the DLR cutes west before curling south to cross the Isle was a huge marshalling yard back then. Yes indeed, a shock to go back there today, though there are still a few isolated vestiges of old shop frontages in Poplar High Street, and the Georgian terraces down the side streets and the old church are still there.

[Zucchini]

I caused consternation in Tesco when buying my Radio Times - the checkout girl was looking excitedly at the cover and commenting about it to her colleague ... at which she practically fell off her swivel stool.

Probably never sold one before ...

[BBMmk2]

Goodness! What an absolute git this Danny person is. To think he's descended from Edward III belies all normality!