The hour long programme gives a wonderful taste of the South Downs, never lingering long in one place and covering the length of hills from the Seven Sisters on the East Sussex coast, through to the watercress beds of Hampshire.

There is some wonderful scenery, as one would expect, but also some explanation of how the Downs were formed and some of the properties of chalk and flint. Hugh Dennis climbs the chalk cliffs (presumably one of the Seven Sisters) and sees just how soft and crumbly the chalk is. We also learn how the chalk impacts on things like horse racing and growing grapes.

Subjects are varied, taking in the history, agriculture, industry and leisure aspects of the South Downs, in short a real cross-section of how man has interacted with the Downs over the centuries.

This programme is a great introduction to the South Downs and even those like me who have grown up in it’s shadow may learn a thing or two about this wonderful landscape.

This episode of The Great British Countryside is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until Thursday 15th March 2012.

Copyright © 2012 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The anniversary issue is number 14, which seems a little strange for a monthly magazine which is only a year old, but then as family historians we are used to trying to fit more into the time available so I shouldn’t really be surprised. The cover bears a large picture of Kate Middleton reminding us that this is also a Royal Wedding issue as well as an anniversary issue, with an article on some of her ancestors and also an article looking at Royal wedding dresses over the centuries.

There are some great articles in this issue covering a good selection of topics. One that really stands out for me is the article 1911-2011 A Century of Family History by Else Churchill which describes the origins of The Society of Genealogists (in its centenary year), takes a look at their library and their online offerings.

I also found the article Going Down Under particularly interesting. It was written by Neil Kevan of Title Research, which is a probate genealogy company, as such it not only gives some useful background information on research in Australia and New Zealand but also provides some insight into the probate genealogy business.

Something I really like about the magazine is that there seems to be less emphasis placed on technology. Sure there is news of the latest internet releases from the major online players and elsewhere, but much space is also devoted to reviews of traditional media.

Some may see this as a disadvantage, but having spent far too much time online being bombarded by information about how we should all be social networking and how technology is going to radically change the future of family history, it is refreshing not to find it in the pages of this magazine. If I wanted to find out how to get the best from my scanner or digital camera I probably wouldn’t be looking to a family history magazine for advice.

The magazine delivers the same high quality and well written articles as it did when it started out. The format doesn’t seem to have changed, it still has all the features you would usually expect from a family history magazine, and the quality of production is excellent. The price has risen slightly in the last year (up to £4.25 from £3.99), but it still represents excellent value for money.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.
	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Alan Cumming was an enthusiastic participant and one that I had heard of previously (although my memories are of The High Life rather than any of his more acclaimed performances). At the start seemed to be enjoying hearing about the stories his grandfather’s bravery a little too much, but my heart really went out to him at the end with the story of his grandfather’s tragic and needless death.

He certainly didn’t seem prepared for the shocking details and I certainly felt more than a little uncomfortable watching his reactions on screen. In an episode that focused very much on the effects that war and killing can have on someone’s mental health, I couldn’t help but wonder what effect the programme might have on Cumming himself and ultimately his mother, and wonder if perhaps the programme went a little too far.

Ironically I had earlier in the evening written (in a private email) about how I felt there had been a lack of any real emotion in this series and I can safely say that this was the only episode where I personally felt any real emotional reaction whilst watching the series.

As well as being an excellent episode in itself, it has also served to highlight just how mediocre some of the previous episodes in this series had been. The “shocking” story of Bruce Forsyth’s bigamist great-grandfather that opened the series was nothing in comparison to the truly heart-breaking story of Cumming’s grandfather.

I would admit that I was not really expecting to find this story very interesting, I have no experience of African research and thus no real interest in the subject, but as it turned out the story produced what for me has been the most memorable, engaging and emotional episode of the current series.

The most notable feature was the difference in the research process from other episodes. This episode relied mainly on oral history, tradition and unofficial sources, with most of the archival research taking place almost the very end of the programme. It was great to see this method being used so extensively and only being followed up with documentary research later on (although I am sure the researchers had done their stuff earlier on).

It was good to see a participant who was so actively involved in the journey, and showed real enthusiasm and passion for the story. It was truly heart-warming to see Hugh being introduced to so many relations as the story unfolded. In truth much family history research bears little relevance to everyday life, but here was an example where being descended from a particular person really meant something in the present day.

The final closing piece to camera produced another memorable line, “It’s not only that there is no black and white, but there is so much colour in this story”. A truly wonderful sentiment on which to end the show.

On a more personal note, many years ago at school I was forced to study Ghana as part of my geography lessons, and it was this aspect that turned me off the subject of geography so entirely. In retrospect I think now that it was probably the teaching that was putting me off rather than the subject itself, as I am sure I learnt much more in this one hour than an entire term of lessons.

I was a little surprised to find Jason Donovan on the UK version of the show rather than the Australian version, but that didn’t really matter as I was keen to learn a bit more about Australian family history. Whilst we learnt quite a bit about convicts (was anyone really surprised that he had at least one convict ancestor?), I would have liked to learnt more about everyday records, like those of birth, marriage and death.

That being said the stories uncovered were interesting, focusing mainly on three individuals, the two earliest ancestors being different sides of the same coin, convict and guard. It was the second of these, William Cox, that provided the most interesting story, travelling to Australia with his family and ending up as a pioneer paving the way for the growth of the Australian nation.

I was a bit confused by the preview of programme which said that they uncovered a miscarriage of justice, sure the punishment of transportation was harsh, but there was no indication why this should be seen as inappropriate for the time or any irregularities in the trial.

This episode did produce my favourite line of the series so far, when Jason told his first cousin once removed that he had been “too interested in myself for too long”. I don’t think it is just Jason that feels this, I think many people at one time or another realise this is case and wants to find out more about where they came from.

Initially I was a little disappointed by the fact that so much seemed to rely on published genealogies and pedigrees, in fact after they opened up a copy of Burke’s Irish Landed Gentry in the first few minutes I was beginning to wonder whether there was going to actually be any need to do any new research.

I think I tend to forget that published genealogies can be a valuable source in themselves, maybe not a primary source and not always 100% accurate, in this respect it makes them much like many other sources. Just because my ancestors do not appear on them doesn’t make them any less important.

There did seem to be a little bit of background research going on, but I felt this episode was more about Armstrong actually following his family tree rather than tracing it. So although most of the work had already been done it was interesting to watch the branches of his family tree creep back further and further, and his ancestors get wealthier and more influential/powerful.

Armstrong was quite enthusiastic about the whole exercise, although perhaps more as a spectator than an active participant, with him being given things to read next rather than him asking the questions and deciding which branches to follow. I got the impression it was a very well mapped out journey he was taking, but an interesting and enjoyable one nevertheless, with a couple of interesting twists.

It was an incredibly watchable programme, and Rupert Penry-Jones came across as a very likeable young man, and like Monty Don last week it was good to see him actually taking notes as the stories unfolded. It was also nice to see some quite clear research goals from the outset of the story. He certainly got his fair share of the travel budget in this programme, with visits to both Italy and India.

There was a nice contrast between relatively recent history (World War Two) and more distant research, both in time and geography, although both had a common Indian theme joining them. It was wonderful to see Penry-Jones listening to the stories of one of the men who had fought at Monte Cassino. Oral history is a wonderful resource to bring official records to life.

Whereas a couple of the earlier episodes have seemed rather drawn out, this certainly seemed to have a lot packed into it. I can’t help wondering what other interesting stories might have been skipped in the rush to prove to Indian ancestry.

I did think there were a couple of missed opportunities in the programme, with both husband and wife as subjects for this series of Who Do You Think You Are? it would have been interesting to see them sharing in each others experiences rather than the usual individual experience. Also, at the end of the programme I was surprised not to see Penry-Jones return to England and explain everything he had learnt to his mother, and seeing if she was just as interested as he expected her to be.

All in all another excellent episode, some excellent research and an interesting and likeable celebrity, my faith in Who Do You Think You Are? is slowly being restored, after a rather poor start to the series.

Monty Don seemed quite laid back about about the whole thing and there were few signs of the excitement or enthusiasm that we saw last week with Dervla Kirwan. The situation from the start was one many will be familiar with, one side of the family seems to dominate in family stories and background, with others barely getting a look in.

The two stories featured were both quite interesting, but the show was trying to look more at the reasons why things happened and the personalities and conflicts of the people involved, which is not easy unless diaries and journals have been left behind, as the vast majority of records involve hard facts and not emotions or personality. Even then it can sometimes be a very one sided.

I think this is probably what turned me off from the programme. Trying to understand the motivations behind our ancestor’s actions is difficult, and this programme just about managed to stay on the right side of fiction (unlike the Rupert Everett one).

There seemed a fair bit of research going on, although not as much as last week. I was surprised there was no trip to New Zealand to explore that part of the story further. I was especially pleased to see Monty Don with a notebook scribbling things down, rather than just relying on the cameras to catch everything, this gives me hope that the stories and research will live on beyond just the filming.

Overall I felt this episode was an improvement on the first two, but not quite up to the standard of last week and still below par compared to earlier series. Still, it gives me hope for the rest of this series.

I have virtually no knowledge of Irish history, and my family history is almost completely devoid of any Irish connection, so I was surprised to find the episode so interesting and after last week I was extremely surprised to find it so enjoyable to watch. I think this is in part due to the fact that whilst the first half of the programme was specifically related to the Irish situation, the second half could really have taken place anywhere around the world where different religions have come into contact with each other.

Dervla Kirwan seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out about the two aspects of her family history that were featured in the programme, and appeared to be actively involved in the research process. There was a real sense of genuine exploration and depth to the research, which I felt has been lacking from earlier episodes. We found out much more than just births, marriages and deaths, although they were a significant feature.

I lost count of the number of different libraries and archives that she visited and the number of experts (on a wide range of subjects) that were on hand to explain the background and help interpret the records, that was really pleasing to see.

I know the first two episodes have come into criticism (not just from me) for not exploring other branches of the family, and whilst this episode could be accused of the same, I felt that there was no need, the central stories were so much stronger that there just wasn’t the need to explore further. I think in the last two episodes I was hoping that there would be something interesting going on away from the main stories which were rather dull (or just badly told?).

Unlike the first two episodes which just left me wishing for the programme to hurry up and finish, this episode left me wishing that they could have carried on further and spent more time, and I was disappointed that the show had to end. Now, unlike last week I can’t wait to see what Monty Don discovers next week.

The story was more interesting to me than last week’s episode, there at least appeared to be some proper research research going on, but my first complaint was that there were too many loose ends left dangling.

It appeared on screen that virtually no effort was put into finding out what happened to the wives of Frederick William Cunningham Everett when he sailed off into the sunset. I am sure some more research must have been done, but if the only searches were the two census searches that we saw on screen then I am not surprised that his first wife wasn’t found.

It was almost as if they were leaving that avenue of research open for some audience participation, but they weren’t quite bold enough to say it. I am sure there will be plenty of people online today looking for her, trying to prove they can do a better job than the show’s researchers.

What really frustrated me the most were Everett’s ‘flights of fantasy’. He seemed to have a very vivid imagination and lack of hard evidence seemed to allow him ample opportunity to fill in the gaps. The informant on Frederick’s death certificate “must be some old sailor hag”, even though all he knew was a name (not even a first name just initials and a surname) and address.

I can’t let the use of the word “navvy” go unmentioned. Someone please correct me if I am wrong but merchant seamen, or any other type of sailors, have never been called navvies. I always thought navvy was short for navigator, and that navvies were the labourers responsible for building canals and railways.

Two episodes into this latest series and it is starting to seem to me that it has reached the end of it’s life. It will be interesting to see what the ratings say, but this avid genealogist is beginning to wonder if it is worth watching the rest of the series.