Who Do You Think You Are - Jonnie Peacock 20th Aug

[kiterunner]

At 9 p.m. on BBC1. And repeated on Tuesday night at 11:45 p.m. Last in series.

[kiterunner]

I'm just typing this one up, but there were so many annoying assumptions that I just have to vent about! Footballers didn't make much money in Johnnie Roberts' day - the maximum wage (£20 per week during the season) was abolished in 1961 and his proposed trial for Leeds would have been a few years before that. And there weren't a lot of media pundit jobs, celebrity reality shows, etc in those days for retired players. So no wonder his dad was against him becoming a professional footballer. Also, just because that newspaper report said he had had a trial for Leeds, it wasn't necessarily true.

I doubt that Millicent Ann was proudly proclaiming herself to be "illegitimate" when she got married, rather that the local vicar insisted on writing it in as he knew all about her family. And they didn't seem to have any evidence that Louisa worked on one of those "white slave" ag lab gangs with a man whipping them, only that she described herself as an ag lab on the census.

I thought it was interesting that they were looking at carter, employer, as a big step up from labourer, when a previous episode portrayed a carter, employer, as the lowest of the low! Couldn't it be the case that the family story about Louisa paying £100 for each child to have Voss as a middle name was hugely exaggerated or completely made up? Anyway, will get back to typing it up now...

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Jonnie Peacock, who contracted meningitis when he was 5 and lost his right leg below the knee, didn't know his maternal grandfather as he died soon before Jonnie was born, but he had heard that he was very sporty, a keen footballer. Jonnie's parents split up when he was very young and he didn't know much about his father's family except that they came from the Cambridge area.

Jonnie started by visiting his mother, Linda, who now lives at Doddington near Cambridge but was born in Liverpool. She showed him an album of photos and newspaper clippings of his grandfather, John Peter Roberts, known as Johnnie, and his footballing days. He played in the Bootle League at one time, and the family story was that he was offered a trial for Leeds by their scout but his father, Edward Roberts, forbade it. Jonnie went up to Merseyside and met a local football expert who told him that Johnnie played for a team called St Elizabeth's in 1957 and scored at least 131 goals in a season, and played for Burscough FC in 1961 when he was 24. A newspaper story about him from then said that he had previously had a trial for Leeds. He worked as a painter and decorator, and died in 1992, aged 56. Jonnie visited his grave in Bootle Cemetery and saw that his gravestone had football boots on it and the number 137 - the total number of goals he scored in his best season.

Johnnie's father, Edward Roberts, (Jonnie's great-grandfather), was a docker from Liverpool. Jonnie went to the docks with Edward's birth certificate, which showed that he was born on the 27th Mar 1910 at 12 Haddock Street, the son of Isaac Richard Roberts, also a dock labourer, and Annie Roberts, formerly Calder. Jonnie went to Haddock Street to look for the house, but the street was demolished years ago and is now part of an industrial estate. An historian showed him a picture of what the houses would have been like - terraced two-up, two-downs. She showed Jonnie the Roberts family on the 1911 census, which said that Isaac and Annie had been married for 16 years, with 8 children born but only four still living. The historian told Jonnie that another of the children died in 1913, and showed him the death certificate of one of the children who died earlier - George Roberts who died on the 10th Sep 1899 aged 13 months, cause of death diaorrhea and teething. Annie registered the death, making her mark rather than signing her name.

Jonnie was then shown Edward's marriage certificate from 1932 when he married Mary Catherine Murphy, their respective ages being 22 and 21. Edward's occupation was dock labourer, and both fathers were down as dock labourer, deceased. Mary's father's name was Thomas Murphy. Isaac's death certificate showed that he died age 50, from anthrax accidentally contracted when he was working on a ship. Jonnie met another historian who showed him a picture of the SS Burgundy, the ship which Isaac worked on in 1928 when its cargo included maize, wheat, bones, and dried blood (which would have been used as fertiliser). Isaac probably contracted anthrax from handling the bags of bones and blood.

Jonnie went to Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and met a doctor who showed him a newspaper report on Isaac's inquest, which said that the ship had come from South America. The doctor told him about how anthrax develops, and showed him Fazakerley Hospital's admission records of patients with anthrax, which stated that Isaac had had symptoms for 7 days before admission, whereas most of the other patients were admitted after fewer days. Isaac was described as "moribund on admission" and died 4 hours later.

Jonnie then looked at his father's (Christopher Peacock's) side of the family. He went to see his grandfather, David Peacock, who showed him lots of old photos. David's father was John Voss Peacock, known as Jack, with a sister named Millicent Voss Peacock. Their parents were Jacob Peacock and Louisa nee Pope from Boston, Lincolnshire, a schoolteacher, the daughter of John Pope. Her mother's maiden name was Voss, and the family story was that she gave Jacob and Louisa £100 for each child if they gave them Voss as a middle name.

Jonnie went to St Ives in Cambridgeshire and met a genealogist who showed him a family tree which named John Pope's wife as Millicent Ann Voss. Millicent's mother was Louisa Voss, born about 1821, who had three other children, Emma, George and Samuel, but never married. A witness statement about the Royal Oak pub in Warboys, Cambridgeshire, when it temporarily lost its licence in 1841, named Louisa Voss as one of three women who were "reputed bad characters" said to have been "fornicating in the house". Jonnie went to Warboys, where the Royal Oak still stands, and met an historian who showed him a police report about misbehaviour there. There were no criminal records showing that Louisa was a prostitute, and census records showed that she worked as an agricultural labourer (ag lab). A newspaper report from 1865 said that one gang of young female labourers was run by a man with a whip, and the girls were described as "white slaves". A record showed that James Hull charged Louisa and another woman, Sarah Thody, with stealing potatoes and carrots and they were fined 10 shillings each. There was no record of Louisa going to prison, so she must have paid the fine. Emma's birth certificate from 1842 named her father as William Gadsby. Emma died of measles in 1844. Then George's birth certificate from 1845 had no father's name. Jonnie met another historian at Huntingdon Archives who showed him that Louisa applied for a bastardy order naming George Feary as George's father, stating that she had been weeding and hoeing for George Feary and the "criminal connection" happened when she was going home one day. She said that she had paid a doctor with money that George Feary gave her, and that he had visited her and the baby. A friend of hers called Eliza Darly was supposed to give evidence backing her up, but left after being spoken to by the defendant (i.e. George Feary) and no order was issued.

Millicent Ann's birth certificate from 1853 also had no father's name, and there was no record of an application for a bastardy order. Admission records for St Ives Workhouse showed that Louisa, George and Millicent were all admitted in Dec 1853 as Louisa could get no work. They were discharged on the 16th Feb 1854 at Louisa's own request. Samuel's birth certificate from 1859 also had no father's name. A newspaper report from 1860 stated that Louisa Voss had summoned John Howarth of Warboys for assaulting her, but no details were given.

Jonnie went back to Warboys and met an historian at the church, who showed him John Pope and Millicent Ann Voss's marriage certificate. They were married at Warboys church, with "illegitimate" written in where Millicent's father's name should go. John Pope's occupation was given as labourer, but on the 1881 census, when John, Millicent, and their daughter Louisa were living in Boston, his occupation was carter,and a few years later he was employing others. Also in Boston on the 1881 census was Louisa Voss, although the enumerator had written her name as Laura. Louisa's death certificate showed that she died of breast cancer in 1885.

[kiterunner]

This is Louisa Voss on the 1881 census with son Samuel. Her occupation is nurse. Surprised they didn't mention that on the programme!

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7572/LINRG11_3216_3219-0600?pid=12576087&treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=dNx2724&_phstart=successSource

And the Popes:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7572/LINRG11_3216_3219-0597/12576202?backurl=&ssrc=&backlabel=Return
Their daughter is also down as "Laura" instead of Louisa. And they have a lodger, Thomas Feerey, age 17, from Warboys. Any relation to George Feary?

[Guinevere]

Totally agree with your first post, Kite, I was muttering throughout. Irritating.

[Jill]

Totally agree with your first post, Kite, I was muttering throughout. Irritating.

Agreed! A spiteful vicar at the wedding.

Will have to ask OH about the football club as he has a book on that team by the football expert, it was only in a very low league and men played for their own enjoyment and paid the club a weekly sub.

[Olde Crone]

I was so irritated that I didn't watch it properly. Yes, we all want our ancestors to be good and worthy people but when the evidence is so overwhelming, why not just accept she was a bit of a goer and not a poor innocent girl.

OC

[kiterunner]

Searching the British Newspaper Archive, it seems that Louisa Voss was accused of stealing some more potatoes in 1871.

[Lindsay]

Also the statement that so many of the family's children died because they were poor. My great-grandparents were definitely not on the breadline, yet one lot lost 4 of 8 children, and another lost 3 of 7.

[Ann from Sussex]

Totally agree with everyone else's irritations. Also, for me at least, that was probably the most uninteresting WDYTYA ever. The only bit that was slightly out of the ordinary was a death from anthrax, otherwise practically everything was the norm for the time, has been covered in previous, more interesting family stories and wasn't worth making a programme about. This time they saved the worst until last!

[Ann from Sussex]

.....not a poor innocent girl.



Or the favoured term these days (which was used about Louisa) "a strong woman".

[Olde Crone]

Ann

Oh lol, a strong woman! A phrase which irritates me. Why don't they just say a survivor.

For me, the best in this series was Robert Rinder by far, not least because he had some intelligent grasp of history and didn't make astonished noises at the most ordinary discoveries!

OC

[Ann from Sussex]

Who was the actress, several series back, who was so amused to discover one of her several-times-gt grandmothers had been a prostitute in, I think, Soho? That was also my reaction when I discovered that the "hotel" one of my rellies and her husband ran on The Strand was one of London's most notorious brothels in the late 18th century.

[Margaret in Burton]

Who was the actress, several series back, who was so amused to discover one of her several-times-gt grandmothers had been a prostitute in, I think, Soho? That was also my reaction when I discovered that the "hotel" one of my rellies and her husband ran on The Strand was one of London's most notorious brothels in the late 18th century.

Alex Kingston

http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15294

[Ann from Sussex]

That's her Marg, thanks! I loved her not-too-serious reaction.

[Nell]

I don't mind assumptions, as long as they state they are assumptions, rather than "she MUST have" as though it is holy writ.

I would have liked more on the anthrax - and also why we were importing bones and blood for fertiliser. Surely we produced our own bones and blood as by products?