Episode synopsis:
Sarah Millican was born in South Shields in 1975 but now lives near Manchester. She was married for seven years and is now divorced.
Sarah visited her parents Philip and Valerie, a miner and a hairdresser, who married in 1965. They had done some research on their family trees already but got stuck.
Philip never met either of his grandfathers, and his father died when he was 15, so he didn't know much about his family history apart from having been told there was a Scottish connection. Valerie's maternal grandmother is supposed to have come from a wealthy family as they owned their own house and had a grand piano. Valerie's parents were James "Jimmy" Prince and Gladys Hoult.
Sarah had a local genealogist do her mother's family tree for her, and decided to find out more about her 3xg-grandfather James Hoult, a diver who was born in Whitstable, Kent, in 1812. His wife Mary Ann Ayres was born in Lowestoft in 1820. Sarah went to Whitstable and met a diving historian who showed her the registration of a boat called the "William" from Jan 1837 with James Hoult listed on the crew list. The boat was a salvage and rescue boat. On the 1838 crew list it is a fishing and diving boat. Diving started around this time in Whitstable, so James was one of the very first divers, diving to salvage goods from shipwrecks.
Sarah visited a diving museum. She was shown a record stating that in 1843 James Hoult was diving to the wreck of the "Pegasus" at Holy Island, and she found online a report of the shipwreck in the "Illustrated London News". She went up to Holy Island to see where the Pegasus sank, and was shown some newspaper reports about the divers, one of which said that the masters of the diving smacks, including Mr Holt, gave all the stuff that they brought up to the orphaned children although they were entitled to keep 40% of it.
Sarah looked at the 1851 census which showed James Hoult living in North Shields, age 39, occupation diver, with his wife Mary Ann and five children, the youngest of whom was born in North Shields. He was employed to clear obstructions from the river Tyne. Sarah was shown a newspaper report of James's death in 1867 at the age of 55, from a brain concussion.
Sarah then got the genealogist to do her father's side of her tree, and decided to find out more about her 4xg-grandfather John Malcom born in Orkney in 1791, a servant of the Hudson's Bay Company. Sarah went to Stromness in Orkney and found out that HBC was a fur-trading company, selling furs etc from Canada. A ship's log from 1817 showed John Malcom, labourer, travelling as a passenger from Orkney to Moose River.
Sarah flew to Canada, to Moose Factory Island, and met a local historian who explained that HBC was in competition with the Northwest Company, forcing them to set up inland outposts. An 1817 report showed that John Malcom was sent to walk about 350 miles from Albany to Gloucester House very soon after his arrival. The Gloucester House journals show that after he had been there for about six weeks, he was sent back to Albany but got lost on the way and was brought back to Gloucester House by an Indian who had found him. He was very ill and had to have his feet amputated, by William Thomas, who was in charge at Gloucester House. The Moose Factory journal from 1819 showed that John was picking oakum and that in Sep 1819 he was sent back to Orkney, with money raised by his colleagues providing him with a small income. An application for an increase in this income to provide for his wife and children was refused.
Sarah looked at the 1841 census entry for John Malcom aged 50 with five children, and the 1851 census entry where they were living in South Shields.
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