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The Secret History of My Family
First televised by BBC 2 on 10th March 2016
This project will use as a starting point this excellent BBC documentary, tracing families from different ends of the social scale of Victorian Britain who crossed paths and discover the positions of their descendants. We will endeavour to add all the members of each family featured in the series but will also try to extend the work of the BBC researchers by taking the families back further if we can.
The first programme featured the three Gadbury Sisters who were n'er do wells in London's Shoreditch area. Two were transported for their misdeeds and one served 6 months in prison meaning that there are two branches of the family in Australia and one still living in Shoreditch. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Victorian Gentleman who interviewed them. He had no descendants but his story was not one of prosperity and ironically he too ended his days in Australia.
The Second programmed featured families of Hunts and Manleys with contrasting beginnings as Florence Marianne Hunt tried to help the Manley family.
The third programme of the series ventured to Salford where it looked at the Salford Scuttlers - Rival gang members..... [ed: I missed this can anyone fill this in?]
Programme four looked at the family of Margaret Marchant, daughter of a solicitor who had no children but a niece and nephew carried on the line of the woman who became the Right Honourable Secretary of the Deptford Herriot Charitible Organisation Society who made the difficult decision to remove the children of Susan Nelson from her care when she discovered she was living with her late husband's brother and was expecting a child by him. The descendants of Susan Nelson, are diverse and many are, like Susan, dependent on benefits.