Who do you think you are?

"Who do you think you are ?"  is a British television family history exploration that  led  BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman to discover that his great  grandmother in Glasgow had poor relief withdrawn on account of an illegitimate child. Rather than entering the poorhouse Mary McKay  moved with her family of 11 children into a one-roomed tenement flat, then later emigrated to Canada with the Salvation Army.

The second series of Who do you think you are ? was part of  BBC 2 's winter programme in January -February 2006. 

A third series was filmed for showing in autumn 2006 on BBC1 

Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, opens the series. He begins his journey feeling rather sceptical about family genealogy, seeing the experience more as a chance to explore British social history. However, he soon finds that his family history is inextricably linked to this social history and is unable to distance himself from the emotions of his ancestors’ experiences.

The journey begins with a search for his maternal grandmother, Mabel McKay, and her parents in Glasgow. Mabel was an officer in the Salvation Army, an organisation which  played a large role in the story of his family’s life. They led a very tough life in the poor Glasgow East End tenements; made worse by the early death of his great grandfather, John McKay.

It’s an emotional moment for Jeremy when he then discovers that his great grandmother, the widowed  Mary McKay, has her poor relief withdrawn because she had an illegitimate child. Rather than enter the poorhouse and risk being split up, she chooses to live in a "single-end"- one room in a slum tenement with no heating, lighting, or running water, and with eight of her eleven children to care for. Eventually, Mary and several of her children , with the help of the Salvation Army,  emigrated to live in Canada .
                                                                                                     Mary McKay

One of Mary McKay's children Mabel (Jeremy's grandmother) remained in Britain and married Yorkshireman Thomas Paxman

The English presenter discovered the details on the life of his Scottish family ancestors after agreeing to take part in  Who Do You Think You Are?, a BBC genealogy TV show  in  which celebrities  trace their family history. The second series of Who Do You Think You Are ran  on BBC TV  from 11th January 2006  for six weeks.  

Who Do You Think You Are ? is an  emotionally charged  series traversing the globe as each celebrity  explores their family tree and personal family history and discover fascinating facts that have been hidden by the passage of time. 

The  second series of Who Do You Think You Are?  followed actresses Sheila Hancock and Jane Horrocks, actor and raconteur Stephen Fry, comedian Julian Clary , director Gurinder Chada , as well as TV presenter Jeremy Paxman as they traced their family trees.

Stephen Fry traced  back to uncover the story of his Jewish ancestors who were persecuted by the Nazis in eastern Europe and confirmed that some of them perished in Auschwitz

                                    
                                     Sheila Hancock traces her family tree
                                     in Who Do You Think You Are? 

 The ancestors of these well-known faces were part of the warp and weft of the fabric of Britain's social history, just as the ancestors of everyone had their part to play. 

BBC describes the series as " a collection of moving and inspiring stories of ordinary people who have discovered extraordinary facts about their own ancestors through their own genealogical research."

Have you fully researched  your family history yet ?