General Chat

I couldn't watch it till the end. I don't like the way the programme was put together, it was all a bit confusing.

Nope can't watch any more of that :-(

Ten minutes in and I am finding it so irritating !

Started off well enough, but found it increasingly boring. Won't be watching again.

So ..... did the squatterocracy rule in Oz?

Just watched this again - shame that it was not more factual. For instance, the VP of the Tassie Labor Party spoke of being descended from Ogilvie and Caroline when, in fact, she was not descended from Caroline.

What about the older barrister (the politician's father I think) who compared his father and uncle to the Kennedy brothers? A state premier can't be compared with the head of a country (especially not the USA) and I thought that guy, who ought to have known better, let himself down with that exaggeration. I believe these two (father and daughter) should not have been in the programme at all but it looks to me that the creators of this episode allowed themselves to be hijacked by politics. Listen to the narrator - I think it was the lady politician, obviously a locally-well-known Tasmanian, using softer tones so I would question whether selling the programme more important than truthfulness?

I hope that facts and truth are more important in future episodes.

One more thing about some of the programme's participants (I'm girding my loins here);

dahlinks, to talk of money and possessions is not the done thing ;-) :-0 :-D

I also found the programme confusing as it kept "jumping" around from the historical to the recent

Will still watch next week

I must admit I did find the programme a bit
confusing in parts.

Awhile back I read a book on Scottish women who
were sent to Van Dieman's Land and found that to
be a very good read.

I was shocked to hear in the programme that some descendants
had destroyed the history of their ancestors by tearing up the
information because they were criminals. Sad.

As I so often do I posted that it might be worth watching and then....forgot to watch it
:-D so will do so today.

So now you know just why Australia is such a pain in the butt. The one thing better than being a descendent of the squatters is to have a rellie from Van Dieman's Land. Sydney and even worse Melbourne make SW London feel like a an basis of equality and democracy.

I hope the next episode is better 'cos this was more like an escapee from the History channel than peak time programming. It had none of the zip and poise of the best episodes of WDYTYA.

miss

Will watch it again when I come back in but it would not surprise me if the Tassie descendants were indeed not Caroline's but simply used by the programme-makers to indicate the contrast between the NSW descendants of the other sister to produce more of an 'ooh-aah' factor.

Interesting to hear the descendants of the London-remaining sister say that none of them had ever been in trouble with the law and how they were proud that their ancestor had managed to stay straight, so descending from the 'good' sister seemed to be an important factor in that family in holding their heads up high.

Looking forward to what is dished up next week. :-D

I thought they were descended from Sarah but I have to admit it was very confusing. :-S :-S :-S

I thought the same as you, Joy...but I too could be mistaken :-). I thought the Ogilvie children were descended from Jimmy, Caroline's stepson. As far as I can recall Caroline only had one surviving child from her first marriage, Sarah and that there were no children from her second marriage, they just said that "the two families merged".

If that is the case, then Caroline was not a blood Ancestor of the Ogilvies!

I enjoyed it but am I mistaken in my belief that the Ogilvie family was not descended from Caroline but from the child of the man she married and his first wife?

I'll have to watch the prog again as it was quite late last night when I got in and watched the recording so I may have had a 'senior moment' and missed that important point zzzzz :-D

The historian's team would have had to do proper research to verify the family tree. They could not just accept the daughter's tree as correct. As we know many of the trees on the internet are poorly researched.

Looking forward to this programme

Lizx

I watched this on the One Show tonight too.

The historian made out that he and his team did all the research on the historical people and researched their descendants.
The descendant woman on the show let the cat out of the bag.

Her own daughter in law had researched the family tree and the historian made contact with her.

Pretty obvious that he and his team had been scouring online family trees to find the historical figures and ultimitely.... their descendants !

Just seen trailer on 'The One Show', looks like an interesting new twist on the family history programmes.

Andy

Tomorrow 8PM BBC2

"1/4. New series. Documentary charting 200 years of social history by exploring four different family trees. The project started off with a number of upper-class residents and slum dwellers from Victorian Britain, then traced them forward to learn their stories, ultimately hearing first-hand from their living descendants. The first edition focuses on a trio of pickpocketing sisters raised in 1830s Shoreditch, two of whom were banished to Australia. Their descendants include two Supreme Court judges, a bin man and a window cleaner."