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Old 11-08-19, 23:36
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Default Who Do You Think You Are - Kate Winslet 12th Aug

On BBC1 at 9 p.m., and repeated at 11:40 p.m. on Thursday.
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Old 12-08-19, 12:05
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I like her lots, I hope it's a good one.
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Old 12-08-19, 23:13
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Kate Winslet was born in Reading in 1975, the second of four children. Her father Roger Winslet was an actor. Her mother Sally nee Bridges died about two years ago. There were family rumours of Scandinavian ancestry on Sally's side of the family. Kate's uncle Mark Bridges sent her a photograph of his parents, her grandparents, Archibald Bridges and Linda Plumb and a photo of Linda with all their children. Linda's parents died before Mark was born, but he remembered meeting her great-aunt Lilly and being told that she was Swedish. Mark also sent Kate Lilly's death certificate - 29th Jul 1964, Lilly / Lilian Hellquist, widow, age 84, with the informant "causing the body to be buried" giving their address as Swedish Church, Harcourt Street, London W1.

Kate visited the Swedish Church where she met an historian who told her that Lilly was buried at Brookwood Cemetery, in the Swedish section. Also buried there was Alfred Lidman, Kate's 2xg-grandfather and brother of Lilly. An attestation record from the Swedish Church gave his full name as Alfred Johanson Lidman, a tailor, born in 1857 in the Halland region of Sweden, married in 1884 in London, father of 3 children. The 1891 census showed Alfred living in Great Pulteney Street.

Kate went to the Halland region in southern Sweden, where she visited a country estate called Sperlingsholm. A genealogist told her that it was a small palace built in 1820, and showed her the 1826 birth record of Alfred's father Johan Christian Andersson, who was born at Sperlingsholm, the son of stable groom Anders Jonsson and his wife Anna Eriksdottir. The old stable block has since been demolished and a new block built, but it is similar to the original. Kate was told that the servants at the estate in Anders' time were paid in tokens which could only be spent in the estate's shop.

An 1831 death record showed that another of Anders' and Anna's children, Gustav, died of malnutrition, aged 3 months. Kate was told that there was chronic crop failure in Sweden at that time, similar to the Irish potato famine. She was then shown an 1832 letter to the local circuit judge asking for an investigation into the arrests of Anders and of Bengt Svensson, who were arrested for stealing potatoes and sent to the prison at Halmstad Castle.

Kate visited Halmstad Castle, which is now a private government residence. The prison block has been demolished, but she was shown an etching done by one of the prisoners at the time of Anders' imprisonment. She was also shown an account of Anders' trial, which gave his age as 42, and stated that he and Bengt were also charged with the theft of three bee-hives, which they admitted as honeypots had been found at their homes. They were sentenced to "35 pairs of whipping" each, i.e. 70 strokes, but Anders' death record showed that he died in prison of "nerve fever" i.e. typhus, aged 43, and probably before the sentence could be carried out.

Kate then met an historian who showed her the marriage record of Johann Christian Andersson and Anna Johannsdottir, dated 23 May 1847. This stated that Johann was a soldier in the Swedish Navy, and the historian said that he and his family would have lived on a small croft (i.e. smallholding). The marriage record also gave his nickname, which translated as "young cuckoo". Kate and the historian went to see a similar croft which was preserved as it was in the 1840's. Records showed that Johann and Anna had three children: Anna Britta in 1850, who died aged 17 days, Edward who died of smallpox aged 7 months in 1853, and then Alfred in 1857. Johann's military record showed that he was discharged in 1859 and flogged 40 times for "embezzling several of the Crown's belongings" and then became a tailor.

Kate then went to visit her father in Reading, first looking at the house where she grew up. Roger showed her photos of himself and his parents, Charles Winslet and Blanche nee Sims. He also showed her the marriage certificate of Blanche's parents, George Robert Sims and Florence Edith Bick, with their fathers named as Henry Sims and Thomas Bick, of "independent means". Kate met a genealogist who had drawn up a family tree which showed that Thomas Bick was a soldier and horseman, and said that "of independent means" probably meant that he lived on his army pension. The tree showed Thomas's wife as Marian Colquhoun, one of 11 children of William Colquhoun and Eliza nee O'Brien. William was a soldier, the son of William Colquhoun Sr, also a soldier. The genealogist had not been able to find army records for William Sr, but William Jr's records showed that he was in the Grenadier Guards.

Kate went to Wellington Barracks to see the Grenadier Guards and to meet a military historian who showed her William Jr's army records. They showed that he joined the Grenadier Guards as a drummer boy in 1810, when he was 11 years old, and that about 20 years later, he transferred to the 30th Foot as a Drum Major. Kate was told that part of the Guards' duties was that they had to deliver corporal punishment to errant soldiers, and that William would have had to do this or supervise it. In 1839 he left the army, aged about 40, suffering from chronic rheumatism. The 1851 census showed that he was Principal Warder at Dartmoor Prison in Devon, while his family lived in Westminster. Kate went to Dartmoor and met an historian who told her about the history of the prison, and showed her an article from the "Daily News" dated 2 Oct 1851, about the "experimental prison at Dartmoor" which was doing "great work". The journalists had been shown around by William Colquhoun. Kate then visited William's grave at Ford Park Cemetery in Plymouth. He died in 1856, age 56, of asthma.
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Old 12-08-19, 23:15
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I think the genealogist said the name Colquhoun was Irish, but surely it's Scottish?
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Old 13-08-19, 06:03
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Sorry to say I found it a bit dull.

I think of it as Irish, Kate, but I could be wrong.
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Old 13-08-19, 06:56
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I thought it was interesting but I very soon lost the thread of who was who in the Swedish family because of the use of patronymic names. What a beautiful place though. I did wish Kate Winslet had been able to forget that she is an actress; she did come across to me very much as a luvvie.
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Old 13-08-19, 08:06
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kiterunner View Post
I think the genealogist said the name Colquhoun was Irish, but surely it's Scottish?

Yes it is Scottish, they have a clan but there are Colquhouns in Ireland, not many but it is obviously because of immigration from Scotland. Had they gone back further on the military it probably would have gone back into Scotland.

There were lots of Scots travelling to Ulster and back to Scotland especially army personnel.
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Old 13-08-19, 12:56
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i was quite interested in the beginning of this as OH's GGF was also a tailor from Sweden who came to London sometime in the 1880's. On the 1891 census he is actually living just around the corner from Alfred Lidman. In WDYTYA talk, it is quite possible that they knew each other! However I would question the validity of the statement that Alfred worked in Savile Row. If you look at the census in that area for 1891, the majority of people have Tailor as a profession ,and also according to the Electoral Rolls for 1898 Alfred had a workshop attached to his premises - would he have needed that if he worked somewhere else? I am however envious of her finding where Alfred came from - apart from a birthplace of St Petersburg, OH's GGF is a complete mystery.
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Old 13-08-19, 13:59
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I think the historian or genealogist said that Alfred worked for a Savile Row company, and Kate took that to mean that he worked in Savile Row.
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Old 13-08-19, 17:06
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My grandmother's family were all master tailors in the Oxford Street/ Mayfair area in the 1800s. If you delve into the history of the trade in London at that time you learn that they were mainly independent workers who shared work between them, tending to specialise in the different stages of making a garment. Certain pubs were, apparently, often the hubs where work was doled out so the various tailors would meet there.

I would have liked an explanation of where the name Lidman came from. Why didn't he become Alfred Johnson as that would have been more logical from the patronymic explanation? Lidman must have meant something to the family hut it never cropped up. If that had been my family, that would have been the first question I asked.
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