Who Do You Think You Are - Gareth Malone 10th Sep

[kiterunner]

On BBC1 at 9 p.m., and repeated next Wednesday on BBC1 at 11:35 p.m.

[Anstey Nomad]

Best of the series so far for me, although I suspect he may have known more about Dan Lowrey than he let on.

[kiterunner]

Episode synopsis:

Gareth Edmund Malone was born in London in 1975, the only child of James Malone, who worked in finance, and Shan White, a civil servant. James and Shan met doing amateur dramatics.

Gareth visited his parents in Bournemouth where they told him that his grandfather Edmund White's grandfather, Edmund Payne was an entertainer, often performing with George Grossmith jr. Shan had once heard a recording of Edmund on the radio, and had heard that there was a film of him but had not seen it. Sian gave Gareth a family tree which went back as far as Gareth's 4xg-grandfather Daniel Lowrey, a music hall impresario who started a theatre in Dublin. The tree showed that Gareth's great-grandparents were Harry Payne and Dorothy Harris, with Dorothy's father being John Harrill Harris and her mother being Hannah Lowrey, the daughter of Thomas Lowrey, Daniel Lowrey's son.

Gareth first looked at the Payne side of his tree, meeting a theatre historian who showed him a programme for a Royal Gala Performance in 1911 in which Edmund Payne and George Grossmith jr both appeared in "The Critics" by Sheridan. He was also shown a book which had some information about Edmund Payne and his work (he specialised in comic acting.) The book said that Edmund lived in Stoke Newington, near Clissold Park.

Gareth visited Clissold Park and met Lesley, a great-granddaughter of Edmund Payne, who showed him Edmund's parents' marriage certificate: Edmund Payne, a chairmaker, married Eliza Ince at St Leonard Shoreditch 8th Aug 1859. Lesley showed Gareth the 1881 census for the Payne family, with Edmund sr age 43 a chair maker employing 4 men, and with Eliza and seven children including Edmund jr, a Ticket Writer (i.e. he issued theatre tickets.)

Lesley showed Gareth a photo of Edmund Payne on a tricycle with some of his children, and gave him a disk of the film "The Gaiety Duet" featuring Edmund with George Grossmith jr. Gareth went to the British Library to listen to a recording of Edmund and George performing "The Bold Gendarmes" and then went back to Bournemouth to show the film to his parents and his grandfather, aged 94.

Gareth then turned to the Lowrey part of his tree. The family tree showed that Daniel Lowrey married Hannah Elteringham, so he looked for this marriage online and found their marriage certificate. Daniel and Hannah married in 1840 in Leeds, with Daniel's occupation shown as dyer and his father as Patrick Lowry, a weaver. Gareth looked at the 1851 census entry for Daniel and Hannah, where they were in Liverpool with three children, Hannah's mother, and a servant. Daniel's occupation was shown as "Singer at Concerts".

Gareth went to Liverpool to meet an expert in Victorian popular entertainment, who showed him a Liverpool trade directory from 1857 which listed Daniel Lowry as a victualler at 22 Cleveland Square. "The Era" newspaper from 1859 had an advert for Dan Lowrey's music hall in Liverpool with a list of performers including Dan Lowrey, Irish singer. A catalogue of music halls listed the Malakoff in Cleveland Square, and had a picture of the outside of it with a statue of Mr Lowrey. Gareth was also shown a photo of Dan Lowrey singing an Irish song, and the sheet music for one of the songs, "The Whistling Thief". Gareth went to Cleveland Square but the building no longer exists.

Gareth searched the British Newspaper Archive online and found some adverts for the New Malakoff Music Hall, and also a report in the Daily Courier dated 25 Oct 1870 on a rally held there for Daniel Lowrey, "the People's Candidate", who was standing as an independent in the Pitt Street ward in the town council election. Gareth went to meet a local historian who showed him a newspaper report on the election which showed that voting was close but Lieut Col Hamilton of the Conservative party won by 65 votes. It also gave the text of Dan's speech on losing.

The historian also showed Gareth a newspaper ad for the new music hall which Dan opened in Dublin in 1871, leaving eldest son Thomas in Liverpool to run the Malakoff. Gareth went to Dublin and met a theatre historian who showed him a music hall programme from 1884 with a picture of the theatre, which was quite big, and photos of Dan Lowrey senior and "Dan Lowrey junior" (Thomas called himself Dan jr when he took over running the Dublin theatre.) Dan sr died in Dublin in 1889. Gareth went to see the theatre, which is now called the Olympia Theatre, and saw a portrait of Dan sr there.

[kiterunner]

Sorry to say I found this one very boring! It seemed that Gareth could have found all that out from his mum and his cousin, and there was much too much of Gareth singing and just "filler" stuff.

I notice that Daniel Lowrey's father's name was Patrick, so isn't it likely that the family did come from Ireland before they lived in Leeds? I'll see if I can find out...

[kiterunner]

Here is Daniel's baptism on ancestry:
http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/29...nSearchResults

At St Patrick's RC, York Road, Leeds: 11 Mar 1823, Daniel Laury, son of Patrick and Mary, sponsors James Connell and Jane Call.

[kiterunner]

FamilySearch has the marriage of Daniel Lowrey, son of Patrick, to Charlotte Summerfield, daughter of Benjamin Summerfield, in Liverpool 12 Mar 1857. (Lancs BMD says St Peter, Liverpool, but ancestry doesn't seem to have the images for St Peter for that period.) So it seems that Dan had a second wife - wonder why they didn't mention that in the programme? It was hardly so packed that they couldn't fit it in!

[Olde Crone]

I too found this boring and irritating - was it really necessary to show Gareth struggling to read the census? And was "the song" really worth performing once, let alone twice?

So many unanswered (and interesting!) questions. Such as - where did a young dyer raise the money to buy a pub? Was it his wife's money? We'll never know.

All the Lowrys (Lowery/Lowries, etc) I know of, come from Scotland!

OC

As Kate says, an awful lot of padding and not much content.

[kiterunner]

Here are the Lowry family in 1841:

1841 census on ancestry

Zion Street, Leeds
Daniel Lowry 15 Wool dyer Y
Hannah Do 15 Y
Thomas Do 7 weeks Y

(Don't forget, 15 on this census means 15-19.)

[kiterunner]

I can't find Patrick and / or Mary in 1841 at the moment but FamilySearch has details of two more of their children:

Thomas Lowry chr 24 Jul 1825 St Patrick's RC, York Road, Leeds, parents Patrick and Mary
James Lowry buried 26 Dec 1836 Leeds, parents Patrick and Mary

[kiterunner]

Here is Daniel and Hannah's marriage cert on ancestry:
http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/22...nSearchResults

Leeds parish church
Aug 22 1840 Daniel Lowry, Minor, Bachelor, Dyer, Wheeler Street, father Patrick Lowry, weaver
Hannah Elteringham, Minor, Spinster, East Queen Street, father William Elteringham, Miner
Both make their mark. Witnesses William Elteringham and Isabella Folson, also both make their mark.

Daniel and Hannah in 1851:
1851 census on ancestry
Great Orford St, Liverpool
Daniel Lowrey Head Mar 25 Singer at Concerts Yorkshire Leeds
Hannah Do Wife Mar 29 Do Do
Thomas Do Son 10 Scholar Do Do
Jane Do Daur 7 Do Do Do
Ann Do Do 5 Do Do Do
Jane Elligan Mother in Law Mar 67 Durham
Kinney Williams Servant U 18 Servant Wales Llanfair

Daniel and Charlotte in 1861:
1861 census on ancestry
22 Cleveland Sq, Liverpool
Daniel Lowrey Head Mar 38 Publican Leeds Yorksh
Charlot Do Wife Do 25 Lpool
Thomas Do Son Do 20 Assist Leeds
Ann Do Wife Do 22 Ireland
Mary J Do Dau Do 18 Leeds
Wm Hy Do G Son 2 Lpool
Mary Barry Serv Un 25 Servt Ireland

Daniel and Charlotte in 1871:
1871 census on ancestry
16 Hanover St, Liverpool
Daniel Lowrey Head Mar 48 Licd Victr Leeds
Charlotte " Wife Do 35 Liverpool
Hannah Sweeney Relative Wid 72 Nottingham
Kate Hutchinson Serv Unm 21 General Servant Liverpool