Who Do You Think You Are - Nitin Ganatra 4th Sep

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Piwacket

That old chap must have been about 115 at least to remember Papitlal? Perhaps he was referring to Nitin's father 'being eager' to go to Kenya?

Nitin's father was born in Kenya.

[Guinevere]

Just watched this now. Thought it got off to a slow start but picked up as it went along.

I taught a lot of Kenyan Asians in Coventry while I was training but not Nitin, I think.

[Piwacket]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

Nitin's father was born in Kenya.

OH was he? OK. I just remember Nitin finding out that G'dad when his rail contract was ended going back and bringing some family to Kenya.

[kiterunner]

It was Nitin's great-grandfather who took his family from India to Kenya, so it could be that the old man remembered Nitin's grandfather, but we weren't told the date when they went, so I don't know how plausible that is.

[anne fraser]

I enjoyed it. I was in work and watched it with a West Indian collegue who, had herself travelled to America and then England to find work which gave her an interesting perspective on the story,

I am not sure my ancestors would have been able to write six generations back' But I did wonder if that record actually dated back two hundred years when you consider the prevelance of child marriage.

I thought it was much more interesting than the last couple of episodes. I have not see Nick Hewer yet.

[Piwacket]

Thanks for reminding me KR - and as Anne says if they got married so young - their generation gap wouldn't be so great... didn't that researcher lady say the girls probably started families at 13 or 14 yrs.

[Olde Crone]

I think the record went back to his 7 x GGF, which was about 200 years ago. My 7 x GGPs were born in the late 1600s, early 1700s.

OC

[Tom Tom]

I thought it was good. Something that made me think was the fact that, as far as we know, only one out of the eight children's deaths were registered. It said there was no requirement to register the deaths so why was that one registered when the others weren't?

Just seemed a bit odd to me.

[BlueSavannah]

I enjoyed this episode. I agree with Tom Tom that I also wondered why the parents chose to register the death of one child but not the other seven.

[Merry]

I just watched this and really enjoyed it.

The only part where I wanted to ask more question (other than of the "well over 100" old man!) was when they were talking about the children of child brides. If Nitan's maternal grandfather married at 10 but travelled to Zanzibar when he was 14 for an apprenticeship, I wonder how long he was away? His bride was four years younger so presumably no children before he left India (and presumably she remained in India?), but was an apprenticeship seven years like in the UK or shorter? If it was seven years then his wife might have been 17 by the time he came back, so not really a young teen having babies.

It also bothered me that the death of the second to last child was registered by the father as he was supposed to have been bedridden for years. Maybe that happened a little later?

Only one episode for me to catch up now!