Who Do You Think You Are - Katarina Johnson-Thompson Aug 6th

[kiterunner]

On BBC1 at 9 p.m.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Katarina Johnson-Thompson was born in Liverpool to parents Tracey Johnson and Ricardo Thompson. They all lived together in the Bahamas, where Ricardo came from, until Katarina was one year old, and then Tracey and Katarina returned to Liverpool. Ricardo stayed in the Bahamas and he died in 2017.

Katarina went to see Tracey in Liverpool to find out what she knew about Ricardo's family. Tracey showed her a family tree in her christening book, which said that Ricardo's parents were Ronald Thompson, son of Elvin and Clara Thompson, and Mary Ellen Gardiner, daughter of Harcourt and Mary Ellen Gardiner. Tracey suggested that Katarina should visit her aunt Toni, Ricardo's sister, in Nassau in the Bahamas to find out more. Katarina went there and Toni told her that she and Ricardo were two of six siblings who were brought up by their mother and their grandmother as their father didn't live with the family. Mary sr was a nurse and midwife, while Harcourt was a police officer. Elvin died when Toni was young. Clara moved to the USA and lived to the age of 100. Toni said that the Thompsons were very religious Baptists. Katarina went to Fox Hill Baptist Church and met a local researcher who showed her the marriage certificate of Elvin Roland Thompson and Clara Louise Farrington, dated 28 Jun 1931 in the district of Exuma. Elvin's father was Alexander Thompson and Clara's was Matthew Farrington. The researcher said that Matthew Farrington was born in 1890, the son of Matthew and Christiana Farrington. The marriage record of Matthew Farrington and Christiana Ferguson was dated Jan 4 1882, both parties being farmers of Black Point, Exuma.

Katarina went to Exuma and met an historian who said that the Matthew Farrington who was born in 1855, son of Clarence Farrington and Fanny Bell, was probably Katarina's Matthew sr but that they couldn't be certain. They hadn't been able to find birth records for Clarence and Fanny, but there was a land grant dated 1857 showing some land which Clarence purchased, so Katarina went to see where the plot of land was.

Katarina was then shown Matthew jr's name on a passenger manifest for a journey from Nassau to Miami in Sep 1913. Matthew was down as 21, single, a coachman. Katarina went to Miami and met a local historian who showed her a photo of Matthew jr and the 1920 census entry where Matthew was head of household, porter at a grocery store, with wife Emily, a laundress, children Clara, William Bertram and Margaret, and a brother and a nephew. Another brother, Timothy Farrington, was a sailor and a report from the Miami Daily Metropolis said that he went shopping in Miami while on leave of absence and was picked on by the police and was slapped by them and told that he would have to plead guilty to vagrancy, pled guilty and was released. Katarina went to the Black Archives museum in Miami and met an historian who showed her the death record of another of Matthew jr's children, Beulah, who was born on 23 Mar 1920 and died on the same day, 2 hours old. There was also Emily's death certificate, showing that she died just a few days later, on the 29 Mar 1920. Margaret was also thought to have died young since she was not listed on Matthew's naturalisation application form dated 1924, by which time he had married a second wife, Eleanora. Clara was then living in Nassau and William was still in Miami.

Katarina was shown an article about racist attacks in the area where the Farringtons lived in 1920 (Waddell Street), and another article from 1948 saying that Matthew had been elected as one of the officers of the local Black Masonic Lodge, the Prince Hall Freemasons. Katarina went to a church service for the local Black Masons to find out more about them, and was shown a "card of thanks" which was published in the Miami Times in 1975 after Matthew's death. Katarina then went to visit her first cousin once removed, Leslyn, who lives in Miami, a granddaughter of Clara's who was adopted by Clara. Leslyn said that Clara was raised by an aunt called Melissa in Nassau and had to work to earn money as a child, missing a lot of schooling. Clara went back to Miami in the late 1950's with Leslyn. Clara's naturalisation petition dated 1960 gave her occupation as maid. Leslyn said that Clara was a very keen church-goer. Katarina went to St John's Baptist Church and met one of her Sunday school pupils who told her that the church was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and showed her Clara's voter registration receipt, dated 4 Mar 1966, a year after the Voting Rights Act was passed.

[kiterunner]

Hmm, I didn't notice when they showed the 1920 census on screen, but it says that Clara was age 7 (date of birth on her naturalisation papers 15 Jan 1913), born in the Bahamas and immigrated to the US in 1915 (same year as Emily), so Matthew being single on the Sep 1913 passenger list seems a bit misleading.

Also, they didn't say much about Clara's later life but they had said in the beginning that she lived to be 100, and yes, records on Ancestry show she died 21 Feb 2013 in Miami.

[Ann from Sussex]

I was so pleased to hear the Bahamian relative pronouncing Clara as Cl-air-a instead of using the modern version, Cl- aa-ra (as Katerina did) which I suspect has gained popularity because it sounds prettier and posher. It was my grandmother's name and her family always called her Cl-ai-ra.

[kiterunner]

I found Clara's funeral notice which lists all her children, grandchildren, etc:

https://www.tribune242.com/obituarie...lara-thompson/

And Clara's grandfather, Ronald, died in 2015:

https://www.tribune242.com/obituaries/2015/jul/