Samantha Womack Who Do You Think You Are?

From the age of 18,

actress Samantha Womack has starred on both stage and screen.

Recently she's been touring with the musical South Pacific.

But Sam is best known for playing the controversial character of Ronnie Mitchell in Eastenders.

-What is it?

-It's him!

Ronnie, what about him?

He's not your son.

Ronnie Mitchell was a brilliant character to play,

but then I was feeling that character very deeply,

and I had my fill of playing her because she was just...

I loved her to pieces, but she was so damaged.

When Sam married Mark, who is also an actor,

she changed her name from Janus to Womack.

The couple live in Bedfordshire with their children, Ben and Lily Rose.

My own past has been very fractured.

My parents separated when I was six

and we moved around a lot from place to place.

I was always the new girl.

I was the new girl in Wales or in Scotland or London

so I didn't really know who I was.

So my deep-rooted fear would be to be isolated and lonely

and for there not to be much information. That would be my biggest fear.

I want to have a history, I want my children to have a history.

I want to know where that line has come from.

OK, put these down on here.

Sam was born in Brighton, her parents' only child.

It was quite an isolated existence

because of the separation of my mother and father, but also their parents.

There wasn't a lot of information from either grandparent.

And we've got no clues.

We're not the kind of family that has those details at hand.

Sam's mother, Diana, was an actress and model,

and her father, Noel, a singer-songwriter.

My father was an incredible guy, but very difficult to live with!

I don't think he found families or certainly having a child very easy.

He took his own life erm...

just over... well, just about two years ago,

and he struggled really finding his place in the world.

It became an important part of his life to identify with someone.

And I hope in my heart of hearts that I find somebody my father would feel close to.

-Remember to keep the house tidy!

-I will.

So it's a gift really from me to him.

Sam has come to Brighton to start her search.

She's going to see Dolly, her father's mother.

DOORBELL RINGS

-Hello!

-Hello, lovely!

It's lovely to see you.

-Can I come in?

-Yes, by all means.

-Have a cup of tea.

-So, I don't know anything about your family.

-I don't!

You don't know anything!

Especially since I've got older, I keep thinking...

Even the name, my mother's name, Garraud. I thought...

Garraud - how is that spelt?

G-A-R-R-A-U-D. She was French.

Garraud, so French.

I'm going to get a notebook and write all this down.

I'm going to be like an investigator here because you know what we're like.

-Oh, well, Beatrice it was.

-Beatrice Garraud.

-Yes.

-So, Beatrice's mother?

-Jessie.

-Jessie.

-Ryder.

-Ryder with a Y?

-Yes.

That would be my great-great-grandmother.

Yes, my father was Cunningham-Ryan.

-Well, Alexander was his real name.

-His real name.

Cunningham-Ryan.

All right, so do you know anything about Alexander Cunningham-Ryan?

No, nothing at all because they separated.

Except he had a problem with his chest.

-And what was wrong with his chest?

-Gas poisoning.

A lot of soldiers had it in the First World War.

He had gas poisoning from his time serving in the war?

-Yes, I remember him telling me.

-Yes.

Because usually men who have gone through this will not talk about it.

But that was clearly something that was very difficult for him.

-What I did know was he was a sad man.

-He was sad.

-Yes.

I sensed it in him. I just felt that he was a man who thinks he...

..missed the boat, you know?

So I need to look for him in terms of his history within the army.

-Scots Guards.

-Scots Guards. So that would be something to look into.

-Yes.

I've got more information there really than I've ever had.

When she describes her father as being sad,

you know, this man who she connected with that was very distant

and felt he'd missed the boat, that's interesting to me.

Alexander was poisoned in the First World War with gas

so I'd like to find out more about that

and to find out more about his military background, if he had one, in the Scots Guards.

BAND PLAYS

Sam has come to the Wellington Barracks in London,

home to the Scots Guards.

She's meeting archivist Lance Sergeant Kevin Gorman.

Well, here in the archives, they'd find service records

for an Alexander Cunningham-Ryan, and this is them.

So, this date in the first column here,

so it says, "Attested 22nd of the ninth, 1914", so what's this first date?

That was the day that he actually joined the regiment.

So June, July, August, so November,

so a month after the war started, he decided to join?

Absolutely, yes.

And here, there's a change, 27th December, 1914.

What does this say?

That's transferred to the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.

The 1st Battalion Scots Guards at that particular time

were serving in the trenches in France.

Was there any mention of any gas being used?

Within the records we have a pension document,

and if you read here, that will tell you the cause.

"The report of medical boards."

Ah! "Cause of discharge - gunshot wound..."

SHE GASPS

His right lung!

So it wasn't gas. It was a gunshot wound into his lung.

-And if you look at the report here...

-"Gunshot wound.

"A bullet entered end of clavicle

"and emerged at lower angle of scapula.

"The right lung is collapsed."

It came in through here.

It's come in this way and come out that way.

-Yes, it's come round the back.

-It's come out here?

-Through his lung.

Yep. Which suggests that it came from an elevated position.

So somebody is shooting down into the trench?

Down into the trench or more than likely a very good German sniper.

Wow. So, "Breathing is shallow and difficult."

-"Has much cough"?

-Yes.

Do we have anything that would say who he was before all of this?

Certainly, yes, at the very beginning of the documents.

It tells us what happened to him before he joined the army.

There's his name. "In the...

.."In the parish of Glasgow"?

-He was born in Glasgow, yes.

-Which is where you are from.

It is indeed, yes.

No relation.

And if you look here...

"What is your trade or calling?" Oh, a musician!

"Have you resided at your father's house for three years? No.

"Have you served in the Royal Navy, the Army, the Royal Marines?

"Yes, in the Highland Infantry."

What does this say? 14 years?

14 years service and five months.

So, if he was a musician,

could he have learnt his instrument here within the Highland Infantry?

-Very possible, yes.

-So we need to find out

and we can only do that by going to Glasgow, presumably?

Yes, the Scottish records office will be able to give you information.

I've just come back from Scotland!

Well, get your coat on, you're going back again!

Sam is in Glasgow, the birthplace of her great-grandfather, Alexander,

and home to his regiment, the Highland Light Infantry.

To know that you have a connection to somewhere like this is really weird to me.

I've never had that sense of identity before.

When Alexander was alive, in the Highland Infantry,

and the Scots Guards, this is a place that would have meant a lot to him.

Is it terrible that I want to sing "On the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond"?

SHE LAUGHS

Sam is meeting military historian Douglas Anderson

at the Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum.

-Douglas?

-Hello.

-I'm Sam.

-How do you do?

I've got this overwhelming urge to say hello,

only because you have information that I desperately want.

-Do come in!

-Thank you.

-And we'll have a look at things, yes.

-Let's start with this one.

-OK.

This is the first page of his service record,

and, as the name suggests, that was a complete record

of everything that he did while he was in the Highland Light Infantry.

-OK.

-Your great-grandfather joins the army.

-For the very first time.

-For the first time, yes.

-"What is your age?"

-That's his age.

-14?

-14.

-And six months?

-And six months, yes.

-He was 14 years old?

-Yes, yes.

He was 14 years of age, yes.

-In the parish of Maryhill.

-Maryhill, yes.

Glasgow.

And this is 15 July, 1895.

1895. So, have a look at that.

Description of Alexander. A description?!

So at 14 years and six months... I'm going to get emotional now.

-Four feet.

-And a few inches. 10.

-His complexion. What does that say?

-I think that's fresh.

-Fresh?

-Eyes?

-Hazel.

-Hazel.

-Hair?

-Fair.

-Fair.

-Hallelujah!

-Yes!

-I could never tell where this and my children.

-Fair hair, finally, there's a clue.

-There you are, that's it, yep.

There's no records of any photographs of him?

Well, we don't have a photograph of him, unfortunately.

That's probably "fortunately" because I don't know if I could handle it.

However, what I can show you is this.

And this is certainly what he would have looked like.

Yes, here we are.

Right.

With his swagger cane and his gloves.

-This is what he would have worn?

-Yes. And if you look at the name...

That's his dad?

No, my feeling is, maybe because I want it to be,

-is that it's a younger brother.

-I can't take it. Oh, my God.

We can't be sure. We really don't know.

Can I see if there's a similarity?

-What makes you think that this is his brother?

-The name.

And the fact that he's in the Second Battalion.

And what age was he there?

14, 15, and this is pretty much what Alexander would have looked like.

-Ready to go out of barracks.

-Yes, that's incredible.

Boy soldiers like Alexander were educated in the barracks

and taught by soldier teachers.

They also learned how to march, salute, and handle weapons.

But boys weren't usually expected to fight

until they reached the age of 18.

Instead, they were trained in support roles such as tailors, shoemakers or clerks.

Others were taught to play in the band as buglers or drummer boys,

and doubled up as stretcher-bearers when on active duty.

Can I ask you if you have any information on what Alexander was doing?

-Indeed, yes, we know more about that, yes.

-Tell me!

It's amazing. Where is he? Where is he?

I can tell you from his military history sheet.

-Now that's an interesting one, there.

-What's this?

-What?

-Bandsman.

-Oh, is that what that says?

-Mm-hmm.

They were all given the opportunity to be buglers or drummers.

-My father was a drummer.

-If they showed no aptitude,

then they were shoved into the tailor shop. Can you read that?

-No, I can't. Can you?

-Yes, it says "discharged".

-Discharged?

-Discharged under article 1142.

Now, what that means is that he was allowed to leave the Army for personal reasons.

Right. What does this... Total service - eight years and two days.

Well, his history form with the Scots Guards says different.

He said he was with the HLI for 14 years and four months.

So, is he lying? Would they not have known if he was?

Yes, I think he was snatching that out of the air.

The eight years and two days fits his service with the Highland Light Infantry.

However, can you read that?

-He re-enlisted. Is that right?

-Mm-hmm.

-Enlists into R?

-Yeah.

-What's that?

-It's a G.

-RGA?

-RGA.

-What's that?

-Royal Garrison Artillery.

-So he possibly could have been...

He could have been in a battery in Plymouth and Portsmouth along the south coast.

So why, I wonder, when he joined the Scots Guards, did he tell a porky?

I don't know, but that is something for you to find.

I wish I could speak to this man.

Sam is on her way to Plymouth, where her great-grandfather was stationed with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

She wants to find out why Alexander lied to the Scots Guards

about serving in the Highland Light Infantry for an extra six years

when he was actually with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Ah, here we are.

"Military of Defence - access only."

I'm hoping they know I'm coming!

At the Royal Citadel, Sam has arranged to meet Colonel Edward Dawes.

This is a copy of Alexander's military record,

so we can see his previous service

-that you've already identified in the Highland infantry.

-Yes.

-Well, now, it really gets interesting over the page.

-OK.

This page describes the years that he served

and what he was doing, the rank that he held when he was serving here.

-Oh, and here, appointed musician.

-Yes.

The same year that he arrives here,

the Royal Garrison Artillery was putting together its first band here in Plymouth.

So is that something he would have been instrumental in, in terms of...?

Well, I think it's fair to say that he was one of the founding members of that band.

-Yes!

-So they were putting the band together.

He brought the music to the Royal Garrison Artillery.

He was, and music in those days was very important,

-it was part of the fabric of military life.

-Mm.

Certainly we can confirm he has been employed

in that trade as a musician.

Have I just seen this...

What does this say and this say, does that say arrested?

Yes. Right, so, reading on, after his promotion in 1906...

-Yes.

-..the next entry, what does that say?

Deserted. What's this, deserted?

-No?

-Yes.

-Yes?

-It does.

-So, can you read all of that?

-Deserted at Plymouth.

-Yep. 1910.

-Now, what does that mean?

That is... That is a very serious issue.

He should've been on duty and he wasn't.

And of course, only four years later in 1914, when we were at war,

that was an offence for which he was shot.

Of course, different in a time of peace, but still a very serious offence.

So he's left here and then, six months later, he's arrested,

awaiting trial?

-Yes.

-Tried and convicted? By what?

-By the civil power...

-By civil power.

What does that say? Imprisoned?

-He went to prison?

-Yes. It would appear so.

-Does it say what for?

-We don't know,

and the only thing the military is interested in is the fact

that he was convicted and he was discharged in his absence.

Which is why the Scots Guards have absolutely no record of this,

this was never mentioned.

In fact, the Royal Garrison Artillery was never mentioned, because he's...

-covered this up.

-He's cast a shroud over this.

And well he might, because as a commanding officer,

I can say that there is no chance that a convicted felon

and a deserter would have been re-enlisted.

-But we don't know...

-Alexander, where did you go? What did he do?

Well, that's your next question.

The Plymouth Record Office holds the city's prison records.

Sam knows that her great-grandfather was convicted in June, 1910.

But she has no idea what crime he committed.

This is his documents, reference number 30403.

God, it's incredible, look at that.

She's ordered the prison register for the year Alexander was imprisoned.

Now...

I'll start about there.

OK. I'm slightly nervous.

Let's have a look. So, name, no, Henry. Charles.

Frederick. William. George.

SHE GASPS There he is. Oh, gosh.

Ryan Alexander Cunningham.

What did he do?

Stealing one what?!

Cornet?

What did he steal? Sentence - one month.

And also, the date there is the 19th of August,

but here, I've got...

that he was arrested and convicted on the 27th of June.

So, is it the same offence?

I can't believe for stealing one item, the cornet... SHE CHUCKLES

..that he would lose his entire military career for something...

I was expecting to see something horrific.

Sam's discovered that Alexander committed two different crimes,

and now has more information about one of them, the theft of a cornet.

She's hoping that newspapers at the Plymouth Central Library

-will fill in more details.

-Dogs, poultry, livestock...

-My heart's pounding, you do realise that, don't you?

-I do.

She's asked Mark Smith, curator of the Royal Artillery Museum, to help her.

Oh, Royal Garrison Army, hold on.

"At Plymouth Police court yesterday morning

"a musician named Alexander Cunningham Ryan, of no fixed abode..."

I... I'm completely hyperventilating.

"..with stealing a euphonium valued £12, 12 shillings.

"He was further charged

"with stealing a silver cornet

"valued at £4, 4 shillings."

-It's quite a lot of money.

-What would the equivalent be?

£700 for the euphonium

-and maybe 250 for the cornet.

-Why has he done this? Why has done this?

"About three years ago he was appointed storeman

"and store librarian,

"being responsible for the care of the instruments and the music.

"On January 30th he disappeared

"and witness subsequently found that the cornet was also missing."

-"He was a frequent customer..." To who?

-It's a pawnbroker's shop.

He was a frequent... Oh, my gosh.

Well, he's pawning them.

And then when he's got money, he's redeeming them.

-He's getting them back again?

-Yes, and putting them back in the store.

And on this occasion, he hasn't been able to do it.

Someone has come and checked the store. He knows what he's doing.

He knows what he's doing. And just chance has come along...

-It just went wrong.

-..and bitten him in the bum.

-Exactly.

-I've something else to show you...

-Oh, God.

-..which will just...

No, honestly, it will just show you how much of a disaster this day was.

SHE LAUGHS

-Go on, then.

-OK.

So, an original document.

And this is called a description on final discharge, what does that mean?

Your future employers, once they find out you have been in the army...

-Will ask for this?

-Yes.

-Uh-oh.

-Yeah, uh-oh.

-"Caution." It doesn't start well, does it?

-No.

"Men who have been discharged from the army for misconduct of any sort

"or who have been dismissed with disgrace from the Navy

"are cautioned against attempting to re-enlist...

"..by concealing the circumstances of their discharge.

"Such re-enlistment renders a man liable to imprisonment

"with hard labour for two years."

So this is saying if he ever, if he ever decides to lie about this,

or re-enlist in the army without disclosing this piece of information,

-he goes straight back to jail?

-Straight to prison.

-That's your reference.

-So he now can't get any job outside...?

No, he is going to have a really hard time.

-So this is like a branding?

-Yep.

This dishonourable discharge is going to hang around his neck as...

-the ultimate disgrace.

-Yeah.

So when war is declared, he decides to try to hide this,

so he can re-enlist and become a part of the war?

He gets his second chance, he's back in the game and he gets shot

and that chance is taken away from him again.

He is wounded in the worst place possible for him personally,

when he's shot through the lung.

So the two things that made up this man's life,

military and music, both things were taken away from him.

He...

completely destroyed his world that one day when he took that cornet.

Alexander concealed his dishonourable discharge

so that he could volunteer for service in the First World War.

And actually, whether he falsified the information,

it doesn't really matter.

The fact that he got to be back in a world that he loved

and left it proudly would have been very important for him.

It's a bittersweet...experience, really.

The idea that my dad just missed out

in terms of understanding his heritage...

..knowing that the music certainly that was so strong in him...

..would have really, he would have really enjoyed getting to know his grandfather.

I would have loved to have shared that with him.

Sam now wants to find out about Alexander's partner,

her great-grandmother.

She knows very little about her,

just that her name was Beatrice Garraud,

and that Beatrice's mother was called Jessie Ryder.

To start her search, Sam has come back to London.

The only thing that we know about her is her name

and that Dolly lived with her mum in London.

So, it's a completely blank canvas.

It's weird not having any information.

I hope it's happy. SHE LAUGHS

At the Society Of Genealogists,

Elsa Churchill has been researching Sam's great-grandmother Beatrice.

The obvious search to do,

-we'll just try and find the birth of Beatrice.

-Great.

So, just basically trying to see when she was born.

-G-A-R-R...

-A-U-D.

OK.

And if we actually focus in exactly on the spelling

as we think it is, certainly nothing comes up with Beatrice.

-Ah.

-Nothing at all.

-So we thought, what's the only other facts we've got?

-Her mum.

Yes, precisely, so Jessie Ryder was the name.

So, we did actually come up with something which we think might be interesting.

-So, I've got some documents.

-(I love this bit.)

So I'm looking at a copy of an entry of marriage. 1892.

-So, is this Jessie here?

-Well, try the bottom.

Normally you get the groom at the top and the bride at the bottom.

-Oh, here we go, Jessie Ryder.

-Mm-hm.

-SAM LAUGHS

Now, gosh, what's this name here?

-The surname, can you say what that looks like?

-Well, we've got Garraud.

-Yeah, OK, so that's confirming...

-Ah!

-Can you make out the full name?

-No. Pierre?

-That's it.

-SHE ADOPTS ACCENT: Pierre.

-That's it, Pierre.

-So French?

-That's right.

I think that's possibly Pierre Franscois Olidon Garraud.

-Amazing.

-And then you get his age.

-27. And she was 23.

And then you get, the next column just gives the father of the groom

-and the father of the bride.

-So the father of Jessie

-is Alfred Ryder, an accountant.

-There you go.

And we've got the exact date of marriage, as well.

On August the 17th.

So, based upon that we can start looking for children of this couple.

-First child that we found...

-Entry of birth.

14th of December, 1892.

Now it's August.

September, October, November... Ah! THEY LAUGH

-Four months after the marriage.

-Very close, but in.

Now, what does this say here? So who's that?

Naomi Finney, Anthony Lennard.

-So that's a boy?

-That's the first one.

-That's not Beatrice.

-And then we can go on.

-It's so exciting.

-Oh, here we go. The 26th of August, '94.

-OK.

So, less than two years later they have a little girl.

-What does that say?

-I think that says Berthe. B-E-R-T-H-E.

-Berthe Marie Josepha.

-That's right.

Can you see, can you read that?

What does that say? The French...

Where and when born, it says the 26th of August at the French Hospital.

-Mm-hm. Can you read where it says?

-No, I can't see what that says.

-Shaftesbury...

-Shaftesbury Avenue!

That's incredible.

And the interesting thing for me is that this is the only two children.

-You can't find Beatrice?

-Well, certainly not something as Beatrice.

Ah. Could this be the same person?

Well, I can't find an alternative, so, you know,

has Berthe become Beatrice?

Are you saying that that's what you think is likely?

-It seems a bit coincidental that we've got a Berthe.

-I see.

And in checking out all the documentation,

we actually came across this document.

Certified copy of an entry of death.

Anthony Garraud, male, six years old.

SHE TUTS

SHE GASPS

-Burnt?

-I know, it's awful, isn't it?

Accidental.

I can't see, what does this say? Burnt?

-Burns from...

-Nightdress?

-Yeah.

-Catching fire...

-Oh, at the gas stove.

That's so shocking.

So what does this say here?

An orphanage... He was given up for adoption?

Yeah, and then from the orphanage seems to die in the...

In the infirmary, in the Hampstead Infirmary, Hampstead where I've lived...

-..for years.

-Yeah.

-And then has the inquest on the 28th.

Five days later there's an inquest.

And one of the things you might want to consider, I suppose,

-is because we've got the coroner giving the information...

-Yes.

..coroners' inquests are invariably going to be reported.

So, look in kind of newspaper archives?

-Yes, that's one thing to have a look out for that.

-My goodness.

If reports into Anthony's death still exists,

Sam hopes to find them at the Camden Archive Centre.

She wants to know exactly what happened to Anthony

and why he ended up in an orphanage.

-So, these are your two newspapers.

-Brilliant.

We've got this volume of Hampstead And Highgate Express from 1899.

-And that's for the whole year, is it?

-That's for the whole year.

-And this is the Hamstead Record, also for 1899.

-Fantastic.

-Am I all right to have a look through these?

-Yes, of course.

-Brilliant, thank you.

-You're welcome.

Oh...

So, the date I'm looking for is February the 23rd.

So it's weekly, so it would be this one starting on the 25th.

Well, I can't see anything in that week's issue,

let's try next week's, which is Saturday, the 4th of March.

Apartments, situations vacant, alleged kidnapping at Hampstead...

Ah.

Here it is.

"Shocking burning fatality.

"On Tuesday Dr G Danford Thomas held an inquest

"at New End on the body of Anthony..." Now, they've put it as Garrond.

"Aged six-and-a-half years, he died in the workhouse infirmary

"from the effects of burns.

"Mary Ann Johnson, a sister at St Vincent's Orphanage, Holly Place

"stated that on the previous Thursday the boy had not been well.

"He was kept in his bed in a room at the top floor.

"He had his dinner at about 12 o'clock..." Oh, this is upsetting.

"Shortly afterwards screams were heard

"and a witness and another sister went up to his room.

"His nightshirt was on fire

"and a witness and another put out the flames with the aid of a blanket."

SHE GASPS

"There was a gas stove in the bedroom fitted into the fireplace

"that was alight at the time and there was no guard around it,

"because it was not generally used for children, that room.

"The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

"The grandfather of the child, Alfred Wright..." Jessie's father.

It was Alfred Ryder. So that's obviously a clerical error.

It said he identified the boy as his grandson. "His father was dead...

"..and his mother was abroad."

Wow.

Let's see if the other one has got any more information.

Er... I'm going to get the same...

..date, which will be March the 4th, the last one was at.

March 4th... Oh, there it is.

Anthony Garrond, again they've got his name wrong here,

aged six-and-a-half years.

"It was stated at the outset that the child's mother was in America."

America...

"After the conclusion of the inquest, the grandfather arrived and said

"that his name was Alfred Wright," which again is the wrong name.

So that's Jessie's dad, didn't even go to the inquest.

And it says here that his daughter,

the mother who was on the stage had gone to America.

On the stage?

So...

..Jessie was an actress, as well.

And here, Alfred says the boy was of a rather is mischievous character.

Well, he was six-and-a-half.

I just feel so sorry for him.

And why did she go to work on the stage in America?

But where is Berthe or Beatrice, where's my great-grandmother? What happened to her?

Sam still hasn't found any information

on her great-grandmother Beatrice.

So she's come to meet Colin Carsten,

senior librarian at the West Hampstead Library.

We found Berthe's brother Anthony, who sadly died.

But Berthe or Beatrice, we don't know if it's the same person

or if in fact she is my great-grandmother.

Well, if we do a wildcard search,

that will bring out different spellings of the same name

or variations of both first name and last name.

-She was known as Beatrice, that's how we knew her.

-OK, B-E-A...

And then Garraud.

-So you just put in the first few letters?

-Yeah.

That's clever.

-Cos then it should bring up anything.

-I see.

-And born?

-1894.

-Ah!

-OK. So, that's 1901.

So, Wiltshire, Wiltshire, Lancashire,

-Suffolk, Surrey...

-That's Ipswich.

-No, Ipswich...

Ah, Shaftesbury. I know she was born in Shaftesbury Avenue.

But that's a Beattie Garrand. The place is right.

-Can we look at that one?

-Let's look at the record and see.

I know she was about four years old when Anthony died,

so she'd be about six now.

-Look, six years old.

-Six years old.

-That's her, it's got to be her.

It's estimated birth year, so it's estimated, 1885. I was told 1894.

Where born - Shaftesbury Avenue, St Paul's parish.

Region South Hammersmith.

Now what's this? Institution Nazareth House.

OK, let's look for Nazareth House.

Ah, there it is. District - Nazareth House.

So, enumeration book

and the description is, a convent and home for the aged and infirm

and destitute children on the Hammersmith Road.

So she's in an orphanage, as well.

Around 78,000 children were living in some sort of institution

in Britain by 1890.

Often these youngsters were orphaned or abandoned by parents

who had fallen on hard times.

The most dreaded place for destitute children to end up

was the workhouse, where they were subjected to a harsh regime

and categorised as inmates.

More fortunate youngsters found places in charitable homes

such as Nazareth House.

Here, children received an education until the age of 12.

Many then stayed on for another two years to learn a trade.

Today, Nazareth House is a care home for the elderly.

Sam's meeting archivist Doctor Peter Hughes.

-Hello, Peter.

-Hello.

-I'm Sam.

-Welcome to Nazareth House.

-Thank you very much.

-Let's go in this way.

-Thank you.

What I have here is one of the children's admission registers.

-Mm-hm.

-This one starts in 1895.

-Right.

-And goes all the way up to 1981...

-Gosh.

..when the work here with the children ceased.

So, if I open it here...

-..if you would like to look through and see what you can find.

-OK.

Christian name, Margaret, Katherine, Amy, Helen, Lily...

Beatrice.

Beatrice. Beatrice, not Beattie.

Well, we don't know what the surname is yet, do we?

-But it says Shaftesbury.

-Right, is that the correct date of birth?

It is. 1894.

Which is when we know that... And here we go, look,

parents' names, Peter Garraud and Jessie Ryder.

-That's my great-great-grandparents.

-Right.

-This has to be her.

-Mm, yes.

So Beattie Garraud and Beatrice Garraud clearly are one and the same.

Yep.

-Does this say when she came to be here?

-Yeah, you've got to keep going.

Keep going. Received - July 29th, 1897.

She was two and a bit, she was two-and-three-quarters.

Close to being three.

What's interesting here, look...

-Taken by grandparents.

-Yes.

-May the 6th, 1902...

which would have made her...

-'94... 6, 7... 8?

-Nearly 8.

So, three years after her brother perishes in a fire,

the grandparents come to pick her up?

Yes.

It begs the question,

why did they not take both grandchildren in when she gave...

Maybe they couldn't afford to look after a child.

-And there's only one now to take, isn't there?

-Mm.

So, we finally found her, Beatrice,

and this is where she was for about eight years.

And it's the closest I've got to being in a place

that she would have spent time in.

I'm desperate to know more now, desperate to know about Beatrice

and her mother Jessie and were they reunited?

Where did Jessie go? Why did she go?

Sam wants to understand what made her great-great-grandmother

abandon her children and go to America.

She's checking the passenger lists for Atlantic crossings during the 1890s.

So, I'm now going to put in Jessie Ryder's name

into a passenger list and see if I can find out

did she go to America or did she go anywhere?

So I've got Jessie...

..Ryder. Year of birth, around 1867,

so if I put plus five years...

SHE GASPS

She's here. SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my goodness. New York.

Port of departure, Liverpool, and she arrived on the 14th of March...

..1891.

So that's before she got married.

Now, hold on. Look, if I scroll up...

..she's got herself listed...

..as an artist.

And then here, eight months later, she went back.

Well, it's saying she went to New York in March

and came back in November.

So, she clearly went to be some kind of actress or something.

But I wonder if she went back to New York when she left her kids.

So, there's no other way of knowing

any more about her, unless I actually follow the trail to New York.

CAR HORNS TOOT

Sam knows that her great-great-grandmother Jessie travelled to New York

as an artist in 1891, before she married and had children.

Sam has come to New York to find out if Jesse returned here

six years later, after leaving Anthony and Beatrice in orphanages.

-Hi, Leslie, I'm Sam.

-Hi, Sam, lovely to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

Sam is meeting genealogist Leslie Corn,

who's been looking into Jessie's time in the United States.

I'm trying to work out whether she was actually here.

I'm hoping that's something you can help me with.

-I wish I could in New York.

-OK.

-Found nothing in New York.

-Oh.

Absolutely nothing. Vital records, naturalisation records, censuses,

directories, nothing for her.

Then, you know, if you don't find someone in New York,

broaden the search to what we call the tri-state area, New Jersey and Connecticut. So...

And did you find her?

Full name of child...

Jessie Ryder had a child here?

-Annie, is this Annie?

-Mm-hm.

-Annie Gertrude Finkle.

-Yes.

Who the hell is Finkle?

Who's Finkle?!

So, little girl, date of birth, August the 5th...

1899.

Well, this puts her here in the US. So she's come back.

February, March, April, May, June, July, August...

She had a daughter six months after her son perished in a fire.

36-and-a-half?

-Bree Street?

-Erie.

-Erie Street?

-Erie Street.

-Erie Street in Jersey City.

-Right.

-That was the place of the birth of Annie Gertrude Finkle.

-So...

Annie, the little girl's father is Harry Philip Finkle.

I can't get my head around why she was here.

She must have known that her son had perished in a fire six months previously. Presumably...

..if this little girl was born six months later,

then she was already pregnant when she found out about

Anthony's death.

And what's she doing, just having children everywhere

when she's got two in an orphanage?

It's quite a lot to take in, isn't it?

The more I find out about Jessie, the harder it is to swallow.

I'm getting a little uncomfortable, actually.

Because there's just such a long line of kind of damage,

and this woman now seems to be the new villain in the piece.

At the moment, that's how I'm seeing her.

And I don't want her to be that.

Sam has read in newspaper reports that her great-great-grandmother

came to America to be on the stage.

She wants to find out what kind of a performer Jessie was.

I'm looking for any information about my great-great-grandmother...

At the Mint Theatre,

she's come to meet theatrical historian Helen Violante.

So I wondered if she had a history in the theatre.

Well, let's look into an online database here.

-The last name's Finkle?

-Yes...

-Well, one of her last names.

-One of her last names is Finkle!

OK. So, we'll type in Finkle

and we'll see what comes up.

-Found six items.

-Six items.

Between 1690 and 2007.

Um, let see what the first one says here.

-August the 6th, 1904.

-It's coming up.

-SHE GASPS That's a picture!

-It looks like it.

Yes.

Uh... I-I'm speechless.

I can't believe that's her.

-That's quite a scary face.

-It is quite a scary face, yes.

There's no warmth in that face, is there?

It's a very stern expression in that particular... Yeah.

I'll just scroll down so you can read it.

-Hold on, so Lyric Theatre... Hoboken?

-Hoboken, New Jersey.

New Jersey. So, the time...

"Mrs Jessie Almer Finkle and her little daughter Gertrude of 37..."

Well, it was 36-and-a-half, but still, "..37-and-a-half Erie Street,

"this city, will be with

"WE Nankeville's Silver Slipper company this season.

"Miss Finkle has an excellent reputation in the profession as a...

"talented comedienne." So it's a comedy?

Well, it has elements of comedy, singing, dancing.

-That's a bit freaky.

-Yes.

So let's see here...

"Little Gertrude takes after her clever mother."

And that's her?

-Gertrude.

-Little Gertrude?

-Yeah.

-Oh, God, imagine putting your daughter on the stage at that...

-At that age.

-I mean, she's...

I'm looking at this photo of my great-great-grandmother

and I'm feeling nothing but contempt for this woman.

It's as if...

It's as if her previous family doesn't even exist.

-And remind me of the date again of this.

-This was 1904.

So five years after he burned to death and she still hasn't gone back

to get her other daughter, and yet she's cavorting on stage.

I mean, I'm desperate to find some reason to understand it

or to explain her actions.

I want to scribble her face out, do something really childish.

But I won't.

When I left to come here,

I didn't know what instigated her leaving both her kids.

I was hoping it was because she was madly in love with this guy

and he died and she couldn't cope.

It wasn't that. It wasn't that, it was...

It was that she wanted all of this.

Is all this worth it?

I don't think so.

After Sam's great-great-grandmother Jessie left her children

back in England, she set up home in Jersey City with her new love

Harry Finkle and their baby daughter Annie Gertrude.

Really what I want to now do is find out where my great-grandmother is

in all of this, where Beatrice is.

Did Jessie stay here in America?

Did she leave Beatrice in London after Anthony's death,

or did eventually she bring her here?

Did she introduce her to her new family,

or was she just left abandoned?

I really want to find out now where Beatrice fits in,

my grandmother's mum, where was she?

To try to find out more, Sam's come to the Jersey City public library.

She's searching the census records.

So, I'm going to try the technique

that I was shown for the kind of wildcard search,

so just putting in the first four letters of her name.

And then we've got Finkle...

And we know that she lived in Jersey City.

Search...

So, this is 1910. SHE LAUGHS

This is really funny. We've got a Jessie Tinkle,

which is now actually in brackets, Jessie Finkle.

There was obviously a spelling error.

Now, birth year, 1871, birthplace, England.

So let's view that record.

Jessie Tinkle, Finkle, she's now 39 and she's living in New Jersey.

Married...

SHE GASPS

I'm very excited. Household members.

There's Annie Gertrude, her daughter, a little Harry Junior

and there's a Beatrice.

She's got her.

And she's 14.

There's my great-grandmother, there she is. She brought her to America.

Crazy.

I want to find out when she got her.

So, if I know that was 1910,

if I do the New York passenger list for, let's try...

Finkle, let's put in Finkle.

1910, with a variation of ten years.

And we'll find out when she came.

I'm excited.

There she is. She came over on The Adriatic

from Southampton on the 6th of September, 1907.

Now calling herself Beatrice Finkle, and she's ten years old.

She got onto a ship called The Adriatic

and she came over to be with her mum for the first time since she was a...

Well, since she was a toddler.

Let's go to the passenger list here and see...

Oh, it's one of these incredibly small handwriting...

Finkle.

Here she is. SHE GASPS

Oh, look!

All the Finkles came to get her.

There's Jessie, her daughter Annie Gertrude, her son Harry, who's three,

Helen, who could be a cousin or something and there's Beatrice.

So the whole lot went back to get her.

That's nice. Well...

At least she did the right thing,

which is go and get her daughter, finally.

God, I bet that was a weird journey. Imagine!

Imagine the awkward silences.

That's 28...

30...

Around the corner from the Jersey City public library is Erie Street.

Sam knows that her great-great-grandmother used to live here,

at number 36-and-a-half.

There's 36.

And that is 36-and-a-half, Erie Street.

They all lived here.

SHE LAUGHS

Well...

She would have walked up the steps with her kids.

That's amazing.

Incredible. I wonder if these are the same. I wonder if she held these.

And it's been a strange journey,

because I have mixed feelings about all of them.

Alexander, the pain he must have suffered

when he lost his military and his music career in one fell swoop.

And the complicated relationship between Jessie,

my great-great-grandmother, and Beatrice.

And the pain caused.

I think there's a peace within me that wasn't there before

of just knowing that I came from somewhere, that there was...

a family out there that I belonged to.

And that clearly they were all performers in some way,

and that gives me a real sense of pride.

It's been truly, truly healing.

And something that I will never be able to change now,

I will never ask those questions again, who are we, where are we from?

Cos I now know.

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