0:00:07 > 0:00:09'I'm Ricky Ross.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13'You may know me better as the singer of Deacon Blue.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:14# And I'm telling this story
0:00:14 > 0:00:16# In a faraway scene
0:00:16 > 0:00:19# Sipping down raki
0:00:19 > 0:00:21# And reading Maynard Keynes
0:00:21 > 0:00:23# And I'm thinking about home... #
0:00:23 > 0:00:27I grew up in Dundee and left when I was 24.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31And now I'm back, aged 54,
0:00:31 > 0:00:35to try my hand at both family and local history research.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43This is my home city of Dundee.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48It's situated right on the east coast of Scotland.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53This is the Tay Estuary, here, and, of course, the two mighty bridges,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56the rail bridge and the road bridge over here,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00which I remember being opened. I remember it being built
0:01:00 > 0:01:02as I grew up here in the city.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07I was born just down here below this hill
0:01:07 > 0:01:10at the Dundee Royal Infirmary.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13I grew up, really, in the Ferry over there
0:01:13 > 0:01:16and I went to school there and eventually to the centre of town
0:01:16 > 0:01:18to secondary school at Dundee High School.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22I suppose what we all want to know is where do we come from
0:01:22 > 0:01:25and what's our relationship with that place?
0:01:25 > 0:01:29I'm going to explore that need starting today.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32But I'm not doing it alone. I've got help.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37And it's the kind of help that's available throughout Britain.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41This is my Dundee team.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48So, why don't you join me as I try and find out more about my family and my place?
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Wouldn't it be great if you could time travel?
0:02:08 > 0:02:14Well, with access to film archive, you sort of can.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19'Jute, jam and journalism - that spells Dundee.'
0:02:19 > 0:02:22That's the headlines, but ask any Dundonian
0:02:22 > 0:02:25and you'll get that and a lot more.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Well, Dundee has a lot of good history, the Discovery,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34the jute mills, the jam, the journalism,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37DC Thomson's, with the newspapers.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Dundee's got a tremendous history.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44Very, very rich history of song and story telling.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49The working class voice, the Scots dialect of Dundee,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53is a wonderful part of the tapestry of Scotland
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and it should be something that's celebrated.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Dundee's had a very chequered history.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00For many years, it was a very rich city.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05It lost a lot of its money in the 17th century.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Um, Cromwell sent his men up to Scotland and sacked Dundee
0:03:09 > 0:03:13and I believe it took a long time to recover, if it ever has, from that.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Dundee was a great place.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23Dundee's lost a lot of its memories during the years I've been here.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26And so have I, but I'm hoping to find them again.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32The Dundee Family History Centre, based in the Wellgate,
0:03:32 > 0:03:36offers a unique one-stop facility for family history research.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41'I'm told that, for an hourly fee, you can even hire the registrar,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44'Grant Law, to get you started.'
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Now, you're here to do some research into your family tree?
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Well, I am, but I don't know anything.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53- I haven't got anything with me. I don't know much.- That's OK.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57- Literally all we need is your name and your date of birth.- Really?- Yeah.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01I imagine I might need to come in with a birth certificate or...
0:04:01 > 0:04:07- I'm sure you'll know your date of birth!- I do. 22/12/57.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10- And what was your full name at birth?- Richard Alexander Ross.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14What I'm going to do now is search the database for Scotland
0:04:14 > 0:04:19and, if you give me a couple of hours, we should be able to trace
0:04:19 > 0:04:23your family tree back on every branch pretty much to the late 1700s.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25That's amazing! If I come back here in a couple of hours,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28- you'll have something to show me? - Yeah. We should be able
0:04:28 > 0:04:31to take you back about five or six generations on every branch.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34- I'm going Dundee scoping. I'll be back.- OK.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36I'll see you shortly in that case.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44'Just about wherever you look, there are signs of time past.'
0:04:48 > 0:04:51The reason it's called Castle Street is because
0:04:51 > 0:04:54we erected a castle here in the 12th century.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58It was fought over between the Scottish and the English for years and years,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01back and forwards, so we got fed up and we decided to knock it all down.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05In 1832, Dundee were celebrating the Reform Act.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07There was a hill situated behind me which they blew up
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and they made it into a street and they called it Reform Street.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14There's a guy called Samuel Bell
0:05:14 > 0:05:17who designed the church tower you can see behind me
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and that's the reason the street is called Bell Street.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23It's true what they say - every name tells a story.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26But sometimes you have to go deeper.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32'Just off Shore Terrace is the old Exchange Building, where I met
0:05:32 > 0:05:35'Professor Charles McKean from the University of Dundee
0:05:35 > 0:05:37'who took me underground.'
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Wow!
0:05:39 > 0:05:44Now, Charles, I've just come into this from what I used to call
0:05:44 > 0:05:47the bus station, where I used to catch the bus home from school,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49and across from that, a big building, where we are now,
0:05:49 > 0:05:54which I thought of as the stationers, where I used to get my stationery when I was at school.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58And you've brought me into a whole other level, so where are we now?
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Well, we're actually in 1644
0:06:02 > 0:06:06and we're in a thing that was built then called Packhouse Square.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09- If you look down here, you can see there's the sea.- Mm-hm.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Before iron, they had a stone drain and there it is.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16We're at harbour level of 1644.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20This was built as a whole complex of warehouses.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22Why did it all change?
0:06:22 > 0:06:27Why do we no longer have this as... as the shore level?
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Well, we're 14 feet underground,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34because of the tidal wave that hit Dundee in 1755.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37This was the tidal wave that came from the Lisbon earthquake.
0:06:37 > 0:06:38- The tide wave?- The tidal wave.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41What are we talking about in terms of impact?
0:06:41 > 0:06:45Well, it looks as though it might've come into the Tay about 50 feet high.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47- That's incredible! - And what we do know is
0:06:47 > 0:06:50it took out most of the harbour, just wiped it out.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53We haven't managed to find too much else
0:06:53 > 0:06:55but what we know is what happened next.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58They were busy trying to repair the packhouses
0:06:58 > 0:07:01because they were 100-years-old. But they stopped.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05They raised the entire harbour level up by 14 feet,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08so this became underground instead of being the shore level
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and that's why it's still here.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14But luckily, we've got some original storm doors
0:07:14 > 0:07:18so you can see how they're designed to keep the sea out.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22You can see these are storm doors with a lip coming out, like that.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26And a big metal plate behind. So they've been there for some time.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31As you come in, you've got to imagine that's the harbour out there.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Because over there is a window.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36You don't have a window from one cellar to another
0:07:36 > 0:07:39but you do have a window from a storehouse out into the harbour.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43- That's amazing. - So you can see, Ricky,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47- that this is of a different age from where we've been...- Yes.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51..and I think this would be right back to the first packhouse...
0:07:51 > 0:07:54- Of 1644.- ..of 1644.- Yeah.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Now, if you want to find part of your story
0:07:57 > 0:08:00and you want to come to a place like this,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02how do you get yourself down here?
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Well, it's owned by a charity at the moment
0:08:04 > 0:08:07so the best way of getting down here is either by arrangement with them
0:08:07 > 0:08:09or by going on one of the walks,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11cos there's a series of walks around medieval Dundee.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16- And, as a rule, you can get down on that.- With you?- Sometimes, yes.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20'After a glimpse of medieval Dundee,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24'it's time to get back to the library at the Wellgate Centre.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29'Here I find members of the Lochee History Group hard at work.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33'Currently, they're researching the old shops of Lochee.'
0:08:33 > 0:08:35You come down here, what, once...
0:08:35 > 0:08:40Well, actually, we meet every Tuesday in Lochee Library at 10 o'clock.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43- And it's known as the Lochee History Group.- Yeah.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46And when we can't get enough information in the Lochee Library,
0:08:46 > 0:08:51- we come down to the central library. - What about your own stories?
0:08:51 > 0:08:54- Have you gone back to find out who your grandparents...?- Oh, yes.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59- How far does it go back?- Well, that's...- Oh, wow! This is amazing.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03- You've got pictures and everything. - Well, this is a family tree.- Yeah.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08This is my grandfather and this is his oldest boy, George,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11and, when they went to register him,
0:09:11 > 0:09:17either, A, the registrar was deaf or, B, my grandfather was drunk
0:09:17 > 0:09:20and he was meant to be John
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and, on his birth certificate, it's actually George.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27'It's clear from the ladies, there's a lot of fun
0:09:27 > 0:09:29'and a great sense of satisfaction
0:09:29 > 0:09:33'to be had in researching your own family tree.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36'They've really whetted my appetite and I'm now very keen to see
0:09:36 > 0:09:39'how Grant has got on with my tailor-made order.'
0:09:39 > 0:09:42- So, Grant, have you got any good news for me?- Yes, sure.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44I've concentrated on the Ross side,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47although I've taken every branch back five generations.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51But the Ross side we've traced back seven generations.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54- Seven generations?- Yeah, we've taken you back to about 1770
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and they were living in Forfar just outside Dundee at that time.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01You can see a couple of reports, one taking the family back from yourself,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05and the one coming forward from the furthest back Ross we found,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07who's Peter Ross.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09'So, in just two hours,
0:10:09 > 0:10:16'Grant has traced my family tree all the way back to a marriage in 1794,
0:10:16 > 0:10:23'uncovering a long line of Rosses that all connect to me and Dundee.'
0:10:25 > 0:10:28What we can also do for you, if you are interested,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32we can trace the Ross line forward from the earliest Peter Ross
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and find out what family you might have living in the area as well.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41As far as I know, no-one that I have...
0:10:41 > 0:10:43There's no-one in Dundee that I know of.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47Well, I mean, if you take the generations back seven generations,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51- there's a lot of family members you don't know anything about.- True!
0:10:51 > 0:10:53It's quite a common part of our work, actually.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57- We get requests from America, Canada, Australia...- To find people.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59..asking for a family living in Scotland.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Listen, if I owe any of them any money just...
0:11:01 > 0:11:03THEY CHUCKLE
0:11:05 > 0:11:08'Grant has pulled out all the stops and has even called up
0:11:08 > 0:11:12'some of my family's documents held in his local archives.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16'There is something so special about handling the originals.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20'Seeing them, names and home addresses,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24'along with places and trades, catch my eye.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30'More links to the past - my past, and I'm off to investigate.'
0:11:35 > 0:11:39So, what I've found is that my family lived for a while
0:11:39 > 0:11:44at 229 Overgate, Dundee, which is kind of news to me, really.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Cos the Overgate, when I was a kid, was getting knocked down
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and a brand-new shopping centre was built there.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52I don't really remember the Overgate
0:11:52 > 0:11:56but it seems, when I asked the folk here to locate this place,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00it's some brilliant buildings. So it seems that the family house,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03at 229 Overgate, was here on this block here,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07but that house was probably not the one that they lived in.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10It may be looked more like this one here.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12It's a really good-looking street
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and it was all pulled down round about the time that I was young boy.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18And, you know, it's a...
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Well, it's a very, very attractive looking street,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23row of houses, cobbled road
0:12:23 > 0:12:27and it kind of surprises me, really, that it's no longer there.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31So, I really probably want to find out the history of what's gone on here.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33And there's one man who can help me with that.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37And it's Iain, the city archivist, so I'm going to catch him.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45There are council archives throughout the length and breadth of Scotland,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49all looked after by people like Iain Flett.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53'These archive staff are ready and waiting
0:12:53 > 0:12:55'to share their knowledge with you.'
0:12:56 > 0:13:00- Iain, I presume.- Yes. Good to see you, Ricky.- Lovely to meet you.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Listen, I am a bit confused,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06because I thought I was going to meet you on the Overgate
0:13:06 > 0:13:09and my understanding of the Overgate is it stopped somewhere over there.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13- And I'm on the top of Tay Street, so what's going on?- You're on Overgate.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Overgate is the over road. Remember it's spelt G-A-I-T in Scotland,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20- so it means you're gaiting...- Yes.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and you're travelling from the 15th-century old steeple
0:13:23 > 0:13:28in a straight line to the Westport and that's the Westport Bar,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33which was where you'd have gone out towards the country.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35So, you are on the Overgate,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39but the 1960s inner road means that this has all been destroyed.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Yes, and the Overgate now just refers to somewhere over there,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45but in actual fact it came all this way.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49My family lived at 229 Overgate
0:13:49 > 0:13:52which must be somewhere around here.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56It's right in the middle of this dual carriageway.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01We have a photograph of what it would have looked like.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04There's a fairly run-down hotel called the Strathmore Arms Hotel.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09That's quite a posh tenement built in the 1870s or 1880s.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13- It's a double lam, so you'd have been behind that.- Behind that in some way?
0:14:13 > 0:14:19In the back lands of the Overgate you have, by the 1870s,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22mill-working families there and artisans,
0:14:22 > 0:14:28people who tease out the jutes, who are working at the hard end...
0:14:28 > 0:14:33But really, it's very dense housing. A dense population.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36One of the other interesting bits of information that I've discovered
0:14:36 > 0:14:41is that my great-great-grandfather, whoever he was, ran an eating house.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44- What's an eating house?- An eating house where you didn't drink...
0:14:44 > 0:14:48- Right.- ..because drink, as today in Scotland, is associated with alcohol.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50So the Strathmore Arms Hotel,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54you'd have bought alcohol as a travelling salesman or whatever,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57but in the eating house, it would have been no alcohol.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00- It's very important, the temperance movement in Victorian Dundee.- Yes.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04That's certainly something that I can remember in my family still
0:15:04 > 0:15:07going back, so that was obviously something that started
0:15:07 > 0:15:10in the last century, moved into the 20th century.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12The temperance movement, then,
0:15:12 > 0:15:16the fact that they were next door to this place, was that significant?
0:15:16 > 0:15:21It is because you can imagine people with clapperboards outside saying,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23- "Come in here for no alcohol." - Avoid this.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27There are important...there are big temperance hotels in Dundee.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31- There's Lamb's Hotel. - Now, that's interesting.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36Because Lamb's Hotel's come up twice in the records of where my family...
0:15:36 > 0:15:39I think my grandparents or great-grandparents
0:15:39 > 0:15:42on both sides of the family were married in Lamb's Hotel,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44so what's Lamb's Hotel about?
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Lamb's Hotel is at the top of Reform Street.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49It is a high-class establishment
0:15:49 > 0:15:52where you know you're going to get clean linen.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56You won't be seduced by alcohol or anything else. It's a statement.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04You didn't drink in those days. The Overgate was a great place.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09On a Sunday night, you went to the Pally, no drink involved.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13I met the best ever folk I've met at the Overgate.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15It had a marvellous feeling to it.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18It had wonderful character, the Overgate.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Um, it had some wonderful old shops in it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23I remember going for sarsaparilla in the Overgate.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26You run down the Nethergate and walked up the Overgate
0:16:26 > 0:16:30and you met as many friends and you stayed and spoke to them
0:16:30 > 0:16:33- and it was called the Monkey Parade. - SHE LAUGHS
0:16:33 > 0:16:36You just went around in a circle, the Monkey Parade.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40It was a shame, because the old Overgate had a lot of history.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44But the council, in their wisdom, decided they wanted to modernise it
0:16:44 > 0:16:47so it was all taken down. It was sad.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51It wasn't just the Overgate, I think the heart was ripped out of Dundee
0:16:51 > 0:16:54in the '60s and '70s by people
0:16:54 > 0:16:58who didn't have the good of the town at heart, in my opinion.
0:16:58 > 0:16:59It was all about money.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02It was sad for Dundee because there was lots of good things
0:17:02 > 0:17:06in the Overgate and people had stayed there all their lives.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16'So the Overgate was lost. 'Some might say sacrificed.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18'I'm meeting up with Charles McKean again
0:17:18 > 0:17:21'to visit the oldest building in Dundee.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27'One that has managed to survive the bulldozers.'
0:17:28 > 0:17:31So now, you're in, effectively, a medieval landscape.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35A sort of Baltic landscape, six storeys tall.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38You'll find this only in Edinburgh or Dundee.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42- This enormous building is called Gardyne's Land.- Yeah.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45And there was a time it was going to be demolished,
0:17:45 > 0:17:46like the buildings in the Overgate.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Why do you think this wasn't seen in the other Overgate?
0:17:50 > 0:17:53Why do you think they knocked down the other one?
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Possibly, Dundee tended to knock down what was in the way
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and leave what wasn't in the way.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02- This survived, because it was on the back land, really.- OK.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06And nobody ever wanted to demolish the foreland until the 1960s.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Whereas, for the last 60 years or whatever,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12they just wanted to take the Overgate out,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15- cos they'd had a thing about the Overgate.- Why was that?
0:18:15 > 0:18:20- What was it standing in the way of? - It wasn't grand enough for Dundee.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23- OK.- By the late 19th century, Dundee was really booming.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28- And they wanted a city that reflected a really smart modern town.- Mmm.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Frankly, the Overgate may have been a magnificent medieval street,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34but it wasn't a smart modern town.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37- And it had already fallen into some disrepair?- Well...
0:18:37 > 0:18:39They had encouraged that by emptying it.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42It's what later they would call planning buying.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45You would buy it and you would let it just decay.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51'Thankfully, Gardyne's Land still stands to tell its story.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54'In the McManus Museum, there is a haunting model
0:18:54 > 0:18:59'that traps and holds the spirit of what Dundee once was.'
0:19:00 > 0:19:06'It was a live place. Everybody knew everybody.'
0:19:06 > 0:19:09'The Overgate was the first place ever to have
0:19:09 > 0:19:12'an electric lit stairway.'
0:19:12 > 0:19:15'We walked down the Overgate all the time. There was some beautiful shops
0:19:15 > 0:19:18'and they took them all away. It was awful.'
0:19:19 > 0:19:21It was the march of progress
0:19:21 > 0:19:25and the quest for modernity that changed the face of Dundee.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27It was the city fathers who allowed the buildings
0:19:27 > 0:19:31to slide into disrepair, allowing the slums to thrive
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and infect the health and wellbeing of their people
0:19:34 > 0:19:38so, when the town planners arrived to save them,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40the soon-to-be homeless followed.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46'I want to find out just how bad things got for the poor of Dundee.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49'So I'm on my way to the University of Dundee to meet
0:19:49 > 0:19:51'the head of archives, Patricia Whatley,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54'to get some answers.' OK, Patricia, where are we now?
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Well, this is the main store of the university archives.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02- Here, you can see it's different from a library.- What's in all these boxes?
0:20:02 > 0:20:05All of these will contain information about family history as well as
0:20:05 > 0:20:10other material that family historians and other historians and researchers
0:20:10 > 0:20:12might want to use. Online, you can look at the census
0:20:12 > 0:20:16- and various other records...- Right. - ..for the basics of your family tree.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Then you need the archives to fill in the gaps.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22It does seem a bit intimidating to the outsider, someone who maybe
0:20:22 > 0:20:25hasn't been to university, someone who doesn't go and study.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Can you really honestly walk off the street
0:20:28 > 0:20:31- and come into a place like this and access it?- Absolutely.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35- We want people to be engaged, use the records.- Uh-huh.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39It doesn't matter if they're university staff or students, we want people from the community.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43- We want people from Dundee.- Does that happen? Does it get infectious?- Yes!
0:20:43 > 0:20:46'Patricia leads me to meet Caroline who wants to show me some records
0:20:46 > 0:20:50'that help tell the story of the health of Old Dundee.'
0:20:50 > 0:20:52- We hold the archives of NHS Tayside.- Yes.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55And this is an absolutely fantastic resource
0:20:55 > 0:20:58- for anyone with connections with Dundee.- Yeah.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01In fact, with Perth and Angus as well, because we have records
0:21:01 > 0:21:04from the whole of the Tayside area. One thing I spotted, actually,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- when I was looking at this before... - Get my glasses on.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09This is an admission record from Dundee Royal Infirmary.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14- And we noticed that this man here, William Ross...- Aged 25.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18This must be my great-great- great-grandfather's brother.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22And you can see that he was admitted to Dundee Royal Infirmary
0:21:22 > 0:21:26on the 26th of November. He was a boilermaker
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and he lived in Blackness Road. He had an accident
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and it must have been a pretty nasty accident,
0:21:32 > 0:21:38because he had tetanus injection and, um, it says here that
0:21:38 > 0:21:43his forefinger was amputated and he had gangrene of his hand.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47And, unfortunately, he died because of that.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50- So what year is it?- It's 1864.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54- 1864.- Yeah. - And he was a boilermaker?- Yes.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58I've got out here a register of accidents.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01This is a really good one, because you can see the range of ages.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06- We've got people in their seventies. - 1840, 71?- Here is a 13-year-old boy.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09He fell. The injury was slight,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13but his left arm was dislocated at the elbow.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15So who was keeping that? Was that the factory?
0:22:15 > 0:22:19- It was, in law, they had to register. - Would that be one factory?- Yes.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23- So that's just the accidents of...? - Of one factory.- Wow.- I know.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26We have some very early registers and you'll see here
0:22:26 > 0:22:30the number of Irish people who are, er,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34indicated in these columns is amazing, because there were
0:22:34 > 0:22:38a lot of people who came from Ireland to work in Dundee.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And you basically, from that, get a picture
0:22:41 > 0:22:43of the health of a city at that time, do you?
0:22:43 > 0:22:47You get a really clear picture of the occupations of people
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and which particular occupations were living in particular areas.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55And you can connect again the occupation with the disease,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58like did a lot of mill workers get typhus
0:22:58 > 0:23:00or were all the people living in the Overgate?
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Here's somebody who was living in the Overgate who actually had typhus.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10- So you can trace... - Very common, wasn't it?- It was.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Where particular occupations were living, what diseases they had.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17So it's fascinating - you can just build up such a picture.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22'Doctors began research on the diseases the slums had caused.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24'Since 1893, the deaths from consumption
0:23:24 > 0:23:27'have been reduced to a fifth of what they were.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30'Most of all, they worked for the children.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32'Dundee demanded room to breathe.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35'That the diseases might not occur again.'
0:23:35 > 0:23:39'Of the six Ross children born in and around the Overgate,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42'only two survived beyond 15 months.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46'One of them was my great-grandfather, who lived to be
0:23:46 > 0:23:50'a baker then a tailor before flourishing as a salesman.
0:23:52 > 0:23:57'By the 1911 census, he's living here in Park Avenue.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00'Time to pick Iain's brain again.'
0:24:01 > 0:24:05So here we have Park Avenue, as in Baxter Park behind us.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10- You've really made it...- Really? - ..because you're in with watchmakers
0:24:10 > 0:24:15and travellers and engineers of the steam variety.
0:24:15 > 0:24:20So Park Avenue now, and in the 1930s, was a success story.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24So the family move here from the Overgate,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28which is right in the centre of town and this is suburbia, really.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32It's suburbia. All this area is built around Baxter Park
0:24:32 > 0:24:35which originally was free-standing and, still today,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39these addresses are much sought after to have a view of the park.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43What was significantly better about the lifestyle here, Iain?
0:24:43 > 0:24:47It's more airy, um, you'd have corner shops.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51There used to be a church halfway up there.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54And the fact that you're in one of the first people's parks
0:24:54 > 0:24:57that people could go and have a walk in on a Saturday and Sunday.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00You weren't in the middle of the smoke of the city.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05- What about the house itself? - The house itself would probably have either two or three bedrooms,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08apart from the single end, that they might have lived in the front.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12You'd have an indoor bathroom and an indoor toilet.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Well, Iain, thanks so much for showing me all this.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17I've learned an incredible amount. I've learned all about my family,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20where they moved, how far they've come
0:25:20 > 0:25:23- and I'm off to find out some more, so thank you so much.- Pleasure.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Amazing. Thank you very much.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34See you. Bye-bye.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39That's interesting. Grant from the Family History Centre
0:25:39 > 0:25:41tells me I've got family members in Dundee.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45I'm going to meet them tomorrow at Balgay Cemetery at 11.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I'm here at the right time. This is Balgay Cemetery.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08I'm intrigued and I think I'm quite excited.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12I'm about to meet some people I think are related to me
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and, apparently, they're waiting for me just round here.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Interesting how well the grave's preserved, wasn't it?
0:26:21 > 0:26:26- That's what I'm saying, it's obviously been added on.- Yeah.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29- Hi.- Hello, hi. Colin Pringle's my name, how do you do?
0:26:29 > 0:26:32- Nice to meet you. Alison Strachan. - Nice to meet you.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37- A surprise part of your family.- Yes.- Wow.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40That you possibly don't know about. I don't know if you are aware.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44- Not at all. - Colin's Betty Ross's son.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48- Your grandfather...- Yeah.- ..and our grandfather were brothers.- Yeah.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51- Alexander Ross. Sandy Ross? - Sandy Ross, yes!
0:26:51 > 0:26:54- Who had the shop at the top of the Hilltown.- Yeah.- The newsagent's.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56- And the dog, Cheeky.- That's right!
0:26:56 > 0:27:00- You remember Cheeky? Lovely! - I forgot all about that.
0:27:02 > 0:27:07And so it turns out that my grandfather William McLean Ross
0:27:07 > 0:27:10is the older brother of Colin and Alison's grandfather,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Alexander Robertson Ross. And both the boys grew up together
0:27:14 > 0:27:17in the Park Avenue address I visited yesterday.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21We have them here, some photographs
0:27:21 > 0:27:23- that'll maybe better explain. - Really?- Yes.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26'To be able to see these faces
0:27:26 > 0:27:30'with newly-discovered family members standing beside me, amazing.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32'And the family likeness is quite uncanny.'
0:27:32 > 0:27:36- So, I think he's got a look of my little boy.- Right.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40- And how old is your son now? - Well, he's 11 now.- 11.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42But that's him being Winston Churchill.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44- You know what I mean? - Oh, yeah. Gosh.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48- Very, very similar. - Isn't that strange?- Yeah.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50LAUGHTER
0:27:50 > 0:27:55So what were two complete strangers have now become Colin and Alison
0:27:55 > 0:28:00who share both a connection and history with me.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06That history is part of Dundee's story
0:28:06 > 0:28:08and the help I've had to find out about it has led me
0:28:08 > 0:28:13to meet some great characters and really reconnect with Dundee.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18This has been a brilliant experience for me.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21I've discovered lots about my family from my father's side
0:28:21 > 0:28:25way back to great-grandfathers and grandfathers before them,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28and, in the process, I discovered an awful lot about Dundee.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32Now that I've started, I'm not sure I want to stop.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35# Back here in Beanoland
0:28:35 > 0:28:39# Some things get builded
0:28:39 > 0:28:42# Old ladies write letters
0:28:42 > 0:28:46# Old men dream memories
0:28:46 > 0:28:50# Back here in Beanoland
0:28:50 > 0:28:53# All things are real. #
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd