View Full Version : Who do you think you are?
parkerman
11-08-2011, 08:50
Did anyone see June Brown last night on "Who do you think you are"?
For me, it was a brilliant episode. She has so much in common with me as I too have an early 19th century champion Jewish boxer in my Family (Aby Belasco),who was also a Sephardi Jew. My family came to England earlier than June's, but it was great to know that they have such good records in Amsterdam and Spain. I'll be off there soon to follow up my family!
Thank you, June.
Did anyone see June Brown last night on "Who do you think you are"?
For me, it was a brilliant episode. She has so much in common with me as I too have an early 19th century champion Jewish boxer in my Family (Aby Belasco),who was also a Sephardi Jew. My family came to England earlier than June's, but it was great to know that they have such good records in Amsterdam and Spain. I'll be off there soon to follow up my family!
Thank you, June.
Bet you would rather discover you are related to the real Queen of Walford than the Panto Queen
parkerman
11-08-2011, 10:15
Bet you would rather discover you are related to the real Queen of Walford than the Panto Queen
Yes, but sadly I couldn't see any connection....
Do I remember correctly that you are in fact related to Barbara Windsor, albei from your wife's side of the family? :p
EastEnders actress June Brown's Who Do You Think You Are? was watched by 5.8m on Wednesday night, while National Treasures Live launched with 3.8m, the latest audience data has revealed.
Who Do You Think You Are?, starting a new ten-part series of the show, averaged a healthy 5.82m (24.2%) for BBC One in the 9pm hour.
I love watching this show and the first episode of the series was a really interesting.
Ive done quite a bit on my family tree so enjoy watching these shows
parkerman
13-08-2011, 09:27
Do I remember correctly that you are in fact related to Barbara Windsor, albei from your wife's side of the family? :p
I am related to the Queen of Walford through my own family. My wife nearly divorced me when she found out!
I am related to the Queen of Walford through my own family. My wife nearly divorced me when she found out!
Ooops, sorry, remembered that wrongly. And you are still married, so all is good :D
I am related to the Queen of Walford through my own family. My wife nearly divorced me when she found out!
Shhhhhhhhhhhusssh
You dont want to spread it about.
Your wife is a woman of sense and good judgement
parkerman
13-08-2011, 16:08
Your wife is a woman of sense and good judgement
Naturally. She married me. :D
But that was before she found out about the large chested pygmy skeleton in your closet
In one of its best episodes yet, Who Do You Think You Are featured Saint June Brown of Walford.
“Many people find it hard to distinguish her from the part she plays,” purred the narrator. How insulting. How ridiculous.
“I think they think I’m very like Dot. A lot of people call me ‘Dot’. I’m always delighted when they call me ‘June’,” she said, smoking a fag (like Dot), smiling knowingly like a benign crow (like Dot).
Born to parents from the East End, June Brown is 84 – the oldest person who has ever done the show, or indeed any telly.
You’d never know though. She has the verve, the insight and curiosity of someone who is 48.
“I’m a very curious person,” she admitted. “I don’t care what I find out. As long as I find out.”
Dot would be proud of her.
She was born in 1927. “We had no television, no phones or cars. It was a lovely life...”
NO TELEVISION! It sounds horrendous.
Pertinent, poignant facts to emerge included:
● June was married at 23 and widowed at 30 when her husband committed suicide.
● She was widowed again in 2003 after 45 years of marriage.
● She had six children, losing one as a baby.
“I’m not a person who can cry,” she cawed. “I don’t expect to weep – although I will have some waterproof mascara.” Always a good idea, I find.
As luck would have it, her family history was pretty fascinating viewing.
Her great, great, great *grandfather Issac Bitton was a bare-knuckle fighter – the Phil Mitchell of his day. (“Art thou having a laugh?!”)
Born in 1779, he once triumphed in a fight on Wimbledon Common that lasted 74 rounds.
Well, we’ve all done it.
Issac’s father was a trader who risked torture from the Spanish Inquisition for being a Sephardic Jew.
She felt “rather proud” of discovering she belonged to this tribe, even feeling it explained why “I have to be settled”.
“I don’t like not knowing what I’m doing. I like being a member of a family.”
Touchingly considerate to both the living and the dead, she took the opportunity to visit the burial ground in Holland of Issac Bitton’s mother (her great, great, great, great, grandmother), Rachel Rodrigues de Castro. She asked to be alone and told the ground: “I have come to visit you – which you never expected.
“I’m going to show you what happened to your only living child when you died. He was a bare-knuckle champion so you would’ve been very proud of him. I’ve brought you a sunflower from him.”
She placed a picture of Issac on the ground, explaining “it won’t last long but she’s seen it.”
She felt an affinity with Rachel. They were both widowed, had both lost a baby, and named further children after them.
“Rachel was left at the very end with no children and no husband,” she mused *mournfully (like Dot). “I’m quite sure she gave up.”
The problem with Who Do You Think You Are... is generally that it relies on too many nerdy academics in short-sleeved shirts that work in reference libraries, poring over dusty electoral registers.
But Brown’s dignity and consideration to everyone she met carried the investigation beyond the usual self-interest.
“It’s a lovely name, isn’t it?” she sighed. “I wish I had a name like that. Mine’s so common.”
Just call her Dot Cotton Rodrigues de Castro.
Why she is not, like other less-talented actresses, a Dame I don’t know. Or she should be a Lady: Lady Brown. Until then, we call her “Saint June.”
Sorry but for me there will only ever be one St June and that is the blessed St June of Sun Hill
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/columnists/jim-shelley/2011/08/15/why-june-brown-s-such-a-saint-115875-23345340/#ixzz1VcJxL9b4
The episode on J.K Rowling was also very interesting. I wish I could read and speak French as fluently as Jo.
The episode on J.K Rowling was also very interesting. I wish I could read and speak French as fluently as Jo.
Same, and I agree it was so interesting and the fact she got to meet a distant relative and visit the old house, thats just amazing to me
parkerman
25-08-2011, 13:49
June Brown is 84; the oldest person who has ever done the show, or indeed any telly.
Any telly? I don't think so.
Any telly? I don't think so.
Yes I don't know where the author got that from
I have enjoyed all episode up to now. We started to do our family Trees, around the time it very first aired. Have gone back to 1700. In England and Scotland, it's hard to go back with Ireland due to record being lost.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
A lot of old Irish records are held by local Churches. You may be lucky depending on what part of Ireland it is
parkerman
30-08-2011, 11:39
I'm currently having the same problem with Irish records. I spent some time in the Tuam and Longford registration offices on my recent visit to Ireland. But more and more are coming on line now. Ireland has been very slow at making their records public but things are improving.
It's a lot easier to do your family tree now. When I started to do it, their was not much on line. So spent many days in records offices, and library's. Looking for people. Not a cheap hobbie. But very interesting. We found a ancestor murdered by the police.
parkerman
01-09-2011, 13:20
It's a lot easier to do your family tree now. When I started to do it, their was not much on line. So spent many days in records offices, and library's. Looking for people. Not a cheap hobbie. But very interesting.
Same here. I've spent many happy hours in records offices!
No-one murdered by the police yet but I have found an ancestor who was thought of as a Jack the Ripper suspect at one time!
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