Related to Reggie
I note with interest your appeal for questions for the visiting celebrity guests at this year’s WDYTYA? Live show at Birmingham’s NEC. I am not sure as to whether this can be counted as a question, but I have a family connection to Reggie Yates, which he may be interested in.
I have avidly watched Who Do You Think You Are? since the very first episode with Bill Oddie, and have never missed a show, always in the hope that someone might have links to my extensive research into my kinsmen and kinswomen.
Suffice to say, after many years of work, when the magical word ‘Sussex’ crops up in relation to any family, my ears prick up, as the family in question is invariably linkable to my own.
One of my ancestors, William Alchorne, who was born in Rotherfield in about 1530, is also a direct ancestor of Reggie Yates. That’s one in the eye for the judge who rather stupidly told Mr Yates senior that he was not ‘English’ enough to settle here. A valuable lesson in racial bigotry, which deserves an airing.
I once worked with an Afro- Caribbean lady born in Barbuda, who was viciously harassed in the 1970s and told to ‘Go back where you came from’ by our less thoughtful compatriots. She shared my interest in ancestral roots, and had traced her male line back to Gloucestershire in the 1570s.
One ancestor of hers took part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and ended up as a white slave in the Caribbean as a result. So, ironically, my friend had ‘Gone back to where she was from’ after all.
If only the records existed, it could doubtless be shown that we are all one enormous interrelated family in any case. As time goes on, we doubtless will be able to show a vast network of links between everyone alive today. Martin Noakes, Leicestershire Editor replies: Thank you for writing in Martin and I will pass on the details you sent about your family on to Reggie Yates when I see him at WDYTYA? Live.