Brush with the past
Who Do You Think You Are?
TV presenter Emma Willis grew up in Birmingham, and enjoyed the kind of working-class upbringing where family was always around and “everybody mucks in, everybody helps raise you”. As she sets out to find out more about her family history, she hopes to find “deep-rooted ancestry” in a city she loves. “I still have a bedroom in my parents’ house and they better not ever get rid of it,” she says.
In the final show in the first tranche of series 14, Emma begins by researching her line through her grandmother Edna. It’s research that leads her to learn about the profession of her 3x great grandfather, James Gretton, a horn and hair merchant.
Starting out as a brushmaker, he moved on to trading horn and hair, as well as glue, known as ‘sizing’, from bits of animal carcass waste such as ears and tendons. This kind of small-scale workshop business was strongly associated with the Midlands during the 19th century, when Birmingham was known as the “city of a thousand trades”. Not that Gretton’s business made him popular with the neighbours. Not only would it have smelt, but the kinds of raw materials Gretton used could be a danger to public health.
But it’s not Brum all the way back. Emma’s great great grandmother, Margaret Kirwan, was born in Ireland. Heading to Dublin to find out more, Emma teases out a family history that touches on sectarian tensions and violence, and, more happily, craftsmanship of the highest order.
WDYTYA? will return later in the years, when there will be episodes featuring TV presenter Fearne Cotton, comedian Ruby Wax, actor and director Noel Clarke, singer Lulu and actor Lisa Hammond. Jonathan Wright