Harriet Beadnell puts your questions to the WDYTYA? genealogists
To celebrate the return of WhoDo You Think You Are? to our screens, Harriet Beadnell visited WDYTYA? HQ at Wall To Wall Media, to put your questions to the show’s genealogists, Sara Khan and Laura Berry
So how did you become WDYTYA? genealogists?
SARA KHAN: We both did history at university and we both had a desire to pursue it professionally. I was very lucky to find a researcher position at The National Archives and I worked there for a couple of years and got trained up in all the genealogical sources. From there, I was asked to work on the show. I then worked in probate genealogy before returning to WDYTYA?. LAURA BERRY: I was studying history at Royal Holloway University and really wanted to get into research for TV programmes. I started to work part time for a research agency and they trained me up in genealogy. From there, I started working on the series around the same time that Sara did, I think it was about series three or four.
What’s your favourite part of the research process?
LB: We both quite like the start, don’t we? SK: Yes, starting a new tree you never know where it well lead. You might assume something and you’ll be awe-struck when it leads completely somewhere else.
LB: It is quite nice having a blank canvas to work with, but equally you get those eureka moments in the office, where suddenly you realise you’ve got a story that’s just going to make it into a programme. Particularly with the digitisation of so many newspapers now, there are so many good stories in newspaper articles, so that can be quite fun, reading through those.
SK: Also watching the show and seeing it all come to life. All the documents and all the paperwork and seeing that become television is really exciting.
How much time are you given to research a person’s family tree?
SK: Most trees are researched for a minimum of two or three months. just to get the tree built up as much as possible. Our producer Anna Kirkwood then works with us and the research team to start looking for interesting ancestors and developing their stories.
Do you ever find it hard with such a tight schedule?
LB: We do have periods where we do feel like we are juggling a lot of trees at once but the show has a big team and the producers want every single episode to be as well-researched as it possibly can be, so they can give us more resources if we need them.
SK: There is a lot of teamwork going on. It is great to be able to share the workload.
Do you personally travel to the archives yourselves?
LB: Yes, all the time, but as more and more records have come online, we find that we spend most of our time in the office. Then the show has a team of researchers who spend a lot of time in The National Archives, the British Library, the London Metropolitan Archives, it is ideal because we are based right in the heart of London and are well- placed for all of the London archives.
SK: When things go outside of the London area, we employ people locally. LB: Yes, it’s good to have the expertise of people who are familiar with archives in various different regions. It speeds up the process a bit.
How much involvement do you have with the celebrities before you start the research?
SK: Well, we meet them at the very beginning. Sarah, the series producer, and Anna, the producer, set up a meeting with the celebrity and one of us will join. We find out what their interests are, what they know about their family history and their motivations. Then it kind of goes a bit quiet, because obviously it takes a while to build up the tree. Then the show’s researchers have more involvement with their family members.
LB: The researchers will speak to as many different family members as they can. Anna works closely with the researchers on what
You get those eureka moments in the office, where suddenly you realise you’ve got a story
that’s going to make it into a programme
sort of stories the celebrities would be interested in discovering on screen.
Do the celebrities get a copy of their research after the programme has finished?
LB: Yeah, all of them do. They get a folder full of all the information that we’ve found. It’s quite a big team effort.
Do you ever get stuck when you are doing research?
SK: Yes, that is part of the process really, that’s when you have to think laterally to find other ways around to try and solve a puzzle. Sometimes you will hit that brick wall.
LB: It’s a team effort so if I hit a brick wall I might pass it to Sara, just to see if she could think of a different approach, because sometimes you just need more brains on the subject and then you can muddle your way through it together. Anna and the research team will also try to look at the problem from every angle and come up with ingenious solutions. SK: Just to get a second pair of eyes really, that helps sometimes.
Do you have any tips for those moments when you hit a brick wall in a family tree?
LB: Looking at side branches can be really useful if you are struggling on your direct line. We were looking for one ancestor and we couldn’t find them specifically. They had a really unusual surname so we tried reading wills for everybody with that name. We were able to build up a bigger picture of the family and then eventually we were able to get back to our direct line that way.
SK: Yes, we sidestepped and that helped us to get back further.
What’s the most interesting thing about your own family tree?
LB: I found my Irish ancestry much more interesting than I was expecting to. My Grandad is Irish and he had this story that has ancestors came off the islands in Clew Bay ( County Mayo), which sounded very romantic. I found out that it was true – they did come from this tiny little island called Inisheeny. You can see it on the coastline where the family home is now and it’s not that far from the shoreline. We got a boat out there and went to visit and the ruins of the houses where my ancestors lived are still there. You get a real connection with your family history when you’ve got tangible objects there that you can connect it to.
SK: I come from a South Asian background and as records aren’t so extensive, oral history plays an important part. On my maternal side, my grandfather was quite a successful self-made man. He started off in a village in Pakistan and was employed by an oil company that ended up in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s when the Americans discovered oil. So that was quite interesting, to find out that he was there at the start of the oil craze in the Middle East. On my paternal side, my ancestors came from a long line of Sufis ( Islamic mystics) who were held in great esteem by the local community.