A Wright Connection
Our daughter, a keen family historian, was soaking in her bath while listening to Mark Wright’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? playing in the next room. She suddenly realised that the names she was hearing were familiar to her, and were names in our family tree! She leapt out of her bath and phoned us to tell us to turn on the TV (we had just come home from a meeting of our family history group). We quickly did so and watched the rest of the programme, which we watched again on catch-up TV later. It was exciting to discover our connection to Mark – he is my second cousin twice removed, which was a surprise.
However, we are able to add to the information about Mark’s great great grandfather Edward Wright, born in 1872, who featured quite heavily in the programme. My grandfather George Wright was his much younger brother. My father, now deceased, wrote some anecdotes about his memories of growing up in London, among which was the tale of his Uncle Edward, or ‘Neddo’. Apparently Neddo made a little money on the side by driving a horse and cart around the streets collecting up stray dogs and cats to sell for research. After one of his visits to my father’s family, their lovely pet spaniel was found to be missing and was never seen again!
Wright is such a common surname, so it was amazing to find the link!
Teresa Malyon (née Wright), by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Thank you for sharing this brilliant connection Teresa – and what a great story!