I was watching repeats of WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE on BBC2 last week and
the one featuring Len Goodman, the primary judge on Strictly Come Dancing,
struck a chord with me.
One of his ancestors was a
silk weaver in London and due to his father having been involved in the trade
there was enough money to buy two properties in the capital. This was way back
in the early 19th century and as governments were wont to do, they passed
a law that meant those involved in the silk trade had to move from London,
otherwise they had to pay a hefty levy. Within a short space of time the
government passed another law which meant cheap French imports of silk goods
completely ruined those involved in the silk trade in Britain. Len’s ancestor
lost everything and ended up working as a porter in London’s dockland.
Those of you who might have read my blog over the past year might
remember my mention of my paternal great-great grandfather, Charles Cooke, who
was born in Coventry and came to Liverpool in the 1840s. His father, John, had
been a ribbon manufacturer and I wondered why it was that Charles left the
family home in the Midlands for Liverpool. I discovered that there was a silk
industry in Coventry involving a large workforce of silk weavers and the
manufacture of silk ribbons was part of that industry, as well as other goods.
Just like Len’s ancestor
those in Coventry were made destitute when the government passed that law that
enabled the import of cheap French silk goods. Things were so bad that soup
kitchens were set up to feed the starving. Reason enough for my great-great
grandfather, Charles Cooke to make his way to Liverpool where he found a job as a
warehouse porter down at the docks, just like Len’s southern ancestor did in
London.
It was in Liverpool that
James must have met another warehouse porter, Thomas Woolley, who had come up
from Shropshire. Charles married Thomas’ s daughter, Jane, who had been born in
Liverpool. The couple were married at St Peter’s church and lived in Toxteth
down by the docks at a time when Liverpool began to expand rapidly into the
thriving city it became.
Charles and Jane’s son, James
was born in Toxteth and he became a baker. (I can still see in my mind’s eye,
Mary Berry’s face on WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE a few weeks ago on discovering
that she had a baker in her ancestry).
But back to Len. My interest
in him as such that this morning I googled him. I knew him to be a Londoner and
that he could have been born within the sound of Bow bells but was actually
born in Bromley, Kent. As it happens my maternal great-grandfather, William
Milburn, whose joiner father, came from the Lake District during the building
boom in Liverpool, took his family south to Bromley, St Leonards, which is by
Bow, London, where he and his wife, Mary, had another six children. My
Liverpool born grandfather, John Milburn, was to work in an iron foundry in
London dockland before taking to the sea and returning to Liverpool, where his
daughter, married my father, the great-grandson of Charles from Coventry.
Len, also discovered Polish
blood in his family and therein lay another interesting tale for the Strictly
Come Dancing judge. Like so many of us who trace our ancestry, he, too,
pondered and marvelled about how if such a person had not done this or that,
then he wouldn’t have been born.
I have never really asked
myself the question Who do I think I am? I know who I am but I’ve always had an
interest in how things came about. That’s why I, like many another, find it so
fascinating delving into my family, city and country’s past.
I just wish I could find out
more about my great-grandfather Martin Nelson, a Norwegian mariner just like
his father, Hance Nelson. Martin came to Liverpool and met a girl from Toxteth.
Unfortunately I can only find mention of Martin on his marriage certificate and
that of his children. Within nine years of that marriage, his wife Mary is a
widow and remarries another Norwegian mariner who is a Nationalised Brit. If
only I had one of those experts from WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE to help me in my
search!
P.S. On another note, I have put up a new
banner photograph of the Liverpool waterfront on my Google + version of this blog that was taken by my son,
Tim. I’ve also changed the photo of myself to one from the 1960s for your interest.