{"id":16501,"date":"2022-05-26T23:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T21:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=11040"},"modified":"2022-05-26T23:18:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T21:18:13","slug":"sue-perkins-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/sue-perkins-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Sue Perkins on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Sarah Williams\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 26 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Comedian and broadcaster Sue Perkins is well known for her travel shows and for hosting The Great British Bake Off<\/em> with her long-term friend and comedy partner Mel Giedroyc. She is also a keen amateur boxer and uses the sport to help her relax,\u201dSome people might find their spiritual dimension in a lotus pose, I find mine in an upper cut,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n

Sue grew up in Croydon the eldest of three children, with dad Bert and mum Anne. \u201cFrom my dad\u2019s side I get empathy and a love of people, but also a fear of people and what they can do, from my mum\u2019s side I get drive\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a> she admits that it was the loss of her dad in 2017 that made her want to \u201cstop in her tracks\u201d and examine her family\u2019s past and find out where their traits originate from. \u201cWe\u2019re a conflation of all the pain and suffering and fun and movement of our ancestors,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Sue starts by going through a box of old family photos with Mel Giedroyc who has known the Perkins family for decades. Looking at a photo of her maternal grandmother, Lydia, Sue remembers her as extremely hardworking, \u201cI know she was the daughter of immigrant parents\u2026 so presumably that drive comes from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another photo reveals Lydia\u2019s parents Anna and Emil with their eight children. Sue says she knows there was some kind of German<\/a> or Eastern European connection and jokes with Mel, whose father emigrated from Lithuania, that perhaps they will find their families came from the same \u201cneck of the words\u201d.<\/p>\n

Next Sue finds a marriage photo<\/a> of her paternal grandfather Albert and grandmother Florence, dated 1917. \u201cI know nothing about my grandad other than he was very short and moustachioed and I think got bits blown off in every major conflict in the late 19th and early \u00a020th century,\u201d she quips. She also finds a letter from the Swanage Nursing Association from 1937 praising Florence\u2019s work as a midwife<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\""Anna\"<\/picture><\/div>
Sue\u2019s maternal great grandparents Anna and Emil with their eight children<\/span> <\/figcaption> Anne Perkins<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""Anna\"<\/picture><\/div>
Sue Perkins\u2019 maternal great grandparents, Anna and Emil M\u00fcller<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""Sue's\"<\/picture><\/div>
Sue Perkins\u2019 parents, Bert and Ann Perkins wedding photo with her paternal grandmother Florence next to Bert<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""Albert\"<\/picture><\/div>
Sue Perkins\u2019 paternal grandfather, Albert Edward James Perkins<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""Florence\"<\/picture><\/div>
Sue Perkins\u2019 paternal grandmother Florence <\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\""Albert\"<\/picture><\/div>
Albert and Florence Perkins<\/span> <\/figcaption> <\/span>\n<\/div> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nInspired by the box of family photos, Sue sets off to find out more about Albert, the grandfather she never met. She heads off to Bodmin to meet with genealogist Maggie Lewis outside the church where her grandparents married in 1917. The church is now housing, so they head off to a caf\u00e9 to look at some documents that Maggie has uncovered.\n

First up she examines her grandfather\u2019s birth certificate<\/a>. He was born 19 December 1875 to Henry and Fanny Perkins. Six months later his mother had died. In the 1881 census<\/a> Albert and his brother Sidney is with his father Henry, stepmother Mary Ann and a new sister, but disaster strikes again as both Mary Ann and Henry die the following year, just a few months apart.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Albert\u2019s stepmother Mary Ann died of breast cancer and phithisis (tuberculosis)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Albert ends up in Exeter workhouse<\/a> with his siblings but not long afterwards his uncle Francis Perkins, a watchmaker in Frome, takes Sidney to live with him. Ten months later, Albert joins them.<\/p>\n

Sue reflects on Albert\u2019s difficult start in life, \u201cMy assumption, looking at the photo of Albert was that he was a rather strict, taciturn Victorian gentleman, whose pain had been forged on the battlefield, and then I hear about his life and all that he endured as a kid, unimaginable sorrow as a child and that\u2019s where the pain comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having found out about her grandfather\u2019s traumatic childhood Sue sets off to find out about his army career and meets military historian Andy Robertshaw at Bodmin Keep. His attestation papers show that he joined the Light Infantry in 1892. \u00a0He is sent to India<\/a> in 1897 and returns the following year. When the Boer War<\/a> breaks out he is sent to guard Boer prisoners in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, for two years. Then, in 1914, aged about 40, he signs up again. Suffering from trench foot he meets his wife-to-be Florence while recovering.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Albert\u2019s service record can be downloaded from subscription websites Ancestry and Findmypast<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Sue heads off to Bulford military camp in Salisbury Plain where Albert and Florence lived after they married and where her father was born, to find out more about her grandmother Florence. She discovers that while her grandfather Albert looked after the children, Florence trained to be a midwife and was lucky to gain a salaried position as a municipal midwife in Southampton in 1937. Unfortunately, the city suffered from heavy bombardment during the Blitz<\/a> and Sue is shown a letter requesting steel helmets for the midwives who had to continue visiting patients during air raid attacks. The request was refused.<\/p>\n

Next Sue turns her attention to her mother\u2019s side of the family, the M\u00fcllers. \u201cI was fortunate enough to know my grandma Lydia, but her parents are shrouded in mystery. I know they were immigrants, but I don\u2019t know much more than that,\u201d she confesses.<\/p>\n

Sue visits the old family home on Emerson Street in Southwark, London and meets with author Robert Wyndham to find out more about Lydia\u2019s parents Emil Gustav M\u00fcller, a tailor, and Anna Tislau. They married at the German Reformed Church in 1901 and both of their fathers are recorded as farmers. By the time of the 1911 census<\/a> they are listed as having six children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember lots about my grandmother, she\u2019s a big figure in my life with a booming cockney voice, and yet here we look at the census she\u2019s very firmly listed as German,\u201d Sue says. After the sinking of the Lusitania<\/em> in the First World War<\/a>, German businesses were targeted by angry mobs and the British government rounded up German men, including Emil, and interned them in camps on the Isle of Man.<\/p>\n

Sue heads off to the Isle of Man where she meets Professor Stefan Manz who shows her photographs of what Knockaloe camp was like. At its peak it held 23,000 internees in huts that each housed 30 occupants with little private space. However, looking at a photograph of a tailor\u2019s workshop in the camp, she hopes that her great grandfather managed to find distraction from the difficult conditions of the camp by using his professional skills.<\/p>\n

Next, Sue wants to explore her great grandmother Anna\u2019s roots. Looking at the 1901 census<\/a> she discovers her place of birth given as Navininkai, Russia. However, much to Sue\u2019s delight, the town, near Marijampole, is now part of Lithuania giving her a wonderful connection to her friend and comedy partner Mel.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Sue Perkin\u2019s great grandmother Anna Tislau\u2019s place of birth was recorded in the 1901 census in Southwark<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Keen to discover more about where her great grandmother Anna Tislau came from before she married Emil in London in 1901, Sue heads off to Marijampole in Lithuania where she meets genealogist Regina Kopelovich. Looking at old maps<\/a> of the area, Regina shows Sue where her great grandmother was born, close to the border of Germany. Hundreds of Germans came over in the late 18th century<\/a>, tempted by cheap farmland and settled in communities that kept their German religion, language and culture.<\/p>\n

To Sue\u2019s surprise she discovers that her family once owned a huge house that no longer stands. \u201cI made the assumption that Anna\u2019s story was the classic immigrant one that the family had nothing and she left for a better, brighter future, but I\u2019ve come here and it turns out that her family had a big property,\u201d Sue says, wondering whether Anna\u2019s choice to leave was based on wanting to see the world.<\/p>\n

Next Sue meets Professor Christoph Mick to find out what happened to Anna\u2019s family after she emigrated to London. She discovers that those that stayed behind got caught up in the horrors of the Second World War<\/a>. Germany signed a pact with the Soviet Union in 1939 giving Lithuania to the Soviets, encouraging those of German descent to return to the country. However, Sue discovers that the Tislaus were categorised as not Aryan enough. Anna\u2019s brother Albert and his family were detained in Germany. Tragically, his wife\u2019s sister Adeline, listed as deaf with learning difficulties, was executed in 1942 as part of the Nazi eugenics policy. Albert returned to Lithuania but in 1944 was captured by the Soviets and forced to work as an agricultural labourer for ten years before finally being repatriated to Germany.<\/p>\n

Finally, Sue heads to the church in Lithuania where her great grandmother Anna was baptised. To her astonishment and delight she discovers that it is now being used as a boxing gym. \u201cI\u2019m so blown away\u2026 everything comes full circle!\u201d she exclaims. \u201cI always knew I came from what might be deemed humble stock, ordinary people. But these were extraordinary ordinary people and they have done amazing things for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarah Williams is the editor of\u00a0<\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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