{"id":30024,"date":"2023-12-13T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/725aa021-186a-481e-b921-3341cd6ec1f5"},"modified":"2023-12-13T17:34:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T16:34:27","slug":"liz-bonnin-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\/liz-bonnin-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Bonnin on Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em>: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>
By Rich Marshall\n <\/p>
Published: Wednesday, 13 December 2023 at 16:24 PM<\/p>
\n\n
Liz Bonnin is a science and wildlife TV presenter who was born in Paris, France on 16 September 1976. Her family moved to Dublin, Ireland<\/a> when she was nine years old. After studying biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, she joined an all-girl pop band, Chill. Although the band folded, it eventually led to television where she had a period hosting Top of the Pops<\/em>. However, these days it’s her natural history presenting that she is best known for, recently co-presenting Our Changing Planet<\/em> and presenting Liz Bonnin’s Wild Caribbean<\/em>. <\/p>
As the daughter of Caribbean<\/a> parents Liz Bonnin\u2019s roots encompass a cross-section of cultures. On 8 December 2016, Liz Bonnin explored her heritage on the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em> series. <\/p>
\u201cWhen people ask me what I am ethnically, I just say, \u2018I\u2019m a mongrel,\u2019\u201d she jokes at the start of her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em> \u201cYou know those forms you have to fill out for a visa or whatever? There actually isn\u2019t a box for me.\u201d<\/p>
But while her family story is one of diverse influences, these are stories that coalesce in the Caribbean and Liz heads first to Trinidad to learn more about her maternal grandfather\u2019s family. Here, she meets her cousin, Andrew, who has old photographs<\/a>, including a picture of her great grandparents, George and May Agnes Rawle.<\/p>
While they were of Indian heritage, they were Presbyterians. How can this be explained? Liz begins to unravel the family\u2019s story. Although May\u2019s father, Timothy Sirju, was a successful businessman, a man who owned a store and 400 acres of land, and a church elder, his roots were humble.<\/p>
Along with his parents and siblings, Timothy first came to Trinidad as an eight-year-old at a time when, following the abolition of slavery, thousands of Indians travelled to the island to work as indentured labourers who had to work to pay off the cost of passage.<\/p>
At home, Timothy\u2019s family were members of a low-ranking, agricultural caste with little hope of advancement. In the Caribbean, they were assigned to the comparatively enlightened Palmiste Estate where Timothy would likely have been encouraged to attend school. (At other plantations, children worked.) By the age of 18, a prelude to later success, he was a teacher.<\/p>
Liz is slightly saddened that he converted to Christianity, necessary to advance economically and socially in a colonial world. Nevertheless, she\u2019s tremendously proud of how a \u201cpetrified little fella\u201d became \u201csuch a success in the face of many obstacles, so many challenges\u201d.<\/p>
Next, Liz turns her attention to her father\u2019s side of the family, who hail from Martinique, an overseas region of France. Here, Liz is worried she will find evidence her family were slave owners.<\/p>
Seeing an inventory from 1838, her worst fears are confirmed. Her 3x grandfather, plantation owner Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre Gros D\u00e9sormeaux, was indeed a slaveowner. While she thought she was prepared for such a revelation, she breaks down: \u201cIt\u2019s when I saw people\u2019s names and the price.\u201d<\/p>
But the story is more complicated than it first appears. Records reveal that Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre freed a slave, Marie Joseph, in 1831. Four years later, in 1835, he married her and legitimised the six children they\u2019d had together. This isn\u2019t a story of exploitation, it seems, but love.<\/p>
Going back a generation, Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre\u2019s father, also called Fran\u00e7ois, also freed a slave, Pauline Zo\u00e9. In Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre Senior\u2019s will, he acknowledged his children by Pauline Zo\u00e9. In a final twist, Pauline Zo\u00e9, who was of mixed race herself, inherited Fran\u00e7ois’ estate, including his slaves, and was compensated by the French government following abolition.<\/p>
Seeing where her family once lived, Lisa learns that Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre Senior ran his estate as a kind of \u201cfiefdom\u201d, apparently unconcerned by what others thought. \u201cYour ancestor was the village rooster,\u201d jokes a local.<\/p>
She loves the way Fran\u00e7ois Alexandre flouted convention: \u201cI hope some of that character has trickled down through the generations.\u201d<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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