{"id":36705,"date":"2024-09-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/f7899fab-5b7f-4471-b635-feb71c540ade"},"modified":"2024-09-12T22:54:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T20:54:28","slug":"the-most-resilience-and-determination-ive-ever-seen-jessica-ennis-hill-discovers-her-ancestor-went-from-slavery-to-owning-land-on-who-do-you-think-you-are","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/the-most-resilience-and-determination-ive-ever-seen-jessica-ennis-hill-discovers-her-ancestor-went-from-slavery-to-owning-land-on-who-do-you-think-you-are\/","title":{"rendered":"“The most resilience and determination I’ve ever seen”: Jessica Ennis-Hill discovers her ancestor went from slavery to owning land on Who Do You Think You Are?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 12 September 2024 at 20:00 PM<\/p>

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Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill<\/a> says at the start of her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/a><\/em> that she owes her incredible athletic success, including winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympic heptathlon, to lifelong determination and hard work. But where did those qualities come from?<\/p>

\u201cI just wanted to be the best I could be, and that was something that was instilled in me from a young age,\u201d she says. \u201cI think to understand what my ancestors have been through, and the challenges that they\u2019ve faced \u2013 whether there was something that fed down to me to help me get to the top of my game would be really interesting to find out.\u201d<\/p>

To start her journey, Jessica visits her maternal grandparents, Rodney and Margaret. They reminisce about Jessica\u2019s great grandfather Jonathan \u2018Jack\u2019 Powell, who Jessica remembers. Rodney shows her an old photograph<\/a> of Jack with his father William and his sister, \u2018Little Maud\u2019. But they don\u2019t know anything about Jack\u2019s mother, Emily Maud Powell, also known as Maud.<\/p>

\u201cOne day William took Jack and Maud out for a walk,\u201d Rodney says, \u201cand when they came back, they met their mum coming down the street with a staircase. She just kissed him and he never saw her again.\u201d<\/p>

Jessica\u2019s keen to find out what happened to William’s mother. She goes to Sheffield City Archives, where she meets historian Dr Jennifer Aston. Jennifer tells Jessica that records from 1919 show that Maud brought a complaint against William for assaulting her. She then withdrew the complaint in exchange for William paying maintenance money to her. This was essentially the closest thing to a divorce<\/a> that was legally available to poorer couples at the time. However, Maud would have had to leave her children with William.<\/p>

Maud was then admitted that year to South Yorkshire Asylum<\/a>. She is described in the asylum records as suffering from \u2018delusions\u2019. It\u2019s not known if her children were ever told what happened to her. Worse, her daughter Maud died in 1924 at the age of 11.<\/p>

Maud stayed in the asylum until 1944, when she was transferred to Storthes Hall Hospital. Jessica visits the building to meet historian Stephen Taylor. He tells her that Maud lived at the hospital until her death in 1970. Although it aimed to be a good community for patients, as Jessica says, it\u2019s sad that Maud lived unknown by her family, \u201clike she didn\u2019t exist\u201d. But Jessica says she\u2019s glad her great grandfather was able to cope with the loss of his mother: \u201cFrom what I saw and the person he was, he dealt with it, and he created his own future, and that\u2019s really amazing.\u201d<\/p>

Next, Jessica wants to find out more about her father\u2019s side of the family. Jessica and her father Vinnie return to Jamaica<\/a>, which Vinnie moved from as a child in 1963. They have a big reunion with Vinnie\u2019s family, and Jessica meets her great aunt Edna. Edna tells her that her family, the Thomases, owned a lot of land.<\/p>