Following his mother’s well-documented and legendary Canadian lineage led to Richard Madeley uncovering some of the founding figures of America and Canada.

Richard’s father Christopher, an Englishman, married Mary Claire during the 1950s, and Richard was born in Romford, Essex.

His grandfather Hector emigrated from Scotland to Quebec, Canada, where he worked as a logger. Working the land and harvesting seasonal crops, he managed to work his way west across the country and ended up on a farm in Saskatchewan. This was where he met and fell in love with Richard’s grandmother Barbara who ran the family wheat farm.

Richard was able to trace his Canadian lineage back from Nova Scotia a further 250 years and seven generations, due to the major roles his family played in society. Census records are instrumental in helping you find out information about your ancestors lives, Richard used the 1871 Canadian Census to find other relatives, and additional information such as their occupations

The Nova Scotia Death records helped Richard to track where his 2x great-grandfather was living, thus allowing him to follow this line in more depth. Interestingly, the census tells us that his great great grandfather was listed as a ‘gentleman’. Using newspaper records he was able to add more historical context, establishing that his ancestor was a friend of the Prime Minister of Canada. His 5x great-grandfather John Hicks married into an influential family and the town was named after him before it changed to Bridgetown.

The story took Richard south back to Boston, Massachusetts – a key migrant town. He was fascinated to find out about his family’s involvement in a highly political case of malpractice, a death during childbirth in 1650. His ancestor Ann became one of the first documented cases of petitioning for women’s rights, centuries before they got the vote.

We then went further south to Rhode Island, where Richard’s 4x great-grandfather was involved in King Phillip’s war and the colonisation of the Native Americans. The Great Swamp Fight of 1675 on Sasquatch land, was a battle that saw major loss of life and homes decimated. I thought Richard appeared to be moved by the story. He expressed his guilt after it was highlighted by a living member of the tribe, especially after the realisation that it was an act of genocide on the natives, which his ancestor was directly responsible for. It was very eerie and sad to think about what took place at that spot all those years earlier.

Richard’s story gives a real insight into American/Canadian colonies and how they were formed and it was clearly exciting for him that his family was one of the founding families. He is fortunate that many of his ancestors were instrumental during the early colonisation as figures of the movement, and many of their stories have been well documented and preserved.

Our immigration collections span the globe including Australia and New Zealand, which you can start searching here.  It’s also worth searching our passenger lists to see if your family were also early settlers.

Remembrance Day provokes a lot of strong memories for my family.  My great-grandfather Alfred fought at the Battle of the Somme in World War I, and died during the 1920s of his gas injuries. And my grandfather Eric belonged to one of the Airfield Construction Units, part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force in Europe during World War II. This unit was essential in aiding allied aircraft to land and refuel for their missions across Europe.

My dad recalls a story about his father from eleven days after D-day in 1944.  After traveling through Normandy to Eindhoven, his crew were caught out in the open when their airfield was attacked from the sky. Unknown to the allies, the air strike was led by three low flying Spitfires commanded by the Germans.  They destroyed all aircraft and half of the personnel on the ground that day – my grandfather’s quick thinking saved him as he dived into a concrete pipe.

Inspired by Eric’s stories of his experiences in the RAF, my father followed in his military footsteps, joining the Royal Anglian Regiment.  He’s been an avid fan of the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire since a visit in 1968, where he saw the filming of the Battle of Britain. This is also home to the Royal Anglian Regiments Museum.

During his military career, Dad led the changing of the guard as Drum Major at Buckingham Palace, and recently he was called upon to make a brief film appearance alongside Rupert Penry-Jones in The Four Feathers. The historic relevance of the regiments scarlet tunic, which the regiment still wears as its uniform, remains unchanged – it has carried the same pattern of the fleur-de-lis, crown and inch lace since the late 1880s.

One of my fondest memories is of Dad proudly presenting my grandfather (Eric) with his military medals, which he had previously lost.  That’s what I’ll be thinking of this weekend, as we all remember our families’ heroes.

As May the 6th approaches I increasingly remember how fortunate I am, that as a woman, I have the right to make my vote count for the party that is elected on Election Day. I feel an enormous sense of respect and gratitude to the women who fought tooth and nail, and even lost their lives, at the start of the twentieth century for women to have the right to vote.

Emmeline Pankhurst, personal hero of mine, was born 1859 in Manchester.  She lived in Russell Square, Bloomsbury according to the 1891 Census. Her husband, Richard Pankhurst, was a Barrister and MP and together they had five children. An Art Finisher by profession, she became an important figure in the Suffragette movement highlighting the civil right for women to have their say on political matters via the vote. She founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 which later became more commonly referred to as the Suffragettes, helping to raise awareness of their oppression.

In order to gain political equality, women refused to be silenced and launched a campaign to show that they were prepared to fight back – actively if necessary. Whilst it started peacefully, in 1905 Emmeline’s daughter, Christabel, and Annie Kenney interrupted a political meeting in Manchester to ask Liberal politicians Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey, if they thought women should have the right to vote. When they refused to answer, the two women got out a banner saying “Votes for Women” and demanded that the politicians respond.  At a time when most public speeches were listened to in complete silence, the two women were fired from the meeting and subsequently arrested.  Both women refused to pay a fine, preferring to go to prison and highlight the injustice of the system as it was.

Fellow suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, famously threw herself under the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby on the 4th June 1913 and was killed. The British government responded by introducing the Cat and Mouse Act in 1913 – this was to prevent public alliance and also deflected responsibility if any of the imprisoned women were injured or died because they were too weak from hunger strike.  Once released, they could be imprisoned at any time for causing any minor offence and would be subjected to the same mistreatment.

This event became a milestone and turning point, after which the Suffragettes became more active in their fight to win the right to vote.  In the name of equality they would tie themselves to the railings at Buckingham Palace, cause damage to public property, verbally abuse Policemen and go on hunger strikes whilst imprisoned for their offences.

Illustrating the lengths to which these women would go to, Emmeline later wrote in her autobiography, “this was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never known in England, or for that matter in any other country…..we interrupted a great many meetings……and we were violently thrown out and insulted. Often we were painfully bruised and hurt.”

At the ripe old age of 53, Emmeline was still pioneering protests and jailed a total of 13 times during her lifetime.  In an account from the Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 3 May 2010), April 1913, the trial of Emmeline Pankhurst  (t19130401-67) gives a good insight into her crime, describing her as “feloniously procuring and inciting a person or persons unknown to commit felony; unlawfully soliciting and inciting persons unknown to commit felony and certain misdemeanours.” The judge ordered her to serve three years hard labour in gaol as punishment.

After a relentless battle from women fighting for a right that would change life for British women for the rest of time, Parliament introduced the Representation of the Peoples Act in 1918.  This gave some women over the age of 30 the right to vote – finally in 1928 it was granted to all women, irrespective of their age.  82 years on, the resilience and bravery of these remarkable women still inspires me to make the most of my civil liberties and exercise my right to vote.

Have you discovered links in your family history to any of these inspirational women? If so then we would love to hear about it.