Researching my family tree

Like many people I've always been keen to research my family tree, but have never really found the time. Fortunately my cousin Anne, on my father's side of the family, has done some work herself and kindly shared with me some of the fruits of her research.

It's not of course that my family history is any more interesting than anybody else's. Most of my ancestors on my father's side would appear to have been domestic servants of one kind or another. One piece of calligrapher's scrawl seemed to indicate that a particular ancestor had been a writer, but upon closer inspection he would appear instead to have been a waiter.

I was already aware that my paternal grandmother had descended from Welsh stock. For a few generations she and her forebears had been inhabitants of Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire. But the name "Burns" is not conspicuously Welsh and indeed the furthest ancestor I can find back in that line was indeed not Welsh but Irish (it isn't an Irish name either so possibly there is a link back across the water to Scotland, but that is for another day).

My paternal grandfather meanwhile had always claimed Scottish roots, but was by all accounts known for the more than occasional conveyance of inexactitudes and so nobody was completely convinced. But it appears he was correct - his own grandfather was actually Scottish and there is a line of Falconers, Grahams and McGlauchans stretching back quite a few generations. There is also the curious name Shesh which I can only find on Google as having its origins in India, although I would doubt there were many Indian people living in eighteenth century Aberdeen so a less exotic explanation is likely.

The other significant discovery was that of a strong Yorkshire connection stretching back for eight generations. The names Davison, Blyth, Hunter, Tiplady, Sidgewick, Harpley and Nicholson are all those of my Yorkshire forebears, although I don't seem to be able to place whereabouts in that huge county they originate from. The Davisons moved to Middlesborough in the early nineteenth century and it was there that one of my Yorkshire ancestors married into the Scottish line, who had moved south at around the same time. This Scottish/Yorkshire match-up produced my great-grandmother Jessie, who in turn moved down to Hounslow where she was to marry into the Andrews side, whose roots we have traced back to a village called Finchingfield in Essex.

What fascinates me more than anything is just how mobile many families and individuals were even before the advent of cars and aeroplanes. It must have been quite a wrench to up sticks from within a settled community in Aberdeen, Yorkshire, Haverfordwest or Essex, presumably in most cases to find work.

When I get the time I intend to look into my mother's side. This may prove more difficult as I'm aware much of her line is from Ireland, but research of this kind is an addictive and compelling pursuit and I doubt now whether I'm going to be able to stop until I find everything that is out there.

MPowering Youth Through Education and Experience

I spent a hugely constructive couple of hours yesterday (Saturday) afternoon at the Hounslow Community Centre as a guest at a workshop for young people organised by the MPower Hounslow Youth Project.

About fifteen youngsters - boys and girls mostly from a Muslim background - discussed a host of topics relating to political and social extremism, not just on the fringes of Muslim society but also street gangs and football hooliganism.


I was invited to the meeting in time to give my own presentation about my experiences as a National Front organiser in the 1970s and 1980s, but I arrived early enough to hear some of the earlier presentations and was amazed by the quality of the information that was being imparted. It occurred to me instantly that this project was deadly earnest about trying to keep potentially vulnerable young people who might otherwise find themselves receptive to extremist ideas on the straight and narrow.

When it was my turn to speak I simply gave it from the heart. Many of the people there were so young they had never even heard of the National Front, but most had heard of the BNP and I circulated some photos and written material demonstrating the extent to which I had been involved, including a fading snippet from a local newspaper showing myself and Nick Griffin, now leader of the BNP, addressing a rally in Isleworth and a letter I once received whilst in prison from an outspoken Ulster loyalist friend (writing from another prison) literally a few months before he was shot dead by members of a fringe Irish republican group.

I spoke of the way in which one becomes "ghettoised" when joining up with an extremist group, rightly shunned by normal society but with the result that one finishes up only speaking to and listening to others who share one's own prejudices, and sliding deeper and deeper thereby into an extremist mindset and way of life.

I think it fair to say that most of these very young people were ever so slightly taken aback to suddenly find themselves being lectured by this middle-aged, greying and nondescript old scruffpot and hearing about a way of life in which guns and bombs, whilst not perhaps a feature of everyday life, certainly existed as a feature of the political dialectic at the time.


I think I have said before on this blog that this is the kind of work, more than anything else, that I really want to be doing. I deeply regret my past as a right-wing extremist, but accept that it happened and believe that I am uniquely placed to offer warnings, advice and guidance to young people who may in the wrong circumstances found themselves being led along the same destructive and dangerous path.

MPower is a superb resource for vulnerable young people and I have already expressed to the organisers my willingness, indeed my eagerness to assist them in their future work should they wish me to do so. My respect for those who dedicated themselves to working with and helping young people in this way really does know no bounds.