All language subtitles for Who.Do.You.Think.You.Are.S15E05.720p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTW na progje. regel 110

Shirley Ballas is known to millions
as the head judge

on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

What I enjoy the most about Strictly
is that it's a family show,

and that appeals to me.

You weren't scared, you weren't
frightened, you gave it 1000%.

I was impressed.

It's my first job in TV,
and when I heard that I had got that role,

I just fell to my knees,
and I was just in shock.

It's been the most incredible experience.

Away from Strictly,

Shirley is an international dance coach
and competition judge.

In her own career as a dancer,

she's won titles in the UK
and around the world,

and was ten times
US Latin American champion.

I first started to dance
when I was about two years old.

And when I was about seven years old,

one day I heard this music,
and it was the cha-cha-cha.

And I was hooked. I loved it.

I just knew that that's what I wanted to do.

So I carried on that dream.

What do I know about my family history?
Not a lot.

On my mum's side, I do know
one story that was passed down.

I believe my great-grandmother
was a bit of a party girl.

And she left my grandma when
she was very young,

and she flew the coop
and went to the United States.

And I don't really know too much
about my dad's side,

except I had also heard a whisper
that I come from black ancestry.

You know, do I come from mixed race?
Do I have black ancestry?

I'm really curious to find out.

Shirley grew up in Leasowe
on Merseyside in the 1960s.

She was raised by her mother after
her parents separated when she was two years old.

I'm on my way to see my mum.

Mum lives just off the side
of the housing state where I grew up.

Here onto the left, we used to have a flat.

And eventually we moved from there

to Cameron Road, which was a council house.

Back then, on the housing estate,
it was really quite rough.

My brother and I just had my mum,
so there was just the three of us.

And I was bullied quite a lot
as a young girl

because we didn't have a dad,
and it was kind of scary.

So, when I got into dancing,
that became a little bit my safe place.

My life revolved around my Saturday.
Dancing on a Saturday.

If you could imagine me walking
to dance class right now,

I'd have a little red case,
and I'd have my dancing shoes in there.

I never used to catch the bus
to the church hall.

I used to walk to save the money towards
a pair of shoes, or perhaps a dress.

For me, it was...
It was everything.

Shirley wants to ask her mum
about her great-grandmother,

who left her family and went to America.

- Hey, how are you?
- You all right?

- I'm good, how are you?
- Yes, I'm fine.

Would you like a cup of tea?

Of course,
I always like to have a cup of tea.

- Just black? - Yes, please, Mum.

Still watching those calories.

So, I found these photographs.

This one's

my mother, Daisy Sutton,
when she was a girl,

and her brother Jack.

And where are they here, Mum?

I think it's at the farm.

They lived on a farm?

And your mum only had one brother?

- Two.
- Two brothers?

And this is my mother's father.

George Sutton.

And he would be my great-grandfather?

And this is my grandmother,

Clara Eccles.
- My great-grandmother?

- Attractive lady, though?

Look at this.

Now, this is the certificate of marriage.

George Sutton and Clara Eccles.

They were both 23,

and it was 1903, the date they got married.

Clara liked nice clothes,
and she used to go to the pub.

- To the pub?
- Yes.

And it wasn't kind of heard of then,
was it, ladies going to the pub?

I think that Grandmother thought she
was quite shocking.

But he still married her anyway?

Maybe he liked somebody with an
outgoing personality...

Maybe I got my outgoing personality,
then, from Clara.

She left when my mother was in
her teenage years.

And eventually, she went to America.

And left her children?

How do you think, Mum, that Daisy felt?

Well, when Clara decided to go to America,

she did ask her to go with her.

But my mother didn't want to go.

She thought she was quite shocking

because that's what she'd
been led to believe.

Really?

Somebody said Clara adopted another child
in America,

but I don't really know anything about it.

- Quite sad in a way, don't you think?
- It is. It is.

George was left with three children,

and he died when he was 40-odd.

- What did he die of, Mum?
- Well, they said it was a broken heart.

- That's quite sad.
- So the story goes.

This is Grandma

that look after the children.

When Clara left,
George's mother raised them, we think, yeah?

Yeah, their grandma.

And that's my mother, Daisy.

George.

- And Jack.
- Her two brothers, George and Jack.

Daisy looks quite sad here, I think.

She suffered with her nerves a lot.

She was tremendously shy,
your mum, wasn't she?

My mother was very withdrawn
because the grandmother

brought them up, and they always
felt under an obligation.

- Wow, how sad.
- That was it.

That's very sad.

Yes, so that's all the family history.

- Well, I'm glad you kept these
pictures, Mum.
- Yeah.

It kind of starts, a little bit,
the chain of me learning who's who.

I must try to find out about
these two. Curious about...

- It'll be interesting.
- ..George and Clara,

- what happened to these people.
- Yeah.

Shirley wants to know why her
great-grandmother Clara

left her three children, including
Shirley's grandmother, Daisy.

For a mother to leave three
children, young children,

she must have had a really,
really good reason for going.

Now, I know everybody seems to think
that she was a party girl,

she liked to go down to the pub for a drink.

Obviously, back then, it wasn't acceptable.

So, I'm curious, a little bit.

I'm curious as to why Clara left,
really. Where did she go?

You know, what did George die of?

They say a broken heart, but,

you know, it's difficult for me,
in this day and age,

to believe that anybody breaks...
dies of a broken heart.

So, I know her name was Clara.

I know her surname was Sutton.

And I believe she came from Hoylake.

She was born probably around 1880.

And let's have a little click on here.

We may have found Clara Sutton
on the census.

In 1911, Clara Sutton, age 31.

Her son George was seven.

My grandmother, Daisy Sutton,
her daughter, was three.

Jack Sutton, her other son, was 18 months.

It looks like that she was a shopkeeper.

Where was the husband?

Why isn't he on the census?

So I think I'm going to have to
search for George.

George...

..Sutton.

Patient. What does that mean?

Was George Sutton ill?

The Royal Southern Hospital,
Toxteth Park, Liverpool.

So now I'm confused.

Because that's not tying up with any
of the whispers that I heard.

She left, he raised the children.

Then he died of this broken heart.

It seems to me like he was sick at
31, and she was at home

with the children.

What is the truth?

Hi, Shirley, I'm Karen, pleased to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Shirley is hoping to find some
answers at Birkenhead Library,

which holds records for the local area.

It's windy.

She's meeting genealogist Karen Murphy.

This is George, my great-grandfather.

And here we have Clara, his wife.

My great-grandmother.

And here is George's mother here.

I don't know her name,
she's my great-great-grandmother.

- OK.
- And she raised
my grandmother, Daisy.

I saw the census in 1911.

Clara was 31 and she had three children.

But there was no husband.

And so I looked up George,
and he was in hospital.

- In Liverpool.
- The census is just
a snapshot from one day in time,

of course. So, if he's in hospital,

we don't know if he was just in
hospital that day, or a long time.

But I do have a document to show you.

So, this is... The last will and
testament of George Sutton.

That's my great-grandfather.

"I hereby give, devise and bequeath
unto my dear mother,

"Elizabeth Sutton, with who I am at
present residing,

"all my estate and effects..."

So, I now know the name of my
great-great-grandmother - Elizabeth.

And George has written this on
the 24th day of November.

1911.

So, the census was April 1911.

This was written seven months after.

Yeah.

So, he knew something wasn't right.

Yeah. The fact that, as a young man,
he was writing a will might,

you know, suggest that he did know
he was, you know, ill, certainly.

And it sounds like now, at this date,

Clara's already out of the scene
if he's giving everything

- to his mother. What could have
happened?
- We don't know.

But it would certainly suggest that
they've separated

- by the time he's writing this will.
- For sure.

Otherwise, he would have given it
to his wife.

So, this is...

So this is a copy of the death certificate.

George Sutton. And he died on the...

28th March 1916.

And he died at 36.

Now, rumour has it in my family
that he died in his 40s...

- ..of a broken heart.
-

Cause of death, multiple
carcinomata, intestinal obstruction.

So, what is that, do you know?

Yes, so cancer.

Multiple cancers.

For two years.

Good gracious me.

How sad.

So, at 36.

So my nanny Daisy would have been
about nine when he died.

- Yeah.
- Nanny. They thought she was
a teenager.

- So she was really a little girl.
- Yeah.

Very, very sad. So he knew he was
going to die when he wrote the will.

- It would suggest that, wouldn't it?
- It would suggest that.

And we know that he's now left everything

to his mum, nothing to the children,

nothing to Clara.

She was left with nothing, certainly.

So she would have had limited
means of income.

There was no welfare state at that time,

so she wouldn't have been able to
have claimed any benefits.

We know from the census that Clara
worked as a shopkeeper,

so, obviously, I wouldn't have
thought that she had

a tremendous amount of money.
The children were living with her.

So I wonder how she was meant to survive.

So it could have been, instead of
all the whispers and the gossips

of party girl, and out at the pubs,
and she just left the children

and ran off to the United States
and never saw her family again -

maybe it wasn't that at all.

It could be that she realised she
could not keep those children,

and maybe in her heart she felt that
they would have a better chance

in life being with Elizabeth,
my great-great-grandmother.

- Maybe that's what happened.
- Perhaps, yeah.

Yeah. I'm just looking at Daisy's
little face there.

You know, my grandmother.

I couldn't even begin to imagine
how she was feeling.

So I'd like to show you this one
next, Shirley.

This is a marriage certificate

- and the name of Arthur Spidle.
-

And Clara Sutton.

1919.

So she got remarried.

- Yeah.
- My goodness.

And Clara is 32 years old.

And a widow.

Well, it's not tying up, really,
is it? She was born in 1880.

So it would suggest that,
perhaps, she was 39.

- Yes.
- So, maybe because she's with a
younger man, she lied about her age.

That seems the most likely answer, yeah.

I'm shocked a little bit. So we've
got some fibbing going on here.

But, probably, she needed some
support or help or financial aid,

or something.
She did it out of desperation.

Is there any other information that
you could give me,

to let me know what happened after this?

I'm afraid that these are the last
documents that we've found

in the UK records.
But I do have one last thing

which is a map showing us Hoylake.

So this map, this is actually 1912,
we have Shaw Street here...

And this is where Clara lived with
their three children.

I think it would be nice for me to
go and visit that home,

to get a kind of feel...

- Definitely.
- ..For Clara, and what
happened and where she lived.

Shirley has come to Hoylake on
Merseyside to look for the house

where her great-grandmother Clara
and her children lived.

Just trying to imagine how my
great-grandmother was,

coming up and down these streets
with three children.

And I think I've just found the home
where my great-grandmother lived.

And I can feel that kind of
breezy feeling,

and knowing that she lived here,

it's a little overwhelming.

I don't think it was the case that
Clara was a party girl.

I have a completely different
concept of Clara now.

She was a shopkeeper, she was
raising her three children.

Her husband died, and he left
everything to his mother,

and Clara got nothing.

So I'm trying to imagine how
Clara must have felt.

I have to say, I do feel more
connected to my great-grandmother

than I ever possibly thought I could be.

I still have a few unanswered questions.

That trip to America, did she truly make it?

Where did her life go after she left here?

Shirley wants to know what happened
to her great-grandmother Clara

after she left her children and remarried.

How are you? A bit rainy today.

- Nice to see you.
- And you. I'm Fern.

She's meeting historian Fern Riddell
to find out if there's any truth

in the family story that Clara
went to America.

One of the first things that I have
for you is a passenger list.

Wow.

So this is Arthur here.

- Spidle.
- Yes.
- And Clara.

This is August 1919.

So they got married in 1919, in March.

So they left shortly after
they were married.

So they left from Liverpool,
and they sailed to New York.

OK. Wow. I wasn't expecting that.

And then you have where they're heading for.

They're heading for Boston.

And that's where we have our next record.

So a census record.

From 1920 in the city of Boston.

We have Arthur and Clara here.

So this is where they...
where they lived?

Yeah. So they're living in a
lodging house,

because you can see all of these
other people are also living in it.

So does that tell us that perhaps
Arthur, really,

- also didn't have much money,
or...?
- Yes.

- So he was a porter in a hotel.
- .

And she was...

- Can you read that?
- It says saleslady
in a department store.

So I would think back then that they
were quite low-paying jobs,

- were they?
- They are, but she's in
a very good job for the world

that she comes from.

- Definitely making the most
of her opportunities.
- Wow.

Well, that makes me smile.

Good.

- Happy for that.
- Do you know anything
about Arthur at all?

I don't know anything about Arthur,

except that we heard that perhaps
they adopted a child.

So it's an affidavit
from Clara Spidle of Alton,

state of New Hampshire.

"Do make oath and say that I am
the libellant

"in the libel for divorce filed
by me against Arthur J Spidle.

"August 1928."

So they were only married about nine years.

- Yeah.
- So they weren't together
very long, then?

I have more information for you.

What is this?
This is a superior court...

"That the abusive treatment began
soon after their marriage."

- So he was abusive?
- Yeah.

"That at times the libellee has
drank spirituous liquors

"to excess, and upon many occasions
the libellee has threatened

"the libellant with bodily violence,
has put her in fear of her life...

"said that a married man
had a perfect right

"to be improperly intimate with
a woman not his wife,

"and that by reason of this constant
ill-treatment, the libellant

"has been forced to seek medical treatment.

"The said Clara Spidle and Arthur J
Spidle, during their marriage,

"legally adopted one Dorothy C Spidle,

"who is now eight years of age."

Well, that's...

That's really quite sad, isn't it?

- It's tough.
- I was really hoping for
a happier ending for her.

She loses her husband because of cancer.

She has to leave her three children behind.

And then she ends up in this
abusive relationship.

It's really quite sad.

It's a tough one.

But she adopted a daughter.

- She obviously has an awful lot of
love to give.
- But she suffered.

So this is a Record for Divorce.

November 30th 1928.

And the cause was the conduct for
seriously injuring her health.

So she got her divorce.

And, more importantly,
she has custody of Dorothy.

Well, that's a... A huge something
for women back then, I would think,

getting a divorce.

So this is a death certificate.

- Yes.
- Of Clara Spidle.

She was in an institution for 17 years.

The name of the hospital or
the institution, NHSH.

That's the New Hampshire State Hospital.

It was...
It was a psychiatric hospital.

OK. She's died at 66,
August 25th 1947.

Immediate cause of death is paresis...

..and syphilis.

So she probably caught this from
her husband, do you think?

Absolutely.

One of the things about syphilis is,

if you're infected
and you're untreated for some time,

it can basically appear as dementia.

You really lose your mind
as much as you lose your body.

She died at 66.

And suffered at Arthur's hands.

After suffering, leaving her children and...

What's very sad is her family has no idea.

She never saw them after she went
to America.

And I don't think my grandmother,
Daisy, would have known any of this.

I didn't really expect to...

..get this information today,

but I'll carry this with me now
for a long, long time.

And Clara, my great-grandmother,
holds a very, very, very special

place in my heart.

And I'm sure when I share this with
the rest of the family,

everybody will look upon Clara
in a much, much different light.

Having found out what happened to
her maternal great-grandmother,

Shirley now wants to trace her
family history on her father's side.

We're off right now to visit
my Auntie Barbara,

who is my father's sister.

I know very little about my father's
side of the family,

because from a very early age I was
raised solely by my mother.

I had once or twice been around
my dad's sisters,

and I did pick up that perhaps I
came from black ancestry,

but if anybody knew anything,

I think my Auntie Barbara could shed light.

- Hello, Shirley.
- Hello.
- Nice to see you.

Good to see you.

How are you doing?
My goodness, you look great.

- Come on in.
- You look very good.

Thank you.

So, Auntie Barbara, I'm hoping that
you can shed some light

on my heritage from my father's side.

I do remember my grandma,
and don't remember too much

about my grandfather.

Well, this is your grandma and grandfather.

Nelly and George Rich.

My goodness, he looks like my dad.

Your grandfather was a very, very
hard-working man.

He really was.

He was a stoker and, with stokers,
they have to shovel coal.

OK. Have you got any other
photographs of him?

Yes, I have.

One when he was in the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy.

- Yes.
- HMS.
- ...

And he was a boxer.

- He was a boxer?
- A boxer.
I should imagine bare knuckles.

My father taught me to be a southpaw.

He taught me how to box.

You're being a bit scary there.

He did. He taught me how to box.

So, Auntie Barbara, do you know
anything about his father,

my great-grandfather?

Yes, I do, Shirley.

This is your great-grandfather.

-
- And his name was George Rich.

Another George.

And he was born in South Africa.

He came over and married Elizabeth Rich,

which was my grandma,
and your great-grandma.

A dapper-looking man, wasn't he,
look, with the bowler hat?

- Yeah.
- Have you any idea where
in South Africa he came from?

Well, rumour has it it was Cape Town.

And he was born in 1866.

Do you think that, with the roots
being in South Africa,

I wondered if you know if we had any
black ancestry in our family.

No, I don't, Shirley.

- You don't know.
- I don't know.

I may be able to do a little research.

So if I type in George...

If I go along here, it'll be Rich.

And his date of birth was...

1866.

South Africa.

So this is a census from 1901 in England.

There was a George Rich that was
married to an Elizabeth Rich.

Birth - 1866, Cape Town, South Africa.

But he resided in Birkenhead,
in Cheshire, in 1901.

So, Auntie Barbara, your information
that you've given me is correct.

So you got that, girl.

You got that. But it's not telling
us much more here.

So I think this next part of the
journey now,

- is I might just have to go to
South Africa.
- OK. Bags packed.

Shirley's discovered that her
great-grandfather George Rich

was born in Cape Town in 1866.

To find out more, Shirley is
travelling over 6,000 miles

to the southern tip of Africa.

My first day in Cape Town.

I've been wandering round all the streets,

I've been looking at all the buildings.

There is a mix of all sorts of people here,

and I'm really trying to get that
feel for where my ancestors

once walked these streets.

? Tell me now, tell me now, yeah. ?

- Love it.
- We're on TV.

? ..Makes me feel like I can't live
without you, baby

? It takes me all the way. ?

Bye.

Shirley's come to the
National Library of South Africa,

in the centre of Cape Town...

- Hello, hello. Lovely to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.

..to meet genealogist
Heather McAllister.

Come inside.

So what can you tell me about your family?

Well, this is the only known photograph

that we have of my great-grandfather George,

born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1866.

He looks a very dapper chap, doesn't he?

A dapper chap, he does.

And also in our family... there was
whispers that, perhaps,

I was of black descent, you know?

And I'm really quite excited
to find out my roots.

I have a document that you might
be interested in.

So George Francis, my great-grandfather.

Born on August 19th 1866.

To John and Mary Elizabeth.

Surname Rich.

So now we know who his parents are.

Maybe you could help me a little with this.

This baptism was solemnised in the
parish of St John the Evangelist.

That is an Anglican church
here in Cape Town.

When Shirley's great-grandfather was
born in 1866,

Cape Town was a British colony,

and he was baptised
into the Anglican Church.

The city had been founded by Dutch
traders in the 1650s,

but the British had seized control in 1806.

I have another document that might
be of interest to you.

This is another baptism -

of Caroline Eliza, and the parents,
John and Mary Elizabeth.

So this must be George's sister,
because it's the same parents here.

- .
- So he had a sister.

It's a death certificate -

of Caroline Brown, formerly Rich,
so this is George's sister.

And she died at 58.

The race - it says mixed race.

Can you explain that a little bit
more to me?

Well, it would mean that one of
her parents was white,

and the other one was not white.

So that means that
my great-grandfather George

- was of mixed race.
- Yes.
- I'm intrigued.

I'm absolutely intrigued.

But I'm just a little bit curious now,

where does the mixed race come from?

Do you have any other information
about John Rich and Mary Elizabeth?

- So this is a marriage certificate.
- .

St George's Cathedral, still in Cape Town.

And the year is 1858.

John Henry Rich, a carpenter.

And Mary Elizabeth Otto, in the
presence of Jas Page Chippendale.

And Esther Da Costa.

So could they be friends, or do you
think they are related in any way?

Well, we have found another document.

So this is the last will
and testament of Isaac Da Costa

and his wife.

So now I've got an Esther Da Costa
on this marriage certificate,

as a witness, and I've got
a will of an Isaac Da Costa.

Can you help tie those two things
together for me?

Esther is Isaac's daughter.

OK. So this is the last will
and testament of Isaac Da Costa.

"Our will and desire to be that a
sum of �600 sterling shall be paid

"over to Caroline Otto for the
support and maintenance of herself

"and six children, and that the said
capital sum shall, upon the demise

"of the said Caroline Otto,
be divided between her children,

"named Mary, William, Abraham,
Rachel, Johanna and Caroline,

"and a certain small house situated
in this Table Valley,

"in Church Street, shall be and
remain for a dwelling

"for the said Caroline Otto."

So in Isaac's will, here,
he's naming six children,

of which I'm recognising the name Mary.

So I'm assuming this must be
Mary Elizabeth here.

This lady has a surname of Otto,

so could Caroline Otto be Mary's mother?

- Yes.
- So would that
make Caroline Otto

my great-great-great-grandmother?

Wow. But why is Isaac leaving money
to Caroline Otto?

And who is this Caroline Otto?

Is there anything in these papers
that would give me a clue

- to who she is?
- I think the best
option would be for you to go

and visit St George's Cathedral,

because her daughter
was married there, and...

- Mary Elizabeth Otto.
- Mary Elizabeth.

Shirley has traced back two
further generations,

to her three times
great-grandmother Caroline Otto.

You know, I came here all the way to
Cape Town hoping to find information

about my great-grandfather
George Francis Rich.

And I saw a document that really showed me

that I am from mixed race, and it
was kind of an overwhelming feeling.

And I came to Cape Town
many, many years ago,

and never, ever would have dreamed at all

that my ancestry started here, was here,

so it was actually quite moving.

But I still only have part of the ancestry,

and my biggest curiosity here is,
who is Caroline Otto?

What did she wear? What did she do?

I'm curious about her now.

Shirley has come to St George's
Cathedral to meet the Dean,

Michael Weeder.

- Hello.
- Hello, welcome.

- How are you?
- Very well.
- It's nice to see you.

- How are you? Good?
- Good, good.

- Welcome to St George's Cathedral and
to...
- Thank you.
- ..Cape Town.

Shirley wants to know if there is
any more information

about her family in the records here.

This is from the church register.

So this is a baptism, solemnised
here at the parish in Cape Town.

- The year 1850.
- '50, yeah.

So February 15th, a little boy named David.

And the mum was Caroline Otto.

So that's my great-great-great-grandmother.

Then there's a second child here, Caroline.

And then a third child here, being baptised.

Three children of Caroline Otto
baptised on the same day.

And on this page, let me see what
you pick up on that side.

Well, Otto I can see straightaway here.

- Yay. OK.
- So there's
a date of birth - 1823.

This is the mother, Caroline Otto.

- Baptised August 24th.
- .

- What year was that?
- 1850.

So she was baptised the same
time as her children?

- The same year.
- Same year.

So the three children are baptised first.

- In February.
- And then the mother
decides she's going to get baptised.

That's a little strange.

So if I go down this column here for
the parent's name...

..of Caroline Otto.

It's a little difficult to read
but I think that says Malay.

Malay parent, so I'm not really too
sure what Malay means.

Malay in the 19th century, and even today,

it was another way of saying Muslim.

It also means that you are not white.

It was a way of identifying
people of colour,

but specifically the ones who were Muslim.

They would be referred to as Malay.

- OK.
- Does it all makes sense?

- I'm getting there.
- OK.
- I'm getting
there. I was... It's all kind of...

- You must stop me.
- It's all kind of
surprising for me.

In 19th-century Cape Town, Malay was
a catchall term for people

from Indonesia, India
and other parts of Africa

who were not white and were Muslim.

It might be useful for us to look at
another document.

So this is Cape Town, Mission To The Malays

by the Rev MA Camilleri.

Yeah. He was a missionary
who came here in 1849.

That's a report by him.

"I have baptised the following
persons from among the Malays..."

And then if you look down some of
those names there.

So, let's see.

A David Otto.

Cornelia Otto.

Johanna Otto.

Clara Otto.

Caroline Otto.

So five of the same family.

So these are all converts from Islam.

- From the Muslim religion.
- From the Muslim religion.

So it looks like
my great-great-great-grandmother,

Caroline Otto, was a Muslim.

Wow.

Why do you think that Caroline
converted from Muslim to Christian?

In terms of being Muslim/Malay,
in Cape Town,

in the 19th century, and way into
the 20th century,

the poorest of the poor were often Muslim.

And so it could be a way of moving
upward in society,

by formally embracing
Anglicanism/Christianity,

because that's one of the routes, in
terms of respectability,

in terms of securing certain
benefits such as education,

because often education was church-based.

And she's got all these children,
she's got to secure their education,

their wellbeing in society.

And that might be the path that she takes.

- She embraces Anglicanism.
- Fascinating.
- It is, yeah.

That's fascinating.

And this says where she lived, Rose Street.

So, Father Michael, where is Rose Street?

Rose Street is not far away from here.

It's in the section that is now
called Bo-Kaap.

Bo-Kaap is the Afrikaans word for
upper Cape Town.

It's also been known as the Malay Quarter.

I'd really like to see where she
lived at the time she was baptised.

Sure.

Shirley is heading for the area of
Cape Town known as Bo-Kaap,

where her three times great-grandmother.

Caroline Otto once lived.

So what I learned from Father
Michael is that Caroline Otto

was Muslim, and I have to say that I
was not expecting that at all.

And who would have ever thought
that little Shirley Rich

from the Leasowe housing estate had a Muslim

great-great-great-grandmother?

How absolutely intriguing.

How amazing. And how small
the world is.

Bo-Kaap dates from the late 1700s,
and historically,

it's been the heart of Cape Town's
Muslim community.

All the buildings are painted
different colours.

It's really quite small, everything
is right on top of each other.

Narrow streets.

It's pretty tidy and clean.

But I don't get the feeling
that 100 years ago

this would have been a wealthy area.

I just saw some ladies with headscarves on.

I've seen a mosque.
There's another.

It really does look like it's its
own community to me.

So, I definitely know that my
great-great-great-grandmother

lived on this street, Rose Street.

We don't have a number of the house
that she lived in,

but it would have been one of these houses.

I'm trying to get a feel for when
she would come down these streets

with her children. I mean, maybe it
was one of these homes here.

I'm actually getting to walk the
streets that

my great-great-great-grandmother
would have walked,

so that is really quite special.

Shirley's meeting local historian
Farid Basir at the Bo-Kaap Museum...

- Hello.
- Hello.
- How are you?
- I'm fine.
- Nice to meet you.

..to see if she can find out
anything more

about her three times
great-grandmother Caroline Otto.

- This is a directory of Cape Town,
date back in 1859.
- OK.

Have a Caroline Otto... who
was a laundress

and lived at 80 Waterkant.

So she moved from Rose Street to...

To number 80 Waterkant Street.

And where is Waterkant Street?
Is it still quite close or...?

Yes, it is quite close.

So Caroline is a laundress.

What would that have meant for her?

Well, if you look at this picture closely,

there was a place where the
washing house was,

- where the laundress went to do the
washing.
- Dear.

So whose laundry was she doing?

She could have maybe do
laundering for anybody,

and that is basically how she
earned some money.

So this was hard work.

I would say it was a hard work job.

You know that Caroline Otto
comes from a Malay family.

Many of these Malay women,

their occupation at that period of
time was to work in the laundry.

So, there seems in this photograph
to be many different people

with many different skin tones.

- That's correct, yes.
- But yet
they're all known as Malay?

- That's correct, yes.
- And where did they all come from?

Well, if you go into the
history of South Africa,

you will find people was brought to
South Africa as slaves.

Slaves was mainly brought in from Indonesia,

they was brought from Malaysia, they
was brought from West Africa,

they was brought from East Africa.

So do you think it's possible that
Caroline's parents came as slaves?

Could possibly be that they also
been here brought as slaves,

and she could be born in slavery,

and been raised at the time of slavery.

OK. So now we've got slavery
as well.

OK.

Shirley's three times
great-grandmother was born in 1823,

11 years before slavery was
abolished in 1834.

Cape Town was founded on slavery.

Slaves were transported from other
parts of Africa,

and from as far away as India and Indonesia.

The colonists used slaves as labourers,

but they also needed skilled workers.

Many of these slaves were
really good builders.

They were plasterers, they were
seamstresses, they were tailors.

- Caroline Otto was a washerwoman.
- Yes.
- It is a skill.

So that makes sense now.
So they came with those skills.

And that is what made them survive.

So now we have Muslim...

..and possibly came as slaves.

Having not known Caroline Otto at all,

and realising that she was an amazing woman,

my heart's a little bit heavy
because I think the workload

would have been tremendous for her,
and this whole situation,

coming through slavery, and I'm
proud of her and, actually,

I'm quite inspired by her,

this lady that I can proudly call my
great-great-great-grandmother.

It's been really, really quite remarkable.

I've suddenly found out this heritage

that I had absolutely no idea existed.

And I'm excited by what I've learned so far,

and also a little bit saddened
because it certainly sounds like

life was tough. But if at those
times Caroline Otto

had not survived, and if her
children had not survived,

I probably wouldn't be here.
Well, I know I wouldn't be here.

So without her, there would be no
me, and for that I'm truly grateful.

Shirley has discovered that the
parents of her three times

great-grandmother Caroline Otto
may have been slaves.

She wants to see if she can find out more.

- Hello.
- Hello, Shirley,
it's lovely to see you.

Shirley's come to Cape Town
Central Library to meet historian.

Vivian Bickford-Smith.

Here is a document you might
like to look at.

So it's a death notice.

And the name of the deceased is
Caroline Otto.

The name of the parents of the
deceased is unknown.

Age of the deceased between 50 and 60.

Condition in life is a washerwoman.

The day of the deceased is the
17th August 1848,

during the night.

So your great-great-great-grandmother.

Caroline Otto was born in 1823.

1823.

And this Caroline Otto has died in 1848,

aged between 50 and 60.

So would this be the mother of
Caroline Otto,

my great-great-great-great-grandmother?

- Exactly.
- Four greats?

Yes, four greats.

Wow.

The house at which she died is
21 Upper End Church Street,

and it's the home of Isaac Da Costa.

That was the gentleman who left,
in his will, Caroline,

my three times great-grandmother,
he left her a home, and �600.

Well, I'm afraid that I've got some
slightly sad news to give you.

She didn't, in fact, get to inherit
the house and the money,

because Isaac Da Costa, when he
died, was considerably in debt,

and by the time they had paid off the debts

there was little left for her to inherit.

- Quite devastating news for her?
- Devastating.

But of course it does raise the
question of why Isaac Da Costa

would want to leave this house
and the money in the first place?

That whole family is somehow connected,

so my four times great-grandmother
and my three times great-grandmother

are definitely connected to the
Da Costa family?

Exactly that. Perhaps we have to
look at some of these other bits of

information. Your great-grandmother,
times four, Caroline senior,

was a washerwoman but obviously acquainted,

well-known to Isaac Da Costa.

So maybe... she herself possibly
worked for them,

- the Da Costa family?
- Exactly.
One possibility is that

although washing was one of the
things that she did,

she might have been a nursemaid to
Isaac Da Costa's children.

Maybe Isaac's children or
child had grown up, perhaps,

with Caroline's children?

Yeah, and I think that's a very,
very likely supposition.

One of the things that we know was
that servants were sometimes hired

because they were having children
themselves, and they could actually

suckle the children of the employers.

- This was a very common practice
at the Cape.
- Wow.

If Caroline Otto was a wet nurse to
Isaac Da Costa's children,

it might explain the close ties
between the two families.

But Shirley wants to know how her
four times great-grandmother

came to be in Cape Town.

The birthplace of the deceased was Malagas.

What does Malagas mean?

Malagas was a term in Cape Town in
the mid-19th century

that was used to refer to Madagascar.

Here is a rather old map of Africa,
and here we are,

down here, Cape Town. That island
over there, the rather large island,

- is Madagascar.
- Wow.

What we know about Madagascar in
the late 18th century

is that there was a considerable
trade in people.

In other words, Caroline Senior,

your great-great-great-great-grandmother

was likely to have been brought over
as a slave from Madagascar.

Then I would hazard a guess and say
she was sold on to Isaac's family,

the Da Costa family?

Well, I think then we have to
think, Shirley, about the name Otto.

It's not obviously a Madagascan
or Malagasy name,

but what was quite common for slaves,

when they were sold to owners,

was for those owners to give those
slaves their own surname.

So it's likely that your
great-great-great-great-grandmother

came with her own Madagascan name
and then was given the name Otto

because she was sold to a family
called the Ottos.

Why would she change families?

One answer would be that slaves were
sold within the Cape.

The other possibility is that slave
owners would rent out their slaves.

So, originally, it might be that the
Da Costas came across

this Caroline Otto because they rented her,

and that's how they got to know her.

And then, of course, across the
whole British Empire,

slavery was abolished in the 1830s

and ex-slaves then could just become
ordinary, if you like, servants.

All the evidence suggests

that Shirley's four times
great-grandmother Caroline Otto

spent most of her adult life in Cape Town.

The only clue to her origins before
then is the name of the island

where she was born, Madagascar,

then called Malagas.

So where did the Malagasy people come from?

What we know about Malagasy people
is their origins

were from thousands of miles away
in South-east Asia,

sort of modern Indonesia and Malaysia.

Many of them came from the island of Borneo.

Other inhabitants of Madagascar
came from East Africa.

- So was it mixed?
- It was mixed, yeah.

So Asian and black ancestry, possibly?

Exactly that. Complicated.

So, in a way, your ancestor was an
early global citizen,

but, unfortunately, of course, then
forcibly removed to Cape Town.

It seems like my roots could be
well spread out.

I'm definitely not a simple line.

I would like to think that
I inherited something great

from these people, even though I
feel like their story,

probably in the day, was quite sad.

But definitely not victims here,

they were four strong women
who somehow managed to survive,

and I think it's a really quite
remarkable journey.

I came on this journey to find out
if I had any black heritage,

and I've learned so much about my ancestry -

taken from Madagascar into slavery,
moved to Cape Town.

Muslims... turning to
Christianity, some of them.

Just this whole struggle of this
family, and still they survived.

I must have got a gene from those
women of a survival instinct

because being a child on a housing
estate with a single family,

my own mother is strong and I think
that my own mother got that will

from her ancestry, and I've also got
it from my mother's side

and my father's side.

And I'll never forget this journey
and I'll take a piece of these

great-great-great-great-grandmothers

and I will carry that
with me until the day I die.