Original subtitles

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.