Rick sets out to explore the life of his father, Eric, who tragically committed suicide in the 1960s. Rick traces the causes of his father’s manic depression. Eric suffered racial abuse as a child during the First World War because of his German ancestry. He also received electric shock therapy as an adult.
Before she married Eric, Rick’s mother Dorothy had a brief marriage to a man she met while studying at Cambridge University. Rick researches his mother’s life and her time at Newnham College in Cambridge. He talks to his half-brother Jeremy, the child Dorothy was forced to leave behind when she married Eric.
Finally, Rick travels to China in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Henry Parkes, a 19th century Methodist missionary. Henry was one of the first missionaries to travel into China after the Opium War. Rick learns of the harsh conditions Henry faced and the personal tragedy he suffered.
You can find many clues within your own family’s archives. Photographs, films or videos, letters and diaries are all good sources to discover what sort of people your ancestors really were. Our podcasts on divorce records (MP3, 16.2Mb) and starting your family history (MP3, 26.6Mb) will give you some useful tips and starting points. Census records, available online from 1841 to 1911, are also a good place to start.
If your ancestors travelled to and from Britain to places like China, passenger lists are also a good place to start.
You might also find these research guides useful:
China - Records in The National Archives
Foreign Office Records from 1782
