In this first episode of Season Ten, host Andrew Martin meets author, human rights advocate, former RootsTech and TEDx speaker, family historian, and former CEO of the Society of Genealogists – Dr. Wanda Wyporska. She shares how she got hooked on researching family history, her work with the Society of Genealogists and the Black Cultural Archives, and explains how she ended up writing a book on witchcraft in Poland.

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Life Story – Theodore Joseph Paul

Wanda has decided to choose her Great Grandfather, Theodore Joseph Paul as her life story. While she never met him, her grandmother would regularly speak of her father, and this therefore gives Wanda a fondness and curiosity of his life.

Theodore was born in 1888, in East Stonehouse, in Devon, England, and he was sent off, without his family, at the age of 12, where Wanda has found him at the Royal Greenwich Hospital School in Greenwich, London.

Wanda is soon able to trace him through Naval records – of which there are plenty – and she can see that he travelled the world with them, but was drawn back to the UK, where he also became a member of the Freemasons.

In 1912, he marries Nellie Mabel Turpin… sparking off a family rumour that the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin was also a relative. Theodore and Nellie start their family which includes Wanda’s grandmother.

Despite travelling the world with the Navy, there’s something that keeps drawing him back to the city of Chester in Cheshire, UK.

The Brick Wall – Richard Holmes and Sarah Nanny Rogers

It’s Wanda’s 3x Gt Grandparents in Barbados that are causing her problems – and she needs your help. It’s a case of too many possible candidates and not enough records in order to find the origins of Sarah Nanny Rogers and Richard Holmes.

Richard appears to have been born in 1797 and died in 1849, It is believed that Sarah was a freed Negro who owned slaves, but in this period, there’s a few scenarios that may have meant that Sarah had enslaved people, including; she may have been given them, or that they were actually relatives that she had paid for the freedom of. It’s still unclear, and Wanda hopes to unravel this story one day.

Sarah marries Richard Holmes on 28th September 1844 in Christ Church, Barbados.

Wanda would love to know the origins of Sarah Nanny Rogers.

If you think that you can help Wanda with a research clue or idea, then you can send her a message via her Twitter profile, or alternatively, you can send us a message and we’ll pass that on to her.

In the meantime, Wanda accepts Andrew’s offer of help, but she has a strange sense of déjà vu….

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Episode Credits

• Andrew Martin – Host and Producer
• Dr. Wanda Wyporska – Guest