Sue Johnston Shocked By Family Myth | Who Do You Think You Are

Sue tries to investigate her great grandfather and is surprised to find some things aren't all as they seemed.
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Sue Johnston's story revolves around the relationship between two men who played an important role in her family history. As she started her research into her own background she realised that they were of particular interest, because their lives reflected the increase in social mobility that followed on from Britain's Industrial Revolution.
The story of her great-grandfather James Cowan is an instructive one - an archetypal rags to riches story. He managed to pull himself up by the proverbial boot straps from the disease-ridden slums of Carlisle, and eventually became an independent man of means. His son, Alfred (Sue's grandfather), however, rebelled against the plans his father had for him, and went to work on the same railways that his father had worked on as he hauled himself out of poverty.
James Cowan was born in Scotland in 1825, and later moved to Carlisle. Records seem to indicate that he started work on the railways around 1849, at the time of the birth of the railway industry. The Industrial Revolution was changing the face of the country at this time, and the railways were at the forefront of the process.
James spent 25 years working at Carlisle Citadel station. Records show that in 1856 he started as a porter, then rose to be second head porter, and in 1861 he was promoted to second assistant platform attendant. Family legend has it that he eventually became a station manager. This, as Sue discovered, turned out to be untrue. He never made it to the top job, which could be the reason he resigned after 25 years of service. The records show that he left seven months after the death of the previous station manager, perhaps realizing that he would never step into his shoes.
By the time he left the job, however, his economic circumstances had improved dramatically. Most of his early life had been spent living in The Lanes, a notorious, almost Dickensian slum in Carlisle. Life was tough, as James's genealogy proves. His first wife, Jane Harrison, died of tuberculosis, and one of their four children also died.
In 1866 he was remarried, to Elizabeth Atkinson, and he had six further children. His place in the middle classes was cemented by the fact that he moved into a townhouse and employed a domestic servant - as the 1871 census shows.
When James left the railways, he entered the hotel business, another boom industry, and continued to succeed. The 1881 census reveals him to be a hotel-keeper, employing seven domestic servants, at the Station Hotel, Belle Isle Place, Workington. On his youngest son Alfred's marriage certificate of 1909 he is described as a 'gentleman', which is further evidence of how well he had done for himself.
This modest success meant that James could afford to provide well for his children. Alfred, who was born in 1885, was educated privately by a governess. It is clear that James wanted him to get a respectable white-collar job, which he did, as a shipbroker's clerk at the age of 15. But this obviously didn't suit Alfred. He threw it in, and went to work on the railways as a trainee fireman and an engine cleaner.
Whatever the inspiration for this move, one can only imagine the family rows that must have accompanied this decision. James had spent his life working hard to escape the railways, a resolutely working-class industry, only for his son to choose it as a career. Alfred also married Margaret Lacey, the daughter of a plate layer, and this too was probably considered an unsuitable move by his father.
Perhaps the difficulties between the two men were generational - James was after all 60 when Alfred was born, and much had changed from the time when he was a young man. Alfred also had the advantage of growing up at a time when the Labour Party was active and trade unions had gained some power. James, on the other hand, had had no support as he worked his way up the social hierarchy.

[@Beati3]

Snap! I discovered my great grandfather had been a porter his entire life on the railways too, but the family always said he'd been a station master. Must be a common railway worker myth.

[@sarahpiaggio2693]

It's family attitudes that we pick up which have been passed down to us through the generations from so far back that we don't understand the reasons for those attitudes anymore. I think that's what she's talking about. And it certainly does bring history to life for us. People watch things like Downton Abbey etc and imagine that they'd have been in the living room smoking a pipe, when in reality most of us are descended from the scullery maid level.

[@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co]

In a way, but servants in general left fewer offspring than the average. Our ancestors were more likely to be the tenant farmers bringing in the sheaves.

[@wfcoaker1398]

Scullery maids had babies for the men upstairs. Lol

[@slydoll7877]

Yes. It's blood memory. Our genetic makeup is affected by what our ancestors went through. For example, all my life, I've had a strong dislike of and fear of institutions of all kinds....schools, doctor's offices, big offices....hospitals....you name it and I'm uncomfortable to the point of panic in them. I had no idea why....then I remembered my Grandmother who used to look after me back in the early 1980s when I was a kid and she was born in 1910 and would tell me of the fear she and her siblings had when growing up of the workhouse. They were very poor and the workhouse was a real fear for them....so maybe that's my fear of big institutional buildings and organisations.

[@andrealacey4646]

Could the please put numbers in order they were made please so we can watch them in order THankyou

[@StuzRoz]

Today it's been converted into flats and shops 'shows blockbuster store' 🤣 they went the same way as the hotel 🤣

[@mawmawd627]

Oh wow. Blockbuster video.

[@charissecoal]

Poor lady. All she wanted was one of her ancestors to be a manager...or 2IC 😔

[@bobapbob5812]

My family, which emigrated from England around 1883 always had the tradition when serving roast beef. The father would ask "Do you want the Napolean Cut? That's the Boney Part" And everyone would groan. I always wondered how far back that went.

[@caravb5906]

She went to my old school

[@Kathleen5429]

Who was the couple standing in front of the Globe Hotel in the photograph? I’m assuming it was of James and his wife?

[@paulinehignett6557]

Good spotting them. Did Sue find out if it is them?

[@Solo-dv1gp]

blockbuster video!? when was this filmed? 😂

[@katherinetutschek4757]

That's exactly what I said lol

[@historyrepeating]

2004 apparently

[@elizabethsheffield6609]

@@historyrepeating ...........you would think so..........but it can't have been. A little bit of "Poetic License" going on just to make the program A BIT MORE interesting.

[@gudlisner501]

I’ve got a brother that has barred me from visiting him and his family and the reason? He tells the people in his life that dad was a farmer, I tell people the truth, that he was a farm labourer.

[@llchapman1234]

It's not just a river in Egypt 😶

[@catharinecarrington2705]

It's lovely with Sue Johnston go back into a family history find out all about the suit Johnson goes back into the sandwiches she was 22 years old primacy was when he had his first job Shirley Margaret Johnson 100-percent diamond Richard Dean Anderson 100-percent carat diamond Richard Dean Anderson because if it goes go back to the family archive ASDA Carlisle station find out about the flying Scotsman Versace clothes and put her personality into it Sue Johnston played in the royal family history family history the Johnson family history hi Barbara in the royle family history truly lovely man and woman every time Sue Johnston a lovely woman with a lot of pride and personality she starred in brookside one of the coast after dinner for Sunday post office post of posters for dinner brookside what's the weather in Africa adventure Ralph Cohenfice Sunday dinner

[@catharinecarrington2705]

Rdi Richard Dean Anderson RDA loyally fan base dedicated action 100-percent diamond Richard Dean Anderson loyal fan base dedicated action 100-percent diamond Richard Dean Anderson lovely kind-hearted man chipotle bowl RDA loyally fan base dedicated to Sue Johnston dedicated actress Johnston atoll when she started dinner poster post office super Sunday United boxing 🥊🥊🥊🥊 st. Johnstone highlights in for Sunday dinner Sunday dinner new st. Johnstone Sue Johnson from brookside Johnson sue Johnson Graha Costa for dinner invitation from biting biting for Sunday dinner who do you think you are what is the Costa for Sunday dinnerm brookside Johnson

[@scottandrewbrass1931]

Have you been smoking crack?!

[@joed1162]

Have things changed for the better ? We have a quite a few billionaires in contrast to millions on the breadline....one pay day away from penury. No we have not changed. Trickle down economics have never worked. Until we have new enlightenment that truly invests at the bottom end of the social and economic spectrum we will never have a feel good factor. The need is to nurture a young population that can become supremely independent of state and take care of themselves, be fit and healthy and not rely on handouts like food banks. Power remains with the rich thus it has ever been. In context in the 18th century public houses were actively discouraged, the rich were afraid that these "meeting" places would become a meeting of minds were the working poor would plot to overthrow them. In 1827 Mechanics Institutes were formed so workers could educate themselves with the aim of improving their life chances. One day there will be real Socialism.

[@maxshiraz3447]

She's a socialist, yet claims to be concerned with people living in poverty. Make no sense.

[@starsweeper11]

She was clearly hoping to discover she's got posh ancestors, and now has to backtrack on the snobby things she has been saying during the whole program. She's really unbearable.

[@sarahpiaggio2693]

@@starsweeper11 That's strange. The way I heard it, she was talking about the snobbery of various members of her family who wanted to better themselves and their family, not her own snobbery. So she isn't backtracking at all.

[@wikedwhich1]

@@starsweeper11 no she isnt..shes pretending, Ive always liked her...but we all have foibles...a brilliant actress and I think if you knew her you might change your mind

[@wikedwhich1]

@@sarahpiaggio2693 I think its fascinating that this 'snobbery ' is still evident...maybe there is a blip that went from generation to generation...and therefore I feel this angst is a really interesting thread that wont perhaps be explained in her case, but I dont feel thats a reason to dislike her personally, just to consider how such attitudes are passed down through time

[@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co]

Conservatives are slime, so at least she's not that.

[@leem8588]

Did she really just admit to being a socialist? Wow. Obviously she has no idea what soclism actually is.