Lulu Uncovers A Forbidden Love Story And Dark Past | FULL EPISODE | #WDYTYA

[Music] just try the first B again just to make sure it's tight for over 50 years Lulu has been one of Britain's Best Loved pop stars I go on that stage I just love it I'm blessed to still be able to do it and to still enjoy it it's I it's [Music] unbelievable you know you make me want to sh look my hands J look my heart throw my head back they released shout when I was 15 and it was hit immediately so that was it I was on the road since finding Fame in the 60s she's won the Eurovision song contest top the charts we take that and she's still touring and releasing new material I don't know what I'm going to find but I don't sort of I don't I have no high futin ideas I'm not waiting to find out I'm really a princess I know I grew up in Glasgow I was the eldest of four we sang a lot there was a lot of music in my house I thought my father was the best singer I'd ever heard I think I got my father's gift the story of my mother is a big secret basically she had been given away as a baby I never met my mother's real parents I don't even think I've seen a picture of them the real essence of this is why did they give my mother away that's the real thing that's what's so [Music] confusing Lulu has invited her brother Billy and her son Jordan over to piece together what they know about her mother's story second hey hey you do hey Mom thanks for coming you too to see you [Music] kid this is a good picture yeah it's us at the beach my new frog on of course I would have to be dressed perfectly from head to toe and there's Billy chubby chops how will be that three maybe four she looks happy yeah that was all she wanted she does own family what I'm really looking for is is the answer to why my mom and your mom and your grandmother was the only one out of seven children to be given away why was she the only one separated from the family well I've looked at it from every possible angle and I could never work it out never there was never any Rhyme or Reason to in my mind always like there was something missing M and I couldn't put my finger on it who were the families you grew up with and how old was she when she was sort of given to them I think she must have been a little baby a little tiny baby and they the family that took her on with the McDonald's so she found out that her parents weren't her parents yes when she started a a relationship with her natural family yes she got to know them they became close but we have no idea we have no idea why they they gave her up I tell you that there in lies the mystery I don't think my mom had the answers I don't think she knew I we have know the discovery played Havoc with her with her state of mind and with her emotions and she became very insecure we although it wasn't spoken we understood yeah don't ask too many questions don't push it there's a lot to be answered so I think the only way to do that is for me to go back [Music] home to try and find out why her mother was given up by her birth parents to be raised by the McDonald family Lulu is on her way to Glasgow I always love going back to Glasgow because I think of it as being my home I keep reverting to a thick glass region accent she started her research by ordering up copies of her mother's birth certificate and her grandmother's death certificate she was born in Castle Street Glasgow Elizabeth Kennedy Ken September the 25th 1927 Hugh KS is my mother's father and Helen is that darling Ken who was originally Helen Kennedy is my mother's mother so what I have here is my grandmother's death certificate Helen darling Kens married to Hugh Kens died 1935 wow she was only 31 Ah that's Young well I suppose my mother was 7 years old when her mother died her real mother what did she die of peritonitis ruptured appendix profound toxemia cardiac failure poor woman 31 wow she had seven kids before she was 1 W and then obviously a very painful death no life at all my mother was 13 or 14 when she found out that she was not a McDonald she was actually a Kennedy Ken she found out at school one day oh crucial age sad that she never even got to meet her mother I would absolutely love to see pictures I would like to know what my grandparents look like do I look like them does my brother look like them the thought of seeing that is [Music] exciting feels like home but it doesn't seem as big when I was Tiny I thought Glasgow was huge I'm going to meet my Uncle Jim and my cousin Ellena who I used to play with when I was young I would have seen her the last time when I was before I was 15 before I became Lulu I really hope they've got some answers to some of the questions Lulu knows that her maternal grandparents Hugh K and Helen Kennedy had seven children her mother Elizabeth was their middle child when she was about 13 Elizabeth met her biological sister Nelly who told her who her birth parents were Lulu hopes that Nelly's daughter Elena and her mother's younger brother James can tell her more about why her mother was given away as a baby oh my God [Music] hello are lovely to see you I was told that my mother didn't know she was a Kennedy K's until your mother Auntie Nelly came to see her when she was at school and told her you're not a McDonald in fact I'm your sister your mother ran away screaming screaming yeah scared of her says you're not my sister yeah well it would be frightening wouldn't it it would yeah you know I never met my grandfather or my grandmother can you tell me anything about who my grandparents were as people this is your grandmother wow that looks like my mom that's my mom really it's very like your mom oh my God your mother Auntie Nelly did she ever tell you stories about her mom my mom said that she was a bit of a girl that she liked to go out dancing and things like that yeah even though she had all these children she still liked to go out but to be fair she had seven kids and she was 31 you know she was only young baby yeah so she wanted to still enjoy her life this is Auntie Betty and Uncle Davey's wedding so that's Davey and Betty oh and that's your mom and dad and Lulu down there look at the ball I had the biggest ball of all the children mine you could fly away on that ball that I have on my hair and that's our grandfather you are kidding me I obviously met him but I am not I don't have really a memory of it this is another one oh my goodness look at those eyes I know they're quite my daughter says it looks really scary he's got a scar from here see which went right up to his ear oh my goodness how did that happen one story is it just happened as he was coming out of a football match one story is it happened in a pub it doesn't mean to say that he was a criminal or anything in those days lot of four scars GL do you know where my grandfather worked he worked for the Cali which was a railway but not when the children were small so did did Auntie Nelly tell you anything about our grandparents relationship Hugh was very Catholic his family is very Catholic Halen's were very very Protestant in the Orange Order in those days for a Catholic and a Protestant to come together was almost impossible y both families tried to split them up all the time I think they loved each other it was like they couldn't live with each other but they couldn't live without each other they were constantly splitting up and going back together and just having babies what happened after grandmother Helen died what happened to the kids he stayed with his aunt what happened to the rest of them they were left to bring themselves up they brought themselves up their father with lived with their father and yeah he was only a young man and I think he drank a lot he would leave them so the my mom was in charge and she would they you steal the milk you steal the bread you steal the roll so they would go out and steal it from people's doorsteps your mom always ask my mom why was I the one that was given away and my mom used to say you were the lucky one really that's that one Nellie said yeah you were the lucky one she says got out yeah nothing you were looked after it stayed with her that she felt she was given away because she wasn't important no but in fact she was saved in a way cuz it was hard with her father father living with a father you know no mother he wasn't working the money wasn't coming in so we were very fortunate but your mom never saw that must be loud for why did they choose me out of [Music] seven the interesting thing to learn was how the Kennedy Ken family their opinion is that she was the best off because she went to a normal family and had a roof over her head and had food but because she didn't know no one gave her any information she felt like she'd been abandoned she just didn't know I mean she was left to her own imagination so now I'm really interested in finding out more about my grandfather and my [Music] grandmother hey Jim hello Lulu how you you doing delighted to meet you yeah you too to learn more about her grandfather Hugh KS Lulu is meeting historian Dr Jim Smith at the springburn Railway Depot so Jim I have found out that my grandfather Hugh actually worked here I'm trying to find out more about can you tell me anything well we can start with his birth certificate Hugh Kens born on April the 1st so he's born in Glasgow and then we can pick up his story from the what records from here there Hugh K is there mhm he started working on the 13th of September 196 14 years of age he was working here the school leaving age was 14 oh oh he was a baby and that's the rate per day yeah what was that old money four Shillings and 8 a day he got paid he was a Foundry laborer it says but I don't know what that means it's hard physical labor he's a young Irish Catholic lad and most Irish Catholic men worked as unskilled laborers for Hugh to start his working life and continue his working life as an unscared laborer would be very much the norm between 1830 and 1914 over 300,000 Irish migrants came to Scotland and Glasgow with its flourishing Industries saw the biggest influx the new arrivals were predominantly Catholic and faced routine discrimination with better paid more highly skilled jobs generally reserved for the city's Protestant majority the date of leaving service was the 4th of July 1917 CA of leaving the service was leaving his job right was bad timekeeping seems kind of sad didn't even last a year and it's 1916 1917 it's the middle of the first world war Hugh started work during the War years a boom time for glasgow's heavy Industries hundreds of thousands were employed in ship building armaments and on the railways which provided vital transport for troops and materials they need every hand they can get it's full employment you'd have to have a good reason to be unemployed which doesn't give me much hope for my grandfather well don't give up hope yet because um he comes back they bring him back they have him back fitting short laborer yeah was that a move on possibly I moved down oh I can see he got less money less money yeah 3 and 8 well better than nothing um 19th of February mhm 1918 he's been sacked cause of leaving the service in attention to his work and it goes on he's not hard back mhm he's back on the 9th of December 1918 and oh my goodness I can't even say it he loses his job again mhm so he's been in and out and in and out why didn't if his father said get out bed come on and drag him by the scuff in the neck and take him in does it get any better well well stick with it stick with it you know it's h okay okay I I'm hopeful he's back on the 28th of June in 1920 oh things have getting better he's getting five Shillings so it's gone from 3 and 8 to 5 Shillings oh but he's and then he leaves again on the 11th of August 1922 of his own accord yeah I just don't understand why would he leave well let mate answer that this is to certify that Hugh Kens has proved himself to be a good Workman and is a good timekeeper they lied but how nice of them this certificate is granted on the understanding that Ken is going abroad my mind of course is racing how old was he there he's still only 20 he's 20 he's going abroad has he met my grandmother I'll bet he has how would I find out where he went abroad well the documents to look for are ship's lists and they will give a list of all passengers let's do [Music] [Applause] [Music] it okay so now I'm going to try and find H on these passenger lists Hugh Karen's birth year2 arrival 19 22 okay now search what comes up there he is wow he went to Boston he departed from Liverpool and arrived in Boston on the 24th of August so now I have the form the immigration and travel form they ask whether he intends to go home after having a short sort of working sabatical in America he says no he's not intend to go home and then is he going to stay in America and he says always maybe that's what he intended but it didn't work out for him it says he suggested records let's see now oh my God this is German port of departure Hamburg destiny ation Grimsby so okay he leaves for America in August and he's back in the UK by November but what happened to Boston maybe my cousin Ellena would know Ellena it's Lou hi hello how are you I'm good I actually found the documents that told me that our grandfather traveled by ship to Boston Massachusetts but he was back in the ukuk within 3 months yeah the family had club together and sent him to America to get him away from our grandmother they were going out together and obviously as you know the family disapproved and um so they cled together sent him to America and hoped he wouldn't come back but he missed her so much that he got a job on a German tanker and worked his way back to Hamburg and from Hamburg he made his way back to glaso to see her again and then they got back together quite clearly the parents did not want this to happen at all absolutely not well thank you sweetheart for clearing that up um so I'll speak to you soon yes yes lovely Lulu now knows that her grandparents enforced separation didn't last long Hugh and Helen were reunited by the end of [Music] 1922 to find out what happened to the couple next she's meeting historian Dr Bill Knox at the Glasgow green Winter Gardens hey Bill let me give you this uh document now this is a a birth certificate uh we can give you this oh that's great Colin mckel KS his parents are Hugh Kar and Helen darling Kennedy they had a baby of course he was the eldest he was born in 1923 in October hey they're not married no so the child is illegitimate shame and horror I'm l laugh in because of course then it would have been shameful the church sees it as a a badge of Shame Society sees it a badge of shame but what makes it worse in this case is it's across a religious divide oh so Helen Kennedy is living at 58 Norman Street he's living at 259 Castle street they're both in Glasgow but they're not living together yeah the addresses tell us something about the religious composition of the different areas is a glasow here Norman Street that's in brickton that's where she lived now Hugh lives in Castle Street which is in a different District to Glasgow it's in town head area so we have to go Castle Street so so they're miles apart what were those two different areas like well the one thing word you could use to sum them up are miserable appalling levels of overcrowding squalor you've got to remember that 2third of families in Glasgow lived in one or two rooms there was also a religious aspect there's no ghettoization but you had areas which had high concentrations of One Faith or the other faith brington for instance was more associated with Protestants the Orange Order and so on whereas Town head is more associated with Catholics after the first child the illegitimate child and living in different places what happened then then well let me show you this what is this this is another birth certificate so this child was born the 31st of January 1925 yeah they're not splitting up are they let's face it h Karen's father oh he's still at Castle Street they haven't moved in together no two kids out of wedlock Y what a mess it's very interesting if you look at the birth certificate because it's the mother's responsibility not being married to register the birth and the father's name only goes on the birth certificate if he accompanies her to the registrar's office now Hugh has done this he's committed he is totally committed so I imagine and it is conjecture that the families absolutely refused to allow them to get married but they couldn't keep them apart and I can see there's another piece of paper so I know you've got something else to tell me I'm almost afraid well it's not the end of the story have a look at that I'm so relieved they got married on the 21st of February 1925 by getting married that legitimizes the children the children but it's not any old kind of marriage over here it says something on the top line something about regular marriage and then there's another line underneath it say an irregular marriage well a regular marriage involves the presence of a member of the clergy irregular marriage is what leads to what we call civil marriage today is simply a question of you saying I do I say I do we go with two witnesses along to a sheriff or a magistrate and your marriage why do you think they had this irregular marriage they had no option really one's a Protestant one's a Catholic the Catholic Church frowned on marriage with a non-catholic so it is kind of love across a significant divide yes it's the Glasco equivalent of Romeo and Juliet because you have anecdotal evidence of women or young men being cut off by their families because they've moved across this divide says something about this relationship that you would risk all that so love and anyways was blind to Faith it's clear there was a very passionate relationship but I have to say it doesn't look like their future is bright and Rosy Lulu has discovered that her grandparents Hugh and Helen married in 1925 by which time they already had two sons their daughter Nelly was born in 1926 and another daughter Elizabeth Lulu's mother followed in September 1927 Elizabeth was given up to another family not long after her birth but Lulu has no idea why she's come to glasgow's Mitchell Library to look for any records of her mother's case in the city archives hello Lulu pleased to meet you good to meet you too come away adoption expert Professor Kenneth Nori is helping with her search so Kenneth I know my mother didn't stay with her birth parents for long I would like to know what happened this book is a book of the record of of children who are subject to local Authority visitation monitoring um and this this occurs when a child isn't living with their normal natural birth families so if we open it at C uh we'll find a reference to your mother there she is Elizabeth birth date 25th of September 27 and there's her father's name Hugh yeah so this is different from taking a child into care this is not the public authorities removing a child the records revealed that Lulu's mother's parents gave her up to a foster family of their own accord in cases of private fostering the birth parents of a child paid for his or her care and to ensure that children were properly looked after Foster families were visited regularly by local Authority inspectors the next document is is is this one it says here Widow Jane mcoy yes have adopted child Elizabeth what happened because the woman who took my mother had a husband yeah your mother was with this family only for one month for a very very short period of time right the actual heading is beautiful wording how disposed of which pains me I have to say um she was disposed of on the 23r 21st of the 3D 1928 she's about five or six months old yeah yeah yeah father of child is Hugh K's presently in prison for one month prison oh my God you didn't know that your grandfather had been in prison no goodness knows what he got up to the father is suddenly out out of the picture uh your grandmother isn't mentioned in in these records at all that's strange in itself that is strange in itself but it possibly explains why your mother had to be given over to another family if you notice right at the end no money does that say yeah no money no money money I think what has happened here is that the arrangement has been that this Widow is to be paid Buton fact it's never she never receives anything so did she give the child back yeah I have to say I'm feeling very angry with my grandparents really nearly having babies all over the place well after this this month in the first placement your mother then is put to a second family the McDonald's the McDonald right what this is is the record of the official visitations William McDonald Helen Reed date when child received was the 14th of the 5th 28 so not long afterwards no it's about a month after after she leaves her original placement terms agreed upon 8 Shillings 8 Shillings for what for how long that's probably 8 Shillings a month is about a weekly salary of a domestic servant at the time and you'll see that the official visitor visited your mother three or four times a year H and it starts here May 28th 1928 child making excellent progress well cared for father is supposed to be in prison mother has disappeared yeah her mother's disappeared yeah oh my god do you think her mother had a breakdown very very difficult to know then it goes on 27th of September also in 1928 wrote the father Reon payment to Guardian so immediately we're into a problem there's been no contact with the natural parents of the child and no money has has been forthcoming it's quite clear here that my mother's parents had what she always felt abandoned her then 1930 April the 4th child well cared for and making excellent progress child not to be given to parents until full payment is made and if they satisfy us that child will actually be cared for the poor law authorities are beginning to exercise some muscle here yes they're beginning to realize this child is so much better with the McDonald's with the McDonald with her own family with her own family so if her own family come along and try to take her back as they would normally be they have to be show how responsible they're going to be by paying by paying what they owe and also as it says showing that this child is going to be well looked after how would they do that after that I don't know how you could do that then November 15 193 2 child went to school yesterday for the first time and is very pleased pleased with herself it's a very humanizing thing to put in a formal document yes it's very pleased with herself crying and laughing at the same time I could you see her it really gives a flavor of her personality even at the age of five and she had that she was well loved as suppos cared for and felt secure yeah I mean to honor the McDonald family how unbeliev able they were they are Absolut the kindest most loving wonderful people that's certainly the feeling that comes out of that single sentence isn't it yeah this is in April 1935 godan informed the child's mother is dead and she seven the Guardians learned that the child's mother had died and they have now ined forn the child protection visitor but I think they've not told the child cuz the child doesn't know that the child isn't theirs we have the final record in September 1936 September the 25th child now 9 years why have they put that in this is her ninth birthday and that's the very final record that we have as soon as she is nine the official visiting come comes to an end and there's no more is she officially adopted no unofficially adopted no we've watched her grow up during that period and the state can effectively step back at that stage some children as soon as the official eye is removed some children will be in a a vulnerable difficult dangerous position that seems not to have been the case for your mother which in a lot of respects your mother has a very very fortunate child yes and that's what my uncle James said she was lucky I mean it's so confusing the whole thing her mother disappeared her father was in jail what was going on yeah this was a family in crisis it might be revealing now um for you to look at your grandfather's situation particularly his prison records that might give you a a slightly better picture of actually what the pressure that he was facing at that particular time [Music] yeah I feel emotionally drained you know thinking about my mom is a little baby little person I have um ambiguous feelings about my grandparents right now yesterday I felt better towards them I'm trying not to be too harsh about what they did to my mother why was my grandfather in jail there's more to know about because you know my emotional reaction makes me want to blame you know and yet you know I wasn't there I wasn't in his shoes I mean it must have been really [Music] tough to find out why her grandfather was in prison Lulu is meeting historian Dr Andrew Davis at the old Glasgow Central police station Andrew Hello nice to meet you you [Music] too Andrew my grandfather was in jail in 1928 but I don't know why he was in jail I've actually found a record here which shows in fact he was in jail quite a bit earlier than that he was so found him here in the admissions register for Juke Street prison this is in 1918 he he he was born in 1902 so he was he was in jail when he was 16 years old that's right oh my God I had a criminal of a grandfather what did he do it says assault and robbery from a safe that's say £100 it it does l see in today's money that would be something between £4 and 5,000 so that's quite a hefty sum that's shocking I think he was a bad boy my grandfather I've got another record from a few years later this is a register for bini the next document God that's a really serious prison where will the badens go 1924 April the 1 April Fool's Day breach of the peace breach of the Peace So he was in a fight he's been fined 21 Shillings with the option if he's unable to pay the fine of 10 days 10 days in the jail got the date of his release there April the 3D so somebody had to come and pay 21 Shillings oh his parents must be so upset and his wife very much so this is a lot of money are there more I'm afraid there are a few more of these to come Okay so he's back in again 1924 May the 28th and he's in again reach of the peace so he's always getting into a fight the last time he was in ja was April and then this is May and he's back in again it seems like there's a pattern it's really noticeable isn't it he's he's barely been out and he's back in the jail I suspect as well by this time Hugh's known to the police thinking get him yeah he's a troublemaker I think he's a probably by now a bit of a Marked Man is this 42 Shillings it is price has gone up they're fed up with him they're just charging more to let him out they've really scaled up the penalty so in fact they've doubled it haven't they because dou it it's gone to 42 Shillings or 20 days that must have been really difficult for my grandmother it must have been because they're clearly struggling to pay the fines oh my goodness taking them 10 days to bring that money together so we have another oh entry it's in and out in and out in and out like a yo-yo oh my goodness this is 1926 and I think the date of this one is quite interesting July the 5th once we're into June and July this is the parading season oh this is when the religious parade happen it is the number of arrests for breach of the peace will just rock it during these summer months and it looks as though your grandfather's been caught up in that for over two centuries members of the Orange Order have held marches during the summer months to commemorate the Protestant William of oranges defeat of the Catholic James II when h K was a young man in interwar Glasgow these parades often became flash points for violence between the city's Catholic and Protestant communities if we read along we can see the Fine Again 42 Shillings or 20 days what's really interesting is they've paid the fine on the day how they manage that oh maybe he's part of a he's part of some kind of gang or that's got to be at least a possibility here yes in the 1920s and 30s workingclass areas of Glasgow gained a reputation for gang violence fueled by high levels of poverty and unemployment and glasgow's gangsters became particularly notorious for their weapon of choice the razor there's a picture of my grandfather and it was pointed out to me that he had a scar right around the side of his face see there oh yeah you see right around his mouth there that's got all the Hallmarks of gang fighting there's no hiding that this gives you an idea of the kind of razors that people were using I remember as a child a lot of men having scars and and I think people outside Glasgow would call that scar you know the one from the ear to the mouth they would say that was a Glasgow grin I think for someone like your grandfather who's obviously a fighting man it might almost have been a badge of honor mhm you know I heard it said if you came from the kind of background he came from or I came from men had to be boxers or make their name being a footballer but the other old alternative was to be in a gang to be a villain and you had no other way of progressing you know the problem is once you're involved in that kind of world you can't get out it's difficult to get out so Lulu if I show you another record from bin h k 1928 and this is March assault assault and previous assault and previous convictions but this is March it's nothing to do with the religious marches March the 17th and it's St Patrick's night isn't it oh so he's drunk he's in a fight and my grandmother suffers and quite clearly my mother suffered because this was when she was first given away I mean right now I want to kill him like you know really I want to just you know I'm angry with him I understand that they're poor and everything's tough I am really so sad I me I feel sorry for them all Lulu has discovered that over the course of 10 years her grandfather Hugh was impr prison no fewer than 10 times thinking about my grandparents life makes me see how really awful their struggle was he I think had to be in a gang or be nothing not to negate the fact that he'd made choices that were not smart were wise her I think she she married a wrong actually I don't know anybody who was in an out of jail like that you know and and I felt I came from a tough part of Glasgow but what makes me sad is that my mother never got that part never got this information so she didn't know that you know um she was ultimately lucky Lulu knows that despite her grandfather Hugh's criminal record her grandmother Helen stayed with him and that after her mother's birth they had three more children together she now wants to go one generation further back to learn more about the staunchly Protestant family from which her grandmother came from a very early age I was very conscious of being a Protestant and that your sort of sworn enemies even if you don't understand it it was just confusing that there was this you know ooh T tot tot oh you can't go there you can't be going with them and they're different to us I didn't children don't see a difference so I remember my Uncle Jim saying that he thought his grandmother's family were involved with the orange Lodge um so I'd like to know if they were how involved they were to find out about her family's role in the Orange Order Lulu's come to the orange Lodge on Talis Street in glasgow's East End to meet historian Professor Elaine McFarland I believe my grandmother's family were involved with the with the orange Lodge they certainly were they were your great grandmother Helen or Kenedy uh was was very involved my grandmother was Helen too so they both called Helen both called Helen so there she is I think she looks like me she has a we fat face this is uh the the register of the ladies orange Lodge 52 and that's their Banner uh just behind you there oh yes I saw that brisby's Daughters of the Covenant yeah and uh if we look the date at the top is March 1927 to March 1928 oh there she is Mrs Helen Kennedy this is the list of all the people in the lodge she's the very first one as you notice in the list she's the top she's the top dog what does WM stand for worthy mistress so she ran the whole shebang she rang the shebang yep and there's 165 women is that a lot of women it's a lot that's that is quite a big this Lodge the first ladies orange lodges opened in Scotland in 1909 they soon became a mass movement thanks to the opportunities they offered workingclass women like Lulu great-grandmother Helen or Kennedy to socialize and play a bigger part in public life and by the early 1930s Scotland boasted more orange women than men we can look a we bit more closely at what she actually did in this Lodge this is the minute book and you'll see that Helen is in very much in the chair 16th of March 1922 sister Kennedy the w M asked the visiting Brethren to wait for a cup of tea a dance followed which lasted until about 2 in the morning so they had a good time it was very sociable very that was an important bit of the attraction was that social Dimension and she was pretty much running the show and and this this is uh the symbol of her Authority this is of the period And this is the gavel gav have a go l order yeah let's have some order the why she had a big loud voice like me bet she did and this is this is actually the Bible this this is represents the Bible because the order it saw itself as grounded in scriptural principles but there's there's more here of what she's up to sister Kennedy asked for a large turnout of our members at church parades so these parades what was Helen Kennedy's role role well she would have led the parade she would be quite Fearless to do that yeah they would command the streets with hell in yeah in the front leading the way yeah and she climbed up the hierarchy she did I just look at these this is the the Grand Lodge of Scotland that was the governing body of the the whole orange order so it says here minutes of ladies Conference October meeting 1929 sister Mrs Ken were the grand mistress occupied the chair so were the grand mistress so she's the chair of she's the head of the whole Lodge top wom she actually was the first to hold that position so she was a Trailblazer oh look she says I'm just jumped straight to this thing that says here the grandm on being invited to take the chair returned the Mallot of authority to Sister Mrs Kennedy wgm with the the request that she should carry on he further gave the ruling that at all future conferences the worthy Grand mistress conduct the business as the sisters were well qualified to undertake not only that duty but any other Duty in connection with their Association Peri had finished the end yeah the women's Lodge although it was so successful had been subordinate to the male Lodge and the women's section meetings had always until then been chaired by a man that was a really important moment for women also for for Helen a recognition of of her standing her personal standing and this is a workingclass woman from East End of Glasgow who has worked her way through the lodge hierarchy into this really a responsible public position but how did my great-grandmother square away the issue that she had such an important role in the orange Lodge and her daughter was married to a Catholic jail bird it would have been a very difficult situation for her now that this is the rules of the women's uh orange Lodges of the time and if look at this you can get a flavor of the the attitudes um towards Catholicism should any member marry a Roman Catholic she shall forwith be expelled if after Fair trial the offense has been proved moved that's how serious they treated marrying a Catholic that it was one of the primary grounds for expulsion but obviously she carried enough weight with her colleagues that um it didn't derail her progress in in the order what eventually happened to her well she continued to have a very prominent role in the Orange Order and she was involved right up to her death in 1943 and she's uh buried in h rather Glenn oh I would love to have met [Music] her Lulu wants to end her journey with a visit to her great-grandmother's grave at rather Glenn Cemetery I am delighted uh that my great grandmother wasn't a woman who was so strong I just like her I would like to have known her she came from nothing that's what's so amazing I come from nothing so I I wouldn't put myself in the same position as her cuz I've been very lucky you know and I I've had a lot of people help me when I was a young kid but I don't know who helped her I think she just did it all on her own and um yeah that's giv me you know it's giv me some Joy all the information I have found out about my my grandmother Helen and my grandfather Hugh is tough it's tough information I actually wonder what the relationship was like between my great-grandmother and my grandmother two seemingly completely different [Music] people this is the index of graves Rand cemetery and if I jump to the bottom my great grandmother Helen Kennedy 71 years old oh wow Helen Kennedy Ken 31 years that it's my grandmother she's buried with her mother in the same grave my goodness Lulu's great grandmother Helen or Kennedy died in 1943 at the age of 71 outliving her daughter Lulu's grandmother Helen Kennedy K by 8 [Music] years I've also got here a newspaper article the Belfast Weekly News Scotch orange notes Glasgow Bridgeton the members of this Lodge held their annual meeting the WM made sympathetic reference to the loss sustained by Sister Mrs Kennedy in the death of one of her daughters in token of sympathy one minute silence was observed that's very generous I think that no matter what the differences were about religion they acknowledged my grandmother's [Music] death the one sadness is that my mother didn't know all the the pieces that I know and she didn't really get to know her real family there she is in loving memory of our worthy mistress Helen or Kennedy died 28th of February 1943 from The Sisters of the ladies loyal orange Lodge 52 quite clearly they knew they were poor they didn't have money there's a lot of amazing gravestones here this looks like it's probably the smallest one when you think of my great grandmother and how she strived to be the very best she could be and be strong and you know live a purposeful life and then you think of my poor grand mother dying at the age of 31 after having seven children and a husband who was really not the best choice the fact that they're buried in the same grave does suggest that despite all the troubles and the religious fighting that went on between my grandmother and her husband and her own mother there is a a bond that wasn't [Music] broken

Channel: Who Do You Think You Are?

Views: 114,496

Keywords: who do you think you are, wdytya, who do you think you are uk, who do you think you are BBC

Id: t710gnn4y2Y

Length: 57min 19sec (3439 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024