Surprise in store with Heather’s family tree

An emotional trip to Orkney is in store for a Scot investigating her family tree.

Red Cross volunteer Heather Roy from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, who has spent many years piecing together her family tree but she still has questions that remain unanswered – and she will find out in a TV documentary.

Heather knows her family have followed both ‘the fish and the farm’ and now wants to piece together who they were and what their lives were like.

With celebrated ancestors through the generations, Heather discovers there are more heroes than she first thought, and unknowingly she has been in possession of a very special war medal. The harsh reality of war shaped the lives of Heather’s family and journeying to Orkney, Heather finds out the special role her grandmother had whilst stationed in Kirkwall in World War 2.

In the Highlands, Jo wants to unearth the part her ancestors played in Scotland’s social movement. She hopes to discover that her ancestors were involved in Scotland’s first industrial dispute – the Calton Weavers Strike in 1787.

Jo comes south to Glasgow and the place where it all happened. With help from genealogist Elizabeth Cunningham and archivist Irene O’Brien, Jo discovers the roots of her ancestry dating back to Ireland and her family’s immigration to Glasgow. Driven by a desire to share everything she’s learned about her ancestors with her father, her discoveries bring them closer together and place them firmly in the history books of Scotland.

This is the third episode in the series and will be shown on Monday 3 June, on BBC Scotland from 8-9pm.