Who Do You Think You Are?
Full circle
Wednesday 4 October 9.00pm BBC ONE
Programme copy
Antiques expert and TV presenter David Dickinson is the latest
celebrity to go in search of his roots as Who Do You Think You
Are?, the series that spurred the nation’s passion for genealogy,
continues. David’s ancestral quest has been especially meaningful for
him because he was adopted. His parents, Jim and Joyce Dickinson,
adopted him as a baby – something he didn’t find out until he was
about 11 years old. But he confesses he had always felt different.
>From an early age David showed a sharp business instinct, but he
didn’t immediately go into antiques. When he left school at 14 he first
worked as an apprentice in an aircraft factory, though he left after
only six months for a job in the textile industry, following – though
he didn’t know it at the time – in his real grandfather’s footsteps.
Once he had discovered, by chance, that he was adopted, Jim and
Joyce explained that his birth mother was an Armenian called Eugenie
Gulessarian who had lived locally. David was neither distressed nor
even particularly surprised by these revelations, and it wasn’t until
he was in his twenties that he made any attempt to track Eugenie
down. Although they corresponded by letter and talked on the phone,
they never actually met in person. She died in 1989.
David explains: "I think as a little boy, having found out that I
came from this Armenian stock I’ve always wanted to know more about
it and as I got into my twenties and thirties I did find out more
but eventually that came to a stop. So I’m hoping that this programme
will take me the full journey."
David was curious about his birth family and his Armenian roots. When
he acquired some photographs of his birth mother, who was known as
Jenny, and her parents, Hrant and Marie-Adelaide, he was struck by
how similar in appearance they were to him. And the similarities
didn’t end there. Hrant had been a successful textiles entrepreneur
in Manchester, having arrived from Constantinople in 1904.
Manchester had had close trade links with Turkey through the textile
industry since the 1840s and when Hrant arrived there was already an
established Armenian community. He joined an uncle who already lived
in Manchester and was running a family business exporting cotton and
other fabrics to Turkey. By coincidence, the address of grandfather
Hrant’s business turned out to be just a stone’s throw from where
David worked when he was in the textile trade.
At the local Armenian Church, David found records of Jenny’s baptism
and those of her brother and sister, John and Marie, as well as an
entry for Hrant and Marie-Adelaide’s marriage. He also found the
address of Hrant’s family home in the village of Great Warford,
only 20 minutes’ drive from David’s own home. He paid a visit, and
was shown round by the present owner.
David admits he is fascinated with grandfather Hrant: "I have always
felt I had been close to him as a little boy. And I think I feel a lot
of understanding for him. I can see the slight old fashioned-ness. I
can see the slight toughness. It is in me … and I think I’ve always
looked towards him and, as a teenager growing up, I always – rather
silly I suppose – I modelled myself on him."
Hrant was not particularly happy, however. His marriage to
Marie-Adelaide (who, according to family folklore, was French)
was stormy, and there were terrible rows. Finally, Marie-Adelaide
left him for a man with whom she’d been having an affair, but Hrant
gained custody of the children. When David checked in the Manchester
Records Office, he found that his grandmother was born Marie-Adelaide
Jackson, the daughter of a Moss Side baker, so there was no hint of
French blood. The records further showed that Hrant divorced her for
adultery with a man called Frederick Williams.
There was more to come. Through his cousin, Mark Gulessarian, the
son of David’s uncle, John, David learned from Hrant’s will that at
the time of his death in 1963 his fortune had declined radically,
perhaps on account of the slump in trade that followed the Second
World War. He died a relatively poor man.
David travelled to Istanbul to trace Hrant’s ancestors. He was
told that the Turks’ resentment of the Armenians was so strong that
thousands died through persecution between 1894 and 1897. Massacres
of the Armenians, which occurred from 1915 to 1917, are known as the
Armenian Genocide and two million are thought to have perished. In
Istanbul, where the Western press was well-established and there was
a strong European influence and presence, Armenians could live in
relative safety; the massacres took place in the remote east of the
country. However, officially, Turkey still fails to acknowledge what
took place and discourages research into the genocide.
David is relieved to find out that his great-grandparents didn’t
die in these massacres. He found a funeral certificate for his
great-grandfather, Boghos, from which he learned that he died aged
63 of dysentery at the holiday resort of Yenimahalle, on the Bosphorus.
David enlisted the help of a local historian to find out more about
the family business. He discovered that the premises used by his
family still exist and are still used by textile traders, though the
Gulessarian business petered out in the late Twenties.
The chances that any of the Gulessarian family still remained in the
city were slim, but David decided to place a series of adverts in the
local Armenian newspaper. Initially there was no response, but towards
the end of David’s visit a gentleman called Hacik Guleser contacted
the newspaper. He turned out to be David’s third cousin. The family
had dropped the name Gulessarian in the Thirties and adopted the
more Turkish-sounding name of Guleser. So, through David and Hacik,
the Gulesssarian family line continues.
"Most people will have their mother and father, brought up in Doncaster
or Yorkshire, wherever it may be, and will know their roots and never
question them," says David. "In my case, there has always been a
question about my roots because there’s never been a certainty what
it’s all about."
As he ends his journey, David concludes: "I’ve come full circle now. I
can sense a certain toughness in them. It’s in me. Since I was 11 I’ve
been chasing the Gulesserian name. Maybe I’ve had something to prove."
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