Who Do You Think You Are? visits the University of Nottingham

Monty Don and the Who Do You Think You Are? crew visiting Manuscripts and Special Collections

Gardener and writer Monty Don was just one of the many people who visit Manuscripts and Special Collections each year on a mission to use original documents to find out more about the past - but he was the only one who brought a film crew along with him!

He came to see a letter from his great-great grandfather the Rev. Charles Hodge, written in New Zealand in 1857. The letter (Wr C 355) was sent to the Rev. Hodge's brother-in-law St George Kirke, a relative of Edward M. Wrench of Baslow, and describes the rough conditions of pioneer life that Charles and his family were experiencing near Christchurch. Edward M. Wrench kept a large family archive, including hundreds of letters, which was transferred to the University of Nottingham in the early 1960s. The Wrench Collections are described on our online catalogue.

He also saw a printed pamphlet addressed by the Rev. Hodge to his parishioners at Clarborough near Retford. The original pamphlet is privately owned but a copy is available in the East Midlands Collection.

The programme following Monty Don's genealogical research was first broadcast on BBC1 on Monday 9 August 2010 and can be seen again - if you missed it - on the BBC website.