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Parky's humble roots revealed as 1911 census forms go online
He is one of Britain's best-known presenters, famous for interviewing legends such as Muhammad Ali and The Beatles, and a knight, but historical records released today reveal details of Michael Parkinson's humble ancestry in Yorkshire.
The former Yorkshire Evening Post journalist's grandmother and grandfather are among those whose poignantly hand-written details can be viewed by the public as parts of the 1911 go online today.
The census provides a fascinating snapshot of the population of the country just a few years before a whole generation of young men perished in the Great War of 1914-1918.
In Yorkshire 3.7 million people were recorded in the census taken on the night of Sunday April 2, and among those names is Parky's grandfather Samuel Parkinson, who lists himself as a "Colliery Dataller – Road Repairer" – employed by the day to carry out gruelling service work in the mines.
Along with his wife and six children, one of whom was Sir Michael's father, Samuel Parkinson is listed as living on High Street in Shafton, Barnsley.
Also listed is Alan Bennett's mother, Lilian Mary Peel, who was just seven in 1911.
The author's mother was living with her father, William Peel, a draper's assistant; her mother Mary, and her brother and two sisters at 1 Union Street, Greetland, near Halifax. The family lived in just four rooms and had already lost a child.
Lilian's brother, listed in 1901 as 14-year-old Clarence Eastwood Peel, is described as "student + taken off spinning room" which meant the teenager was being part-schooled and part trained for the textiles industry.
Clarence was killed in World War I just six years later, along with thousands of other young men. Many years later, in 1985, when the nephew he never knew had become a famous author and playwright, Clarence was immortalised as the subject of Bennett's radio monologue Uncle Clarence.
Who could have known what was in store for the seven-year-old girl living in a seven-roomed house in Hull? Amy Johnson, whose father was a fish merchant, went on to become one of the most celebrated women of her time, a pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.
The Yorkshire records also contain details of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, the acclaimed social reformer, who was a 39-year-old living in York and working as a director for his father's famous Rowntree's chocolate company.
By 1911, Rowntree had already conducted his first social study into the poor which found 28 per cent of York's population were living in serious poverty.
The 1911 records were not due to be released until 2012 but demand was so high that were released early.
The initial release was in January this year and included the records for West Yorkshire. Today the records of people living in East and North Yorkshire are available.
The census covered England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as recording those aboard Royal Naval and Merchant vessels at sea and in foreign ports. For the first time in a British census it also included full details of British Army personnel and their families in military establishments overseas.
It is the most detailed census since UK records began and the first for which the original census schedules have been preserved – complete with peoples' own handwriting – providing a fascinating insight into British society nearly a century ago.
The census team worked around the clock for two years - scanning on average one census page per second. In line with data protection legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners will be held back until 2012.
The original documents occupy over two kilometres of shelving. Eight million paper census returns have been turned into 16 million digital images.
You can trace your family tree at www.1911census.co.uk.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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