Zoe Ball

Star of TV and radio Zoe Ball is looking into her family history. Zoe’s mum died in 2024, but Zoe knows she was keen for her to look into their family history. Zoe knows very little about that side of her family, but she recalls her mum saying that her mother, Zoe’s grandmother, struggled with her mental health and spent some time in a psychiatric unit. Zoe’s parents divorced when she was just a toddler, and she lived with her dad, TV legend Johnny Ball.

Zoe and Johnny do some online research and discover that her paternal great-grandmother was called Catherine McMenemy and, as a child, lived in Landressy Street, Glasgow. Zoe had no idea that she has Scottish roots. In Glasgow, historian Peter Mortimer explains that Catherine and her family lived in one of the many tenement buildings in the area. They were overcrowded with little sanitation, and disease was rife. Zoe learns that Catherine’s mum and siblings died, tragically young. Peter then shows her a census from 1881, which lists 11-year-old Catherine as a lodger with a Helen McMahon and her son Daniel in Paisley. Desperate to know what happened, Zoe goes to meet genealogist Morag Peers, who explains that although her father was still alive and working in Edinburgh, the woman Catherine was living with was in a relationship with her dad, and Daniel was her half-brother. Catherine worked at the local textile mill and attended school part-time. Tragically, not long after, Catherine’s stepmother and brother also died. Morag picks Catherine up again in 1889 living in Bolton and present at her father’s death. Zoe is pleased to discover they were reunited. She’s struck by the tenacity of Catherine, who survived despite so much suffering and loss.

Having traced her Scottish roots, Zoe now turns to her late mum’s side of the family. She heads to the north east, where she knows her grandma Peg lived, to meet historian Dr Vicky Long. Zoe discovers that Peg’s father was a miner who was out of work. Aged around 15, Peg went into service and later married. Vicky shows Zoe Peg’s medical records which show she was experiencing ‘acute mania’. A letter written in her grandmother’s hand documents her delusions. They also show a woman who cared deeply about her children and grandchildren, talking about the jumpers she’s knitting for them. Zoe is relieved to see that at times Peg seems quite well and involved in family life. Peg died in 1979 - Zoe sees her mum’s name as the informant and realises that this was after her parents had divorced, when she wasn’t in contact with her mum. Zoe ends the day pleased to have learnt Peg’s story, but she also misses her mum all the more, as she wishes she could share her discoveries.

Zoe turns her attention to her maternal grandfather’s line. She assumed they had always come from the north east, but genealogist Katherine Thompson has a surprise for her. Bill’s mum was called Matilda Temby, and she’s traced the Tembys back to her three-times great-grandfather James Temby, living in Camborne in Cornwall. Zoe travels to Cornwall to meet historian Dr Lesley Trotter, who tells her that James’s mum was called Julia. A record reveals Julia was sent to Bodmin jail for assaulting another woman. Zoe heads there to find out more and is shocked to discover that Julia’s two-year-old son James would have gone into prison with her. To find out if life improved for James, she meets Lesley again, who has been tracing the Tembys’ journey from Cornwall to the north east. Zoe discovers that James married and had children, and the family moved to Guernsey in search of work. But in 1869, they are deported to Plymouth and recorded as destitute. Once more in search of work, the family head north to County Durham, where James worked in a coal mine.

Back in the north east Zoe meets another Temby descendent, Karen, who shows Zoe an obituary for James, a miner and shopkeeper. It records that he was held in the ‘highest esteem’. Zoe thinks about the resilience both sides of her family have shown, moving wherever life took them, and reflects that she’s always believed that it doesn’t matter where you live, it’s the people you’re with who make it home. She can see this was equally so for her ancestors.