Olivia Colman Traces Her Indian Heritage | Who Do You Think You Are? (U.K.)

Olivia has discovered that her great great great grandmother Harriet was born in kishen Gan in the Indian state of biar in 1807 to get to kishen Gan Olivia must travel to the northeast of India close to the border with [Music] Nepal it's very Misty at at the moment much greener than I [Music] imagined Ashish what Farms are these uh tea Madam so cool it this is all daring tea car I'm in [Music] India it would appear that you can overtake on either side of the road and there's a lot of horn tooting on the outside of a [Music] Bend I think that's probably the most used bit of the car which side ofed was he on isn't this a du carriageway the thought that members of my family have lived here it's amazing just such a long way to to come Olivia's great great great grandmother Harriet was born in the early 1800s before British Imperial rule in India at the time British involvement in India was through the East India Company a corporation with a monopoly on exotic goods from the East with regional headquarters in Kolkata the East India Company used an extensive Fleet of ships minted its own coins and had its own armies which grew to be twice the size of the regular British Army by the time of Harriet's birth the company's Authority stretched deep into the interior of India uh this is K mam how cool it's much busier than I thought it would be this fruit and veg look beautiful do like the little outfits that some of the goats have this is amazing think my great great great grandmother Harriet was born here 200 years ago today kishen Gan is a city of over 100,000 people when Olivia's ancestors were here it was a village Olivia has come to the former British club in kishen Gan to meet historian anurada chaty hello namaste Namaste Miss chat welcome to kishen G thank you very much I have some papers to show you should we take a look yeah thank you please thank you well the first thing we have is a marriage certificate Harriet's marriage certificate and it's got a father's name seser yes William seser so she was Harriet seser before she married Charles bazette yes and this tells you more about William sler born in 7 1978 so as you can see he traveled a lot around India with the Army belonging to the East India Company he was involved in various Wars and by 184 he becomes a captain right and ultimately we know that came here to kishan gun okay and Harriet was born here yes so do you know anything about William's domestic life here who he married well that's the strange thing is we could not find either a marriage certificate for William uh or a birth certificate for Harriet okay so what does that mean the strong possibility is that um Harriet's mother was not British and that very likely very probably uh she was a local lady in the early 19th century I don't think British women would have come to the interior of India this would be way too far out so it it was very common that East India Company officials would actually live with local women soon we' be coming to find records about English people from but not that my great great great great great great great grandmother is Indian mhm yes oh that's so exciting from here yes from Kish G yes very probably she's Indian oh this is so exciting I'm so much more interesting than I thought I was it's estimated that in the later part of the 18th century a third British men in India were living with and often having children with Indian women what's this it's an administrative list of William lesser's possessions telling us about their lives here wow one small writing de one paper slice one rule it's so detailed two papers of ink powder hook a pipe yes do you know what hooko is is that the big the pipe smoking tobacco through water through the yeah yeah is swords 27 pairs of pantaloons so I suppose it's a different time isn't it corks with silver tops Bible and prayer book hindustani grammar and the volumes of Shakespeare's works it's just amazing isn't it bottle of madira and a hook of pipe sounds lovely doesn't it yes that's so funny quite near the bottom of the list one elephant an elephant elephant a real elephant a real real elephant are you kidding this gives me an amazing picture of the of the life that Harriet was born into two languages bits of silver on Corks And an elephant great mixture yeah Britain and India yeah sounds beautiful it does but it doesn't last very long okay The Madras career of February last contains the following article we are extremely concerned to relate a Melancholy accident that happened to Captain seser that's William at kissen gun Captain seser was out shooting his gun having misfired he had just Reed when the gun went off and its contents passing through his head he was killed on the spot so this is 1810 how old would haret have been 3 or 4 years old oh no yes so really young so considering we think they weren't married H what happens do we know anything about what happens to Harriet or and her M well we don't know what happened to her mommy uh but about Harriet we do have some information there's a letter from a lawyer okay so uh cash paid out on account of Miss Harriet slesser Captain Fairfax for Miss lesser's voyage to England oh okay 1,400 s rupees in fact her grandmother William's mother who was also called Harriet actually paid for Harriet to be taken from India and brought to England wow aged three or four age three or four did the mother have any say in the matter I think it most unlikely that her mother would have had any rights over her on the other hand she might have been happy that Harriet was going somewhere where she would have a good life yeah we don't know yeah yeah the thing that I just find sad is that she's so little she's not far off the age of my youngest going to the other side of the world wondering where Daddy's Gone without your mommy oh but hopefully hopefully she has a happy time and they'll love her so we don't know about harr's Mom we don't know what happened to her we don't know specifically what happened to her mother no no so um little Harriet is here in kushen gun and grandmother wants to get her back to England how does she start who how does that work well she'd have to go to Kolkata which is almost 500 kilm from here gosh that's such a thing to do isn't it the thought that Harriet's mom came from here so I might have relatives here it's really exciting and then little little Harriet's life it's a proper Bittersweet thing her father's died and the intervention of Harriet's grandmother I suppose obviously obviously it makes sense let's give her a better life in England and I'm so pleased somebody wants to love her the thing I feel most sad about is that we don't know Harriet's Mommy we don't know her name we'll never know if she had much say in it but she she gave up her daughter for hopefully for the best reasons knowing that she would no she wouldn't see her again it's hard so next I want to find out about harr's journey I want to know that she's okay Olivia now knows that little Harriet following her father's death in 1810 was sent from kishen Gan to England her grandmother also called Harriet paid for her Passage