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Star of TV and radio Zoe Ball is looking into her family history. Zoe鈥檚 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鈥檚 grandmother, struggled with her mental health and spent some time in a psychiatric unit. Zoe鈥檚 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. The buildings were overcrowded, with little sanitation, and disease was rife. Zoe learns that Catherine鈥檚 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鈥檚 stepmother and brother also died. Morag picks Catherine up again in 1889 living in Bolton and present at her father鈥檚 death. Zoe is pleased to discover they were reunited. She鈥檚 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鈥檚 side of the family. She heads to north east England, where she knows her grandma Peg lived, to meet historian Dr Vicky Long. Zoe discovers that Peg鈥檚 father was a miner who was out of work. Aged around 15, Peg went into service and later married. Vicky shows Zoe Peg鈥檚 medical records, according to which she was experiencing 鈥榓cute mania鈥�. A letter written in her grandmother鈥檚 hand documents her delusions. They also show a woman who cared deeply about her children and grandchildren, talking about the jumpers she鈥檚 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鈥檚 name as the informant and realises that this was after her parents had divorced, when she wasn鈥檛 in contact with her mum. Zoe ends the day pleased to have learnt Peg鈥檚 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鈥檚 line. She assumed they had always come from north east England, but genealogist Katherine Thompson has a surprise for her. Bill鈥檚 mum was called Matilda Temby, and she鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥� journey from Cornwall to north east England. 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 north east England, 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 鈥榟ighest esteem鈥�. Zoe thinks about the resilience both sides of her family have shown, moving wherever life took them, and reflects that she鈥檚 always believed that it doesn鈥檛 matter where you live, it鈥檚 the people you鈥檙e with who make it home. She can see this was equally so for her ancestors.