Afternoon:
11°c
Beckham's scavenging ancestry
Evening Standard13.01.09
NEW census details today reveal that David Beckham is the descendant of a scavenger, while Amy Winehouse's family were humble fruit sellers.
Records of people living in London more than 100 years ago from the 1911 census are available online for the first time today. The documents of about 35 million people then living in England and Wales reveal the humble family origins of some of the country's most famous individuals.
Beckham's great-great-great-great grandfather, John Beckham, born in 1846, was employed by a council in Walworth as a scavenger, while his great-great-great grandfather William Beckham, born 1870, was working as a cart or van driver.
Winehouse's family background was similarly lacking in grandeur. Like many European Jews, her maternal ancestors emigrated from Russia to London in the 19th century and were living in Spitalfields in 1911.
Abraham Grandish, born 1855, worked as a hawker selling fruit while his daughter Fanny, born 1895, was employed as a waterproofer - protecting coats with rubber. Debra Chatfield of findmypast.com website, which digitised the documents, said: "We knew Beckham and Winehouse had backgrounds in England and Wales so we did some research into their families to find out who their ancestors were."
The documents occupy two kilometres of shelving at The National Archives in Kew and can be viewed at the click of a button.
Oliver Morely, director of customer and business development at The National Archives, said: "We are bringing history to life for millions. The 1911 census is a poignant reflection of how different life was in early 20th-century Britain."
