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Who Do You Think You Are Au Season 16 Episode 8 - Full
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00:00Yeah, I'd be headed for play arts at an early age. I was a melancholy kid, so being that way,
00:10you look at the world a little differently. But I wanted to write from a very early age,
00:16that's really what I wanted to do. Nothing to do with acting or filmmaking.
00:20Actor Matt Nable is known for his gritty, tough guy roles.
00:27So I think it's wise that you leave now. On international and Australian screens.
00:33You're going up for a quickie, are you?
00:36Nable. Matt fell into acting after starting out as a professional rugby league player.
00:42From unconventional beginnings, he's now a director and writer, with several published novels to his name.
00:50I've been very goal orientated and that's why I've been prolific. I've been good at that.
00:56But that's not what fulfills me.
01:01What Matt values most is family.
01:05My mother had five kids under the age of seven when she was 27, so we all came very, very quickly.
01:12My father was in the army for 20 years, so we were moving every two years.
01:18But because we had each other, we became very close and to this day, all the siblings are remarkably close.
01:25But ten months ago, the close-knit Nable clan were rocked by some devastating news.
01:35When Matt's youngest brother, Aaron, was diagnosed with motor neuron disease.
01:40He's, you know, he's very ill.
01:45There's no cure for people who have MND, so it's difficult to bear witness to because it's just, that disease, it just takes everything.
01:57His mind's still there, but his body's failing him.
02:02He's always been interested in where we all sort of came from anyway, and so it'd be nice for him to know a little bit more about, or a lot more about, where we all came from before that disease takes its toll.
02:18Stripping back his family's past.
02:23So he just deserted, he left with 14 kids.
02:27Matt uncovers tales of desertion and hardship.
02:30He's lost everything again.
02:32Okay, so he's going to jail.
02:35And a scandalous secret.
02:37None of these guys seen anything like my father.
02:39Nothing.
02:40That will upend his whole family story.
02:44Did not see that coming at all.
02:48You are returning.
02:51Yeah.
02:52I need a heart.
02:57I need you.
03:06Just kill him об Assassinsii.
03:08Matt Nable lives on the northern beaches of Sydney
03:29with his wife Cassandra and their three teenage children.
03:35Jos, are you going to go to the gym?
03:36Yes.
03:38I might go up there with you later.
03:40My family is my compass.
03:42My family is everything.
03:46I came into the world as a son and then you're a sibling
03:49and then you're a partner and you're a father.
03:52You're going to drop her to school?
03:53Well, I'll drop her at the bus stop.
03:55Okay.
03:56None of the stuff that happens outside of those things really matters.
04:01Born in Sydney in 1972,
04:03Matt is the second oldest of five children to Christine Jeffery and David Nable.
04:12On my father's side, you know, very significant Jewish side.
04:16His father, Lewis, somehow left the Jewish faith and married my grandmother.
04:24But beyond that, it's all really quite unknown.
04:28On my mother's side, I don't know a great deal about where they came from or how they got here.
04:35With very little knowledge of his maternal line, Matt's beginning his deep dive into his ancestry with his mum, Chris's family story.
04:44My mother, yeah, she's an angel, you know, going through what she's going through now with her youngest son.
04:52You know, she's at the coalface of it.
04:54She's there every day with him.
04:55So, yeah, it's difficult.
04:57It's heartbreaking to watch.
04:58I think my mother will be energised.
05:05I think that that'll, you know, give her a little bit of a distraction with what she's going through at the moment.
05:11So, yeah.
05:16Hoping to shed some light on his genetic make-up, Matt's taken a DNA test.
05:22I'm not hoping for anything.
05:23I'm just really intrigued.
05:28To begin his journey, Matt has come to Sydney's Observatory Hill in the Historic Rocks area.
05:37Max, how are you, mate?
05:38I'm good.
05:38Good to meet you.
05:39To meet historian Max Burns-McCroovy, who's been looking into the origins of Matt's maternal line in Australia.
05:46So, Matt, let's look at your family tree on your mother's side.
05:51We'll start with you and move our way through.
05:54All right, so it's my mum and dad, it's my grandmother, grandfather, I don't know anything on that side.
06:01Okay.
06:02Really, what we're trying to get back to is this fellow here.
06:05Frederick.
06:06Frederick Henry.
06:07Right.
06:08Ever heard of him before?
06:09No idea who he is.
06:10Okay.
06:11Well, he's your four times great-grandfather.
06:13Right.
06:13Okay.
06:14We're going to go all the way back to his life story.
06:17Right.
06:17And that's in London.
06:19Now, he's born in 1810, but we don't really see him appear on any documents until he's 20 years old.
06:28So, Frederick Henry was indicted.
06:31He's a criminal.
06:33There you go.
06:35Indicted for stealing on the 3rd of June.
06:37One handkerchief value, three shillings, the goods of John Lawford from his person.
06:43Prisoner's defence.
06:45Oh, it's intoxicated.
06:48Guilty, age 20.
06:50Transported for life.
06:53They sent him to Australia.
06:55Correct.
06:55For that?
06:56Correct.
06:57To be sent here for stealing a handkerchief and getting life.
07:00It's hard to get your head around.
07:02Absolutely.
07:02I mean, the punishment just doesn't fit the crime.
07:05The government just doesn't have time for petty criminals.
07:08Yeah.
07:09And they're seeing people like that as very useful to use as a labour force.
07:15So, one strike and you're out, down to Sydney, put them to work.
07:18Yeah, that seems excessive.
07:21We start to see a little bit more about his life as we get the passenger list.
07:27So, this is a convict ship.
07:28A list of male convicts by the ship.
07:31Lady Harwood arrived from England, 4th of March, 1831.
07:36There he is.
07:37Doody.
07:38Right.
07:39Mm-hmm.
07:40Single R&W education.
07:43So, he can read and write.
07:43So, he can read and write.
07:44So, he's literate.
07:45Great.
07:46And here's his profession.
07:49He's an actor.
07:50There you go.
07:53What a clown.
07:54Error and stable.
07:56He's the only actor that appears on there.
07:58That's bizarre.
08:01Wow.
08:01And then, 1831 arrival.
08:05And he's arriving here in Sydney.
08:06Right.
08:07They're assigned to work parties or to masters.
08:12And we now know he was assigned to a guy called Lawrence Miles as a labourer.
08:19Yep.
08:19And who was Lawrence Miles?
08:21He was a landowner, wasn't he?
08:23That's something you're going to have to find out.
08:24Okay, cool.
08:25No more acting for you, Freddie.
08:27All right.
08:28Well, then, let's go.
08:32The fact that he was an actor, yeah, it was a real shock.
08:36I'm the only actor I know of in my family.
08:38So, it was a real surprise.
08:40He was an actor, yeah.
08:48Tracing the story of his convict ancestor,
08:51has brought Matt to the New England region of New South Wales.
08:58Historian David Roberts has information about Frederick Henry's life
09:02in servitude to wealthy settler, Lawrence Miles.
09:06Okay.
09:06Now, Lawrence Miles has only been in the colony for a couple of years.
09:09He gets a very large number of convicts to work on his property in Dungog,
09:14on the Williams River in the Hunter Valley.
09:16And Frederick Henry is very much one member of a labour force
09:20responsible for clearing that land.
09:21So it's hard work.
09:22It's hard work for a 20-year-old Londoner.
09:24Yep.
09:25And an actor to boot.
09:27I like doing that.
09:30Now, we don't know much about Frederick's career as a convict.
09:35He doesn't appear to have run afoul of his employer.
09:39He didn't come to the notice of the magistrates.
09:41Yep.
09:42And one of the benefits of that is that after 10 years,
09:44he's entitled to a little indulgence.
09:47A ticket of leave, which is 18th July, 1841, is he free or...?
09:53No, he's not free.
09:54A ticket of leave is a type of parole,
09:56meaning that he no longer has to work as a convict for his employer.
10:00Yep.
10:01And it means that for the first time now,
10:02he can actually seek permission to marry.
10:06Right. Okay.
10:07And he strikes it lucky.
10:08Oh, no, Freddie.
10:09So I have another document here.
10:11Church of England Marriages, Parish of Dungog.
10:15Bride, Cecilia McGowan.
10:19Okay, so Cecilia McGowan is your four-times great-grandmother.
10:22Right.
10:23She's Irish.
10:24She's about 15 years of age.
10:26So he's 33 and she's 15.
10:27She's 15.
10:28Mm-hmm.
10:29Frederick, what's going on?
10:31She comes out here with her sister.
10:33They're both teenagers.
10:34And they're part of this policy to bring more women into the colony.
10:37They need women to work and they need women...
10:40Build a population.
10:40Build a population.
10:41That's exactly what it is.
10:43In fact, they have a daughter, we think, about eight months after the marriage.
10:47Okay.
10:47Yep.
10:48So we'll skip forward the next stage of his career.
10:50Yeah.
10:51He receives a conditional pardon.
10:53Okay, so he's free.
10:54He's free.
10:54That's it.
10:55And that brings us to the Tamworth region, to the Dungogowan area.
11:00Right.
11:00That you see before you.
11:01And that's why we're here.
11:02Okay.
11:03Dungogowan is where he lays down his roots.
11:06And so he comes up here and what we know he does is he takes out a big lease of land...
11:09Yeah.
11:10...in order to run cattle.
11:11It seems as though he worked really, really hard.
11:13Yeah.
11:14And he did all right for himself.
11:16But that's the end of his story.
11:17But he is, of course, survived by children, including Elizabeth Henry,
11:20and she's your three-times great-grandmother.
11:23Right.
11:24And I think that's the next stage of your story.
11:26And so to find out more about her, I'd head into Tamworth over the hills
11:29and do some research in there, right?
11:32Okay, that sounds great.
11:35I feel, quite honestly, quite proud of Frederick Henry.
11:44Starting the way he did as a 20-year-old and having been given a life sentence
11:49for the petty crime that he committed to turn his life around
11:52and make a go of it in Australia.
11:57So I'm interested to see if that same sense of pride is going to apply
12:02to Elizabeth Henry.
12:04I have no idea.
12:05Tamworth is on Kamilaroi country, one of the largest Indigenous nations.
12:13Kamilaroi traditional lands cover around 75,000 square kilometres.
12:18Hi, Alicia.
12:19Hi, Matt.
12:20Matt's meeting with historian Alicia Simmons.
12:25Elizabeth Henry, at the time that you pick her up,
12:28she's a free settler.
12:29Yep.
12:30So she's living here and she meets a lovely man,
12:33your three times great-grandfather, John Morgan.
12:35Right.
12:36John Morgan has just come from Ireland.
12:39And they're farming people, you know?
12:41So they start farming here.
12:43And they would have lived probably in a similar shack to something like this.
12:47Yep.
12:48And they have quite a few children.
12:50Right.
12:50So I've got a great document here from your family tree.
12:56Oh.
12:57Wow.
12:58Word.
12:58Word.
13:00Okay.
13:00So there's one, 11, 12, 13, 14 kids.
13:05So, yeah, she's pregnant for a long time.
13:08She's from 1872 to...
13:10Yeah, wow.
13:1217 years.
13:14I'd like to say that it's all a big, happy family.
13:18Yep.
13:19But we found something else in the archive.
13:21Right.
13:22If you want to have a little read of that.
13:26Okay, New South Wales Police Gazette,
13:29Wednesday, 6th of June, 1888.
13:31Deserting wives and family.
13:36A warrant has been issued by the Tamworth bench
13:39for the arrest of John Morgan,
13:41charged with leaving his youngest six children
13:44without adequate means of support.
13:47Left Tamworth by train for Sydney.
13:50His wife and family are unprovided for.
13:52So he just deserted.
13:53He left.
13:54He left.
13:55And left her with these...
13:57With 14 kids.
13:5814 kids.
14:01In mid-19th century Australia,
14:04it had become increasingly common for men
14:06to abandon their families.
14:10Newly arrived immigrants or former convicts
14:13often had limited ties to their new communities,
14:16allowing them to move on, leaving little trace.
14:20For the women and children left behind,
14:23there was no welfare net.
14:24To rectify this, in 1840,
14:28the New South Wales colonial government
14:30introduced the Deserted Wives and Children Act,
14:33compelling men to pay maintenance.
14:38In fact, the reason why there is legislation
14:40is because this is hitting epidemic proportions.
14:44People just deserting.
14:45Yeah.
14:46Gold hits and suddenly men go,
14:48wow, you know, with a bit of like, yeah,
14:51like luck, I can suddenly get very wealthy.
14:54But in this case, they actually find him in Melbourne.
14:58He's trading under his mother's name.
15:00Yep.
15:00OK, so he's given himself a false name.
15:02Right.
15:03OK.
15:04Bring him back to Tamworth,
15:05where he has to then provide maintenance
15:07for Elizabeth Henry.
15:09Does he do this?
15:11Absolutely not.
15:12Right.
15:13Um, you know, he then leaves again.
15:16Yeah.
15:19You know, she's got infants
15:20and she's got young children,
15:22then she's got toddlers,
15:23then she's got teenagers.
15:25I've got three children and...
15:27Wow.
15:27..that ties me in knots.
15:29Mm-hm.
15:29Yeah, it's just really hard on women.
15:31Really, really hard.
15:34Well, there's such a great story still here
15:36with John Morgan,
15:37so I reckon you should follow him west,
15:40to Western Australia,
15:41to a place called Southern Cross,
15:45um, kind of around the Kalgoorlie area,
15:47and that's where we pick up his story again.
15:49Right.
15:50Way, way out.
15:54I'm not real fond of John Morgan at this stage.
15:57I think that's a really unsavoury thing to do
16:00to a woman who's bore your 14 children.
16:04Look, there were five of us.
16:06He said that was hectic.
16:07Um, but nothing in comparison
16:10to what Elizabeth was confronted with.
16:14So, yeah, just filled with an enormous amount of respect
16:17for, you know, that lady
16:18and remarkable that that's how she lived.
16:21He's been gone now, you know, just over four months.
16:49He's still very raw and, you know, hard to sort of process,
16:55you know, the disease he had and, man, what he went through.
16:58When he's gone, then you're left with the hole and the emptiness.
17:07And, you know, he left three little boys,
17:09which is the hardest thing to accept.
17:11They won't have their father.
17:13It's been a really difficult time
17:18and, yeah, we're getting through it the best we can.
17:27But, you know, he was really, really excited
17:29while I was doing this.
17:31So it's nice to be back
17:32and one of the things that was appealing
17:34was doing it for him.
17:37I can't tell him now, um, how it unfolds, unfortunately.
17:41And so that's, you know, that's sad and it's disappointing.
17:44But, um, yeah, I'm excited to find out, you know,
17:49what happens, you know, where this all leads.
17:51Resuming his journey, Matt has come to the town of Southern Cross,
18:04370 kilometres east of Perth
18:06on the lands of the Gubberan people.
18:12It's where Matt's three-times-great-grandfather, John Morgan,
18:16arrived during the gold rush that began here in 1888.
18:20Welcome to Southern Cross.
18:21Lovely to be here.
18:23Local historian Monica Fairless
18:25has a pretty good idea why Morgan came here
18:28after deserting his family.
18:30Southern Cross is actually probably considered
18:32a good place to hide.
18:35In fact, around the same time that he came to town,
18:39we had a gentleman by the name of Frederick Deeming.
18:43Now, he was actually arrested
18:45because he had murdered his wife in Melbourne
18:49and he had murdered his wife and children back home in England.
18:54Right.
18:55Frederick Deeming, in some people's eyes,
18:58was a good candidate for Jack the Ripper.
19:01Really?
19:02And this is where he was found?
19:03Yes, he was arrested here in Southern Cross.
19:06But he's of no relation to you,
19:08so you don't have to worry about that.
19:10Southern Cross was just full of good men.
19:14Monica has found a court document
19:16that proves that Matt's three-times-great-grandfather
19:19was hiding out here too.
19:21OK, in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, 1894,
19:27between John Guilfoyle and William H. Morgan...
19:31The court case was about a sale of horse and harnesses.
19:36So, essentially, William H. Morgan,
19:40we've found, is actually your three-times-great-grandfather.
19:43Right.
19:43He's using an alias.
19:45William instead of John, OK.
19:46Yeah, William Henry.
19:47Billy Morgan, smacks of mischief.
19:52We've got here as his profession as a teamster.
19:56Right.
19:57So that's someone who's transporting goods and men.
20:01So they would have, like, a horse and cart sort of team.
20:03I have actually got a photo that I can show you as well.
20:07We don't know if any of these gentlemen are William Morgan,
20:14but he could very well be in this photo.
20:16Right.
20:17So this is a photo of the teamsters loading for Coolgardie,
20:21and that's around that same time.
20:23Yep.
20:25Well, none of them look like me.
20:27It's a bit hard to tell.
20:30So, OK, so this is six years on from when he left his family.
20:34Well, what that's made abundantly clear
20:37is that he didn't have any plans, I don't think, to go back,
20:41and so he's abandoned his wife and 14 children.
20:43Probably within two years the train line would have extended to Coolgardie,
20:50so his work would have diminished quite a bit.
20:54Yeah.
20:54So he then leaves Southern Cross.
20:57Yeah.
20:58So if you'd like to find more, I suggest you head to Perth.
21:02Pick up the trail of Billy Morgan.
21:05OK.
21:06The opinion I have of my three-time great-grandfather hasn't improved,
21:13to say the least.
21:15You know, he's left his wife and 14 kids high and dry,
21:18so, you know, it's a pretty reprehensible behaviour in any era.
21:22You've got 14 children and they all love you.
21:25You brought them into the world with your partner
21:27and there's no love like that, you know,
21:30and it's just a walk away from that.
21:32I feel great sympathy for my three-time great-grandmother.
21:35I think it's dealt a really, really tough card.
21:42Can Matt's three-time great-grandfather redeem himself
21:45or will he continue to disappoint?
21:52Actor, director and writer Matt Mabel is in Perth
21:58to learn what became of his three-time great-grandfather,
22:01William Henry Morgan,
22:02who deserted his wife and 14 children in Tamworth.
22:09Welcome to the State Records Office.
22:11We have the State Archives, wills and things like that.
22:15Very well organised.
22:16Yes, well, we have to keep everything in order.
22:18He's hoping Senior Archivist Gerard Foley
22:21can provide some answers.
22:25You should really read that document.
22:28OK.
22:29From the Geraldton Guardian, 1921.
22:32Geraldton, OK.
22:34Death of a recluse.
22:37Well-known identity of the town
22:38in the person of William Henry Morgan,
22:41who lived alone in the little house
22:42at the south end of Fitzgerald Street, has died.
22:46Deceased, who was about 84 years of age,
22:49came from New South Wales many years ago.
22:52He is believed to have some sons and daughters
22:54in New South Wales,
22:55but apparently not communicated with them for some years.
23:00OK.
23:04All right.
23:04Well, that's interesting.
23:07Death of a recluse is a pretty damning sort of a headline.
23:12Apparently, when he did die,
23:15his body wasn't found for several days.
23:19Right.
23:20Well, that's sad.
23:22No-one visiting.
23:24No-one come to see him.
23:26But there's more to this story.
23:29This is the actual will, OK?
23:31He left about 1,100 pounds,
23:35which was actually quite a good sum in 1921,
23:39sort of over $100,000 today.
23:42Residerary trust fund in trust for such of them
23:45my daughter Margaret Morgan,
23:47my son John Frederick Morgan,
23:49and my sons Arthur,
23:50Burnett Morgan,
23:51Joseph Patrick Morgan,
23:52William Henry Morgan,
23:53and George Morgan,
23:55as shall be living at my death
23:57as tenants in common in equal shares.
23:59But basically, what the point is,
24:03he's only left money to some of the children.
24:08Not these two and not those ones.
24:11Right.
24:12Why did he do that?
24:13Well, it's a mystery, really, I guess,
24:16unless someone can point me to the evidence
24:19that they're not his children.
24:21Well, yeah, that is something that could be conjectured.
24:25And there's also one person who's not mentioned in the will.
24:30Yes, that's right.
24:31He doesn't mention his wife.
24:32Yeah, so this is the photograph of Elizabeth,
24:36your great-great-great-grandmother.
24:39So that's Elizabeth Henry.
24:41OK.
24:43Well, she's had a hard life.
24:45You know, these children, when he leaves, are tiny.
24:48His eldest, when he leaves, is...
24:51She's 16.
24:52It offers a lot of questions,
24:54but no real definitive answers as to what happened here.
24:58OK.
24:58His wife does go to court
25:02to get some money from the will.
25:06Widow, one pound per week
25:07to be paid out of the estate until the widow's death.
25:11So the money was kept in trust.
25:14Yeah.
25:14The other beneficiaries didn't actually take any money out of the will.
25:19Yeah.
25:19So the other children were looking after her.
25:22And she dies in 1932.
25:26Yeah.
25:26And she has received about 500 pounds.
25:29And what's that equivalent to these days?
25:33That's about $50,000.
25:35OK.
25:36Well, that's comforting that the children looked after their mother
25:39because she's obviously had a very, very hard life.
25:42That's right.
25:42That's good of them.
25:43Yeah.
25:44They must have loved their mum.
25:45Yeah, absolutely.
25:46Yeah.
25:48There's some sadness there with the way that he left the world.
25:52You know, by himself, he died.
25:54And it's a lonely way to die.
25:57And for him, I'm sure he would have been conflicted
26:00about the choices that he's made.
26:03And in the end, he did what he could for those children.
26:06There is some sort of redemption in that.
26:08And it speaks to the fact that he was actually thinking about them.
26:12You know, I'm much more reluctant to judge him today
26:16after learning all that than I was previous.
26:19The fact that those children looked after the mother the way they did,
26:26they loved their mother, it speaks to good people.
26:31You can draw, you know, a line between my siblings, you know,
26:37that there were five of us.
26:47And we forged a really, really strong bond.
26:52And maybe that's a trait that has been passed on by these kids.
26:57I'd like to think that they shared a similar bond.
27:00And that would be nice to think that in the face of their hardship, yeah.
27:08Having found a sad tale of family desertion on his mother's side,
27:13Matt's turning his attention to his father's ancestors.
27:16In particular, he wants to investigate his Jewish heritage.
27:19My father actually came from real poverty.
27:26You know, like, they had nothing.
27:27They lived in a, they called it a dwelling,
27:29but it was a canvas sort of structure.
27:33From what I can understand,
27:34Lewis, my grandfather, left the Jewish faith.
27:39I also heard from my father
27:40that the Jewish side were quite wealthy in Brisbane at one point.
27:44So I'd like to know if that was the case,
27:47how it turned out the way it did from my father.
27:51With his father unwell,
27:53Matt's beginning his search into his paternal ancestry
27:56by joining his mum, Chris, on a video call.
28:00Chris has taken a particular interest
28:02in this part of the family history.
28:05Hello, mother.
28:07Hello, Matthew. How are you?
28:09I'm all right, love. How are you?
28:10Good.
28:11You've been walking in the footsteps of the relatives of the pastor.
28:14Yeah, your side, yeah.
28:16Well, now we're on to the Jewish side.
28:18The Jewish side.
28:20Yeah, and you'll see some information on,
28:22when you open up, some documents you have.
28:25This is a marriage, yep, in the county of London.
28:29OK, so this is in London.
28:30Yes.
28:31And in 1873, Abraham Nebu.
28:37Yeah, so we think that that spelling, Nebu,
28:42was just a misunderstanding from the person writing it down.
28:46He may very well have had an accent
28:48because they were European.
28:50Like, he was from Poland.
28:53They're Polish Jews.
28:55Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:56Abraham, 24, married Esther Levy, 17.
29:01Abraham and Esther would be your great-great-grandparents.
29:06They were tailors.
29:08Tailors, OK.
29:10Matt's Jewish roots are passed down through his father, David Nabel.
29:15His two times great-grandparents were Esther Levy and Abraham Nabel,
29:20who migrated to England from Galicia,
29:23a region now part of Poland and Ukraine.
29:25The next thing you're looking at is a list of passengers on a ship.
29:33OK.
29:33They came out from London to Melbourne.
29:37But if you look at there, you'll see Esther came...
29:41Yep.
29:42..and three children.
29:45So she was 28, David Nabel was nine, Solomon five and Morris one.
29:52And that's how it was actually spelt in the beginning, Nabel,
29:56and then changed to Nabel.
29:58Right.
29:59But there's no Abraham.
30:01He didn't come.
30:03No.
30:03What happened to Abraham?
30:04I don't know what happened to Abraham.
30:07I mean, that'll be interesting to find out.
30:11Aaron would have loved all this.
30:13Well, he just loved his history.
30:15He loved his bloodline, didn't he?
30:16He always sort of said, you know,
30:18we're interested to follow the Jewish heritage.
30:21and see where it goes.
30:22Yeah, very much so.
30:23So...
30:24Well, thanks, Mama.
30:25You can take your lipstick off now and go to bed.
30:28See you later.
30:29Yeah.
30:29I love you.
30:31I love you too.
30:32Bye.
30:32See you later.
30:33Bye.
30:37To find out why Abraham wasn't on the ship with his family,
30:42Matt has come to the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne.
30:46Have a seat, Matt.
30:47He's with historian Dr Sue Silberberg.
30:50All right.
30:51So here's a picture of Abraham.
30:55Okay.
30:55It would be quite common in the 20th century
30:58that the father would come first.
31:00Right.
31:01Okay, so he's actually come out first.
31:02Well, that's what we would assume.
31:04Right.
31:04And set himself up, come into business,
31:07make enough money to bring out the rest of the family.
31:10Well, he's well-dressed.
31:11He's a tailor.
31:12He's a tailor.
31:12I can't see any resemblance to anyone in my family at the moment.
31:17The family came in June 1883.
31:21They're coming to Melbourne at the height of the boom of Melbourne.
31:25Okay.
31:25So they're coming to a place of great prosperity.
31:27The first Jews arrived in Melbourne shortly after the city was founded in 1835, establishing the first synagogue in 1847.
31:38Numbers increased during the Victorian gold rush as European Jews sought a better life.
31:44Many came from Russia and Poland, fleeing persecution and discriminatory laws that had forced them to live in poverty.
31:54These new immigrants were often experienced tradesmen, like Abraham Nabel.
31:59So he sets himself up as a tailor in Chapel Street, but unfortunately, things don't go quite well for him here.
32:09What's he done?
32:11The Argus, 1885.
32:14Abraham Nabel of Chapel Street, Perron, tailor, causes of insolvency, being unable to realise on stock and illness of self and family.
32:25So this is bankruptcy.
32:27Yes, now, he owes a very large amount of money and his assets are very small.
32:34Yeah, so he owes £754 and his assets are £84.
32:40Yeah, that's not going to work, Abraham.
32:43Now, that's enough money, his liabilities, to have built a substantial house.
32:48How has he created such an enormous debt?
32:51Oh, he's not a very good businessman.
32:53Unfortunately, he gets involved with somebody who's a very shady character.
32:59All right, Jacob Tyfield.
33:02So it appears that Abraham Nabel hasn't actually been keeping any books.
33:09And Tyfield somehow convinces him to create new books that are completely fictitious.
33:15Right.
33:16Which is actually quite a significant crime, compared to just becoming insolvent.
33:22Okay, so what happens to him?
33:24I'd like to show you another document.
33:26The Mount Alexander Mail, on Wednesday, December 23, 1885.
33:33The case of Abraham Nabel, who pleaded guilty to several offences, came up for sentence today.
33:39His honour then sentenced him to nine months' imprisonment.
33:43The prisoner's wife, who was in court, was greatly affected at the sentence and cried loudly.
33:47And she was led away from the court.
33:51Abraham, Abraham.
33:52Okay, so he's going to jail.
33:54Now, one of the reasons his wife might have cried loudly, have a look at the date on this document.
34:02On the 29th of December, she gave birth to their fourth child.
34:08Oh, that's tough.
34:09And her husband was in prison, all their possessions had been taken, and they were destitute.
34:16So, he goes to jail and does his time, and then what happens?
34:21And then the next document I can show you is this one.
34:26This is the bulletin, Saturday, February 10, 1894.
34:31Ten years after, almost.
34:32Nine years after.
34:33One, Abraham Nabel, a would-be alderman of Parks, New South Wales.
34:39I have nothing to recommend me, except my ability, honesty and experience.
34:46So, he's running for?
34:47Local government.
34:50Honesty and experience.
34:51Well, he's got a criminal record, so I'm really interested to see how this turns out for Abraham.
34:57I think you're going to have to go to Parks to find out.
35:00Okay.
35:01Let's go to Parks.
35:03In Parks, Matt will discover that out of dark times, an ambitious young go-getter will lead the family forward.
35:22Actor, director and writer, Matt Nabel, is following the story of his two-times great-grandfather, Abraham Nabel.
35:29Nine years after a stint in prison, Abraham moved to Parks, New South Wales, home of the Wiradjuri people.
35:40Hey, Simone, how are you?
35:41Hi, Matt.
35:42Nice to meet you.
35:43Historian Simone Taylor has the result of Abraham's election bid.
35:47So, yes, in 1894, he ran for local council here in Parks, and unfortunately, he wasn't successful.
35:57He actually came last in the council elections.
36:00He only got 70 votes.
36:03Right, okay, yeah.
36:04Like in Melbourne, he was a tailor here in Parks, but he hit a little bit of a snag fairly early on, not long after he came.
36:13This is Monday, October 16, 1893.
36:17Disastrous fire at Parks.
36:20Five buildings destroyed.
36:22A disastrous fire broke out this morning at 3.30 at E Naval and Company's tailoring premises.
36:29The flames quickly spread to the AGS bank, though every effort was being put forward to extinguish them without success.
36:35So that's a big fire.
36:37So he's lost everything again.
36:39And this is following the fire, yeah.
36:42So there's really nothing left, is there?
36:47No, there's nothing.
36:47It's burnt to the ground.
36:49So what does he do?
36:51Now, the fire was considered at the time suspicious.
36:55There were thoughts that it might have been arson.
36:58There was an inquest held in November of 1893, and they couldn't determine the cause of the fire.
37:04Right.
37:05The family were able to get their insurance money paid out, which means that they were able to start again.
37:12Bit of shade around old Abraham at the moment, isn't it?
37:16And so he's got the insurance money, so what does he do?
37:19They do restart the business.
37:21Yep.
37:22But we have a different name for the business.
37:25Right.
37:25So I'll give you this advertisement here.
37:27OK.
37:28The Western Herald.
37:30David, Nabel and Co.
37:32Merchant Tailors.
37:34From Keno's London.
37:36Burke Branch, Mitchell Street.
37:38Parks Branch, Clorinda Street.
37:39Sydney Branch, Castle Ray Street.
37:41Come and inspect our stock.
37:43All right.
37:43So he's got three stores now.
37:46Sydney, Parks and one in Burke.
37:48Yeah?
37:48So they seem to be doing quite well.
37:49Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:50They have.
37:51The insurance payout must have been pretty handy then.
37:55Yes.
37:56So David, the son, is now in charge.
38:00Yes.
38:01So David's 20.
38:02Yep.
38:02He's your great-grandfather.
38:04Yep.
38:05So another thing just to point out is this little line here, which says,
38:08from Keno's London, David is advertising himself as being associated with quite a well-known
38:16tailor shop in London.
38:18Yeah.
38:18He was born in London.
38:20He was born in London.
38:21But he would have been nine years old when they came to Australia.
38:24So it's unlikely that he was involved in a tailor shop in London.
38:29Yeah.
38:30Divide by five, everything David Nabel says.
38:33Yeah, right.
38:35Which is so, like, seriously, that is so removed from my father.
38:39My father's very quiet and reserved.
38:40He would never, not only would he never think to do that, he would just go,
38:45no, I'm not, that's not who I am.
38:47You know, like, blowing his own trumpet.
38:49That's probably, well, I might do that.
38:52So I've got a portrait.
38:56Okay, so that's David.
38:57That's David as a young man.
38:58Yep.
38:59Yep.
38:59So that's my father's grandfather.
39:02I can't see any resemblance to anyone, although he dresses better than any of us.
39:10Good head of hair that my father missed out on, so.
39:15So what happened to Abraham?
39:16What was his fate?
39:17So they continue to operate the shop into the late 1890s, and we know in 1899,
39:24the family actually announced that they're leaving parks.
39:27David goes to Brisbane.
39:29Yep.
39:29And then Abraham goes back to Sydney.
39:33Okay, well, it'll be interesting to see what happens in Brisbane when he gets there,
39:36and how that really relates to David's son, which is my grandfather, Lewis.
39:42David seems like he's really ambitious, entrepreneurial, obviously well-educated to do what he's doing.
39:50You know, my father was illiterate, you know, and he had nothing.
40:00David, you know, my great-grandfather, embellishes to the point which is ridiculous, really.
40:05That trait, that is bold, that's not my father at all.
40:11It's just not in his nature to, quite frankly, bullshit like that.
40:17None of these guys seen anything like my father.
40:19Nothing.
40:20And probably to none of us, either.
40:23I'll be tackled.
40:34Okay, we'll come and be the synagogue.
40:36Yep.
40:36Matt has travelled to Brisbane, hoping to find a stronger connection to his Jewish great-grandfather, David Mabel.
40:43Yeah, it's the oldest-running synagogue in Queensland.
40:48He's joining historian Geoff Ginn at the Brisbane Synagogue.
40:53David, in fact, moved to Ipswich, which is quite close to Brisbane.
40:56It's about 30 kilometres south-west of here.
40:58Yep.
40:58And what I've got as a document to show you is where he starts to work for a tailor in Ipswich called J.M. Parlane.
41:07Okay.
41:07So if you have a look at that.
41:08At Queensland Times, Saturday, March 3rd, 1906, Mr. D. Nabel, J.M. Parlane, has the pleasure in announcing having engaged Mr. Nabel as Cutter.
41:21His experience in England and the colonies in high-grade tailoring places him in the front rank of his profession.
41:29It's interesting straight away, his experience in England.
41:32There's no experience in England at all.
41:34Well, look, no-one's ever going to know, I guess, so he's continued that fanciful sort of story and got himself a job.
41:42Yeah, so he seems to have really settled in in Ipswich.
41:45We've also got some interesting things happening in the political world at the time.
41:48Okay.
41:49So the following year, there was an election happening in May 1907.
41:53Mr. Blair at Ipswich.
41:56The Attorney General, the Honourable J.W. Blair, last evening addressed the electors of Ipswich in Town Hall.
42:02So it's a gathering with the Attorney General, who's the local member.
42:07Yeah.
42:08And you can see some names as you go down there and you can see that David's employer is there.
42:12Yeah.
42:13Parlane.
42:13Parlane, yeah.
42:14And perhaps the last name is the interesting one.
42:17Miss B. Meehan.
42:19Have you come across her before?
42:20No.
42:21Yeah, well, that's Bridget Meehan and that's your great-grandmother.
42:25Right.
42:26Okay, so this is who David married.
42:28That's correct.
42:29She was actually the Secretary of the local campaign to re-elect Blair as the member for the Ipswich area.
42:36And so it's likely this is the kind of environment in which they met.
42:38Oh, interesting.
42:39Okay.
42:40And where's she from?
42:41She's an Ipswich girl from an Irish Catholic family in Ipswich.
42:44Yes.
42:44So we have a photograph of her and this is Bridget Meehan when she was about 27 and about the time of that election meeting.
42:51So that's my great-grandmother?
42:53That's right.
42:54With his Jewish background, she converted to Judaism in order to marry him.
42:58Okay.
42:59They were married here in the synagogue in 1911 in this spot.
43:02Okay, wow.
43:07She took the name Ruth as a mark of that conversion.
43:11Ruth.
43:11So she would Bridget and change it to Ruth.
43:14So we have the marriage certificate here, which is the certificate that was related to the ceremony here at the synagogue.
43:21Okay, David Nabel, Taylor, age 39.
43:26Bridget, Ellen Meehan, she's 31.
43:29This is the religious ceremony of marriage.
43:32Right.
43:32But they'd already been married under a civic ceremony a year earlier.
43:36Right.
43:36And we have the certificate from that earlier marriage as well.
43:40So they're married at the civil registry in July 1910.
43:44Yep.
43:45What we also know is that she was two months pregnant at this time.
43:50Right.
43:51She was two months pregnant before the wedding.
43:55David.
43:55And by the time that they're married here in the synagogue, they also had a little baby with them.
44:01And that's Lewis.
44:02That's my grandfather.
44:03That's your grandfather.
44:04Okay.
44:05That's a very progressive way to live back in these times, being pregnant, not being married, particularly if she's Catholic.
44:13So it's likely that Bridget's a pretty independent-minded person.
44:17You know, she's secretary to the campaign committee to re-elect J.W. Blair.
44:22So she's obviously politically interested and active.
44:26It's a bit of a modern story, isn't it?
44:28Yep.
44:31Is that right?
44:32It's a really progressive sort of union for those times, which sort of speaks to two people that were very aware of who they were and what they wanted.
44:44It suggests very, very self-confident people.
44:48I don't know whether he's my type of person.
44:51Like I said, that rubs against the behaviour of my father, which is his, you know, that's his grandfather.
44:56It's just such a big shift.
44:58In the final stage of his ancestral search, Matt will make a shock discovery, a discovery that will rewrite his entire family story.
45:17Matt Nabel has discovered the story of his Jewish ancestors, who were originally from Poland.
45:23His great-grandfather, David Nabel, was a tailor with a talent for self-promotion, who married Bridget Meehan, an Irish Catholic, in 1910.
45:35Their son, Lewis, Matt's grandfather, was born seven months later.
45:40Hey, Sally, how are you?
45:42For the final leg of his ancestral journey.
45:45Come on in.
45:46Matt's meeting genealogist Sally Romano to analyse the results of his DNA test.
45:54I have some DNA results for you.
45:58And so we'll go through those.
45:59OK.
46:00Now, there are some surprising results in there.
46:04So are you happy to continue?
46:06Yes, absolutely.
46:07OK.
46:07Yep.
46:08So we'll bring this up.
46:11So we can see here we've got Scotland is 34%.
46:15We've got Ireland being 31%.
46:17And then we go down, we've got England.
46:20Then we've got a bit of Swedish and Denmark.
46:23We've also got some Wales in the mix.
46:25And then some...
46:27Norwegian.
46:27Norwegian as well.
46:29OK.
46:30There is something missing there.
46:32What is that?
46:34Poland.
46:36No connection to Poland.
46:39There's no Jewish blood there.
46:42I don't understand that.
46:43So I thought that they came from Poland.
46:46So what does that mean?
46:49So that means...
46:50So you know how Bridget was...
46:54She was two months pregnant when she...
46:56When they had the registry office marriage.
46:58Yeah.
46:59Well, the DNA results have shown that David Nabel is not the father of Lewis.
47:08Of Lewis, really?
47:12Yes.
47:13So, um...
47:16Wow.
47:18Jesus.
47:20OK.
47:23Does...
47:24I wonder if David knows that.
47:26So we don't know who he's...
47:28The father is obviously from...
47:31Not from Poland.
47:32No.
47:33So we don't know where he's from.
47:35Well, at Ancestry, they have done the forensics.
47:41And so they have been actually able to pinpoint what happened.
47:46OK.
47:46There are two candidates as the father for Lewis.
47:50Yep.
47:50And they are brothers.
47:52Right.
47:53There is a man called James William Blair,
47:57who was in fact the Attorney General of Queensland.
48:00She was working for him.
48:03Yes.
48:04Yep.
48:04So I will show you a picture of James.
48:15That looks like my brother.
48:17Yep.
48:18The undeniable resemblance.
48:23So James had an older brother as well,
48:26Henry Gordon Blair.
48:28He was in fact a labourer.
48:30He lived in Ipswich.
48:33At the time of Lewis's conception, he was 43.
48:37He was married and his wife was in fact five months pregnant.
48:41But they are our two.
48:43Is there a picture of him?
48:45No.
48:46He was so shy.
48:47He in fact didn't like his photos being taken.
48:50He's not a public figure.
48:51And I think preferred to stay out of the limelight.
48:56He's much more in line with what my father is like.
48:59So the way that you can triangulate the results is then having DNA tests from the two brothers.
49:09Right.
49:09So Henry had four children.
49:13Mm-hmm.
49:14James, William did not have any children.
49:17Right.
49:18So in terms of researching the results, obviously we only have Henry to go by.
49:24Having done the research, there is a 97% chance that Henry is in fact Lewis's father.
49:36That makes a lot of sense.
49:41Do we know whether Lewis knew that?
49:45We actually have no evidence whatsoever that anyone else knew.
49:54Jesus.
49:57There's a lot to get my head around.
49:59But it just explains a lot.
50:03Yeah, it's all quite scandalous, obviously.
50:05But it answers a lot of questions as far as behaviour and personality that my father may have inherited.
50:14I was struggling with the jump between David and my father.
50:19I was struggling with David and my father, right.
50:24Yeah, that's a real...
50:27Did...
50:28Did not see that coming at all.
50:33But Lewis, on his birth certificate, David Nabel is the nominated father.
50:39And Bridget was the informant.
50:41So she shared that information with the registry office.
50:44Wow.
50:47There's no Jewish blood in us at all.
50:51Nothing.
50:53No.
50:54Hmm.
50:55I just wonder whether or not David ever knew.
50:59And we've got no way of ever knowing.
51:03If Bridget was having an affair with a married man,
51:06like you've got this single woman in that time, that was not good.
51:12So you never know if David didn't come along and say,
51:14here, I'll take care of you.
51:17Yeah.
51:17I mean, you just don't know which way around it was.
51:19No, you don't.
51:20No, you don't.
51:22I'm sure my grandfather never knew and my father would know.
51:27Look, they don't...
51:28They would have no clue.
51:31Wild, man.
51:35Lewis.
51:35Fuck!
51:38Jesus.
51:39Jesus.
51:42I'm changing my name to Blair.
51:44Yeah.
51:50How I feel is shocked.
51:54And I kept saying this, the behaviour of David Nabel
51:57didn't ring true with how I've known my father.
52:04Henry Blair, who was in fact a really quiet man,
52:08that's much more in line with how I know my father.
52:20There are all sorts of scenarios in this.
52:22There's a scenario by which they did know
52:24and David put his hand up to marry Ruth, Bridget, back then.
52:30There's a scenario in which no-one knows but me.
52:33So...
52:35A significant shift in the family story.
52:41But all those people on David's side
52:43that we thought were related to me somehow
52:45are no longer related at all.
52:50It's a hell of a yarn, you know?
52:51Like, I'm a writer and a storyteller
52:53and I could make this shit up.
52:55It's the toughest part
52:59is not being able to share it with my brother.
53:08That's, you know,
53:10going back to this,
53:12I knew I wouldn't be able to do that then.
53:20It's the hardest part.
53:20It's the hardest part.
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