Joe Swash says discovering family history has made him complete after taking part in Who Do You think You Are? for the BBC
Joe finds out his family on his father’s side moved over from Italy at the start of the 20th century.(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Wall to Wall Media Ltd / Stephen Perry)
Joe Swash says he feels “galvanised” after learning about the Italian roots of his family. The actor and husband of Stacey Solomon appears on Who Do You Think You Are? hoping to learn more about his family tree.
Former EastEnders star Joe, 44, tells the programme he lost his own dad Ricky when he was aged 39 and Joe was just 12 which had a big impact on his upbringing.
He explained: “My house was full of life and life. And then, when my dad died, for a long time, it was a house full of sadness and grief. So, you know, a lot of the time it was just trying to get through that period. Growing up in London, I was quite vulnerable, not having a father figure, and I had dyslexia and ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed, so I do struggle when I read something, and a lot of the time I was misunderstood as being quite naughty and mischievous.”
Joe says thanks to some “strong women” in his life he stayed on track, and that he feels like he has got some “Italian traits” including wearing his heart on his sleeve. His mum Kiffy tells him that on his father’s side his great grandmother’s part of the family tree were Italian.
At this stage Joe doesn’t know anything beyond his grandad Charlie but his parents were Joe’s great grandad also called Charlie Swash and Maria Raimo. A 1921 marriage certificate shows Maria living at home in Lox Gardens in London with her parents, Giuseppe, Italian for Joseph, and Rosa, Joe’s great great grandparents.
Joe’s great great grandfather Guiseppe Raimo moved from Italy to London and worked his way up from a street performer in poor living conditions to a job crafting Street pianos. He also spoke alongside Sylvia Pankhurst in 1923 at a Communist Workers’ Movement meeting in London. A letter in his name was published in weekly newspaper The Worker’s Dreadnought, condemning the brutality of the fascist regime.
Historian Alfio Bernabei said: “Giuseppe wasn’t simply attending the meeting, he was actually speaking alongside Sylvia Pankhurst. He could see what was going on, he was following events in Italy, and everything was leading towards a catastrophe. Giuseppe would have run terrible risks had he been in Italy, and he was running terrible risks in London.”
Hearing this detail, Joe said: “It really does fill me with a great, great deal of pride to think that he was struggling through life anyway, being Italian, living where they were living, but he still was concerned about what was happening in the world and fascism, so he must have been a man with great moral compass, someone that really stood by what he thought.
“I had so much pride when I found out about him. The journey he went on, the morals and the things he stood up for, the people he rubbed shoulders with, and the way he got out and worked through poverty to make himself and make his family’s life better, just shows real tenacity. Learning about his speech was emotional, it was a total surprise. I think in that moment I felt really close to my relatives, to Giuseppe. It was such a lovely thing to find out.”
Joe also goes to Naples and traces his ancestors back to his five times great grandfather Donato who was born in 1762 and was living in the now largely abandoned but picturesque mountainous town of Senerchia. The family were peasant farmers but did have a brush with crime after being wrongly linked to the Italian brigands in 1867 during the Italian rebellion.
Back in the present day Joe also finds a ‘Raimo bar’ nearby to Senerchia, and is delighted the family name lives on in Italy. Reflecting on everything, Joe said: “For a lot of my life, I’ve never really known who I am, what I am, where my roots are. I don’t know if that’s due to losing my dad at a young age, but being on his journey, it really has sort of like galvanised who I am, where I’m from, the people that made me, how strong they are, they never give up. Hopefully a bit of that tenacity has come down the line to me.”
He added: “I think what I’ll carry with me from this experience is just the importance of where you come from and knowing who you are. As well as the things that I found out about my relatives, especially about Giuseppe. Traits and things from them that I hope I have as well, or that I’d like to introduce into my life, you know. It just made me feel a lot more attached to my heritage, which I’ve never really felt attached to. I very much knew nothing about it before, but after this journey, I feel like I’m part of something.”
* Who Do You Think You Are? With Joe Swash airs on BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesday June 9. The series is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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