The Generation Frame sees two families go on a personal journey to uncover their family story with an exciting modern twist. With the help of genealogists and experts, each family discovers how their story fits into the wider history of Scotland and, in turn, how they each became who they are today.

Red Cross volunteer Heather from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, has spent many years piecing together her family tree, but she still has questions that remain unanswered. Heather knows her family have followed both ‘the fish and the farm’ and now wants to piece together who they were and what their lives were like. With celebrated ancestors through the generations, she discovers there are more heroes than she first thought, and unknowingly she has been in possession of a very special war medal. The harsh reality of war shaped the lives of Heather’s family and journeying to Orkney, she finds out the special role her grandmother had whilst stationed in Kirkwall in WWII.

In the highlands of Scotland, Jo wants to unearth the part her ancestors played in Scotland’s social movement. She hopes to discover that her ancestors were involved in Scotland’s first industrial dispute - the Calton Weavers Strike in 1787. Jo comes south to Glasgow and the place where it all happened. With help from genealogist Elizabeth Cunningham and archivist Irene O’Brien, she discovers the roots of her ancestry dating back to Ireland and her family’s immigration to Glasgow. Driven by a desire to share everything she’s learned about her ancestors with her father, her discoveries bring them closer together and place them firmly in the history books of Scotland.

As each family investigates their own history, they delve into Scotland’s rich public archive collections and meet genealogists and experts who offer context to the family stories that have passed through the generations.

At the end of the programme each family is presented with a unique family treasure - their own Generation Frame. Show less