The chance to delve into 200 years of our own family history isn’t an everyday experience.

But for Glasgow-born lecturer Audrey McNeish, that opportunity knocked thanks to new BBC Scotland production, The Generation Frame.

As part of the social history show, mum-of-two Audrey unearthed some wonderful stories about her family’s road to prosperity – following on from generations who’d lived in deep poverty in the city’s East End.

Born in the old Duke Street Hospital in 1960, Audrey and her sister grew up on Loretto Street in Cranhill.

Despite having lived in the Ayrshire countryside for the last 10 years, heart is still close to her East End roots.

While her Granny Agnes is fondly remembered as the matriarchal linchpin in the family, Audrey particularly wanted to learn more about her life before she was born.

Audrey says: “I knew bits and pieces about my grandma but I wanted to know more about her the person, and the bits she maybe never spoke about.”

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In turn, that curiosity led to Audrey discovering more about her maternal grandfather, Robert Smith, who was one of the thousands killed aboard HMT Lancastria in June 1940.

Bombed by the Luftwaffe on the west coast of France, it was estimated the tragedy took between 4000-7000 lives, making it the largest single loss of life for the British forces during World War II.

In a heartbreaking twist for the bereaved families, the disaster was shrouded in mystery by Winston Churchill’s War Rooms in a bid to avoid losing home front moral.

To this day, the British Government have yet to recognise the site of the disaster as an official war memorial site.

Following the loss of Audrey’s grandfather, Granny Agnes was left widowed in her early twenties with four children under the age of five.

In taking her young family from Glasgow to Faulds Farm in Renfrewshire, her life was forever changed as Audrey explains: “While there Granny Agnes met German prisoner of war Johannes Ehlers at Johnstone Prisoner of war camp.”

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Despite doubt and resistance from locals and wider society at the time, Granny Agnes fell in love and married Johannes.

Following the end of the war, the family moved back to Glasgow to start a new life.

Audrey says: “Johannes worked at the Provan Gas Works in Glasgow. His accent was a mixture of strong German mixed with Glaswegian and a lot of swearing going on, which made it difficult for people to understand.

“But over the years he became a true Glaswegian.”

In remembering her Granny Agnes in later years with her fishmonger’s apron on, Audrey recalls: “She was a woman of remarkable resilience who worked in her fish shop in Cumbernauld Road in the 1950s/1960s and thereafter the fish shop on Tollcross Road.”

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Also featured in the first episode of The Generation Frame, airing on Monday evening at 8pm on the BBC Scotland channel, are Father and daughter Brian and Holly from Glasgow who delve deeper into the working-class roots of their east coast family.