Who Do You Think You Are?
Have you seen this show? I've watched the Emmitt SMith & Sarah Jessica Parker episodes. I like this.
http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/ Emotional, interesting and just fascinating. Any thoughts? |
I've been watching both this series and the recent Henry Louis Gates one on PBS, Faces of America, which also features celebrities' genealogies. The first thing I have to say is, I am so jealous! I wish both would accept audience entries and then choose among them for some regular folks' stories. They really have made some interesting discoveries with the people they've already shown, and I know from doing a little bit of genealogical research that it can change your outlook--in my case, it was sort of like SJP's in that I always felt very ethnic as the great-grandchild of immigrants, but then the other side turned out to have been here for centuries.
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I caught the Emmitt Smitt episode Friday night too - love this show! The genealogy experts astound me in what theyre able to pull up!
Dont know if ill catch it every Friday - luckily it was pouring out. ETA: loving the corresponding banner ad. |
For as much as I'm into genealogy, I'm ashamed that I haven't seen the show yet. FWIW, I just finished watching the Emmet Smith episode right now. How moving!
I heard about this show a while ago - it was supposed to be a special, but its popularity demanded that more episodes be filmed. Like shellfish, I wish that they'd pick some non-celebrities, though. (me! me! me!) Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is a very interesting woman. Smolenyak is her maiden name, and she married a man named Smolenyak. They went back to Hungary, and DNA'd an entire village to find out that, while her lineage and his lineage both went back to the same village, they were still not related by blood! |
Loving it! I find geneology facinating, and agree with Shellfish that I wish they'd do a couple of viewer episodes, too.
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Last Friday was Lisa Kudrow, going back to Russia and Poland to trace a cousin of her father's, who told him that his grandmother was killed in one of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units).
I wish they'd just open a phone book and pick someone randomly - or even have a contest on www.ancestory.com or such! That would be terribly interesting - we can't all have "exciting" ancestors! |
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Love this show!
My father has been exploring our ancestry for a while now, he traced it all the way back to the 16th century. Nothing too exciting though, everyone even seems to be from the same country, up until the 1820's even from the same region. And teaching might just be my destiny if teaching is in the blood, since a ton om my ancestors were teachers! |
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That's absolutely true!
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See, I like that this show features famous people. It's a reminder that they're just normal people, like everyone else. I'm not opposed to an episode or two for the non-famous, but for me it wouldn't be as interesting I guess...prob. because I will likely never see/hear of that person again.
Ancestry is really interesting, but a lot of hard work. My mom has been doing it for years. Recently a cousin of ours just shared research she's been doing for decades, and she was able to trace that side of our family back to Charlemagne. |
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I love this show. Professor Gates is a favorite of mine. What a dear he is.
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Obviously, I enjoy this show, too. But I did send an email to the producers, suggesting that at least ONE average person a season. I know that, in the many years I've been working on my genealogy, there have been very few times that anything was just handed to me. One was when I left the information I needed at the Pratt library in Baltimore, and three years later, I received an answer with great information! Another came from Richmond, which had been obviously passed around until the right person could help me. Gotta love the dedicated genies!
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When I watched the episode with Brooke Shields' traipsing through the palaces in Italy and France, I thought to myself, MY episode would probably lead me to the coal mines in Wales!
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One of my ancestors immigrated from England with two brothers, who (legend has it) moved on to Utah and became Mormons. So, when I received an email from a man looking for relatives of Susan Bloxsom, I immediately assumed that he was from Utah. We confirmed our relationship, and offered to share information. As we exchanged addresses, I found out that he was from the same town in England where Susan had lived (Newcastle), in fact, on the next block! Can you even imagine walking past your ancestor's home from 400 years ago? Oh, and bless his little baby heart for giving me so much information - we had given up on that particular line! |
I'm trying to figure out a way to find slave manifests/documents/birth records for the Virginia Commonwealth. Also, lists of slave holders from particular years in Virginia. Any good reference sites?? Would the Library of Virginia be of any use?
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There's a company at http://www.genealogical.com which has a TON of books on almost every aspect of genealogy. One of this week's sale books is Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820. Fifth Edition. Two Volumes - I can hardly handle the site without forking over a paycheck!
I went to the site just now, and put Slave Lists in the Keyword catagory. I think 16 separate books came up, but what was even more interesting were the varying in titles! I know that the 1790 census (the first one) only has the head of the household, and no other names. so that wouldn't help you. I'm trying to get better at different types of genealogy, but each time I think I have one conquered, up springs another one! Good luck! ETA: I absolutely loved Edie Falco's lineage! It's proof positive that, no matter what you hear, it somehow comes out differently on paper! |
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Thank you both!!
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I love this show as well! Could be my love of history and where we come from. I also used to watch the PBS series whenever it would air. My only issue is that the average person won't be able to search their genealogy the way celebs do, the extensive traveling. I will say in my own personal search I've done pretty well without having to leave home, but will have to hit the road if I really want to dig in.
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To ninjapoodle I ran into some sites during my search that I will try to get to u as soon as I can. I noticed the earliest most African Americans could find any ancestors were the 1870 census, which helped me. Before that would be the slave records maybe 1850 or 1860, I can't remember right now, but they may give a name and age. I eventually ran into a wall on one side with the whole name change thing.
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I watch this show as often as I can. I am a fan of Dr. Gates and the show with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick was very interesting. And the fact that they're VERY distant cousins was great!
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A more detailed show on PBS called Finding Your Roots! I love it!
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/ |
Whoo Hoo! from Ancestry's FB page:
"Who Do You Think You Are?" is back! We're happy to announce that Ancestry.com and TLC are teaming up to bring you a new season starting July 23rd! |
Glad TLC picked it up. I had heard that NBC cancelled it.
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I'm glad TLC picked it up too. It's a great show and very inspiring.
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There has been dancing in the streets in honeychileville!! I can't wait to see the latest crop of people, AND to see if they get a little bit more into detail on the research other than "check out ancestry.com"!
For those of y'all interested in getting tips and articles on genealogy, there's a free daily newsletter, Eastman's Online Genealogy, to which I've subscribed for years. You can also pay for the Plus version (not too much different) for $19.95/year. A sample would be an article on a historic cemetery, The Tucker Family Cemetery, one of the earliest African-American cemeteries. |
So, it's back! It's on TLC and they have 8 episodes! Whoo Hoo!
preview: http://www.tvguide.com/news/who-do-y...w-1067616.aspx ETA "Kicking off the series on July 23 is Kelly Clarkson, followed by Christina Applegate (July 30), Chelsea Handler (Aug. 6) and then Zooey Deschanel (Aug. 13). Additional participants include Chris O'Donnell, Jim Parsons, Cindy Crawford and Trisha Yearwood." |
Anyone see yesterdays episode?
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I watched last night's episode (Kelly Clarkson, for those who didn't know). I was happy that her mother had already started researching prior to the show. From there, though... If I didn't know better, I would have thought that I would have to actually visit Georgia and Andersonville to get information. There is so much reciprocity among genealogical sources, it's really not necessary! Is it cool to see where your ancestors were? Of course! But that needs to be stressed, not that you have to go to each place! Not everyone has the option to pick up and fly to another state to get information - even if it is hand fed to the celebrity.
[/vent] Other than that, the honeychile household was absolutely hysterical over the advertisement for (the genealogy-happy LDS) Sister Wives!! Can't wait for next week & Christina Applegate's story! . |
I thought it was great that her mom started researching also!
As an aside, my mom just came back from my our family reunion - maternal side. My mom is the 2nd oldest living member (at 90) that attended. The best gift mom brought home was a printed family tree, that she had corrected while she was attending. The person who made them had to re-print them but was happy to do so. My mom pointed out errors (missing people) and it turns out that they had to add about 10 people. |
The episode i saw tonight ( don't know if it a rerun or not) with Christina Applegate and her father was tender, sad, and very human. What a lovely woman she is! I love this show, as it gives people some great tips in how to get started.
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We missed the first five minutes, so I don't know what was said then. I did keep yelling, "Check the death records first, not divorce records!" |
I'm watching Christina Applegate right now.
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You being the eldest is a great task, I think you'll do well. :) Christina Applegate: I just lost it at the end. I started going downhill when she was explaining to her dad about everything she found. When they were in the cemetery office, reading the cards and dad & Christina realized grandma bought the plot, I felt it coming on. As they were standing over the grave, I was saying to myself "I hope that they can get a marker for her". 3 months later, beautiful marker. ----->NinjaPoodle http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/z...ley-crying.gif I'm watching Chelsea Handler right now. Quote:
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Tonight's episode is Zooey Deschanel.
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Nice episode! Quakers are awesome.
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Terribly interesting! It would have been even better if my DH hadn't been drooling over Zoe so much! ;)
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