Who Do You Think You Are?

[divasahm]

Apr 8, 2010 0:31:12 GMT -4 @mrsbowling2 said:

One thing that all these shows has made me is happy I know as much as I do about my family--I mean I'm glad that my family is big and connected and we know stuff about each other. We have our own myriad of issues and dysfunctional members, but I know all the maiden names and cousin connections and stuff going a good ways back. And what's really funny is that my parents are lik 5th cousins or something so both sides of my family go back the same way at one branch in the tree.

I've been thinking the same thing about our family. This show debuted just as divaspawn2 was starting his heritage project for fourth grade social studies, and I've been thinking how lucky we are to have an abundance of resources available for him to use--photos, information, even books from both sides of the family tracing the genealogy back to England and Germany. As he made his presentation yesterday, he talked about the family tree that he had made on posterboard and mentioned that we have little to no information on his paternal grandmother's grandparents. One of his classmates raised his hand to comment, "Well, her last name should be the same as her husband's." When ds2 explained that we knew her married name, but not her maiden name, the kid said, "Then you need to find out what her dad's name was." Um, kind of difficult when you have NOTHING to go on--trust me, kid, my mother and I have pursued this line of research further than even my MIL has taken it! Ds2 told me after school that the kid isn't stupid, but is completely ignorant on many subjects and seems to have no parental involvement in his schoolwork whatsoever. The whole incident just underlined for me the fact that a LOT of people just don't know much at all not only about their own backgrounds, but about the cousin connections or how to start learning about your relatives--and the popularity of this show and the Henry Louis Gates version on PBS shows how much interest there is in finding out who your people were, as my great-grandmother would say.

[Spinderella]

divasahm, I totally agree. I started getting involved with my family tree over 10 years ago and was able to unearth an abundance of information. We knew a lot of the names and such going pretty far back, but there is only so far you can go when you start dealing with family that came to this country in the 1880s and the roots are all from England, France, etc.

I'm tempted to try and solve the paternal grandmother's grandparents maiden name mystery for you! I've been solving puzzles like these for awhile and it's always fun to help others with their search blocks, too!

[mrsbowling2]

I'm in the DAR and so that requires solid proof back to the 1700s. And my grandma has traced us to Gov. William Bradford of the Mass. Bay Colony (pilgrams). And my grandfather's great-grandfather was an abolitionist preacher in Ohio who has a book about him and his efforts that came out about 10 years ago. It's all pretty sweet. I learned that there are a huge amount of Afr. Americans in the US with my maiden name as their last name because when my ancestor helped them with their underground railroad escape, they took his name as their last name. Pretty awesome that I can pass that on to my kids--I want them to feel like anybody anywhere can make a difference.

Speaking of the show, I loved the Lisa Kudrow episode, but did anyone else think it pretty lame that Lisa's dad didn't get flown directly to Poland when she met that guy? I mean, surely they could afford it??

[Deleted]

I like to think that he'll fly over there eventually.

This show makes me wish I knew more about my dad's family. There's tons of documentation about my maternal grandfather's line going all the way back to 18th century Ireland, and my maternal grandmother's line goes back to 17th century France. But with my dad we're only able to go as far back as his grandfather. Dad's estranged from his family so he doesn't know anything, plus they were poor and illiterate up until my dad's generation so there's not much to go on. Someday if I ever have the money I might pay someone to do some digging for me.

[angelaudie]

I mainly know my mother's family history. Mom's family is from Ireland and can traced there through the 1800's. It looks like they left Ireland due to the famine. My however many greats grandfather (I can't remember on the top of my head) came with brothers, promptly got into a massive fight with them, changed his last name to disassociate himself with them, and moved to TN. Family feuding remains a great legacy in mom's family. I'm sure the man is so proud. We also know my great-great grandmother was part Cherokee which things really awkward for my bigoted great uncle.

Speaking of the show, I loved the Lisa Kudrow episode, but did anyone else think it pretty lame that Lisa's dad didn't get flown directly to Poland when she met that guy? I mean, surely they could afford it??

To be fair, Lisa wasn't 100% sure she had found the right guy. Part of the reason why she wanted to meet him was to confirm he was the right guy.

Lisa's episode was absolutely heartbreaking. She clearly was deeply upset by the story of the murders in her grandmother's village. I'm with her. It must have been absolute torture to stand in line with your children and wait your turn to be murdered.

Matthew Broderick's episode was really good. He seemed a little shook up learning how his great-grandfather died (musket ball to the head). He seemed especially struck by the fact there was a physical description of his great-grandfather available.

[prada]

I really like this show, it is very interesting. You guys should YouTube the BBC version of this show, especially the Jerry Springer episode. I cried buckets watching it, it was very hard to digest. Jerry looked so broken learning what happened to his relatives during the Holocaust.

[Spinderella]

Apr 8, 2010 10:44:54 GMT -4 @roisin54 said:

This show makes me wish I knew more about my dad's family. There's tons of documentation about my maternal grandfather's line going all the way back to 18th century Ireland, and my maternal grandmother's line goes back to 17th century France. But with my dad we're only able to go as far back as his grandfather. Dad's estranged from his family so he doesn't know anything, plus they were poor and illiterate up until my dad's generation so there's not much to go on. Someday if I ever have the money I might pay someone to do some digging for me.

You can do some digging for about $29.95 a month on Ancestry.com. Better yet, you can get a free 2 week trial to at least see what you can find on your own. I use their service predominately, but do find some other free services online or through the LDS church (you don't have to be a member, which is a bonus for me!) and their Family History Centers.

If you need any help or anyone here really, just shoot me a PM. I'd be happy to offer my services and/or guidance.

[Deleted]

I work at a library and we actually have a subscription to ancestry.com, so what little I have found I found there. The problem is my dad's father's name is ridiculously common and there were literally dozens of people with that name born in the same state in the same year. Unless I can find his middle name or what town he was born in I'm stuck.

[ikmccall]

Apr 8, 2010 15:20:10 GMT -4 prada said:

I really like this show, it is very interesting. You guys should YouTube the BBC version of this show, especially the Jerry Springer episode. I cried buckets watching it, it was very hard to digest. Jerry looked so broken learning what happened to his relatives during the Holocaust.

I watched Kim Catrall's episode on youtube. It was quite compelling and sad at the same time.

[mrsbowling2]

Who else was on the UK version?

I have a serious fear of finding out my grandma's anscestors might have been on the wrong end of the WWII situation. Most of her family are immigrants from Germany and Poland. But they are Catholic and not Jewish, so I don't want to know if they were in the wrong army or did bad things.