It’s ridiculous the amount of things I have in my head right now that I want to blog about, but just not sure that I have the time (or the energy) to really get into it.
There are three specific things on my mind at the moment, but I’m only going to talk about one of them in this post.
Last night was the television debut of “Who Do You Think You Are?” Produced (I think) by Lisa Kudrow, this show has been in the works since shortly after I became interested in genealogy, or at least shortly after I started listening to genealogy podcasts. That it took so long isn’t surprising, given how fickle networks are. And to put it on the Friday night schedule? Ouch.
Genealogy buffs everywhere are talking about it today. Most seem to be glad that there is something here to help get people excited about family history research, but at the same time feel that the show made it look too simple. As someone pointed out, however, we all have the same resources available to us. What we don’t always have, however, is the resources to hop on a plane and go from New York to Ohio to California to Massachusetts. And in at least one case, she was dealing with someone identified as a professional genealogist, which again requires resources that not everyone has. Like every hobby, there are costs associated with genealogy and sometimes it’s not just possible to do everything you’d like to.
To be honest, I was more irritated with the advertisements for Ancestry.com. Before I say anything else, I subscribe to Ancestry and I love what it offers. But you want to talk about someone making it look so easy? Every time I see someone talking about linking to all of the other people who have created trees on Ancestry, I cringe. A while back, Ancestry added a new feature that allows you to see if others are adding the same records to their trees that you have added to yours. I found someone had added a census record for my great great grandfather and I got really excited because I’ve been looking to make a connection on that line. It turned out that the ancestor they linked this record to was a completely different person than my great great grandfather. There were fairly obvious clues. Her ancestor and my ancestor were married completely different spouses. I am assuming that the other tree owner decided that my great great grandmother must have been a previous or later wife. However, I have verifiable proof that my great great grandfather was only married once. And he died well before she did.
Even though I contacted the person, the last time I checked, my great great grandfather’s census record was still linked to her ancestor. Since both men have the same first name and a similar last name (which has been spelled a variety of ways), it is likely anyone searching for either of our ancestors will find both trees. Anyone encountering her tree is viewing bad information. If they in turn add it to their trees, this snowball of bad information is just rolling down the hill.
I would like to see Ancestry find a way to make their ads incorporate a little bit of reality. Yes, you might find all kinds of shaking leaves when you add a family member. They really need to stress that these are potential leads.
As for the show last night, the other thing that it would have been nice to see addressed (and hopefully it will be in a future episode) is the infamous brick wall. Sarah Jessica Parker, in my opinion, was extremely lucky that so much information involving her relatives was available. I have a great great grandmother on my mom’s side that no one can find. And though I think I’ve come the closest to finding her, I am certainly not the first person who has tried. I’ve connected with distant cousins who have been unsuccessful in locating her. I don’t know if professionals were ever called in, but I do know that the author of a book about her husband’s family didn’t seem to know anything about her either.
I would love to see more people develop an interest in their family history, especially while they still have living relatives to ask about the past. And I hope this new show does generate new interest. But I hope that in future episodes, they work in that it’s not always as simple as it appears on TV. It doesn’t have to be easy to be interesting!
Oh, I almost forgot… cheesy music recap montage at the end? Yuck. If I want cheesy, I’ll watch CSI Miami.