Have any of you watched this show? It airs Fridays on NBC at 8 or 9pm...I had wanted to watch it last season, but never got around to it, so this time I set my DVR to get it.
It is totally fascinating! I watched the episode with Vanessa Williams last night (Tim McGraw will be on this week - woo hoo!) and basically, they search their roots to discover who their ancestors were, what they did, etc.
For Christmas three years ago, H's neice presented his family with "family tree" books that went back several generations on both sides, with one side going all the way back to their German origins. I kind of half heartedly started a couple times on my own family tree, but without serious effort. I do know that two of my Aunts on my Dad's side have the complete tree on a large board, which they bring to every family reunion to display. But I would like to do my own; so after last night, I decided what my new hobby for this year will be!
I signed up for a trial subscription at one of the ancesty sites, and within the the first hour, learned that there is definitely more to my history than what I thought. I called my Mom and we both spent another hour pulling names and people to search, and she really enjoyed it to! Especially learning that her Mom, who died when she was 4, was named "Lilla" and not "Lily" as she had always been told...I am very anxious now to really start digging in!
Have any of you ever done this in the past? Ever plan to?
Re: Who do you think you are...?
Good luck with the research!
My aunt did a lot of research and found quite a few pictures of our family. It is definitely an interesting experience. It would be neat to find relatives that still live over there and visit them!
Shmel's Blog
Thanks so much for the support, girls!
And you are all so right - this really can become quite a consuming hobby...It is also surprisingly emotional. Looking at an original 1880-90 Census where one of my great, great, great grandfather's young family was listed really made me pause. Also locating records of gg and ggg Aunts and Uncles who didn't make it to adulthood is really something - a lot of them I had never heard of!
And it's really been an emotional journey for my Mom, because she never knew her Father or Mother's families...her mother died when she was 4 while her father was in Korea...she was placed her in the care of the state where she was adopted into a loving (if a bit dysfunctional at times) family - so she always knew family, but not her blood relations. When her father came home from the War, he felt that she was in a better place than he could provide as a single young man in those days. They stayed in touch and remained closed until he died when she was 16. She lost her sister at 18, and her brother about 20 years ago...and he was (she thought) her only blood relative...
She cried when I told her that her father had 9 brothers/sisters, and we are looking forward to tracking down their children and grandchildren...I'm hoping that she can finally get some closure that I'm sure she's been wanting, but not knowing where to find it...I'll report any really interesting finds along the way!!