Who Do You Think You Are? - So Far

With Season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are on it's way back this Friday I thought I would take

a look back at all the good, the bad and the discoveries that were made in the first five episodes of this season.

The season started off with a real bang with Vanessa Williams. While Vanessa started off at her family plot in New York she ended up in the hallowed alls of Tennessee. She learned that politics had been a huge part of her family as well as education. She found amazing photographs of so many of her family members as well as the Civil War enrollment of a distant relative. This was an amazing episode and gave us the hope of some really great stories to come.

The second episode of the season was Tim McGraw. As the son of baseball legend "Tug" McGraw he wanted to learn about his fathers side of the family considering that he didn't meet him until he was eighteen. While Tim had some great moments and wonderful finds the researchers seemed to focus on who they found in relation not just to him but to famous people in American history. Yes it is exciting to know that George Washington stayed with your family at one point in time but personally I would have rather they spend more time finding additional relatives.

Rosie O'Donnell is famous for being loud, brash, and sometimes completely out of control. Yet in this episode she displayed a great calmness as she researched one of the hardest times in Irish history. Having always known that she was Irish for her it was just a matter of figuring out exactly where in Ireland they were from and when her family came to America. As always it was fun to see when celebrities find new relatives and Rosie did not disappoint. She not just found one relative but a whole side of the family she didn't know. For me it was great to see an emotional side of her as she toured a workhouse that would be something like the one her family had stayed in. It also showed a resiliency of spirit that her family could go through all that they did and succeed in a new country. One of the only things that really disappointed me was that we didn't get to see her brothers reaction to all that she learned. That is one of my favorite parts of each episode.

The Kim Cattrall episode had apparently aired before as part of the British version of the show. I have it on good authority that it was better the first time but I haven't been able to find it online to see so I have to go from what I know. That being said I think this might have been my least favorite episode of the season. Yes, it was interesting to watch her do most of the research in England but where most of the celebs that come on look into a family line she was only looking for one person. He was a case all into himself but still I would have liked to see her do more research into other members of her family.

Lionel Richie was the last episode that aired before the break and it was a good one to end on. He had lots of information that he was able to find using of all things mostly newspapers. This is something that I think a lot of researchers don't utilize to the best of their ability; including myself. Therefore, it was great to watch as he went back into the mid-1800. Another great part of this episode was the use of fraternal organizations as a means to find family. Again this is another resource hardly used by the layman genealogist. This actually might have been my second favorite episode of the season.

This Friday their back with Steve Buscemi and after that either Ashley Judd or Gwyneth Paltrow. I am looking forward to seeing what the next three episodes have to offer.

Not Quite What I Expected

I had this great idea after my post on the return of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? that I was going to post show recaps. I had planned to post them the following Monday after the show aired. As you can see there have been two episodes and I have yet to post a recap for either.

I think the problem that I got into was first do I include all that they found or do I allude to the journey they took so that if you didn't watch the show but still plan on watching it you wouldn't feel as if you know how it ends. The second issue that I found was that if I was going to include fact I would have to include names and it's hard remembering all those names. Heck, it is hard remembering all my families names.

Now this isn't to say that I might not decide to go ahead and recap those first two shows this week and then pick up next Monday with a recap of Rosie O'Donnell's episode. It is simple to get your opinions.

If you were reading a recap of a show would you rather have a recap that makes you want to go look up the show and watch it later or would you rather get all the information you need so that you didn't have to watch the show to feel as if you actually saw it? Let me know and I will be sure to make a recapping decision by next Monday. :)

Return of "Who Do You Think You Are?"

If you have followed this blog for awhile you know that I am a huge fan of the NBC show Who Do You Think You Are?. That means that I have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the new season to premiere and now it is finally here.

First up is Vanessa Williams most famous for being the first African-American Miss America as well as being on Ugly Betty. As an African-American myself I think that this will be an

interesting history to look into to. I know that they have had other African-Americans on season one but this is the first person of a bi-racial heritage. That isn't to say that I don't think that each and everyone of us has a mixed heritage but not everyone's is so close to their present family. The point is that I am extremely curious about if she will run into as many complications that I have or others that are investigating primarily an African-American lineage.

As far as the season goes I do think that they have a good line up of stars and there sounds as if there will be some interesting stories to be found. I also can't wait to see what I have affectionately termed "The Dream Team of WDYTYA" or just "Dream Team" for short will come up with. They might be my favorite part and the most annoying part of the show. I love them because the stars show up and these people just seem to have their whole family history laid out for them to review which ironically is also what bugs me about them and the show in general. I simply wish that they showed more of the research without the specialist. However, those specialist did inspire me to look into becoming a certified genealogist so like I said, I love them too.

I also love the fact that even if they don't show all the research, ups and downs, and brick walls that we mere mortals run into everyday they do open the conversation for genealogy. They spark interest and with all the commercials for Ancestry.com then there has to be a few additional people that decide to look and that is a great thing. More people looking means more interest, more funding and more information shared. All of these things sound amazing to me.

So if you don't have plans and watch tonight. Also if you would like to chat I will be Tweeting during the show. You can follow me @AlwaysMe74. Hope to talk to soon.

Where In The World Is Henry?

I have a relative that I really want to find information on. He is my great, great grandfather. I can find him in 1910 but for some reason he seems to have disappeared from every other census. What is that about?

I've mentioned the show "Who Do You Think You Are" before and as I was watching the show with Matthew Broderick he had a similar problem. He had a relative that was in the 1850 census and then his wife was in the 1870 census but neither was in the 1860 census. Where did they go? They found out the relative was in the Civil War during the 1860 census. Still why wouldn't the rest of the family be on that census?

I joked with my father that maybe someone came by the house to record the family but since the father wasn't there they just kept on going. I like to hope that isn't what happened. Maybe they were out visiting or it was Sunday and they were at church. Either way you would think that they would send someone back later to make sure everyone was counted.

Think about it this way. Every time I watch any television show these days I see at least five to six commercials about how important it is to send in the census. How is it so important now but back then you could just skip whole families? Does that mean that not everyone will be counted this time either?

All I know is that when you come across some one like ol' Henry here it makes you want to throw your notebook across the room and stomp away vowing never to search for anyoen again. It's a lie and we al know it as soon as we say it. Why? Because secretly we love the Henry's. They challenges that they repersent and when we finally find that information there is a vindication that comes with it. A sense of beeting the odds and learning something more. And it's that why we all started researching in the first place?

Some Help Please

I meant to post this yesterday but I had a few birthdays and that took me away from the computer and my research and I guess I could have done it last night but I was way to tired to try to write anything. However the point of this post insist about my lack of time but about the new show on NBC called "Who Do You Think You Are".

It is a great show and showcases the search for ancestors. If you haven't seen it then here is a little recap. Every week a different celebrity searches for either their father or their mother's side of the family. They always find different things than they might have expected and they always travel around the country to find the answers.

My question after watching the episode with Emmitt Smith is where are all these people that help them? With every person they almost seem to have a genealogy "dream team" that knows which book to pull or has the papers already ready for them when they show up. Like with Lisa Kudrow. She went to Belarus in Europe wanting to find information about her great grandmother. When she got there she was taken to this state archives where she found the information that she wanted but then the next day the lady that was helping her had like a full transcript of the Holocaust in that part of the country and how it related to Lisa. Or with Matthew Broderick who found out that one of his relatives served and was killed in the Civil War. He met up with a man that took him to the spot where he was buried and together they figured out that Matthews relative was the last unknown soldier from that company. It's like who are these people?

I sit at my computer and I look through the records and what do I find? Half of what I am looking for. I know that everyone will tell you that you have to go to the city or state or archives in order to find everything but really; will I find my own "dream team" when I get there?

True it stands to reason that someone working in a historical library or state archive will know more than the average Joe fresh off the street, but if I walked in and said, "I was looking for Jerry Spralls who was born in 1926 in North Dakota" would even they be able to find him in the blink of an eye? And yes I know that what looks like a few minutes on television could actually be hours but I have been looking for one relative for three weeks and still haven't even found a birth date for him. This is why I wonder.

I think the show promotes some really great tools for looking into your genealogy. Like ancestry.com (who is one of their sponsors) and state libraries, genealogy societies and people that probably make their living doing this and only have like four customers a quarter. Still I also think that they make it look a little easy. With Sarah Jessica Parker they were all the way back to the 1700 by the end of the show. I am stuck in 1870. Help Dream Team?

The bottom line is that if you get a chance to watch it then I strongly suggest that you do but simply remember that unless you can probably afford those wonderful individuals they are promoting your search will likely take longer than an hour or even two.