Englishmum

Oooh, the US adaptation of the British TV series "Who Do You Think You Are?" is starting this evening on NBC (right now 8pm if you're in the Eastern Time zone).

Sarah Jessica Parker is on tonight.....apparently one of her rellies was accused as a witch in Salem!

Bluegrass Lass

Saw the previews for this. Watching it right now. Wonder how it will compare to the Brit version?

Poppy girl

Oh looking forward to it, I liked the UK one when they had Jerry Springer it brought a few tears to my eyes.

Poppy girl

I quiet enjoyed it last night, SJP seemed very natural and nice (still looks like a camel lol)......Not sure I would be too chuffed to find out I was related to a witch back in the 1600 Century

lisa67

I really enjoyed it. I felt it was more scripted than the UK version and I didn't feel like I got to know anymore about SJP other than her ancestors, compared to the UK version which I felt gave the famous people a lot more "chat to camera" time.

Patrick Hasler

Dont watch US adaptations ....... they ruined Steptoe $ Son and Drew Carey is in no way funny and has totally destroyed Who's line is it anyway.

cindyabs

I am a direct descendant of one.
The Salem witch trials were a horrendous hysterical time. Another sterling example of how the "righteous" people used religion as an excuse to act on envy or greed or other less than upstanding traits against others.

Poppy girl

Yes but in this instance it was all she really came up with at the end and seemed to be over joyed with it.

My family goes way back further then the 1600's and are much more shady lol there are many books about their rise to nasty fame, fortune and death

cindyabs

Well in her case, and the case of a lot of people, they have an idea of a few odds and ends of info but nothing "old." She had said she knew about her dad's family but nothing about her mom's. Her mother just thought that her people were Cincy "over the Rhine" folks, nothing like what she found out. That was what excited her, the idea that she had family here before the USA was the USA. I can't explain the feeling it gives you, but it is kind of neat to know that someone who shared their DNA with you, got to see a country being made. Apologies to my family and others here with Native American ancestery.

As for going back further than the 1600s, sure I can and have done that and then some.

It would have been interesting to see where her family came from in England, likely East Anglia, but that's a generalization.

Poppy girl

I actually missed the first 10-15mins.

rebs

I thought it was a pretty good show - I kind of agree with Pat about US adaptations, but I think this was one of the (rare?) occasions where the format carried over successfully.

I wonder if they start on more celebs than make it to the final cut? SJP had some pretty good/historically significant/interesting for tv finds in her ancestors - they can't always find such good stuff when they start out researching individuals....

Bluegrass Lass

But didn't you see the preview for the Brooke Shields show..apparently one of her ancestors is King Louis XIV. Makes me wonder if they'll only show the celebs with exciting/famous ancestors just to keep it interesting.

I wonder how much it would cost to hire someone to look into this stuff as it would be pretty interesting to see who my ancestors were.

cindyabs

I would love to do that, they have courses for certification, but like many other things in this current economy, it's not something folks need to spend money on. Perhaps I could convince Snowbunny to partner up.

Everything I've found has been on the internet through folks who've already done a lot of work. It's detective work.

rebs

Agreed on not paying - I've done some on my tree, we've nothing particularly noteworthy, but it's still fascinating isn't it?

I don't even pay for the subscription for ancestry.com - I try to do as much as poss on free sites or the pay as you go ones for census pages etc. I do seem to spend a fortune on certificates, as I like to have those :rofl

rebs

Yeah - that's what I mean, I wonder if some get started but don't make it to air...