Returning to the TLC network December 3rd for its 11th season is the award-winning genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?”
At press time, the featured celebrities are Josh Duhamel, Regina King, Mandy Moore and Matthew Morrison, all of whom are actors. Series promotional material indicates that at least one of them will travel to England to search for roots, another to Australia. It should prove to be an interesting season.
In previous seasons, the people featured will discuss with their own families what they might already know, then meet with a professional genealogist to seek guidance and proceed down one of their ancestral lines, usually the one that is the biggest mystery or has the most interesting story line. While the television folks makes it look easy, I know from friends who have helped research on this series and similar ones that a lot of local experts are involved with the research, some shown on film, others behind the scenes. So check your local cable listings for the TLC network and be prepared. The series is scheduled to run through December 17, with two episodes on the final night.
Online family trees, be careful
An avid reader asked that we mention that you have to be very very careful before accepting anything posted in an online family tree, either at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, or any other site. So many people don’t seem to know how to weigh the information as to its validity or logic. Some Southern trees have a sibling added with a Massachusetts birthplace that is clearly wrong. It got added by someone not paying attention. The trees I have seen attached to some of my ancestors at FamilySearch are very illogical. But how to delete? All you can do is contact the person, if it matters, and ask for them to correct it. Most people don’t know that much about research to understand what happened. Always ask politely. Always provide them with correct information.
County boundaries didn’t matter to our ancestors
When researching our ancestors, sometimes we seem to think they did all their legal actions, romancing or whatever in the same county. I doubt any of them said, “Well we better not cross the county line, as it might confuse our descendants.” So always find out where in a county your people lived and see how far the county lines were. If reasonably close, check for records in the other county. When looking for where a spouse might have come from, remember that romance had no geographical boundary.
