Season 7: All Episodes Talk

[chitowngirl]

Who Do You Think You Are starts up again Sunday (July 26) for the Summer Season.  Featured are Bryan Cranston, Ginnifer Goodwin, Tom Bergeron, Alfre Woodard and JK Rowling's episode from the British version.

 

Some of Season 6 episodes are airing in the early evening/nighttime before the start of Season 7. 

[bybrandy]

I hate that they pretend that 1 ep a year of the British series is new.  But whatever.   It was a fine episode, not my favorite.

I liked the Gennifer Goodwin episode because she didn't spend the whole time relating her great-grandmother to herself.  I also liked that she tried to put her great-grandmother's life in perspective of the time and circumstance.   Tough story.  But she didn't moralize and I like that.

[ikmccall]

This was one of the better episodes.

[ChicagoCita]

I liked the Ginnifer Goodwin episode a lot, because it wasn't pretty and she didn't try to make it so.  I was fascinated to see her evolution of thinking about her great-grandmother, from how awful it was for her grandfather to be left alone as a child, to the penny dropping that her great-grandmother didn't just make poor choices of husbands, but that she herself was deeply troubled.

 

I thought she was a bit too emotional until I put myself in her place and realized I would have been equally emotional.

 

I have to wonder what happened to Pearl?  And what was her father's reaction to finding out his ancestral stories, about which she expressed nervousness at telling him?

 

I did very much empathize with her saying that she felt like she had just inherited great-grandparents.  There was an old man who grew up across the street from our family home, and he had memories of my great-great-grandfather from when he was a little boy. He had a great memory and told me all sorts of little details about him that a small boy would have noticed.  When he died, I felt like I had lost not only a family friend, but in a way I felt like I had lost my great-great-grandfather as well.  So I appreciated Ginnifer's feelings of just having gotten to know someone who'd been dead for decades.

 

On a shallow note, I liked that she was normal size -- not a skeleton, as are so many actresses. But I wish she'd wear her hair longer.

[tom87]

I like Ginnfer's too.  She didn't try to romaztize it as some people seem too.  Cold hard facts when she realized the system gave her the drugs to help he pain and then nothing to help her addiction.   Still seems like a lot of unanswered questions though.

[millk]

I really hate that they changed the theme for the American shows. I suppose it makes the journey more epic with all the Ahhhhhhhhhs but the other theme is so good.

 

I've never seen Ginnifer Goodwin in anything and she seemed very sweet. Her evolving thoughts about her great grandmother was nice to watch. Didn't they say that her grandfather moved his mother into a house when he was successful but didn't have anything to do with her?

[zxy556575]

I was curious about the drug treatment center closing and if most patients stayed longer than a year.

 

From what we could gather, it seemed like Nellie abandoned her son at 11 and, although he later supported her financially, he never forgave her. It was a bit odd to me that Ginnifer's father seemingly never talked to his dad or mom about the past. There has to be quite a story of grit and survival there.

 

We also dropped the story of Ginnifer's bootlegging great-grandfather after learning about his many arrests.

Edited July 27, 2015 by lordonia

[riverblue22]

That was an interesting episode.  I knew that those narcotics had once been widely available and then controlled but I never considered the problem of all the people that had become addicted to them.  There is always an interesting history lesson in this show.  I too would have like to know what became of Pearl. Maybe they couldn't trace her after the institution closed.

[bybrandy]

It was a bit odd to me that Ginnifer's father seemingly never talked to his dad or mom about the past. There has to be quite a story of grit and survival there.

 

Sometimes people with less than pretty upbringings just refuse to talk about the past.  My grandmother, for one, would just shut down any questions on certain lines of inquiry.   When we learned the things she was hiding in her past her lack of answers and some word games she played trying not to lie and not answer at the same time, all of a sudden clicked into place.

[barbedwire]

This was one of my favorite episodes.  Sometimes they go waaayyyy into the person's line before they find something interesting.  Ginnefer had questions, and they got answered.  I also wondered what happened to Pearl.  And why was her son left behind?  It sounded like it ended up benefiting him in that he didn't get caught up in her world of crazy.  The picture of the great-grandma in her latter years with a woman on each side:  that one woman looked exactly like Ginnefer!  What a hard decision of an abandoned boy, growing up and doing fairly well, and that mama coming back and needing something from him.  And he gets her a house!

[Lovecat]

This was one of my favorite episodes.  Sometimes they go waaayyyy into the person's line before they find something interesting.  Ginnefer had questions, and they got answered.  I also wondered what happened to Pearl.  And why was her son left behind?  It sounded like it ended up benefiting him in that he didn't get caught up in her world of crazy.  The picture of the great-grandma in her latter years with a woman on each side:  that one woman looked exactly like Ginnefer!  What a hard decision of an abandoned boy, growing up and doing fairly well, and that mama coming back and needing something from him.  And he gets her a house!

The lady on the right *totally* did!  I wonder if that was Pearl?  Does anyone remember how old Nellie would have been when Pearl was born?  24, 25 or so?  There looked like there were more than 25 years between Nellie and the mystery lady, though.  I guess it could have been Ginnifer's grandmother.

 

I thought this was a really good episode, and I really empathize with Ginnifer's father.  My dad was a deep well of secrets, and it's only within the last few years that I've learned that a lot of what he told me about his parents was untrue.  My dad was significantly older when I was born (49), and his parents were long gone by then, but I had an uncle (and probably an aunt and some cousins) that I never met, because my dad was estranged from the family.  Now my dad is gone, and I'm finding *some* answers, but he's not here to ask about them.  It's really frustrating. 

[ChicagoCita]

I can see why Ginnifer's father and grandfather were so mum on the subject, not that I'm not wildly curious about what they knew. It's such a different generation and set of behaviors.  Bragging *and* bad things were best not discussed.  Luckily, we can get a glimpse through public records, and wow, Ginnifer's ancestors were all over the public records!

 

Since I've started genealogy, I've found that we really are related to Daniel Boone (as are quite a few people, but that's the one thing I thought I'd discredit right away). I've found out that my stern 3x-great-grandparents had a baby a year before they were married and fudged the family Bible dates.  I've found that my 2x-great-uncle had a teenage fight that killed another boy in town. I found out that my great-grandfather, who I always considered the black sheep of the family, was actually a "white sheep" when compared to his birth family, and died a respected citizen of the town.  I've found out that my 2x-great-uncle, who was paralyzed in the Spanish-American War, was a prolific inventor and writer, and his brother was a con man wanted in three states, who actually sued each other about which jurisdiction got to take custody of him when he was finally arrested.  All thanks to public records, and never discussed in our family.  My feeling is that my grandmother probably wasn't told any of the bad stuff, and that's why she never passed it along to my mom and aunt.

 

Only five episodes in this "season" or do you think it's split into two separate viewing times?

[iMonrey]

This is the kind of episode I like best and it kind of reminded me of Christina Applegate's, which was also sad but riveting. One solitary family mystery to explore and that's it. I hate it when the researchers just selectively pick their way through a celeb's ancestry until they find some kind of story they think is interesting no matter how far removed from direct lineage. 

 

There did seem to be some omissions. I would have liked to find out what happened to her great-grandfather, Al Goodwin, after he got out of jail (assuming he ever did). I know the story was really about Nellie but there's a connect the dots factor here too. Al Goodwin's prison record showed he had syphilis, and then later we found out Nellie had syphilis as well, which is presumably how she got addicted to morphine. So did her husband give her syphilis or did she give him syphilis? I'm surprised she lived to be 84.

 

Did Ginnifer's father react badly to the story or was there just not enough time to show his reaction to it? He played a prominent enough role in getting the ball rolling so it was a bit odd not to bring the story full circle.

 

Looking forward to Brian Cranston and Tom Bergeron.

[DkNNy79]

Great episode.  Really riveting.  I missed the picture of the three ladies that everyone is mentioning.  Was that in the beginning when Ginnifer was talking to her dad.  I wasn't paying close attention.

 

So much great information in her lineage.  This totally could've been an extended episode.  I wanted to know more about Pearl, how did she die.  Did they mention who her dad went to live with at age 11?

[zxy556575]

Did they mention who her dad went to live with at age 11?

 

The historian speculated that it was probably some sort of orphanage/poorhouse/workhouse deal. The only info he seems to have passed down was that he was "on his own" so it doesn't seem likely that there were any relatives able to take him in.

[bybrandy]

A quick ancestry search shows Albert Goodwin died at 71 in Memphis.  He had remarried and was a general contractor.  John Barton Goodwin was a carpenter for a General Contractor in the 1930 census and was a developer when he provided that house for his mother.  So it seems he might have had some contact with his family after his fathers release from prison to turn up in such a similar field.

[alexa]

Yes, this was a great episode.  Much improved over last season so far!  I was really interested in everything she found out, and appreciated how she handled the information.  I also loved that her dad was involved early in the episode and you could see how meaningful this was for him to hopefully get more info on his dad.

[attica]

The thing that shocked me most was GG's admission that she's 37. Wow, I'd've believed if she said she was 25. (And I'm on Team Short Hair. Plenty of starlets with long tresses; no need to be just one more.)

 

I agree, a really involving 40 minutes. Good work by the historians who followed the fam though all the name changes and spelling variants.  I bet there was lots of interesting stuff left on the cutting room floor (or on the cutting room computer, now that we're all high-tech).

[Sammich63]

I also really enjoyed this episode, and I got a bit emotional at times, as I did during Christina Applegate's episode.  I also thought the lady on the right looked a bit like Ginnifer.  I'm amazed the grandmother lived to be 84 with Syphilis and I wish we had learned what happened to Pearl.  I thought that it's possible the son (grandfather) was taken from the mother due to her being hospitalized and made a ward of the state.  I'd like to know what happened to the other son Nellie had with her third husband since that guy also ended up incarcerated.   

 

I do miss the ending they used to show with the family members.  Christina Applegate's reunion with her dad to discuss her findings was so touching, and I wish we could have seen the reaction of Ginnifer's dad.  

 

My grandmother went to live with an aunt in another state for many years after her father was killed in an accident, and nobody was ever to discuss this information.  I never did get the full story and I've often wondered what exactly happened.  She had an estranged relationship with her mother (my great-grandmother) and I figured this must have played a part in it.  

 

I hope the remaining four episodes are as good as this one.  I enjoy the ones that explore more recent generations of the family. 

[iMonrey]

Yeah, I re-watched Rachel McAdam's episode and while they dug up an interesting story about her ancestors during the Revolutionary War, it seemed a bit too far removed to be a real connection. I know this sounds silly but I don't like it when they skip back and forth in the lineage just to draw a connection between the celebrity and some interesting story in the past. For example, with McAdam's ancestors, they looked at her mother's mother's mother's father's mother's father's mother in order to get to the story they wanted. Granted, she can still claim descendancy from these people, but by the time they've gone through about nine different family names to get there it feels like they've really lost the connection.

[kassa]

I always pause my tivo on documents, because they often leave out interesting things in the story exposition.  Her grandmother's first husband abandoned her... but the divorce decree showed he had only married her to avoid prosecution for seducing her in the first place!  Weird that they left that out, while leaving in drug dealing and syphilis!  Poor thing lived a hard life.  Ginnifer's grandfather was a good guy to support her despite not wanting to have anything to deal with her.

 

Her great grandfather was kind of hot.  It's always shocking to me when in the course of looking at old-tyme photos you see somebody who looks like they could walk right into the room at this very moment and not look out of place.

[Lovecat]

Her great grandfather was kind of hot.  It's always shocking to me when in the course of looking at old-tyme photos you see somebody who looks like they could walk right into the room at this very moment and not look out of place.

Srsly.  I actually breathed "so handsome!" when they showed his picture.  I thought her grandfather was handsome as well, but the photo they showed of him was a more formal, suit-and-tie kind of thing, whereas the mug shot they showed of the great-grandfather conveyed, by the very nature of a mug shot, some bad-boy swag.  Handsome *and* dangerous!

[DkNNy79]

I always pause my tivo on documents, because they often leave out interesting things in the story exposition.  Her grandmother's first husband abandoned her... but the divorce decree showed he had only married her to avoid prosecution for seducing her in the first place!  Weird that they left that out, while leaving in drug dealing and syphilis!  Poor thing lived a hard life.  Ginnifer's grandfather was a good guy to support her despite not wanting to have anything to deal with her.

 

Wow!  A great bit of extra information.  I definitely need to watch this episode again.  I missed a lot of interesting stuff.

[Galloway Cave]

 

I bet there was lots of interesting stuff left on the cutting room floor (or on the cutting room computer, now that we're all high-tech).

WDYTYA tweeted during the show that they left out that Al had TWO women visiting and writing to him in jail, not just the one that Nellie was upset about. He really did have the bad-boy swag going on!

[TiredMe]

I love this show. This was a touching episode. I also was wondering what happened to Al after prison so thanks to the poster who looked it up. I was curious if Pearl died before her mother.

You never know what you're going to find in genealogy (my 7th g gf was the first murderer of record in a county in Va/Wv. Killed his wife. Interesting sometimes the things you can find. )

[Driad]

 

We liked seeing Ginnifer taking notes at the beginning.  Too bad she didn't make a time line as she went along: in years for which you have info, where were these people and what were they doing?  Time lines can be very useful for research like hers.

[Vandy10]

I really liked Ginnifer's episode. It's fascinating how quickly things get buried in the family memory. Just 1-2 generations away, and nobody in the family knew Nellie's story. My own (now-deceased) grandfather was living with his parents in one census, with an aunt in the next census, and off on his own in the following census. Nobody alive will talk about why he was out of the family home as a young child. Even my mom doesn't know. Sometimes the genealogical records can help solve some mysteries, like all the name changes for Nellie that the genealogists were able to track down. I had a great-aunt who similarly married 3 times and keeping up with the name changes and the different children can be dizzying. But, unfortunately, even some mysteries can't be solved by the records alone. I don't think Ginnifer's father will ever truly know how his own dad felt about it all.

 

So next week is the recycled JK Rowling episode? If TLC wants to "borrow" old British episodes featuring celebrities Americans know, I hope they show the Jerry Springer episode. That was quite powerful, and I never would've expected such a moving episode from the king of trash TV.

[iMonrey]

 

I always pause my tivo on documents, because they often leave out interesting things in the story exposition.  Her grandmother's first husband abandoned her... but the divorce decree showed he had only married her to avoid prosecution for seducing her in the first place!  Weird that they left that out, while leaving in drug dealing and syphilis!

 

I noticed they did say that her first child was born eight months after she married. You could be generous and say it was premature but I suspected it was far more likely the father was pressured to marry her because he'd gotten her pregnant, and was clearly uninterested in being a husband or a father and ran out on her the first chance he got.

[Matryoshka]

I was curious if Pearl died before her mother.

I assume so, since in the obit it said she was survived by 2 sons (GG's grandfather and his half-brother), but there was no mention of a daughter.

[attica]

Yeah, I imagine you don't risk prosecution for seduction unless there's unambiguous evidence, i.e. a bun in the uterine oven.

[abbottrabbit]

Sometimes people with less than pretty upbringings just refuse to talk about the past.  My grandmother, for one, would just shut down any questions on certain lines of inquiry.   When we learned the things she was hiding in her past her lack of answers and some word games she played trying not to lie and not answer at the same time, all of a sudden clicked into place.

 

I think that's particularly true of the generations featured in this episode --GG is a year younger than I am and her grandfather was about 10 years older than most of my grandparents. Anyway, when my grandparents and great-grandparents shut shit down, they shut. Shit. Down. They would tell you every detail of a a dress they wore in 1938, but God help you if you asked about my grandmother's first marriage, or why my two immigrant great-grandfathers came to this country. There was a lot of stuff that was just never a topic for discussion. Change the names, seal the records, what oldest sister?  

 

There did seem to be some omissions. I would have liked to find out what happened to her great-grandfather, Al Goodwin, after he got out of jail (assuming he ever did). I know the story was really about Nellie but there's a connect the dots factor here too. Al Goodwin's prison record showed he had syphilis, and then later we found out Nellie had syphilis as well, which is presumably how she got addicted to morphine. So did her husband give her syphilis or did she give him syphilis? I'm surprised she lived to be 84.

 

 

I thought her death certificate said "Minden Sanit" on it, as in Sanitarium? It made me wonder if late in life (and who knows, possibly earlier, given some of the other issues) she might have had mental health problems as a result of the syphilis. 

Her great grandfather was kind of hot.  It's always shocking to me when in the course of looking at old-tyme photos you see somebody who looks like they could walk right into the room at this very moment and not look out of place.

 

Al Goodwin, man! I totally understood Nellie falling for him -- who doesn't love a sexy bootlegger? 

 

I loved this episode, and I spent about half of it really wanting Ginnifer Goodwin to come to my house and show me how to do eye makeup. 

Edited July 31, 2015 by abbottrabbit

[attica]

They make liquid eyeliner with cool felt tip applicators now. That's the key to that look.

[kassa]

Anyway, when my grandparents and great-grandparents shut shit down, they shut. Shit. Down.

 

 

Ain't that the truth!  

 

Though if they really live long enough, you'd be amazed what comes out of their mouths.  I got in touch with my grandfather's sister when she was 99, and she was telling me (and other cousins) how she picked up her husband on a park bench in the middle of the night in Boston Common -- he was in the merchant marine!  (She and her girlfriend went to the movies, decided they didn't want to go, and met some nice sailors instead).

 

I feel pretty confident she was not sharing that story when she was 40, 50, 60, or 70 years old.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One thing that I learned in my college history classes was how important historical context is. Too often we judge what people did hundreds of years ago using contemporary morals which isn't really fair. That is one of the things I liked about Ginnifer Goodwin's episode. Instead of judging Nellie for being an addict and a drug dealer, she understood how difficult things must have been for her. She was abandoned by her first husband while she was pregnant. Her second husband was obviously not around a lot if he was in jail, and then to top it all off he gave her syphilis which led to her addiction to morphine. This woman might not have been making great choices but the world that she lived in pushed her toward many of those choices.

 

Was Nellie's third child the son of her third husband?

[Blergh]

I wonder where/why Nellie picked up the surname of Barton from? It wasn't her parents' or any of her three husbands' surname but her estranged son [Miss Goodwin's grandfather]  used it for a middle name.

 

 If I were to conjecture where/when Nellie picked up the syphilis, I'd say it was most likely from Al Goodwin sometime after the birth of their son -if for no other reason than it doesn't appear that their son this disease which often gets passed down to babies being born to syphilitic mothers. Now whether his half-brother by her 3rd marriage had it may be another story [though he was still living at the time of her death at age 84(!)].   In that time and place, moonshiners were usually looked upon by their neighbors with nudges and winks so until he got a lengthy sentence, I don't think they were in any way ostracized. Speaking of incarceration, I wonder if Nellie found out about the nameless 'little short woman' who visited Al when she attempted to visit him but was told that 'Mrs. Goodwin' had already been there and it wasn't she then after proving her ID and marital status to the guards' satisfaction, got them to tell about a 'little short woman' who'd claimed to be 'Mrs. Goodwin' visiting Al. She didn't have much better luck with #3 but, despite the fact that she had gotten two divorces previously, she DID stay married to him until his death [and even was incarcerated as 'Mrs. First  Name #3' instead of 'Nellie#3'.

     My guess is that Pearl may have died of asthma and perhaps even morphine withdrawal  not too long after her own time in the treatment center. The obituary listed Nellie being survived by seven grandchildren and since we don't know if  Miss Goodwin's grandfather had more than her father for a child [and nothing about her younger son's progeny], it's possible Pearl may have had up to six surviving children before her own death. I wonder if any of Nellie's other  surviving descendants had known her story before this episode.

      Yes, I agree that Miss Goodwin was right to sympathize with Nellie's rather sad, troubled, tormented life but it cannot have been easy for her elder son to have grown up with an incarcerated moonshining father and a morphine addicted mother [and it's likely Nellie never intentionally told him she had syphilis since this would have been considered too 'shameful' to have shared with one's offspring- though it could have possibly come out during a 'morphine high' ] and I have to give him credit for somehow becoming a productive citizen and diligent family man in spite of his challenging childhood.

[Granny58]

I like how they put in a little bit of show between commercials.  That's awesome.  

[bybrandy]

Yeah and in Britain the episode would have been an hour to start with.   This episode would have to have quite a trimming to fit down to cable commercial length.   But having seen the original I didn't watch tonight, so I can't say what's missing.

[ShelleySue]

One thing I liked about the JKR British version is that there was no segue from one "expert" to the next.  I always hate when the US version expert says, "I have no more information here, but they have it at the state capital.  You should go see John Doe and he'll have it for you."  It is always so fake and really points out that the whole trail of research has already been done before the celebrity even started the search.  I didn't miss it at all.

[bybrandy]

In fairness I think they do that some in the UK version too and those bits were cut for time in this version.     That said the UK version tends to be less obnoxious.

[zxy556575]

This is what stuck out to me: "She married a Frenchman but didn't move to France. They never divorced but corresponded for 50 years." That was the man who wrote all the loving letters, wasn't it?

[atir]

Yes, the letter writing was strange but cool. And no mention of divorce! I didn't get why Salome would ever be considered German. That was silly.

[iMonrey]

I haven't seen any of the U.K. versions so this was new to me. (How do you see the U.K. versions anyway if you don't live in the U.K.?)

 

It seemed like JK Rowling was overly anxious to find out that her great great grandmother was French and not German. I don't know if it's because there's still a strong anti-German sentiment among her generation or if it's just because she's so strongly married to the idea of a French ancestry. But the last name was definitely Germanic in origin so at some point those ancestors came to France from somewhere in Germany.

[millk]

I haven't seen any of the U.K. versions so this was new to me. (How do you see the U.K. versions anyway if you don't live in the U.K.?)

 

I don't know the policy here about recommending video sharing sites but the big one out there has most of the UK episodes. They've been up for years and no one really takes down the UK ones. The Australian ones get taken down quite quickly though. It is a dangerous hole to fall into if you decide to watch them. Before you know it you've lost several hours because they are really well done.

 

I don't know if Jo's generation is more anti-German but certainly the one before hers was. 

Edited August 3, 2015 by millk

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One thing I liked about the JKR British version is that there was no segue from one "expert" to the next. I always hate when the US version expert says, "I have no more information here, but they have it at the state capital. You should go see John Doe and he'll have it for you." It is always so fake and really points out that the whole trail of research has already been done before the celebrity even started the search. I didn't miss it at all.

I totally get what you're saying (because I hate when reality shows do fake things), I am kind of okay with sending the celebrities to different locations because (1) the people who helped do the research and the institutions that possess the old documents deserve some airtime (2) it shows that digging up information on your family isn't just a matter of clicking a link on ancestry.com. A lot of genealogy requires actual research which means looking through old records that haven't been digitized and put on the internet. In this digital age, it's easy to assume that everything is available online but there are a lot of things that aren't (unfortunately!).

[attica]

I was really delighted that JK could read/translate the French documents so quickly and coherently. Yeah, she studied it in school, but so did I, and I doubt I could zip through a military report like that.

 

And how cute was the bald military researcher who gave her the Croix de Guerre? 

[DkNNy79]

So far I am really enjoying this season.  Back to back great episodes to start the season.

 

I wanted to know more about Salome.  Who was Louis Valant's father?  How long was she a maid before becoming a dressmaker?  Did the family kick her out once they found out she was pregnant?

[abbottrabbit]

So far I am really enjoying this season.  Back to back great episodes to start the season.

 

I wanted to know more about Salome.  Who was Louis Valant's father?  How long was she a maid before becoming a dressmaker?  Did the family kick her out once they found out she was pregnant?

 

In a seriously weird coincidence, a day after I watched this episode, I found a baptism record for my 3x great grandfather (the one whose last name I have), and where it lists the parents, it said "Molly [lastname], singlewoman." 

 

And I've found Molly's baptismal record, and some things about her parents, but only one vague hint so far about her later life (a will from an "uncle" who has a different last name than either of her parents...). No marriage or burial record either in the parish where she, her parents, and her son were baptized or in the one where her son was married.

 

I'm pretty sure that I will never know anything about who his father was -- centuries old secrets tend to stay well buried -- and it's  a little eerie to me that I found that out a day after watching the Rowling episode and thinking "god, that's got to be hard to know you've dead-ended like that."

 

But that's just where it is, in both of our cases. Barring the completely unbelievable twist of finding some sort of verifiable long-lost diary, there's no way to know. And part of me is bummed about that, and part of me is intrigued, and part of me thinks it's so cool that I secretly have a quasi-matronymic last name. 

[Blergh]

Since Salome evidently brought up her son on her own without anyone's help until her marriage, who his bio father was seems rather unimportant in the grand scheme, IMO. However; I'd like to know whether she lived to see WWI with the outcome of her son having won that Croix de Guerre AND seeing her hometown being repatriated back to France after she and her family had had to endure that brutal occupation by the Prussian troops. I'd like to think the fact that her picture shows her with grey hair is evidence that she DID live that long and felt somewhat vindicated re what she'd had to endure.

[ChicagoCita]

I'm pretty sure that I will never know anything about who his father was -- centuries old secrets tend to stay well buried

 

I have a friend who's always been pretty well convinced his father isn't his blood father. He had DNA tests done through those commercial ventures (Ancestry, 23 & Me, etc.) and was able to trace a whole 'nother family that way.  He found a blood cousin who is helping him sort through possible suspects. There was one guy who everyone was convinced was his bio-dad, but wasn't (turns out the guy had two other previously unknown kids who had tracked him down via DNA, so he was an old pro at it). He wasn't the one, and now the two likeliest candidates are both very conservative religious guys, so the cousin is having to tiptoe lightly through the inquiries. So maybe a DNA test might help narrow down your ancestor?

Edited August 7, 2015 by ChicagoCita

[abbottrabbit]

That's a possibility -- I know they did that in the Finding Your Roots ep with Derek Jeter to prove that his (however many times) great-grandmother's master was his (however many times) great-grandfather. 

 

BUT. Are we ready for ANOTHER eerie coincidence? 

 

About an hour after I wrote that, I was diddling around on the Lancashire, UK records site on my lunch break to see if I can get a reader's credential for when I'm there in September. And I searched for Molly, just on a whim. 

 

And I found the will I mentioned earlier... and an "order of filiation and maintenance" for the bastard son of Molly and some jerk* calico printer! It's for two years after my 3x great-grandfather was born, but I'm hoping it just took that time to get the legal paperwork through, and that Molly wasn't just in the habit of making bad decisions (though that could be where I get it from...)

 

*I've decided he's a jerk. Sorry, 4X great-grandad. Should've sacked up in 1810 when you had the chance