Season 8: All Episodes Talk

[Ina123]

I'll give Katey the benefit of a doubt. She could have meant there is no family above her generation as in Mom, Dad, Grandparents, aunts and uncles. I know that is true for me. I have siblings but they know even less than I about our heritage.

I think the reason she began in a bit of a depressed state is because her mother had died and she realized she didn't talk to her about these stories.

[zoey1996]

Katey did say that she knew no one who knew her parents (mother) before they were married and had children.  I still know people who knew my parents when they were younger, and I have heard some stories from them.  Most of my parents' generation have died now though.  

I got excited when some of Katey's relatives were from State Center, Iowa.  My maternal grandmother was born there in 1893, and moved with her parents to Kansas when she was about five years old.  Her mother was of Swedish heritage.

[kassa]

Is there a list somewhere of the celebrities who have been on the various genealogy shows? A friend was told he is a second cousin of Famous Person. Friend would not contact FP, but would like to know if there is info on their common ancestors that we have not been able to find.

 

 

I think Wikipages for each show or the actual show network pages might yield lists.  If you're talking about early American history, you can probably find the info on ancestry, assuming you know what names you're looking for.  Any living people's names will be listed as Private, so you'd have to know the celeb's parents/grandparents names and could join trees up a couple of generations.

 

Or you could mention famous person's name and those of us who watch all the shows could tell you if they've been featured!

Edited April 20, 2016 by kassa

[Snarklepuss]

This might help:

 

https://www.pinterest.com/familytreemag/celebrity-family-trees/

 

Also, the major shows featuring celebrity genealogy have been "Who do you Think You are":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Do_You_Think_You_Are%3F_%28U.S._TV_series%29

 

and "Finding Your Roots":

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Your_Roots

 

Otherwise, a lot of the major genealogy sites have sections on celebrity genealogy and family trees, so google on "celebrity genealogy" and "celebrity family trees".

[attica]

Once again, an interesting tree. I admit I giggled a bit when they revealed the name of the ship that Jacob came over on: Charming Nancy. The fictional city that Katey's show, Sons of Anarchy, takes place in is called Charming. And no freaking kidding, for such a dyed-in-the-wool 'peacemonger', Katey's character in that show was anything but. Massacres every week! (Noting of course that K's hubby, not K herself, who did the showrunning. Still.)

 

One of Katey's first singing gigs was as one of Bette Midler's backup crew, the Harlettes. So she would have done a lot of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", which fits in with her mom's USO past.

[alexa]

Molly's episode was interesting.  Her reactions were subdued, and at first I wasn't sure what to think, but my feeling is that she was just taking it all in and then decided that she just felt very upset for what her ancestors had to endure.  She seemed relieved to learn about the one that moved to Nebraska.  I liked that this was kind of a simple episode with ancestors that were fairly normal to the times--people looking for a better life in America.  

Edited April 25, 2016 by alexa

[Granny58]

Is there a list somewhere of the celebrities who have been on the various genealogy shows? A friend was told he is a second cousin of Famous Person. Friend would not contact FP, but would like to know if there is info on their common ancestors that we have not been able to find.

Since I am making wishes, a database of the various libraries etc. that have been shown would be great, if the Genealogy Fairy is feeling generous today. :-)

I think a good first step would go to Ancestry.com and put in the FP's name, work through their records for a possible link.

[Peachy]

It happened even earlier as well. I recently found out I had a relative kidnapped in 1704 (1703?) from Deerfield, Massachusetts. Native Americans had allied with French in Quebec. Deerfield was raided by natives, and roughly 100 English settlers were made to walk north to the Montreal area in winter. Many died on the trek, but children and young adults that made it were taken in either by native or Quebecois families. That's how my relative ended up on my French-Canadian family tree. Caroline Cooney wrote a young adult novel that fictionalized a true person, called "The ransom of Mercy Carter", which detailed the cultural/loyalty struggle that kidnapped Mercy had as a ~10 year old.

My 9th great uncle Thomas French was also kidnapped from Deerfield.  His wife died or was killed along the trek, some of the children were redeemed and brought back, and one daughter assimilated into the Indian life and never returned.

[kassa]

I think a good first step would go to Ancestry.com and put in the FP's name, work through their records for a possible link.

 

 

Living people's identities are marked private, but if they have a deceased parent or you know grandparent names and somebody has them in their tree and has marked them deceased, they may show up in a shared tree.  

[iMonrey]

I wasn't sure what to make of Molly Ringwald to be honest. She actually seemed a bit put off to find her ancestors were lowly miners, and it almost felt like from that point on she was just going through the motions because she had already agreed to do the show. There also seemed to be big chunks of the story missing. What happened to the great-great-great grandmother (Kirsten or however it was pronounced) who had to live in the widow's house? How did her daughter Carolina manage to get to America? They went from her growing up in the poor house to suddenly being in Nebraska. Maybe they didn't know but it felt like they skipped something.

[Ina123]

Two people this week. Can't wait for Chris Noth.

[CocoaGoddess]

I thought Molly's episode was very odd, and she definitely came off a bit naive and privileged, wondering about insurance for the widows after finding out that they lived and died in poverty. Coal mining was and always will be a treacherous career choice, and poor people with few opportunities are always targeted for the job. How could she not know that?

And yes, she seemed very unsettled and disappointed to learn her family were destitute coal miners. She's an actress, I guess I expect them to fake it even when faced with less than stellar ancestry. At least they were honest, hardworking people, and not con artists and axe murderers as we've seen featured in other celeb lineage. 

How in the heck did Carolina manage to go from being born in widow's housing with barely enough food to eat, to coming to America and becoming a property owner? Not sure why the show chose to follow this line if the details were so murky and unsatisfying for the audience. Ah well. 

[kassygreene]

I would guess that Carolina had a chance to emigrate and grabbed it.  My Danish great-grandfather and ten of his eleven siblings got the hell out of Jutland in the 1860s and 1870s - Denmark allied with Napoleon and spent the rest of the 19th century paying for it.  The brother who stayed in Denmark inherited the farm; the eldest brother went to Iowa with the help of some Danish society, and over the next fifteen years helped the other ten make the trip.  If Sweden had similar organizations that would have been a way for Carolina to improve her life.  Immigration would hardly be worse then being married to a series of coal miners...

[grisgris]

I had the same reaction to Molly Ringwald. She seemed to really disconnect from the process once the prospect of any ties to Swedish royalty were dashed with the "family of humble coal miners" reveal.

Happily for me, I was more or less able to overlook Ms. Ringwald's less-than-enthusiastic reactions by reveling in all the knowledge I picked up. I have a very similar background (German-Swedish) as Molly, and now knowing that Sweden keeps good records has reignited my interesting in picking up my genealogy project again. My ancestors on my mother's side came over from Sweden and settled in Nebraska, and at least now I have some inkling as to why.

I know an elderly man from Denmark (his sweet Danish wife died recently) and he told me a similar story about Danish societies "sponsoring" those back in Denmark to come over here -- to Iowa.  He made it over here via an uncle who immigrated earlier. I think they were in some type of carpentry trade, whereas my Swedish kinfolk in Nebraska were farmers.

Otherwise, no. This wasn't one of the better episodes.

[ChicagoCita]

This is very, very hugging the edges of being off-topic, but since we're talking about Molly Ringwald being a little weird: My friend's family home was used as one of the homes in a John Hughes movie starring her. Apparently when my friend's family came home, Molly had helped herself to most of the food in their refrigerator. ;-)  (But the movie company paid well, enough to put an addition on the home, and promptly fixed any damages to the home incurred by the filming.)

As for this episode, I didn't get that she was checked out, but I agree she wasn't exactly jumping up and down with excitement. I did very much like that they showed her close relationship with her dad.

[SingleMaltBlonde]

I thought Molly was a little disconnected but I think being so famous so young impacts you.  I didn't get the impression she cared about the royalty angle.

At this point in history Scandanavian immigration was heavily favored (I say this as someone who benefitted from this) so it was easy to come over, especially farmers....farmers are always useful, especially farmers who could handle and Iowa/Nebraska/Minnesota weather.  Once you have a bunch of single men you need some single women.  Lutheran churches and groups like Sons of Norway helped new immigrants find jobs and spouses (again I benefitted from this).  It would have been interesting to seeing more about how she came over but I have also learned how hard some of that is to find...still can't find my great grandmother immigration records.

[Snarklepuss]

Molly and Katey are tied for me for weirdest this season.  Molly's episode put me to sleep so I don't remember most of it but I do remember thinking she seemed privileged and out of touch.  I had always liked her in movies but never knew anything about her personally so this was kind of a let down for me.

Chris Noth's episode was a lot better.  I found some of the history interesting and since Mr. Snarkle has relatives in Donegal that we've visited, the Irish stuff rang big bells for us.  I like Chris, he seems like a decent, thoughtful person.  I always loved him as "Big" on SATC, too.  But even though that was all positive it seemed like a weak storyline to follow out of his family tree.  I could roll dice and find a more exciting personal story in my own tree in five minutes.  I don't know why they're choosing such lukewarm stuff this season.  Some of it I like but some of it is just like "so what"?  Even for someone who likes history, like me.  And in the cases when they act all over-impressed it sort of feels out of place or like they're acting their response.

[RockShrimp]

I want to like Lea Michelle's episode, because it's a Jewish family that *isn't* Eastern European, but every word she says, I want to yell "STFU". She is the fakest faker to ever fake. ARGH. 

On the heels of Chris Noth having to pretend that he didn't know Irish Catholics were treated poorly in England (or else he is the most uneducated person alive), it's frustrating.

Edited May 2, 2016 by RockShrimp

[barbedwire]

Chris' episode was just ok but Lea's was fascinating.  Didn't dad remember he had a cousin over in Israel?  But I totally get that she was brought up around the Italian side of the family and barely knew the other side.  Happened to a relative of mine too.  Everything (holidays etc.) were done with that side unless it was "time for a present" (i.e. weddings, showers, etc.)  I will miss this show.

[pete]

Well I found Lea Michele adorable, but I like people who are animated.  Can't be pressed about people being excited to get to do this.  Her story was interesting and I like how she involved her father in it more than many celebrities do.

Chris Noth started to get boring and it was almost as if they were trying to fill time there at the end to come up with 42 minutes worth.

[tom87]

I thought Lea's story was great  one of the better ones this season  but it would have been nice if she got to go somewhere like Greece or Israel.  But it was nice that her dad got to see his cousin. I think it told of  alot of her ancestors too including the fate of who whole great grandmothers side.   I think it  nice having a little energy cause some of these episodes that can be rather subdued.

Chris Noth was ok, the recreating the battle scene was interesting but the over story was nothing unique.

So for me Scott Foley and Lea Michele had the most interesting history, then Aisha Taylor, Katey Segal, Chris Noth and lastly Molly Ringwald..

Edited May 2, 2016 by tom87

[alexa]

I am sure it was editing and timing but the one disappointing aspect of Lea's story for me was how she just heard about all of her relatives dying in the Holocaust except for one, and then goes to her dad and says how excited she is.  I know that she was going back to the other things she had learned, but it just sounded awful on TV to have it happen like that.  They really needed to insert her comments about that right away versus waiting until the very, very end of the episode as it looked like she was insensitive to it.  I felt more horrified by her news than she did...how sad.  

Otherwise, I loved her episode.

[Katydid]

I felt the same way about Lea's reaction to the Holocaust news.  I'm also a bit surprised that something as tragic as all but 1 member of the family being killed in the Holocaust wasn't something that was known by her dad.  He obviously knew the cousin that came to share the info. Seems like that's something so horrific, and historically not that long ago, that it would be well known to the family.  Overall I did enjoy the episode, though.  Lea's a bit perky, but seemed genuinely interested. 

[alexa]

I was wondering that also, about the father not knowing since it was clear he had already met the cousin.  How could he not know that the rest didn't survive...it just seems like something he should know.  

[kassa]

They had to know about the holocaust claiming the rest of the family -- the Israeli cousin had lived with Lea's Dad's family decades ago.  Her father was the one who did the memory account of their great grandmother.  He was the family's only Auschwitz survivor.  It's not something that wouldn't have come up.  (That said, I'm glad they told the story because I was really touched by that collection of memories of people who otherwise might have disappeared completely from the record.  Tragic, ingenious, and inspiring all at once. )

I enjoyed the Noth episode, and considering that so many celebs on these shows have a pathetically weak grasp of history, the fact that he pulled Napoleon out appropriately was pretty impressive.  I didn't take his reaction to British anti-Catholicism as ignorance that it existed, but just a renewed appreciation of just what it entailed as far as its  crushing, institutional impact on his own people's lives... within their own country!  

I continue to appreciate the history and genealogy lessons --- it seemed clear to me that the same last name indicated that she was probably a widow from the same family, and I knew that Greece and Turkey were switching borders like crazy and that accounted for the changes in origin.  So we are learning things!  

Biggest lessons... they'd actually deport you for being illiterate, despite having sponsors, and the Sephardic Jews in this Greek/Turkish town were still speaking Spanish 400 years after leaving Spain.  Wow.  

Edited May 2, 2016 by kassa

[tom87]

6 hours ago, alexa said:

I am sure it was editing and timing but the one disappointing aspect of Lea's story for me was how she just heard about all of her relatives dying in the Holocaust except for one, and then goes to her dad and says how excited she is.  I know that she was going back to the other things she had learned, but it just sounded awful on TV to have it happen like that.  They really needed to insert her comments about that right away versus waiting until the very, very end of the episode as it looked like she was insensitive to it.  I felt more horrified by her news than she did...how sad.  

Otherwise, I loved her episode.

Really didn't get that,  there was actually commercial break after the news and when they return  I just felt they wanted to move on.   I think they pretty much foreshadowed the ending for her Greek family with the skipping forward  to WWII and Lea's voice over even said she was very hesitate and aware of the reality of Jews going into WWII.

[iMonrey]

I haven't seen Lea's episode yet but Chris Noth's really bored me. But I'm usually bored with these stories that center around a particular battle. It seems to me that the researchers do their homework and look through the family tree until they find something "interesting" to focus on, but I sometimes disagree with what they consider interesting. An entire segment devoted to Chris and a historian standing in an empty field imagining some battle isn't something I find particularly compelling. 

Also, I would like just once for someone to trace their roots along a direct paternal line rather that hopscotch back and forth between mother's mother's father's mother's father's mother, etc. Trace back the male Noth line as far back as you can take it, for example. Find out where the name came from, and if it was ever changed, etc. Nobody has ever done that as far as I can remember.

[DkNNy79]

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I enjoyed Chris Noth's episode, but agree that it got boring at the end.  Unfortunately, they hit a dead end in Chicago.  I really wanted to know what happened to his ancestor's family and why the mother was separated from her kids.

 

[kassa]

I was surprised that they didn't bring up that maybe she was just living elsewhere.  It didn't have to be death (though that was likely).  Sometimes people just weren't home when the census was done.  Sometimes the census taker showed up, nobody was home, and they let the neighbor tell them who lived in the house.  One census you might be listed under your legal name, the next your family nickname.

If he had some kind of homestead claim he was trying to make good on, maybe having the siblings there was just a matter of having the additional labor and sparing his mother the mouths to feed, while she moved in with another sibling.

Sure, death is likely, but I wish they'd touch on how unreliable the records sometimes are, and that you can't just read whatever you want into them.  There likely would have been death certificates for everybody at some point in time, but if transcribed incorrectly/filed under the wrong spelling, you might not find them.  One blessing of a lot of parish churches uploading images of their actual record books is that you can spot errors in cataloging that previously would have preventing you from finding your people, because somebody made a guess at the spelling and "changed" the name.

[riverblue22]

I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to history but I was quite shocked about the discrimination against the Irish in their own country.  I really had no idea they had been treated like that.  So I can't blame Chris Noth for being surprised.

That was the only interesting thing I took from his story.  I found the rest of it pretty boring.

[Shannon L.]

Coming out of lurking for a minute:

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I thought Molly's episode was very odd, and she definitely came off a bit naive and privileged, wondering about insurance for the widows after finding out that they lived and died in poverty. Coal mining was and always will be a treacherous career choice, and poor people with few opportunities are always targeted for the job. How could she not know that?

I felt the same way.  She rubbed me the wrong way when she went into the mine and then not really knowing about coal mining seemed unreal to me. 

I fell asleep on Chris Noth's episode. It bored me.  I really liked Lea's, though.  There were a few things in it that I didn't really know.  I'm surprised, though, that neither she or her father remarked on how much she looked like her great grandmother (unless I missed it).  She looked like an identical twin!

[Snarklepuss]

I just watched Lea's episode and I'm astounded at how close to home this hit.  Let's see,

• She's Italian and Jewish - I'm Italian on my mother's side, Jewish on my father's (like her) and some other stuff.  I also don't know that much about my Jewish relatives.
• She's from the Bronx - so am I, although I'm from the West Bronx and her parents are from the East Bronx.  When I saw her parents' photos when they were young I thought to myself "Columbus High School".  Turns out her father is from the Allerton Avenue neighborhood not far from where I lived for a decade, so I'll bet my bank account that he went there.
• Her parents are around my age
• She started out in this episode on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, also known as the Bronx's "Little Italy" - I have a lifelong history with that place.
• She had relatives that came through Ellis Island - So did I and I've been to Ellis Island.
• She went to the Center for Jewish History, which is in the building that used to be the American Foundation for the Blind.  My father worked there when I was growing up.  I have a lot of history with that building.

And that's just for starters!  Anyway, needless to say I found this episode fascinating.  I don't doubt her family not knowing about the people that died in the Holocaust.  It sounds like they haven't been in touch with the cousin who came to visit them for a long time and perhaps she found out about the relatives who died in the interim.  It's amazing how there was a complete breakdown of communication in families who were separated by the war, and those who did have knowledge about relatives who perished didn't want to talk about it even with their own families and never mentioned it.  Today there are so many ways to find out information that wasn't available decades ago, and more people out there researching to find the answers, so it's definitely possible that this information was not shared and only discovered relatively recently.

Oh, and by the way, I'm with her, her father definitely acts Italian - Like an East Bronx Italian.  It's so hard to explain this stuff to people who aren't from NYC.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Snarklepuss

[attica]

Lea's dad reminded me of Horshack, both how he looked and sounded.

I wondered why in all the time Benouti was on parole she didn't learn to read? Certainly there must have been reasons (work, no access to teachers), but I would've liked to see that addressed. 

Count me as disappointed that Noth didn't show up wearing Logan's brown leather trench coat on his travels.

[tom87]

2 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

I just watched Lea's episode and I'm astounded at how close to home this hit.  Let's see,

 

• She started out in this episode on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, also known as the Bronx's "Little Italy" - I have a lifelong history with that place.

 

Oh, and by the way, I'm with her, her father definitely acts Italian - Like an East Bronx Italian.  It's so hard to explain this stuff to people who aren't from NYC.

Interesting they starting in Little Italy and ending in the synagogue .

Hah, Is How you doin.? a East Bronx Italian thing he said it it 3 or 4 times at tleast??

[Granny58]

I think I'm one of the few who enjoyed the Noth episode. He seemed like a nice guy who appreciated knowing the family history.   His family had hits in some pivotal historical events....Great Chicago Fire, Irish potato famine, the Napoleanic Wars.  Certainly many many many of us do, but don't have a professional to trace it for us.  On a personal note, I have done a family tree on Ancestry and recently also did the DNA test.  We have the expected northern, western and eastern European genes....then out of left field comes a bit of Iberian peninsula!!!  I have since sent my mom's DNA out to see where this lies.  If it is hers, and she is very strongly English, then it makes me wonder about my ancestor perhaps in the same war.  We won't be able to work it back that far but it certainly adds an element I hadn't known about before. 

[iMonrey]

Finally got to see Lea's episode. That was probably the best one of the season IMO. She was just very invested in the whole process. I do agree she seemed a little too upbeat after hearing about the relatives who died in the holocaust but she was very "on" for the cameras the whole time and didn't really play that scene very well. I think she was trying to avoid really laying it on thick as though it affected her personally or something. Also, I think she was preoccupied by the surprise meeting they had arranged for her father and his cousin.

The whole bit where she toured Ellis Island was fascinating and so was her being able to read the very words her great grandparents gave in their documents and depositions. Really painted a clear picture of what happened with them.

I found it interesting that Jewish tradition dictates marrying your brother's widow because it was the exact opposite in the Catholic church  where you are forbidden from marrying your sibling's widow (it's considered incest). Don't know if that's still the case, but definitely was for centuries, as famously demonstrated by Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

[kassa]

18 hours ago, attica said:

I wondered why in all the time Benouti was on parole she didn't learn to read? Certainly there must have been reasons (work, no access to teachers), but I would've liked to see that addressed. 

It would also have been a completely different alphabet.   I don't know about their specific neighborhood, but I know in ethnic Italian neighborhoods in the Boston area, as late as WWII you could move in and never have to speak English at all for the rest of your life.  It might have been nice to learn, but I also thought that perhaps the Ellis Island/court people did a bit of a wink wink nudge nudge there with the couple.  "You mustn't marry.  If you marry, it will mean your case gets thrown out.  So whatever you do, don't get married before your case comes up again."  

[geekgirl921]

I've always thought it would be cool if they would have a contest for a regular person to be able to do the show. I have been working on our family tree but I would love to have access to all of these experts with the all of those records!

[Emily Thrace]

I liked Chris Noth. I was interested in his relatives who lived through the Great Chicago Fire. Considering his Great Grandfather built himself up from the "Scattered homes on the Prairie" to a millionaire there would have been more records on him at least. Like land deeds or newspaper articles.

I think his episode had the issue a lot of the Irish roots episodes have with the lack of records. I did appreciate them finding something different from the Rosie O'Donnell episode. Chris's reaction to the Great Famine and other bits of Irish history seemed genuine to me. Something I've noticed on the Outlander boards is that people can be aware that they're ancestors were oppressed but being confronted with the reality of it is something else. Its hard for people who have never actually confronted that kind of prejudice to comprehend that level of casual brutality and indifference.

I think Lea Michelle was somewhat aware of her families Holocaust history. Although when your researching European Jewish roots I think most people would be. The Ellis Island stuff was really cute though.

[watches2muchtv]

On 5/3/2016 at 9:13 PM, Snarklepuss said:

 

 I don't doubt her family not knowing about the people that died in the Holocaust.  It sounds like they haven't been in touch with the cousin who came to visit them for a long time and perhaps she found out about the relatives who died in the interim.  It's amazing how there was a complete breakdown of communication in families who were separated by the war, and those who did have knowledge about relatives who perished didn't want to talk about it even with their own families and never mentioned it.  Today there are so many ways to find out information that wasn't available decades ago, and more people out there researching to find the answers, so it's definitely possible that this information was not shared and only discovered relatively recently.

.

 

I noticed on the witness papers Lea's cousin had they were dated 1989.   So the father may not have said much until her wanted to put in to the history.   If that is true it was years after she  after she left Lea's dad to go back to Israel.

[iMonrey]

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I've always thought it would be cool if they would have a contest for a regular person to be able to do the show. I have been working on our family tree but I would love to have access to all of these experts with the all of those records!

And someone to pay for a trip to Europe. Ancestry.com can only take you as far back as the first people in your family to come to America. Beyond that you pretty much have to go to whatever country they came from.

[kassa]

39 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Ancestry.com can only take you as far back as the first people in your family to come to America.

That's not so -- I've gone into church and civil records back to the 1700s in England on Ancestry.com.  If you know where that initial ancestor came from, you can pick up from there.  Obviously some countries are much more accessible than others.

In some cases, when all you have to go on is "Ireland" and a name like Murphy, you're not going to get anywhere unless you get creative and investigate all their family members, neighbors, etc.  Then you might discover a pattern, if some of THEM indicate a place of origin.  

Most people migrated in groups sequentially.  As the saying goes, you didn't go to America, you went to your cousins in America. A few brave souls would come, send for their families.  A neighbor youth might head over with the first one's wife and kids.  And then he'd send for his brothers.  And then their families would come.  And then other people from the neighborhood.  And they'd marry each other over here AND over there, so you have the same names popping up for 100 years on both sides of the Atlantic.

That's how I found my great great grandfather's people in Ireland.  None of his records said where he was from, but both his sister and brother in law listed the same village in their (US) marriage certificate, and sure enough, when I went to the records for that village, there are both families.  

[DkNNy79]

On ‎5‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 7:21 PM, Shannon L. said:

 I'm surprised, though, that neither she or her father remarked on how much she looked like her great grandmother (unless I missed it).  She looked like an identical twin!

I finally got around to watching Lea's episode and YES, she totally looked like Benouti.  I wanted them to put up a side by side shot of them both.  I enjoyed Lea's episode.  I don't mind Lea, but I do feel like she's "on" all the time.

My favorite episode of the season is Scott Foley.  Least favorite is Molly Ringwald.

[satrunrose]

I also liked Chris Noth's story, although the gaps drove me crazy. I wanted to know more about Grandpa Noth and his potential wealth and I was sorry that they hit a dead end in Chicago. Did the dad die in the fire or become destitute afterwards? Where was mom? Was the oldest son doing a Little House on the Prairie type thing with some of his younger sibs for help? Were the "scattered homes on the prairie" a sort of refugee settlement after the fire? What happened to the other siblings mentioned in the obituary? I know if the info is lost or never existed there isn't much to be done, but it's still frustrating as a viewer. 

The part I did like was that he Irish history helped me make sense of some questions I have about my 3x great-grandfather who was born in Ireland. He has a very common first name, a not very common last name and his father's name is also not that common, so I'm better off than some people. The problem is, I have a land grant in 1820 in Canada, a British Military service record from 1817, a baptismal record from 1804, and a death certificate giving a birth year of 1794. I've been concerned that British military service seemed unusual for an Irish Catholic, as did not being baptized until he was 10. I figured the rebellion and the anti-catholic laws might have postponed his official baptism and the army might have been the best opportunity going in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Still, I've been worried that I messed up and had combined two different people (cousins?) into one. Chris Noth's similar story backed up my theory, which was nice. 

Lea was okay. I like it when they have enough information to really go in depth and tell a detailed story as they did with Bunito's Elis Island experience. Wow! did she and Lea ever look alike! I wish we could have found out more about how the cousin survived, though. 

[AuntiePam]

17 minutes ago, satrunrose said:

I also liked Chris Noth's story, although the gaps drove me crazy. I wanted to know more about Grandpa Noth and his potential wealth and I was sorry that they hit a dead end in Chicago. Did the dad die in the fire or become destitute afterwards? Where was mom? Was the oldest son doing a Little House on the Prairie type thing with some of his younger sibs for help? Were the "scattered homes on the prairie" a sort of refugee settlement after the fire? What happened to the other siblings mentioned in the obituary? I know if the info is lost or never existed there isn't much to be done, but it's still frustrating as a viewer.

Me too.  Surely there would have been death records for some of those people.  I hope they didn't short us on their stories in order to make more time for the battle in Portugal. 

[Lizzing]

On 5/3/2016 at 8:49 AM, Granny58 said:

We have the expected northern, western and eastern European genes....then out of left field comes a bit of Iberian peninsula!!!

That Iberian peninsula snuck up on my mother, too!  She thought she'd be 100% Eastern European, but there's a healthy percentage of Iberian Peninsula in her, according to the Ancestry DNA test.  I called her after Noth's episode and said maybe his relatives fought to protect hers from the French. HAHA!

Even though this show does sometimes not develop stories as I'd prefer, I'm going to miss it being on.  This was such a short season, and then the last 2 eps were dumped on one night.  This may be the first Sunday in a long, long time that I don't have a standing program to watch.

[Pete Martell]

On 5/3/2016 at 9:49 AM, Granny58 said:

I think I'm one of the few who enjoyed the Noth episode. He seemed like a nice guy who appreciated knowing the family history.   His family had hits in some pivotal historical events....Great Chicago Fire, Irish potato famine, the Napoleanic Wars.  Certainly many many many of us do, but don't have a professional to trace it for us.  On a personal note, I have done a family tree on Ancestry and recently also did the DNA test.  We have the expected northern, western and eastern European genes....then out of left field comes a bit of Iberian peninsula!!!  I have since sent my mom's DNA out to see where this lies.  If it is hers, and she is very strongly English, then it makes me wonder about my ancestor perhaps in the same war.  We won't be able to work it back that far but it certainly adds an element I hadn't known about before. 

I liked the episode too. I don't really care if someone has a fascinating or lively family backstory. I often find that contrived. I never thought I'd see him on this type of show and I was happy that he didn't come off like an ass. His regrets over knowing so little of his family history and wondering how much his father knew about their history added more of an emotional connection to the show than some episodes, without the prerequisite shots of pretty tears in closeup. And the parts about the Chicago fire really interested me (the battle stuff was a bit more boring), along with the anti-Catholic history lesson. I'm sure he knew of it, but knowing of it and seeing a relative whose life was severely impacted are different matters entirely. I also liked the bit where he didn't even want to turn the pages in case he damaged them - that's probably how I'd be. 

On 5/4/2016 at 0:05 AM, Emily Thrace said:

I think his episode had the issue a lot of the Irish roots episodes have with the lack of records

That reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHCNu9LKlP4

[SingleMaltBlonde]

On 5/2/2016 at 8:07 AM, alexa said:

I am sure it was editing and timing but the one disappointing aspect of Lea's story for me was how she just heard about all of her relatives dying in the Holocaust except for one, and then goes to her dad and says how excited she is.  

I think she was excited someone survived.  Not all families had that luck.

[SingleMaltBlonde]

How did Chris Noth NOT KNOW he was Irish....he has spent most of his acting career playing Irish cops?  I loved him as Big but he will always be Mike Logan to me:-)

He went to a small liberal arts college (Marlboro) and Yale Drama.  So while he's smart I can see him having practical gaps.  The Protestant-Catholic wars make so little sense.  It's not a bad chapter to forget about.

[Snarklepuss]

20 hours ago, SingleMaltBlonde said:

How did Chris Noth NOT KNOW he was Irish....he has spent most of his acting career playing Irish cops?  I loved him as Big but he will always be Mike Logan to me:-)

The more I learn about the British side of my family, the more I realize that most English people are mixed with Irish and that genetically speaking there is a lot of crossover as nationalities did not mean much until relatively recently, and definitely don't mean much when looking at DNA and ethnic origins going back hundreds and thousands of years.  This is something most modern people don't understand much about until they really get into their family history.  My father and I were both delighted to learn that we had some Irish DNA in us because as far as we knew that family was strictly English.  I have gone back many generations on that side in my research and have turned up Irish and Scottish ancestors as recent as the 18th Century.  It seems that they got around and mixed with each other more than we thought.