Season 4 Talk

[tljgator]

I always feel short-changed when they do three people in an episode instead of two. Even with two, it feels like things are missing, but it seems especially so with three. The stories here were fascinating, and I liked that they touched on stories that we hadn't heard the history behind time again. I would've liked more. *sigh*

[carrps]

On 10/5/2017 at 2:37 PM, Blergh said:

I understood why Mr. David's and Senator Sanders's respective parents refused to talk about their family histories. I recall a poignant episode of the show that I was one of the few to watch/like called "Brooklyn Bridge" in which the protagonist's immigrant grandmother (played by, of all folks, Marion Ross in IMO her BEST role) absolutely refused to discuss the Holocaust- even when her nephew a Holocaust survivor (played by Joel Grey) came to visit and   broached the subject. 

Funny. I don't remember this show (although the Marion Ross connection rings a faint bell), but I just read a mention to it in a book I was reading last night!

As for name changes, my maternal grandmother's maiden name was unusual and spelled differently in almost all the census records I've seen. Also, the guy who wrote my maternal grandfather's name on the ship's manifest managed to get three out of the eight letters in his whole name wrong. When they first digitized the Ellis Island records, I couldn't find him using any of the spelling variants I could come up with. But when I got his date of arrival and knowing the name of the ship he came over on (because my sister was named after it -- the Patricia -- I told her she's lucky she wasn't named after our grandmother's ship -- the Roland), I was able to find his name.

[Snarklepuss]

12 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

Christopher Walken's family bakery came up in a special Christmas episode he guested in with Lidia Bastianiach. They apparently grew up together. 

Ahhh yes, now I remember, thank you!

5 hours ago, attica said:

Riverdale represent!

Yup, that's the place!

[carrps]

On 10/9/2017 at 8:25 PM, Sew Sumi said:

I do remember that Bill O'Reilly was related to Bill Maher, which I found to be giggle-worthy. 

And Stephen Colbert! Which I found even funnier since Colbert's old character was supposedly a big "fan" of O'Reilly.

[Arynm]

My grandfather also refused to talk about the Holocaust for most of my childhood, it was absolutely not talked about. Then one day, when I was in college he just said fuck it and let it all out. He taped his story for the Shoah Foundation and the Holocaust Museum and started speaking to anyone and everyone who would listen. He went to schools and really wanted his story out. I don't know why one day he decided to do it, but I am so glad he did.

[Renee in CA]

I'm really enjoying the new  season so far. Loved the Bernie/Larry David episode, and the latest one with Carly Simon and Fred Armison had so many lovey twists and turns. Carly did not seem to be very excited about having 10% african DNA though. Loved that Henry Louis Gates was making a joke out of it, and she was clearly a little upset. Lighten up, Carly! It was fun to see Fred so into his grandfather's story and museum though!

[HazelEyes4325]

On 10/12/2017 at 9:58 AM, tljgator said:

I always feel short-changed when they do three people in an episode instead of two. Even with two, it feels like things are missing, but it seems especially so with three. The stories here were fascinating, and I liked that they touched on stories that we hadn't heard the history behind time again. I would've liked more. *sigh*

I agree with that in this case.  There have been some episodes with 3 people where all three family stories were a bit thin.  However, in this episode, we had 2 really complex stories (Walken's, while interesting, did seem to be less substantial than Armisen's or Simon's) and I would have like to have spent more time with them.

[cpcathy]

I was most interested in Fred's, as I've always liked him. Carly's I could have done without. I didn't even realize Walken was German. His family is from the same general area as mine is, though not the same city.

[Driad]

A tour of Ellis Island's immigrant hospital:

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/246347/inside-ellis-islands-immigrant-hospital

[biakbiak]

Young Walken looked like a young Bill Clinton.

[shapeshifter]

So after Ted Danson's pre-American Revolutionary War ancestor purchased the wife and children of his slave/property and then freed them all, did no one in his family ever again own slaves? I wonder if his ancestor purchased the first slave with the intent of freeing him and his family or if he became enlightened as to the human dignity of the man after he purchased him. 

I'm not a long time watcher of the show. When a white subject has "deep Southern roots" and a DNA test, but no mention is made of black relations, does that just mean they couldn't find any?

[plurie]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm not a long time watcher of the show. When a white subject has "deep Southern roots" and a DNA test, but no mention is made of black relations, does that just mean they couldn't find any?

It might mean that they didn't look for any, or that they couldn't find any, or that there aren't any, or that they DID find someone, but for whatever reason didn't include it on the show. I don't think we can draw any conclusions from the absence of any reference.

[Vanderboom]

I thought it was strange that Dr. Gates was insisting that Ted Danson should be happy that his slave owning ancestor was "one of the good ones." I hope it was just a weird edit. Danson seemed shocked and disappointed, and it seemed like Dr. Gates was rushing Ted to look on the bright side. Geez! Let him process!

[HazelEyes4325]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm not a long time watcher of the show. When a white subject has "deep Southern roots" and a DNA test, but no mention is made of black relations, does that just mean they couldn't find any?

I don't think they go into areas where they don't have some sort of proof.  So, yeah, so and so's ancestors had deep Southern roots and while there may be a record of them having owned slaves, there is nothing--paper or genetic--that can suggest that the nth great-grandpa impregnated any of them.  There are a lot of stories in anyone's family tree that can be speculated about but I do think this show does a good job of trying to stay out of that territory as much as possible (unlike Who Do You Think You Are when, several times, I've wondered how they made 2+2=7, even though that 7 is pretty "interesting.")

So, the reason why we do see this come up with African-American guests is that they can detect European ancestry in their DNA.  And, if they have slave records, they can sometimes track down descendants of the slave owners and compare DNA to prove (usually) or disprove any sort of relation.  If the guest is not African American, and not descended directly from enslaved people, this would be next to impossible to do as they would have to find descendants of all the people enslaved by their ancestors and DNA test all of them and then, maybe, that might prove something (or it might not...)

 

51 minutes ago, Vanderboom said:

I thought it was strange that Dr. Gates was insisting that Ted Danson should be happy that his slave owning ancestor was "one of the good ones." I hope it was just a weird edit. Danson seemed shocked and disappointed, and it seemed like Dr. Gates was rushing Ted to look on the bright side. Geez! Let him process!

I thought this was strange as well--but I chalked it up to to being something like not really knowing what to say in the moment.  It was like he was rushing in to make sure that Danson's feelings weren't hurt--and he didn't have to do that.  Ted Danson is a grown man and I'm sure he can deal with his own emotions AND recognize that his ancestor is not actually HIM.  I would have rather that Dr. Gates sat back and let Ted Danson feel whatever he wanted to feel about it.

My general thoughts about this show were that I wish that there weren't three guests again.  All three had such interesting stories that any one of them probably could have filled an episode all on their own.  It did make sense to put Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen together as they are married and they both would refer to each other over the course of their time with Dr. Gates.  Macy, however, seemed to be a bit of third wheel--which was unfortunate as I would have liked to see him paired up with maybe someone else in the show.  The fact that he and Steenburgen share a common ancestor was not enough, in my opinion, to put them on the same episode (Colbert wasn't on this one, after all) and I get that they all had family stories from the Colonial era, but I still think that they did Macy as disservice by including him on this particular episode.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Morksmate

[Willowsmom]

There were people who bought slaves expressly to allow them to get their freedom. Having outside jobs and sometimes living  out while earning their price. They were, in effect, buying slaves solely to free them.

[kassa]

This year there is a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode indicating that additional research not referred to in the episode may lead to conclusions reached -- I think they heard the complaints of previous years that they were leaping to conclusions based on guesswork, when in fact they had done all the work, just didn't show it/explain it.  So they're at least trying to address that issue! With Simon they showed the ship manifest, but that alone wouldn't identify them as "the" family.  However, often the same document will indicate precisely who will be meeting them when they arrive, that person's name and address -- I knew for sure I had the right boat/record for my great great aunt (with the fairly common name) because it listed that she would be getting her travel money from her brother (my great great uncle, living at the address I already knew he lived).  Likewise, they could go forward with each of the other people in the family on that list through their lives, see what their various marriage certificates/death certificates/naturalization certificates indicated in terms of their birth parents/birthplaces, etc.

They do the DNA tests on everybody (only one Native American participant refused to either do it or maybe to have it made public because she felt it was not exclusively HER DNA and she did not want to broadcast the DNA of relatives who had not agreed to participate).  I'm sure if a white participant's DNA came up as 10% Sub-Saharan African and they had no paper trail to explain it it would at least have been a talking point.  Certainly the researchers would have honed in on that lead in hopes of identifying someone who might have been "passing" or a mixed race marriage that was long forgotten. If they turned up nothing discussable it might have been glossed over.  But I get the impression that most participants have been happy to find their genetic background is more diverse than they had anticipated. 

[iMonrey]

Just started watching this show last week. It's not distinctly different from "Who Do You Think You Are" on Lifetime but it's interesting, if irritating at times. Both shows essentially root around a family tree until the find an interesting story to tell, but often the lineage isn't made clear and that bugs me. They'll show part of a family tree and the camera will sort of meander around until it lands on the ancestor they want to zero in on, but too often they don't show exactly how the celebrity is descended from that person. Sometimes even to the extent of explaining whether the celeb is descended from them on their mother's side or father's side! If it were me, I'd want to know exactly how I was descended from someone - i.e. is this my mother's mother's father's mother's father's father's mother's father's mother? Somehow, that isn't as compelling to me as a direct male-line or direct female-line descendancy.

Anyway, I enjoyed the story about the Steenburgen ancestor who worked under George Washington and ended up owning a tavern. However, in the introductory clips, they showed Mary talking about knowing next to nothing about her maternal grandmother, yet the story focused on her paternal line. So either the show couldn't discover any information about her maternal ancestors or else they didn't find anything out about them they considered interesting enough.

I'd like to know how much research the show puts into making a celebrity's family tree and how much more info they get than what's shown on TV.

[AuntiePam]

I think the Danson line is the first time I've heard of an ancestor -- Mary Hutchinson.  That was amazing.

Macy -- I hope he grows that beard just for Shameless, because it's not attractive.  (Sorry.)

[cpcathy]

There is too much skipping around, I would like it if the show were about one celeb, and then we could know more about more branches of the family tree. Last week I was wondering why Fred Armisen got to know Spanish. Was it in his family?

[Arynm]

I thought it was very strange that the show didn't mention the TV shows that Mary and Ted are on right now. Is TV not cool enough? WHM is on TV and they made sure to say he is on that show. Just seemed strange to me.

[Willowsmom]

1 minute ago, Arynm said:

I thought it was very strange that the show didn't mention the TV shows that Mary and Ted are on right now. Is TV not cool enough? WHM is on TV and they made sure to say he is on that show. Just seemed strange to me.

PBS wouldn't want to advertise network TV.

[HazelEyes4325]

2 hours ago, kassa said:

They do the DNA tests on everybody (only one Native American participant refused to either do it or maybe to have it made public because she felt it was not exclusively HER DNA and she did not want to broadcast the DNA of relatives who had not agreed to participate). 

That was the novelist Louise Erdrich and it was back in the original special.  I can't remember her exact reasoning for it, but it was something along the lines of she felt that her identity was not her DNA and she didn't want to open that door to whatever.  I do know that she refused to have the test.

[AuntiePam]

1 hour ago, Arynm said:

I thought it was very strange that the show didn't mention the TV shows that Mary and Ted are on right now. Is TV not cool enough? WHM is on TV and they made sure to say he is on that show. Just seemed strange to me.

I noticed that too, and figured that maybe Mary and Ted's shows were on hiatus -- or maybe not renewed -- when the episode was filmed.  They did mention their former TV projects.

Ted was on Curb Your Enthusiasm a couple weeks back and told Larry David that he and Mary weren't together anymore.  Was that just for CYE?  They haven't split, have they?

[OtterMommy]

4 minutes ago, AuntiePam said:

I noticed that too, and figured that maybe Mary and Ted's shows were on hiatus -- or maybe not renewed -- when the episode was filmed.  They did mention their former TV projects.

Ted was on Curb Your Enthusiasm a couple weeks back and told Larry David that he and Mary weren't together anymore.  Was that just for CYE?  They haven't split, have they?

I can't remember what show Mary is on, but Ted's show--The Good Place--is alive and kicking.  (Well, more accurately, dead and kicking!)  My guess is that they need to get the rights from the networks to show stills from shows and, for whatever reason, that didn't work out.  I do believe the line on CYE was just for that show.  I'm sure it would have been at least notable if they had broken up in real life (if my FB was filled with Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman breaking up, I'm sure that Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen would have done so as well....)

[Snarklepuss]

I liked this episode but I too think it should go back to two people per episode as it's more interesting if he can go into more depth on their families.  I wonder if Ted Dansen and I are distant cousins - I have ancestry going back to Stonington at that same time in history myself.   I thought it was especially cool to see the house his 5th GGF lived in.  It makes me wonder if any of my relatives' houses is still standing from that era.

Someone should tell Bill Macy that "homeless bum" is not a good look for him.

[cpcathy]

Forgive me, but my first thought upon seeing William H. Macy was "he looks like crap!"

[kassygreene]

I would guess that this happened while he was filming Shameless, where he is supposed to look like crap.  He dirties down nicely.

[Blergh]

I'd read about Mrs. Hutchinson's trial and fate way back when but I was under the impression that when she was slaughtered, virtually all her children died with her so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Mr. Danson's descent proved that she did leave behind at least one surviving child who themselves had progeny. Even though she and her immediate family had a tragic ending, it was an inspirational story of someone defying incredible odds to forget their own way. BTW, Mrs. Hutchinson had borne 15 children!

[Ina123]

He did acknowledge Steenbergen's work in "Justified" Don't know why they didn't mention current work..

[iMonrey]

Quote

Someone should tell Bill Macy that "homeless bum" is not a good look for him.

It's the role he plays on Shameless.

[biakbiak]

I wonder if they did Felicity as well but put him on this episode because he was related to Mary.

[HazelEyes4325]

On 10/19/2017 at 0:41 PM, biakbiak said:

I wonder if they did Felicity as well but put him on this episode because he was related to Mary.

I don't recall Felicity Huffman as one of the guests on this season, but I could be wrong.

I also wonder, and this is a more general question, if they brought her on and found out that she has a completely unremarkable family history--or if they just couldn't dig up much history.  I mean, we can't realistically assume that if a person has fame of some sort that they must have an interesting family history.  And I also can't believe that they do much, if any, pre-research when trying to determine who will be guests on the show.  

[biakbiak]

2 minutes ago, Morksmate said:

also wonder, and this is a more general question, if they brought her on and found out that she has a completely unremarkable family history--or if they just couldn't dig up

Yeah that's what I meant I have heard two celebrities (blanking on who they were) who said they were researched for either this show or WDYTYA but there wasn't a story.

[charmed1]

I found Larry David's episode validating. In college, a frat boy douche bag told me that it was impossible that my Jewish last name came from slavery because "Jews never owned slaves." I remember how dismissive he was towards me. Wide-bottomed bastard.

I love hearing little Seinfeld truth-nuggets, so I found it humorous that Larry's mother encouraged him to become a civil servant just as Estelle Costanza had with George. I knew that George was largely based on Larry, but I wasn't aware of the influence of "Regina" on Estelle.

I wasn't all that surprised by Carly Simon's lineage. I'd always heard jokes about her lips betraying some type of African ancestry. 

Edited October 22, 2017 by charmed1

[Lugal]

22 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Yeah that's what I meant I have heard two celebrities (blanking on who they were) who said they were researched for either this show or WDYTYA but there wasn't a story.

I remember Conan O'Brien was talking to Lisa Kudrow (a producer on WDYTYA) when he said he was researched for the show but he was pretty sure that all his ancestors were "dirt farmers in Ireland" and Lisa said that was pretty much all they found.

Ted Danson was interesting, because I met his nephew who wrote a biography of Ted's father, and given his connection with the Quakers, it wouldn't surprise me if I turned out related to him.

[Pepper Mostly]

On 10/11/2017 at 0:41 PM, kassa said:

Simon's grandmother looked like several black women I've known, so I'm not sure any of that was a complete surprise to her (though its documentation might have been).  

 

 

On 10/11/2017 at 10:25 PM, 2727 said:

I was honestly shocked that it wasn't immediately obvious to Carly's family. When Gates first mentioned Cuba, I thought oh, that makes sense, but only because of the historical presence of slaves there.

I remember reading an article about Carly Simon in a magazine (Vanity Fair?) years ago--it featured a picture of her mother as a young woman and I thought "I didn't know Carly's mother was black!" It was glaringly obvious to me, and that wasn't even her grandmother. When I saw the grandmother's picture on the show I thought she looked like my husband's grandfather, who was very light skinned. I'd have been shocked if the DNA didn't turn up some African ancestry.

Loved the Ted Danson/Mary Steenburgen episode. I thought it was great that he's descended from Ann Hutchinson. I recognized the name right away--I'm from Boston,  and I've read "American Jezebel". She was a remarkable woman!

[Jadzia]

On 10/22/2017 at 10:35 AM, charmed1 said:

I wasn't all that surprised by Carly Simon's lineage. I'd always heard jokes about her lips betraying some type of African ancestry. 

I thought it was interesting because I always thought she looked a little like Steven Tyler and he also recently discovered an African-American ancestor when his daughter Liv was on this past season of Who Do You Think You Are.

[Driad]

Quote

I found Larry David's episode validating. In college, a frat boy douche bag told me that it was impossible that my Jewish last name came from slavery because "Jews never owned slaves."

"All generalizations are false" is a useful rule in genealogy. :-}

[biakbiak]

Felicity Huffman just tweeted tag she is filming this show today, so I guess they didn't find a story just one that fit in elsewhere.

[Snarklepuss]

IMO, Ava DuVerney went way OTT with her glee at finding out she's slightly more black than white, to the point that even Gates asked her "What difference does it make?"  I get it that it's her thing to be focused in on black issues and history so her heritage is important to her, but why should it be that important to her to be more black than white?  I don't love it when people can't get beyond stuff like that, and I have to say that as a white person I kind of felt a little reverse prejudice going on there.  If she had been 57% white and acted that way over being more white than black all hell would come down on her for acting that way.  People would not see it as just someone being "proud" of their white heritage.  When white people are proud of being white they're called racist.  I don't think there should be a double standard about stuff like this.  OK, I've said my piece.

[Blergh]

I kind of wish Dr. Gates had tried to make the point to Miss DuVerney that her ancestor DID have to flee his home to emigrate to an entirely new land and become a refugee- twice ,so for that reason alone, it would have been nice to have had a little compassion! Not to mention that the ancestral DuVerney ALSO acknowledged his offspring by the biracial companion so  he wasn't entirely without redeeming features. And, why was there no mention of her mother's side whatsoever- just her father and stepfather's sides?

 

Also, interesting story of Mr. Coates's family in Virginia and Maryland (with him admitting that he DID know that his Maryland relatives had managed to be comfortable and independent for quite some time). . I wonder where he got his given name from (and what it means).

 

At least Miss Mock did understand that her direct paternal ancestor must have felt some identification with his onetime owner's family to have kept the name after Emancipation. Also interesting that Miss Mock's maternal side seems to have been largely Native Hawaiian (which may not have entirely been happy with her mother marrying ANY non Hawaiian).

[Driad]

Quote

And, why was there no mention of her mother's side whatsoever- just her father and stepfather's sides?

Guessing that they researched all the branches and gave her the information they found, but chose just the most interesting stories to put on TV.

Quote

At least Miss Mock did understand that her direct paternal ancestor must have felt some identification with his onetime owner's family to have kept the name after Emancipation

I heard that some families kept the slave holder's surname because some family members had been sold away, and they hoped that the name would make them easier for the lost relatives to find them.

[ShelleySue]

Ava DuVerney seemed to be disappointed that she didn't have American slaves in her ancestry.  But she has 4 grandparents (not including her step-father's family), 8 great-grandparents, 16 two-times great-grandparents, 32 three-times great-grandparents, 64 four times great-grandparents and 128 five-times great-grandparents.  I'm sure that she has ancestors who were enslaved people in the American South.

Does anyone know if the family trees are available somewhere?  My husband has Smiths on his tree from Connecticut pre-Revolutionary war. I'd like to see if they are related to Ted Danson's Connecticut Smiths.  He also has an overlap with Courtney Cox's tree (last season).

I am really enjoying this season.  The guests seem to be very genuine and, although I watch Who Do You Think You Are, I find that this is not staged.

[cakes1975]

I remember reading somewhere that the subjects often ask that the research be concentrated on certain members of the family. Usually it is someone that has been whispered about or had  some mystery around them. Ava DuVerney wanted to know more about the man who raised her, and some clarification about her slave (and slave holding) ancestry.

[cakes1975]

12 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

IMO, Ava DuVerney went way OTT with her glee at finding out she's slightly more black than white, to the point that even Gates asked her "What difference does it make?"  I get it that it's her thing to be focused in on black issues and history so her heritage is important to her, but why should it be that important to her to be more black than white?  I don't love it when people can't get beyond stuff like that, and I have to say that as a white person I kind of felt a little reverse prejudice going on there.  If she had been 57% white and acted that way over being more white than black all hell would come down on her for acting that way.  People would not see it as just someone being "proud" of their white heritage.  When white people are proud of being white they're called racist.  I don't think there should be a double standard about stuff like this.  OK, I've said my piece.

I was almost as happy for Ava DuVerney as she was for herself. I'm sure ADV has had to justify her existence as a Black Woman most of her life as "colorism" is a factor in most people who have been enslaved or colonized by Europeans over the centuries. The "one drop rule" was (is) prevalent in many societies, and it was legalized in the US until the 20th century. I'm sure Ava DuVerney got it from both sides. too light to be thought of as Black, too dark to be White, and probably given crap because she is "mixed." Also she and Mr. Coates were both pleased that they could actually trace their slave ancestry back as far as they did. Most of us Black Folks get stopped at the 1850-1860 census because of property records, name changes, etc. As you have noted Snarklepuss, you are white and probably like most of the white people on these programs, they mostly have European ancestry. Usually the only white people overly proud of being white are called racists because they are using it to justify their supremacy. Just step back and breathe, there is no reverse prejudice going on here, just someone proud to be who she always thought and believed herself to be..

[Willowsmom]

21 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

IMO, Ava DuVerney went way OTT with her glee at finding out she's slightly more black than white, to the point that even Gates asked her "What difference does it make?"  I get it that it's her thing to be focused in on black issues and history so her heritage is important to her, but why should it be that important to her to be more black than white?  I don't love it when people can't get beyond stuff like that, and I have to say that as a white person I kind of felt a little reverse prejudice going on there.  If she had been 57% white and acted that way over being more white than black all hell would come down on her for acting that way.  People would not see it as just someone being "proud" of their white heritage.  When white people are proud of being white they're called racist.  I don't think there should be a double standard about stuff like this.  OK, I've said my piece.

There's no such thing as reverse prejudice. And yes, I noticed it too. Sad because, like me, she's both and denigrating nearly half her family.

[Snarklepuss]

2 hours ago, Willowsmom said:

There's no such thing as reverse prejudice.

I emphatically disagree with that but I think you understand where I'm coming from.  People of all races can be prejudiced, it's just that white people tend to be curiously sheltered from it and blind to it, and they are told it doesn't exist by people that in my opinion either don't know any better or do but just want to heap guilt on them.  My experience has taught me it does exist, and how.  I grew up in the Bronx so I know allllll about being at the receiving end of prejudice.  It's one reason I moved out.  I got tired of being vilified for something neither I nor any of my ancestors were responsible for and being seen as having privilege I never had (in fact I'm still waiting to reap the benefits of my so-called privilege).  My parents did not have money.  We did not live in an "all white" society.  I grew up and went to school with people of all races at a time when that was not so common.  My mother had to work full time at a time when women with kids generally didn't work.  I'm a mix of ethnicities and I was always being looked down on by everyone because I didn't fit into anyone's ethnic group at a time and place where most people were one thing.  I was never Italian or Jewish enough for the Italians or the Jews I knew.   I don't expect people with no experience of this kind of prejudice to even acknowledge its existence but I know it exists because I experienced it first hand and it was unrelenting and very hurtful.  It's something only my hometown friends can really understand.  So that's why I think I can recognize and be sensitive to prejudice when I see it coming from people on TV.  People don't have to be white to be prejudiced towards people of other races.  JMHO.  Sorry I got on a soapbox but it's something very emotional for me to talk about.  I wasn't even directing it at you personally, I guess I just had to get that off my chest.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[charmed1]

Anyway...like Ava, I was happy that my largest DNA percentage hailed from Africa. I knew that I had a big percentage of European DNA, but knowing that it came from a time when my family was held captive, it made my heart ache for my ancestors and what they endured. I'm so thankful for them. I'd love to see Ty Burrell's episode again. He seemed so humbled by the history of his foremothers and disgusted by the trash that held them captive. Rightfully so.

[Blergh]

I wonder how long John Turturro's maternal grandfather was married to his   African-American 3rd wife and was she still alive when he was born?  I guess one way or the other she no longer was in the picture when Mr. Turturro was born or else his mother wouldn't have been able to have totally hidden the woman's existence from her son. Also, too bad nothing was mentioned re what happened to the troubled uncle who the authorities insisted on staying in the orphanage rather than letting the African-American stepmother raise him. 

Lastly, why nothing about the guests' DNA this episode? I mean the episode had good stories re all the guests (and no surprise Miss Johannson's more distant paternal ancestors were Swedish instead of Danish due to name ending) but it didn't seem to cover as much as others had.

[Lovecat]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

Lastly, why nothing about the guests' DNA this episode? I mean the episode had good stories re all the guests (and no surprise Miss Johannson's more distant paternal ancestors were Swedish instead of Danish due to name ending) but it didn't seem to cover as much as others had.

I figured it was because this bunch was Pretty Damn European, and there probably weren't any genetic surprises hiding further back on the family trees.  They probably took DNA, but the results weren't too exciting, so they nixed them for broadcast.

I had no idea Paul Rudd was Jewish, though--he usually plays so WASP!  I also loved the story of John Turturro's first day at his primarily African-American high school--they thought he was a brother!  Must have been that righteous 'fro he had going on.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Lovecat