Season 4 Talk

[Driad]

15 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

It's a pet peeve of mine, when they don't show the family chain connecting Amy Schumer to her 8x great grandfather from the 1600s. 

I wish they would put a LOT of material on line.  There is a web site for the series, why not use it?  Among other things, although they decided not to air Garrison Keillor's segments, but they must have done a lot of research on his ancestry.  Without showing him on the web site, they could show a writeup of how they researched and what they found, which could be helpful for people researching Norwegian ancestry.

[Jadzia]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Maya Rudolph's mother was very pretty but I had never heard of her before. However, having looked her up, I instantly recognize her hit song from the 70's, "Lovin' You." 

At the end of the song she even sings "Maya, Maya, Maya..."

 

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

It's a pet peeve of mine, when they don't show the family chain connecting Amy Schumer to her 8x great grandfather from the 1600s.  I don't know why it bugs me, but it does. We don't know exactly how she's descended from him - only that it's through her mother's side. 

For instance, I can trace my roots back to an American Indian, but to get there, I have to go through my father's mothers' mother's father's mother's mother's mother. So I sometimes suspect they don't show the exact family tree because in cases like this, the route seems too circuitous, and therefore, less compelling somehow. It's not great great great grandpappy Schumer, in other words, it's some roundabout way back to someone they found an interesting story about.

While I wish they would show the tree also, I don't really understand why any one of your ancestors is any less compelling than the others. Your mother's father's mother is equally related to you as your father's father's father. Every generation the number of your ancestors double but all of them within the same generation are equally related - I don't think the same gender line matters except when it comes to certain DNA tests which only test male or female lines.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Jadzia

[Enigma X]

Cece Moore answered questions on Finding Your Roots Facebook page.

[iMonrey]

Quote

While I wish they would show the tree also, I don't really understand why any one of your ancestors is any less compelling than the others. Your mother's father's mother is equally related to you as your father's father's father. Every generation the number of your ancestors double but all of them within the same generation are equally related - I don't think the same gender line matters except when it comes to certain DNA tests which only test male or female lines.

It's an intangible optic thing. There's no logic behind it, it's just one of those emotional reactions. Seeing a direct line go up from father to father to father to father somehow looks more important, or more direct, than someone's mother's father's mother's father's mother, etc. And for the sake of the show, why not pan up the family tree to see the lineage and those connections? Are there family names in there they're trying to hide?

[biakbiak]

Random note, I knew Skip was short but I didn't realize how short until he was walking next to Aziz and Aziz was taller. 

34 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

And for the sake of the show, why not pan up the family tree to see the lineage and those connections? Are there family names in there they're trying to hide?

We have seen them pan up for a whole tree when it's impressively long like Ming Tsai. I dont think they are trying to hide anything they just are concentrating on select stories and many don't view seeing the whole tree as compelling.

It would be interesting if they posted more detailed information online.

[Snarklepuss]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It's an intangible optic thing. There's no logic behind it, it's just one of those emotional reactions. Seeing a direct line go up from father to father to father to father somehow looks more important, or more direct, than someone's mother's father's mother's father's mother, etc. And for the sake of the show, why not pan up the family tree to see the lineage and those connections? Are there family names in there they're trying to hide?

I think people get hung up on their family surname as being their family, not being able to visualize that their family tree has many surnames on it of people that they're all equally as descended from as anyone else on the tree.  And every generation you go back you get exponentially more names too!

I agree with @biakbiak that they don't pan up the tree to see the lineage in order to save time to concentrate on select stories.  But I kinda sorta wish they did let us see that stuff online if not on the show itself.

One thing I did like about this episode is that he did the admixture tests with them.  I'm old so I remember Minnie Riperton, so this episode fascinated me.  I even knew she married a Jewish man.  Also, when Skip told Amy that she was related to someone well known, I thought it was going to be Chuck Schumer, LOL.  I totally didn't see that coming at all!

[biakbiak]

14 minutes ago, Snarklepuss said:

Also, when Skip told Amy that she was related to someone well known, I thought it was going to be Chuck Schumer, LOL.  I totally didn't see that coming at all!

I knew it wasn't that because she knows that as they have done several events together, Chuck and her father are first cousins.  I was sort of surprised they didn't mention him.

[Snarklepuss]

13 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

I knew it wasn't that because she knows that as they have done several events together, Chuck and her father are first cousins.  I was sort of surprised they didn't mention him.

Thanks, I didn't know they were related but it seemed logical to me that they would be!

[attica]

14 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Seeing a direct line go up from father to father to father to father somehow looks more important

Ah, the patriarchy moves in subtle ways, does it not? :)

I laughed when Amy hit Cousin Skip up for some dough. In her shoes, I'd've left the money alone and demand to be invited to the next family reunion. That'd be worth way more than cash for all the comedy she could mine from it.

[Driad]

8 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

Also, when Skip told Amy that she was related to someone well known, I thought it was going to be Chuck Schumer, LOL.

Didn't he say she was related to someone who had been on the show?  I don't think Chuck Schumer has been.

13 minutes ago, attica said:

In her shoes, I'd've left the money alone and demand to be invited to the next family reunion. That'd be worth way more than cash for all the comedy she could mine from it.

Yes, that would be a lot of fun if they broadcast it!

[iMonrey]

Another thing that bugs me is when they go "Oh look, we've traced your lineage back to Charlemagne!" but then they only show this direct line without any kind of tree. I'm not saying it's fake but it looks sketchy as hell. If they really did that kind of extensive tracing I want to see the whole tree.

[biakbiak]

19 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Another thing that bugs me is when they go "Oh look, we've traced your lineage back to Charlemagne!" but then they only show this direct line without any kind of tree. I'm not saying it's fake but it looks sketchy as hell. If they really did that kind of extensive tracing I want to see the whole tree.

If you have European DNA there is a pretty good chance of being able to trace your lineage to Charlemagne. 

Edited December 21, 2017 by biakbiak

[shapeshifter]

Did I miss details about how Amy was related to HLG? All I caught was the shared DNA by his male relative and her own.

[biakbiak]

29 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Did I miss details about how Amy was related to HLG? All I caught was the shared DNA by his male relative and her own.

Her father and Skip shared a significant chunk of DNA through their fathers line but it could not be traced through genealogical records.

Edited December 22, 2017 by biakbiak

[kassa]

On 12/20/2017 at 10:00 AM, Blergh said:

I've heard of that happening, too. I also would like to add that Miss Schumer's direct ancestor not only had his brothers refuse to leave the Mohawk tribe but their sister opted to become a nun in Quebec! It's hard to decide which fate the Massachusetts colonial ancestor would have been more horrified for the neighbors to have found out- the brothers who became 'savages' or the sister  who became a 'Papist nun'  -to say nothing of likely never predicting that his distant descendant ( Miss Schumer's own mother) would have married a Jewish person.

 

 Oh, before I forget I found the account of Questlove's ancestor having been among the last  confirmed folks from Africa brought here to be enslaved rather fascinating (and, I have to wonder how they were able to adjust not just to slavery itself but suddenly having to be in a totally alien environment with no one to speak their language- at least his direct ancestors had each other and would eventually have their own community).

I too was surprised that Gates was surprised by the captives not choosing to return - it was pretty common with people taken as children, as well as young women who apparently found that they had more rights within (some) Indian communities than they would have back in Puritan America.  On the other hand, every historian can't follow everything - French/Indian war history may be a historical blind spot for him. 

I LOVED Questlove's episode (and didn't that ancestor look like him!) but I swear that another celebrity ALSO traced back to that last ship.  Because I kind of remember a conversation just like that -- "how does it feel to know they were among the very last people enslaved?"  Am I making this up, genealogy peeps?

 

On 12/19/2017 at 10:41 PM, friendperidot said:

II do know my Great-Grandmother traveled to Missouri in a covered wagon, I remember her before she had dementia and I remember her telling me that. That was the sort of question children who grew up watching shows like Wagon Train asked their parents in those days, lol, but it went back a couple of generations. 

My fondest memory of my great grandmother was her gales of laughter when I asked her if she road in a covered wagon when she was little.  (I was in a Little House on the Prairie phase.)  After she stopped laughing, she said "I rode in plenty of wagons, but no covered wagons!"  LIW was only 15 years older, but my g-grandmother grew up in the city outside of Boston, which made Conestoga wagon travel as exotic to her as it was to me.  I suppose it was like asking me (New Wave era) if I'd been to Woodstock.  A world away, kid!

[Snarklepuss]

9 hours ago, kassa said:

My fondest memory of my great grandmother was her gales of laughter when I asked her if she road in a covered wagon when she was little.  (I was in a Little House on the Prairie phase.)  After she stopped laughing, she said "I rode in plenty of wagons, but no covered wagons!"  LIW was only 15 years older, but my g-grandmother grew up in the city outside of Boston, which made Conestoga wagon travel as exotic to her as it was to me.  I suppose it was like asking me (New Wave era) if I'd been to Woodstock.  A world away, kid!

When my 90 year old Dad was little he had a nurse that years before went out west in a covered wagon and told him stories about it all the time when he was growing up.  She ended up coming back east after a while hence why she was in Brooklyn in the 1930s.  He always told me she looked like "Mrs. Doubtfire" LOL.  Now when he recalls stuff like this he says he can't believe he knew people that were alive so long ago.  (I tell him I can't believe he's still alive either, LOL.)  He says he remembers before there was electricity in his neighborhood in Brooklyn.  He says he used to watch the lamp lighter from his window every evening.  No lie.  Blew my mind.  I guess it took a while for electricity to get out to some neighborhoods in the outer boroughs.

And speaking of Woodstock, I knew all about it beforehand - Even remember the huge billboards announcing it on the NY State Thruway.  All the counselors in my day camp went and came back with epic stories which they told us kids round the campfire as we made s'mores.  I was soooooo jealous!

Edited December 27, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[riverblue22]

23 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

And speaking of Woodstock, I knew all about it beforehand - Even remember the huge billboards announcing it on the NY State Thruway.  All the counselors in my day camp went and came back with epic stories which they told us kids round the campfire as we made s'mores.  I was soooooo jealous!

My brother's sleeping bag went to Woodstock LOL!!!  That's the closest we got to it~

My great-grandfather was part of a wagon train from Ogden, Utah to Walla Walla, Washington.  He had to fashion a harness so that an ox and a horse could pull his wagon.  My husband and I stopped at the Oregon Trail museum in Baker City, Oregon and we were able to walk along the Oregon Trail just as the early settlers had done.  That is a wonderful museum if you are interested in the Oregon Trail. 

[meep.meep]

My dad was in the army so we lived on different army bases.  One was Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas where you can see ruts in the river bank from where the Oregon Trail splits from the Santa Fe Trail.

On 12/20/2017 at 10:27 PM, Snarklepuss said:

 

I agree with @biakbiak that they don't pan up the tree to see the lineage in order to save time to concentrate on select stories.  But I kinda sorta wish they did let us see that stuff online if not on the show itself.

 

I would imagine there are privacy issues related to doing that.  None of those people or their descendants agreed to be part of this.  It is one thing to share with a member of the "family" and another to put it up, forever, on the internet.

[Driad]

Discussion with the researchers who work behind the scenes would be interesting.  Maybe there could be a feature on the show's web site.  I'd like to hear some of the challenging puzzles they have faced, and how they solved them.  (They sometimes show a woman in a library, who presumably represents all the researchers, but she never gets to talk.)

[biakbiak]

On 1/23/2018 at 9:46 AM, meep.meep said:

My dad was in the army so we lived on different army bases.  One was Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas where you can see ruts in the river bank from where the Oregon Trail splits from the Santa Fe Trail.

I would imagine there are privacy issues related to doing that.  None of those people or their descendants agreed to be part of this.  It is one thing to share with a member of the "family" and another to put it up, forever, on the internet.

Thanks to ancestry.com and other genealogical websites most of this information is already on the internet.

[Galloway Cave]

On 12/18/2017 at 11:30 PM, Snarklepuss said:

I think the Questlove segment was my favorite ever on this show.  That had to be the ultimate grand slam/home run of African American genealogy right there. 

Looks like they found the slave ship Clotilda that brought the last slaves to Mobile, Alabama. 

[Galloway Cave]

But it turns out they didn't find the Clotilda. It was a ship from the same era.