Who Do You Think You Are? - General Discussion

[iMonrey]

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This isn't particular to any episode, but I am amazed that archivists allow the celebrities to handle documents that are hundreds of years old, without wearing gloves.  On occasions when I have worked with very old books, staff have insisted on wearing gloves to protect the delicate paper.

Sometimes they do make them wear gloves, and sometimes they don't even show the original books or documents, they just hand over a photo copy. I guess it depends on where they are, different places have different rules.

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You had crappy history teachers. History is the subject that ties every other subject together and most effects human kind. In the end it is the study of people. 

The best teacher in the world couldn't have made civil war history interesting to me. I mean, when you get into the politics  and why it happened, etc., then maybe. But the specific strategies and details of particular battles? Nope. You're either interested in that sort of thing, or you're not.

Edited August 9, 2022 by iMonrey

[Notabug]

On 8/8/2022 at 3:20 PM, Grizzly said:

I'm surprised that Bradley Whitford is only 3 generations from the Civil War. History class always made the War sound so far away.

I'm only a year and a half older than BW and my great great grandfather fought in the Civil War.  None of my ancestors were particularly old when they had their kids either.

My mom: 25 when I was born.

My grandfather:  36 when my mom was born.  My mother was the second child of my grandfather's second marriage.  His first wife and children died in the flu epidemic in 1918 or so.

My great grandmother: 23 when my grandfather was born.

My great great grandfather:  38 when my great grandmother was born.  He enlisted in the Union Army when he was in his early 30's, so he wasn't a young kid even then.  My grandfather used to tell us the story of his grandfather casting his ballot for Abraham Lincoln on the battlefield in 1864.  

While the Civil War seems remote; it really isn't that far away.

I enjoyed Whitfield's episode a lot if only because I've done a little exploration of my family's participation in the Civil War and visited a couple battlefields; Gettysburg and Petersburg in my case,  that had some ties to my ancestor.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Notabug

[deirdra]

9 was common in those days for farmers due to diseases and accidents taking several of the kids before they reached adulthood. Two of my gr-gr-grandfathers had second or third wives and more kids after the previous one died in childbirth. It was also common after losing a child to name the next one born of the same gender after their older sibling who died. Another complication to look out for when doing genealogy.

[iMonrey]

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9 was common in those days for farmers due to diseases and accidents taking several of the kids before they reached adulthood.

Not to mention lack of birth control. That aside, country children actually stood a better chance of surviving into adulthood than city kids with overcrowding and lack of sanitation. Farmers also tended to regard children as workers/extra hands so an extra incentive to keep pumping out the kids.

[deirdra]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Farmers also tended to regard children as workers/extra hands so an extra incentive to keep pumping out the kids.

and when you grow/raise your own food you can afford to feed more kids and they don't need to be paid like hired workers

[Sharpie66]

Lots of topics covered here! First, in researching my family, I have found so many large families. My maternal grandmother was one of twelve. One of her sisters died at age 11, but the rest survived to adulthood—in fact, when her youngest brother died at age 76, it was a shock because he was so young! My great-grandfather in Sweden was one of fourteen, two died in infancy, and the boy who was born after his brother Erik Robert died was also named Erik Robert.

Second, as a huge history buff all my life (my favorite books at my elementary school library were the biographies of historical figures written for my age group), I was thrilled to discover X-number great grandfathers who fought in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The saddest story I’ve discovered so far was my third great grandmother Nettie’s younger brother Julius who died of typhoid fever ten days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. He had gotten sick in the trenches at Petersburg in the last week or so before the siege broke. He was just sixteen. Three years later, Nettie named her first child (my great great grandfather) Julius.

For me, what makes history fascinating are the stories of people. Unfortunately, the stories most often studied in school are the ones that are easiest to relate and test—the names, dates, and places (the when where and who), not the why and the how, which is what is interesting. Those first three things give context to the latter two, but most teachers have to stop there because they don’t have the time to linger.

[deirdra]

In grade school I loved biographies and started with the ones in the school library about people I was interested in, then read all of the rest in alphabetical order until I'd read every single biography in the library. Even people I'd never heard of had interesting histories, just like people on WDYTYA.

I'd toured Civil war battle sites on vacation as a kid w/my father, but when I studied geology in university we had field trips there because many sites were strategic because of their topography or confluence of rivers, which were all related to the underlying bedrock geology.  That made the battles even more interesting and you could really imagine how hard it would be to defeat troups that held the higher ground. Seeing the lay of the land in person gives the best perspective of what your ancestors saw.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, deirdra said:

In grade school I loved biographies and started with the ones in the school library about people I was interested in, then read all of the rest in alphabetical order until I'd read every single biography in the library. Even people I'd never heard of had interesting histories, just like people on WDYTYA.

19 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

my favorite books at my elementary school library were the biographies of historical figures written for my age group

Add me to the growing(?) list here of those who loved reading biographies as a youngster. I wonder if that's almost a requirement to enjoy these kinds of shows. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Sharpie66]

I named my cat Nellie after one of my childhood heroines Nellie Bly, who was the subject of one of those biographies. When I brought her home from the shelter, instead of hiding, she explored everything. I thought, “Around the apartment in 72 minutes,” and Nellie she was.

[Grrarrggh]

Everyone who loved bios as a kid should go back to them now. I could give you the names of a few of my favourites. 

[Grizzly]

Zachary Quinto has a good sense of humor. What happens next, are we going to commercial? And then to meet a relative on top of it, cool episode. To see in print his great grandfather using the same phrase Zachary has uttered onscreen, was chilling. Was this the last episode, I didn't see any ads for next week?

[Driad]

I liked that they investigated both sides of Zachary Quinto's family.

They said that "live long and prosper" came from a play. Did someone catch what the play was?

[deirdra]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

They said that "live long and prosper" came from a play. Did someone catch what the play was?

 a stage play of Rip Van Winkle; it is also an abbreviated form of a Jewish blessing

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

They said that "live long and prosper" came from a play. Did someone catch what the play was?

20 minutes ago, deirdra said:

 a stage play of Rip Van Winkle; it is also an abbreviated form of a Jewish blessing

Here’s the clip:

But see also:

•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_salute#"Live_long_and_prosper". 
   
• https://books.google.com/books?id=aYwPAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq="live+long+and+prosper"+"rip+van+winkle"+1899&source=bl&ots=sk9Y8x-flW&sig=ACfU3U1FFipyJy-KqdfsHWxNoXHVmcU22w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPtpWskcj5AhUeM1kFHeNTCbIQ6AF6BAgWEAI#v=onepage&q="live long and prosper" "rip van winkle" 1899&f=false   
   
• https://theatricalia.com/play/1hw/rip-van-winkle/production/52f

[iMonrey]

I enjoyed Zachary Quinto's stories much more than last week's. For one thing I like it better when they do more than one story. For another thing the story about his great grandfather and the metal workers union felt more immediate and connected to him. He must have gotten a big kick out of the "live long and prosper" quotation. 

I did raise an eyebrow at his itinerary though - first he went to Pittsburg and they only got so far before he had to go to Maryland for more of the story, then BACK to Pittsburg again for the third part of the story. Was that really necessary? Have these people not heard of the internet? 

The story about his more distant ancestor in Italy was interesting, but felt less connected to him, more like a history lesson. At least he got to meet a relative, but it was a bit anticlimactic to find his ancestor's home had been bombed during the war. "Here's where it used to be!" Uh, ok.

[Mermaid Under]

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Was this the last episode, I didn't see any ads for next week?

According to the futon critic 11 episodes of a 13 episode order were completed for this re-emergence on broadcast TV.  But only 6 have been scheduled to air.   

[deirdra]

The way the episode was presented it sounded like he went to Italy twice too. Once to meet his cousin & see the town, then back again to meet with the professor (who reminded me of Emma Thompson)  in the palace/archives

Edited August 15, 2022 by deirdra

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, deirdra said:

The way the episode was presented it sounded like he went to Italy twice too. Once to meet his cousin & see the town, then back again to meet with the professor (who reminded me of Emma Thompson)  in the palace/archives

That was just going from one town in Italy to another, in a different region of the country.

[Notabug]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

That was just going from one town in Italy to another, in a different region of the country.

Although it looked like he left Pittsburgh and then came back; I wouldn't be surprised if that was done for narrative purposes and everything in Pittsburgh was filmed at the same time and there was no Maryland trip in between but before or after.

[WorldTV]

11 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

That was just going from one town in Italy to another, in a different region of the country.

Not even really a different region.  My husband’s home town is not far from the Quinto family village, and Caserta is an easy drive.  We really enjoyed this episode because both the Pittsburgh union story and that part of Italy are so familiar. 

[Lovecat]

Zach was so excited pointing at the picture, "That's my grandfather!" and the look on his face when Giancarlo (? not sure I've got that right) pointed to HIS grandfather was priceless.  You could see the gears turn and the penny drop.  I love it when the guests meet distant relatives.

[Yeah No]

On 8/9/2022 at 11:22 AM, iMonrey said:

The best teacher in the world couldn't have made civil war history interesting to me. I mean, when you get into the politics  and why it happened, etc., then maybe. But the specific strategies and details of particular battles? Nope. You're either interested in that sort of thing, or you're not.

I'm with you, and I had some excellent history teachers.  The Civil War is IMO so one-note, I get bored learning about it.  I've even toured Gettysburg, it doesn't matter, my eyes still glaze over at the Civil War.  Unless you want to get into the minutia of every battle there isn't all that much to learn.  Compare that to WWII and it's a completely different story.  My father was his own self-taught WWII historian.  He lived through it and was a WWII veteran.  Every time I watch a TV documentary or read about that war I learn something new that I find fascinating.

Also, I have dug through my family tree and other than one with a possible registration card, I have never found any Civil War veterans.   They were either not in the US yet, not the right age or not the right gender.  There is only one man in my entire tree that was anywhere near the age to serve.  He was a police officer in NYC.  He would have been in his mid 40s at the time.  And none of his kids would have been the right age, sex or even born yet either.  I saw possible evidence of a draft card for him, but although the birth date and place are generally correct I'm not really sure it's him because of other inconsistencies.  Plus I know they were all about not drafting married men and men with families if they were able to recruit younger, single men.  My father used to tell stories his mother told him about their ancestor having been on police duty during the famous NYC Civil War draft riots in the 1860s so that was another kind of serving!  I have to admit that the history of the draft riots interests me more than the Civil War itself.    

Edited August 17, 2022 by Yeah No

[Yeah No]

On 8/9/2022 at 1:16 PM, Notabug said:

I'm only a year and a half older than BW and my great great grandfather fought in the Civil War.  None of my ancestors were particularly old when they had their kids either.

My husband is 66 years old, born in 1956.  His father was born in 1916 and his grandfather was born in 1856.  His great grandfather was born in 1817, which would have actually made him a little old to serve in the Civil War had he been in the US (my husband's father was the immigrant to the US, from Ireland).  So it is not that unbelievable for there to be only a couple of generations between an older adult alive now and an ancestor that fought in the Civil War.

[deirdra]

I don't know what they did in earlier wars, but for WWII I was surprised to find my grandfather's draft card. He was 44 and half blind at the time and was never called up, but all American men between the ages of 18 and 45 were required to register for the draft.  So even if you never heard any war stories, you ancestor could have been registered. My uncle's draft card showed that he lied about his age, and he used the address of his summer job when he registered saying he was 18 when he was only 16. I'd known he ran off and joined the Marines before he was 18, but didn't know he was only 16!

[DanaK]

I didn't like learning history in school because it was just a big info dump and test kind of thing. I started to become interested in genealogy and history after watching the original Roots miniseries and even more so after watching Ken Burns’ The Civil War on PBS in 1990 and really got into historical documentaries after that. I didn’t start fully researching my family tree until the late 90s but have loved genealogy ever since

[shapeshifter]

On 8/15/2022 at 11:02 AM, iMonrey said:

it was a bit anticlimactic to find his ancestor's home had been bombed during the war. "Here's where it used to be!" Uh, ok.

Yeah, they kept leading up to it with Zach and/or the interpreter saying he had lucked out that the town surveyor (?) was his cousin, who was going to show him the old family home, and then they literally hit a wall. 
I get that it was supposed to be dramatic, perhaps demonstrate the passing of time and how all things fade away etc., but, I agree, it just felt "a bit anticlimactic."

 

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

I didn't like learning history in school because it was just a big info dump and test kind of thing....

Most of my history in school was like that too, but I had one teacher in middle school who was really passionate about teaching us about slavery. This would have been around 1966. 

I did get into reading biographies, which can be historical. And a lot of required reading books for English were too. 

There are a couple of women on both sides of the family who compiled and shared family trees. 
There are things I can infer from history, but some of the unknowable things would still be unknowable even if I or another family member (not likely) went on one of these shows.
I don't need to know. 
But I do appreciate these shows, and sometimes feel vicariously satisfied with their discoveries.

[Yeah No]

On 8/15/2022 at 11:02 AM, iMonrey said:

The story about his more distant ancestor in Italy was interesting, but felt less connected to him, more like a history lesson. At least he got to meet a relative, but it was a bit anticlimactic to find his ancestor's home had been bombed during the war. "Here's where it used to be!" Uh, ok.

Yeah I found that segment uninteresting especially after the very interesting segment on Zach's American ancestor.  I love anything about Italian ancestry because I'm half Italian myself, but that did not do it for me at all.  Meeting the relative was cool, but even that wasn't handled in the most interesting way either.  It was like, "Oh, and here's your relative!".  Uh, OK.

[bybrandy]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:01 PM, deirdra said:

Did Allison descend from Constance? That might be why they didn't go into detail on wife #2 & her kids.   It appears that Jamestown and the Bermuda site were closed to the public when she visited - how cool it must have been to have the places to herself (+ period actors at Jamestown pretending to be working).  Very calming whereas crowded tourist attractions make it hard to focus on the ambience your ancestors would have felt.  People seeing this episode may boost post-Covid tourism.

While studying my own ancestry I've run into a couple of professional genealogists (both women) who only follow male lines.  Yes, the women may be harder to trace, but if you can trace them they tend to be the ones who write and keep the family history & letters. As each generation moved farther west in Canada, I was able to re-find key men in the family by following their sisters+husbands. Daughters were more likely to marry where their parents lived whereas their brothers were chasing gold rushes, etc., and some found wives along the way and married far away from home.

I focus on female lines when I do genealogies for people because so many people do male lines only.  I mean I’ll look at all the sides but I push to fill in the women. 

[Driad]

Reboot in Limbo

[Yeah No]

15 hours ago, Driad said:

Reboot in Limbo

That's too bad.  It's happening to anything and everything worth watching anymore.

[Driad]

Article: A new series of Who Do You Think You Are? is coming in June [2023] starring Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claire Foy and Bear Grylls

[chitowngirl]

11 minutes ago, Driad said:

Article: A new series of Who Do You Think You Are? is coming in June [2023] starring Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claire Foy and Bear Grylls

FINALLY!

[Yeah No]

FYI, this is the British version to air on BBC One, not the American one.

[Pingaponga]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:43 PM, Yeah No said:

FYI, this is the British version to air on BBC One, not the American one

That's fine. I watch them on YouTube.