WDYTYA 2

Who Do You Think You Are (WDYTYA) recently began its second season.  This show is based on a British version of the same general idea which is to follow a celebrity on their genealogical journey.  Of course, these celebrities have every high powered archivist, historian and genealogist standing on their heads to locate those rare pieces of paper to track their family history.  They also have the resources to travel pretty much at will so the show makes the research process look SO EASY. 

Rosie O'Donnell was the most recent celebrity to take this journey.  Naturally I was even more interested than usual because the reviews indicated her Irish ancestry so I watched with special interest.  I have seen all the episodes of both seasons of this program but Rosie's episode struck me as the best of them all to date.  She seemed so genuine with honest (non celebrity) reactions to the history she found about her family and seemed to honestly gain a greater connection and understanding of her history.  She seemed to place herself in the context of the bigger picture--that Rosie lost her mother at an early age was her tragedy but her lineage suffered through each their own tragedies in order to get to the place she is today.  I was very moved by the episode.

WDYTYA (if DWTS can do it, then so can this show) is a hard sell to people.  I'm constantly asking "Did you see it?" and getting the rolled eye response.  This show has greater appeal than the celebrity angle.  Kathleen told me recently that she and Nick caught the Rosie episode and enjoyed the show.  Every episode seems to speak to greater historical themes so I think everyone can find something to enjoy in it.  Friday nights 8 PM.

I recently presented a program to the Rotary and I called it Who Do You Think You Are.  I focused on the easiest free ways people can usually find some family history documents or facts.  One of them is to search Google images.  Try searching Google images for "dalpiaz" and you'll find Brian, Tom, porn star Matt Dalpiaz AND you'll find a picture of your brother James in a Yankees hat.  My tag line for that presentation is that you should be prepared to find out that you may not know who you think you are as well as you thought!  James in a Yankee hat is a good example.