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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: annieoburns on Monday 02 February 09 19:46 GMT (UK)
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Starting tonight on BBC check times regional variations
I think it is Rory Bremner in tonight's episode
Anne
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I've booked my place in front of the TV!!!
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Oh has been well warned in advance ;D ;D
I let him watch the football yesterday just so that I could get my hour tonight ;)
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What an interesting programme
I cannot be the only person who was moaning loudly at the WONDERFUL pictures and other documentary evidence Rory Bremner had about his family - a CRIMEAN DIARY!!!!! in his great grandfather's handwriting!!!! - and he didn't even know he had them.
How totally fantastic! ;D
I wish, oh, how I wish........
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Did you notice that the medals had been polished? I think brother knew exactly what was there. But I do think that it was all news to Rory - or should I say Roderick - at least.
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I would imagine quite a few of us have just finished watching Rory Bremner in WDYTYA.
How lucky is he to have all that information at his fingertips? Completed family tree, letters and photographs, but seeming not to know it was there.
Once again it should remind us to pick the brains of all our family etc
As I am not as lucky as he, its back to the hard grind we all enjoy so much.
Looking forward to next weeks episode.
Happy searching
Matsmam
Threads Merged
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I found it really interesting too.
I found found myself getting really angry because they had all those fantastic pictures, the medals and the mouthwateringly wonderful Crimean Diary and none of them had taken the trouble to look at them! :( Then the BBC came along and did all the work for him. SO UNFAIR!!! Pure jealousy on my part.
I did enjoy it though. :)
Elin
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All of the above ;D
But I did emphathise with his fight with the fiche ;D ;D ;D
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Blasted digibox broke halfway through the recording so I've missed it. >:(
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I found it really interesting too.
I found found myself getting really angry because they had all those fantastic pictures, the medals and the mouthwateringly wonderful Crimean Diary and none of them had taken the trouble to look at them! :( Then the BBC came along and did all the work for him. SO UNFAIR!!! Pure jealousy on my part.
I did enjoy it though. :)
Elin
How can you be jealous ? They only went back two generations ! ::)
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How can you be jealous ? They only went back two generations ! ::)
Two fascinating generations with a wealth of family material and very rich trail of documentary evidence though.
I am having huge trouble just finding the birth registration for both my great grandmothers. ::)
Elin
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The amount of generations is immaterial. The important thing is the amount of information that makes up an ancestor's profile. :)
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I enjoyed it, and liked the fact it focused on family history. But also very envious of the family having so many heirlooms. My own dear Ag Labs and Brushmakers left little personal trace.
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I felt it was something of a waste of the resources of all those BBC researchers! All the information was already there if only they had taken the time to read it!
Interesting to see what they already had, but would have been of much more interest if we saw some degree of searching for information to uncover the histories. After all, that is the real focus of these programmes - searching to find information about our ancestors and their stories. This was a little bit 'on a plate'.
Tracy
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I agree with Tracy.
And I didn't find it very interesting at all.
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Maybe it's a sort of taster for the first part of the series?
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I do love this WDYTYA. But that was one boring Episode.
He already had a wealth of information that any of us would love to have. I dont feel like we went on a journey with him.
And frankly, he was boring!
I hope it picks up.
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I just think that if all that information was readily available to him, he can't have really been that interested in his family history in the first place.
Most of us search years for a tiny fraction of that info (usually without success!), so his commitment to the cause was simply not there and came across as such.
Tracy
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WDYTA has been so successful - they really need to have more alternative programmes about family history - feature some ordinary people - you don't need to be a celeb to have an interesting tree
Yes I have to agree with some of the comments above - most of it was all there locked in the old family antique desk anyway.
The green eyed mog of Katmandu
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OK I have calmed down now!
There was an important message about children growing up not really knowing a parent particularly a father so committed to his work - which I hope made us all stop and think.
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I love the programme as I am always on the look out for tips and avenues I may have missed - however, if it was all there anyway, what was the point.
I want to see a real search - finding the clues for the next stage etc. It is disappointing, even if interesting, if the story is already there. No searching or researching needed. No clues to follow and nothing to learn from the search.
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Yes it would help to follow some obvious clues
Clue 1
Open the old family desk and look inside
Clue 2
Take note of portraits of high ranking prominent ancestors wearing military regalia and medals in your hallway
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I found the programme very interesting precisely because it looked at ways of focussing on individuals and finding out about the details of their lives rather than just mapping out a tree.
For the purposes of entertainment, there is a limit to how often you can show people reading census pages and standard certificates and I felt that this show introduced some new resources that might not be so easy for people to just stumble across.
The one thing that I missed was the name/address of the military surgeons archive as I have an ancestor who was badly injured in the Crimea. I was hoping that it would turn out to be the same regiment but unfortunately not.
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I kind of agree & disagree with the previous comments.
Yes, for those of us that have been doing this a while it was a little "Ready made" if you like - but then again I also thought it was a lesson for those starting out to ASK what family have collected and actually look at what you yourself have................. maybe its something that will help new researchers?
I am so lucky I was interested in doing the family history before i lost all my grandparents - and I personaly inherited all the family papers, bibles photos etc............... like Rorys brother I know what I have - but I seriously doubt my brother and sister have a CLUE what I have here........and I have papers belonging to my mums cousins that non of them ae interested in - in fact one of my mums cousins binned all the 'old junk' (aka to us precious papers!) when their parents died - so all they have is left now is what my nana had for safe keeping, and I am hanging on to it for now!
I actually found his discoveries about his father moving, and the parralels between the generations obviously got to him.
This one actually managed to hook my mum and dad - and get them talking about their grandparents to me, BECAUSE it wasnt too in depth, and they could relate to it.
I thought his family story was fascinating, I wish I had so much variety in mine, and I actually learnt something, i didnt realise Cremation had been illegal.
LOL and it made mum & I laugh, my Nana died last year and she is registered on the Database as being both buried and cremated - I can just hear future generations trying to figure THAT out!
(she was cremated then her ashes scattered on my Grandads grave - but the database has both a cremation date & a burial date - a week apart!)
Gaille
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Just looked at that 1891 census for the Ogilvy's (mistranscribed, so took a while for me to find it...!) RG12 904 55 25
When Rory looked at it he made some comment about how the Dad must have returned to the three childen and said "here is your step mum and several new brothers and sisters" but if you look at the census, the younger half siblings sre all born in Bournemouth or nearby, so it looks as if the Dad came back (possibly with new wife who was born British Guyana) and reunited the family before the new babies arrived! Didnt check out his facts there before making a bit of drama.
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Blasted digibox broke halfway through the recording so I've missed it. >:(
Repeated tonight on BBC2 !
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Hi
as someone who has thought vaguely about doing a tree but never really started (I found you guys when my one of my kids was asked to make a stab at a tree for class) I found the Rory Bremner episode really interesting.
I knew that someone on my mothers side had done a tree when she was young but have no idea what happened to it and the information/documents that went with it. My dad's cousin has worked on their tree but I didn't know that until DS asked for help with his project and dad said 'Oh I haven't seen the tree since I gave R our ammendments'. I think he meant me and my sisters broods as it seems they're expanding the tree forwards now.
Anyway back to Rory, I can see that it was probably a bit thin for a genealigist but for us ordinary punters out there it was good.
Also it should (hopefully) mean less stupid questions of the archivers as it showed just how much might be squirreled away in the family coffers.
Puss
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Blasted digibox broke halfway through the recording so I've missed it. >:(
You can catch up on BBC iPlayer at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hhrp3/Who_Do_You_Think_You_Are_Series_6_Rory_Bremner/
Marc
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I'm probably going to repeat what alot of people are saying, but as a massive fan of wdytya, I'm starting to find the programmes a little boring, yes it is very interesting finding out about past generations, but I want to see 'how' they get their information, not just the results. The fascinating part about genealogy is actually the research, including brick walls and mistakes etc.
Why dont the bbc have the programme starting with the celeb (or ordinary person), and working back through the generations, so not concentrating on one or two fairly recent generations, but really finding where this person came from.
I know my goal in family research is to go as far back as possible. Whilst learning on the way.
Anyway, thats my two pennies worth, Lets hope the series gets a little more interesting as it goes, hopefully showing them researching 19th / 18th century records.
Cheers.
Benn.
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Hi
as someone who has thought vaguely about doing a tree but never really started (I found you guys when my one of my kids was asked to make a stab at a tree for class) I found the Rory Bremner episode really interesting.
I knew that someone on my mothers side had done a tree when she was young but have no idea what happened to it and the information/documents that went with it. My dad's cousin has worked on their tree but I didn't know that until DS asked for help with his project and dad said 'Oh I haven't seen the tree since I gave R our ammendments'. I think he meant me and my sisters broods as it seems they're expanding the tree forwards now.
Anyway back to Rory, I can see that it was probably a bit thin for a genealigist but for us ordinary punters out there it was good.
Also it should (hopefully) mean less stupid questions of the archivers as it showed just how much might be squirreled away in the family coffers.
Puss
Yes, there can be lots of information hidden away in boxes throughout the family but not everyone may know of it.
I'd been working on my research for more than a year when my cousin found the materials that we both knew that our aunt had collected a long time ago (they were among some things left by his mother, the aunt's sister) and it was even later than that, that my sister remembered that she had a copy of a tree sent to my mother, by a cousin one Christmas many years ago. Turns out all my siblings and even my older children knew about that (my excuse is, I'm sure that it must have been the Christmas that my youngest child arrived on Christmas day so I was too busy making family history to notice much beyond that).
Just because some of the research has been done before doesn't necessarily mean there is no work involved in finding/verifying and extending it now.
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I agree with the point of there being too much pfaff and not enough substance - that why i think that 'so you think you are a royal' is better - Nick barrat gets his hands dirtier and there is a little more how when why etc
Marc
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Blasted digibox broke halfway through the recording so I've missed it. >:(
It is on again tonight at 7.00 on Beeb 2. :)
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Ostler
Don't be upset for missing WDYTYA yesterday, it's repeated today Tuesday BBC2 7pm
Carol
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Hi
Sorry Skewbald didn't see your message
Carol
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I thought it was pretty good in the sense that they tracked down some of the people who knew his father, or worked alongside him in Germany.
In the very last scene when he was looking for the Ogilvy grave in the small cemetery, I was fully expecting him to look through all the small graves only to find (shock) that his ancestor's grave was the massive marble one plonked in the middle. ;D But no - it was just a small shield.
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I found this episode interesting and quite thought provoking. We children and grandchildren only know our parents and grandparents as that generally and seeing parents in another life is interesting.
A useful reminder too that letters and diaries can be of use to family historians as well first hand accounts from people still alive who knew our ancestors.
And so refreshing that Rory was thoughtful but didn't cry every five minutes ;D ::)
He has ever right to be proud of his ancestry though.
Kerry
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My older daughter watched the programme with me. Afterwards she commented that they had not gone very far back and she had found it a bit boring. She is not the least interested in my family tree investigations, but I think I must agree with her.
As someone earlier said, we are interested in the process necessary to find information.
Kooky
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I missed the first half, must watch it on iPlayer !
So what have we learned ?
1. Look properly at those old family portraits (if you are lucky enough to have some) and also at the old photo's. Take in the details, don't just look at the faces.
2. Look in the old family 'coffers' (or in my case, the old cake tin I found under Mothers bed !) Again, look at the stuff in it with care and intelligence.
3. Ask anyone in the older generation NOW about their families in the past ... don't wait until they are dead ... Rory may have found out more info earlier by talking to his father when he was still alive.
4. Only then start to make the tree, and take the investigations further into record offices and online.
... and as someone said ... give time to the youngsters; they are part of the family tree too !
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Rory Bremner was on the Richard and Judy show this morning talking about WDYTYA and I was surprised to learn that they research several branches and then decide which one to televise, so lucky him! he has got a complete family tree!
Janey
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... which his mother seems to have made and he didn't know it !
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If you Google his Surgeon General great grandfather you'll find that the BBC researchers were digging quite hard on the Bermudan connection
It was intersting becuase of the people he met who had known his father and to see how lucky he was to have such memorabilia as the diary.
BTW The first series was accompanied by shorter programmes that showed ordinary peoples stories
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Well, I for one would like to have seen many more of his relatives. The first half hour concentrated on his father alone. The Surgeon-General Ogilvy line was fascinating because of the amount of material the family already had. But what about the rest of the family? Apart from a fleeting reference to Rory's Ogilvy grandmother we heard nothing, and his mother's side didn't even get a mention - rather a pity, as she had done all the hard work documenting the family tree in the first place.
The "finding" of the medals, portrait, diary, etc. seemed very staged.
A fascinating study of a father-son relationship, but that's quite another programme.
Gillg
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I have to agree with lots of you
I watched the programme and I don't know why they chose him
H e had tots of information to start with there was nothing exciting like our findings we do at home like you say he had photo's medals letters etc
I wish some of mine had left me a letter to read
Elizabeth
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We say we weren't told anything of his other ancestors ... but its quite possible he didn't want them investigated ... or that the Beeb decided they were so dull and uninteresting that they weren't television material ...
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I think as family history researchers, we tend to view these programmes in a different way to the ordinary television viewer who is watching to while away an hour.
If you are not that interested in finding your own FH, these programmes provide an hour of entertainment.
For us, they either fall short of expectation or we can see what could have been done to further the research etc etc.
As a child I knew all my grandparents and three of my maternal great-grandparents. My husband, like Rory Bremner, never really knew his father or either of his grandfathers, they all died at an early age.
Each programme does give a little more information on a particular aspect of FH and clues to help with our research (although I must admit, I shall be watching the re-run tonight as I tended to miss bits towards the end - dozed off ::)
Pat ...
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Excuse my ignorance, I live abroad, but what is 'so you think you are a royal' ?
Sami
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Well, that's Monday evenings' viewing mapped out for a few weeks! ;)
But, deary me (or was that "dreary" me? ::) ) not starting the series with anything like a firecracker, are they!
Whilst it was interesting to hear about Rory Bremner's father, did we really need half the programme devoted to one man's exploits in one theatre of war? There was too much "general" war footage.
Again, the second half of the programme was devoted to another "military" campaign - bypassing much detail of Bremner's paternal grandmother.
We learned nothing of the distaff side at all!
And Rory looked more bemused than interested in the "facts" that were turned up.
Let's hope there is better to come!
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So You Think You Are Royal - They research a family who think they have a royal connection, only just found it myself last week whilst channel hopping through the freeview channels. The other day it was about a mother and daughter who thought they were related to the Queen Mother because they had the surname Bowes. By the end of the programme however, after DNA tests on 10% of males with the Bowes name in their area, Nick Barratt was certain they were not related. Their aim seems to be to prove the link and get a mention in Debretts from the couple of shows I've seen.... It was a bit silly though cos they said that a family story of their aunt playing with the young Queen Mum had been proven simply because the aunt lived in the area of a stately home that the Queen Mum may have stayed in on her way to their family home in the South, and one of the aunt's relatives may have been in service there!
Wasn't keen on this episode of WDYTYA, I prefer it when they go further back, showing census, parish records and locations the families lived and worked in, rather than just concentrating mainly on one man, his father......although I was green with envy at the amount of family "treasure" he found at his brothers!
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I thought his family story was fascinating, I wish I had so much variety in mine, and I actually learnt something, i didnt realise Cremation had been illegal.
snip
Gaille
It wasn't that was just one of the facts Di. Stiff an archivist at Surrey History Centre got wrong.
We should not be surprised however as she also got her facts wrong when she stated that the first cremation was in 1885 at Woking crematorium.
However, Captain Hanham of Blandford, Dorset cremated his wife and mother on 8th and 9th of October 1882 in a crematorium on his own estate and indeed he himself was cremated there in 1883.
It is a small point but in a hobby where accuracy is imperative such mistakes turn the programme from factual to little more than fiction.
Cheers
Guy
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WDYTA has been so successful - they really need to have more alternative programmes about family history - feature some ordinary people - you don't need to be a celeb to have an interesting tree
Yes I have to agree with some of the comments above - most of it was all there locked in the old family antique desk anyway.
The green eyed mog of Katmandu
Perhaps but the Beeb have been there, done that and got the T-shirt to prove it. ;)
Back in the dawn of time (2000) BBC 2 had a series called Blood Ties which traced the lineage of ordinary people.
One of the researchers (presenters) was a young Nick Barratt who was desperate to appear on the telly. ;)
Cheers
Guy
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I would have been better watching ITV I forgot it was on Whitechapel
My grt grt Uncle and Justj's inspector John Stark was one of the inspectors on the case
Am I right with the grts justj
Elizabeth
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The first episode of WDYTYA left me with one question.....
How come Rory Bremner didn't wangle a trip further than the Netherlands at the licence payer's expense ?
Surely he needed to do a bit more research into the family connections in British Guyana ?
Sure, the guy's father was a hero, but I really didn't see the point of making a programme out of something the family already knew ? ???
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I feel the same: They already had all the information about their ancestors. Far more than any of us could wish for.
For most people very little survives. I don't know what my grandfather did in WW2 and there's probably no way of finding out for another 40-odd years.
I also wish they'd stop concentrating on the wealthy ancestors... not everyone has those!
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I thought his family story was fascinating, I wish I had so much variety in mine, and I actually learnt something, i didnt realise Cremation had been illegal.
snip
Gaille
It wasn't that was just one of the facts Di. Stiff an archivist at Surrey History Centre got wrong.
We should not be surprised however as she also got her facts wrong when she stated that the first cremation was in 1885 at Woking crematorium.
However, Captain Hanham of Blandford, Dorset cremated his wife and mother on 8th and 9th of October 1882 in a crematorium on his own estate and indeed he himself was cremated there in 1883.
It is a small point but in a hobby where accuracy is imperative such mistakes turn the programme from factual to little more than fiction.
Cheers
Guy
How did she get it wrong Guy?
Meanwhile, on 26th March, 1885 the first official cremation at Woking took place. Mrs. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles, was the first of three cremations that year. Mr. Charles William Carpenter was cremated on 19th October and in December the third cremation, even though the body of a fourteen stone woman, was again successfully performed in only 11/2 hours. In 1886 ten bodies were cremated.
http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html#1stcremation
skewy.
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The "facts" are confusing. The first legal cremation in the UK was on 18 January 1884, when a Dr William Price cremated his own son. The doctor was prosecuted, but he defended the case, saying that there was nothing written in English law that specifically mentioned cremation, and this was upheld, and it set a legal precedent, and therefore the cremation was legal. Of course, cremations had been taking place in England in Viking and Roman times thousands of years ago, so it was hardly new.
The first cremation in a public crematorium was in Woking, Surrey, on the 26th March, 1886.
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Sir Henry Thompson, baronet, FRCS (1820-1904) was born in Framlingham, Suffolk - he became Surgeon to Queen Victoria.
Sir Henry was also founder of the Cremation Society in London 1874.
He donated the clock on St. Michael's church tower Framlingham in memory of his parents.
Prof Brunetti of Padua, Italy exhibited his 'cremation apparatus' at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873.
Thompson attended the exhibition and returned home to England convinced that cremation was 'a necessary sanitary precaution against the propagation of disease'.
A number of Sir Henry's friends gathered at his home in Wimpole Street in January 1874 to form The Cremation Society and among the signatures are many distinguished people of that age - Shirley Brooks, Frederick Lehmann, John Everett Millais, John Tenniel, Anthony Trollope and Sir T. Spencer Wells, representing the realms of art, science, literature and medicine.
Although there was initial opposition to the Crematorium being built at Woking, it went ahead and on 26th March, 1885 (?) the first official cremation at Woking took place, of Mrs. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles, who became the first of three cremations that year.
So the first official cremation did take place at Woking as stated by Nick29.
Sir Henry was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and a staute to him is also found there. He is remembered in Framlingham too.
Pat ...
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I think we are clutching at straws here in our criticism of the program.
The point the woman was making was that cremation was a relatively new thing in 1899 as most people were still being buried. She mentioned that Woking was the first official centre of cremation, and that establishment opened in 1885.
What she was not attempting to do was to give a concise history of the practice of cremation in the United Kingdom...
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I enjoyed the program and was very envious of all the evidence they have of their family.
I also think that the BBC should have regular programs on 'ordinary 'people like us who spend hours toiling over the little clues that we have been left or find to our ancesters. This would make good watching.
Lynda
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If I'd been left as many clues by my mother as Rory Bremner had, I'd now be persuing philately or The Art of Zen Bhuddism, instead of plodding forward to see if I can find where my g.g. grandfather was actually born ::)
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Very true. The show should be about showing people how to find information that can help them research their family tree. Most of it was already laid out before them. I get the feeling the BBC noticed what a treasure trove of information and exciting stories he inherited and tried to get little details from a couple of places to look like they'd done something!
If they did their research in the order that's it's claimed in the film then they did it completely wrong. The first step is to look at what you already have and talk to relatives. If you notice, they went all the way to Scotland to find that his ancestor qualified in the 1850s, went back home and then found that he was a medic in the crimea (a long with a diary). Might have been helpful to know before going maybe? They've done it before too in John Hurt's episode. They get a sniff of a rumour and ship them off to another country to find out more, where they find out it's probably not all truthful. The second step in research (I think) is just to search back as far as you can using the censuses. You build the bones of your tree, and you can refer back to these if you have any rumours (for example, if like Bremner's ancestor, they go missing and turn up with a wife from another country. Then you can start finding out when/why/where he might have gone.
They also just threw into the ring his ancestor's death year. While it may be obvious to us that it was found via the BMD, it won't be to new viewers. They might be left thinking you have to go to a cemetery or church to find out.
Andrew
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Actually it doesn't make any difference how many clues you are left if you aren't interested in them, or looking for them..... My parents were family history fanatics, and spent a long time painstakingly researching in the days when things WEREN'T online. They talked endlessly about it, and as children what did we do? Yawned, said "oh it's Dad rabbiting about ancestors again" and took No Notice At All..... So that when we grew up and got interested ourselves, we knew about as little as Rory did, and had to start again. When we found similarly carefully labelled photos, and other bits and pieces, we blessed mum and dad, as Rory Bremner must have done. It doesn't make the job any less interesting, just different.
I also feel that there are two ways of looking at family history - personally I'm not all that interested in tracing as far back as possible, just to find out that my 5 x Great grandfather's name was George.... and so was his father.... I'd rather find out as much as possible about the way the people lived, the conditions they lived in, what it must have been like to be them. So I found this programme really interesting..... particularly the interview with the Dutch medic who let Rory's dad use his shoulder as a machine gun rest, and the interpreter who knew about his German girlfriend..... it really brought it alive.
You can't please everyone all the time, can you!
Veron ;)
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It'll be a while before I get to see the new series here in Australia. The last series is now being shown on subscription TV (it was the turn of Ainsley Harriot last night).
I am very interested in So You Think You Are Royal, and hope we get that series here.
The subject of "common ancestors" vs "royal/illustrious ancestors" often reappears. I understand it is the process of the search that is interesting for those who have a knowledge of the processes, but it is the celebs that will draw the average TV viewer in.
How many people would reasonably be expected to be excited when I find my ggggrandparents on the 1851 census. Surprise surprise, John is an ag lab. His wife is Mary. And here they are on the 1861- John is an ag lab and they now have 3 more children, William, Mary and Ann. And John is still an ag lab on the 1871 census. Their oldest child John and oldest daughter Mary have left home. Oh, John jnr is an ag lab in the same village. And Mary is a servant. And so it goes on. Yawn. It could be padded out a bit by explaining what ag lab's did .... but not gripping TV for the general public.
What I would really like to see is how they made the various WDTYA's, including the bits they left out and why, showing the research they did etc etc.
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Actually it doesn't make any difference how many clues you are left if you aren't interested in them, or looking for them..... My parents were family history fanatics, and spent a long time painstakingly researching in the days when things WEREN'T online. They talked endlessly about it, and as children what did we do? Yawned, said "oh it's Dad rabbiting about ancestors again" and took No Notice At All..... So that when we grew up and got interested ourselves, we knew about as little as Rory did, and had to start again. When we found similarly carefully labelled photos, and other bits and pieces, we blessed mum and dad, as Rory Bremner must have done. It doesn't make the job any less interesting, just different.
I also feel that there are two ways of looking at family history - personally I'm not all that interested in tracing as far back as possible, just to find out that my 5 x Great grandfather's name was George.... and so was his father.... I'd rather find out as much as possible about the way the people lived, the conditions they lived in, what it must have been like to be them. So I found this programme really interesting..... particularly the interview with the Dutch medic who let Rory's dad use his shoulder as a machine gun rest, and the interpreter who knew about his German girlfriend..... it really brought it alive.
You can't please everyone all the time, can you!
Veron ;)
I appreciate what you're saying, Veron, but I was under the impression that the programme was about finding people's ancestors, and (to make things a little more interesting) choosing people who are in the public eye. Maybe as an amateur genealogist I am looking for something different, but to me the thrill is "in the chase", and although Rory Bremner's father's story was very interesting, I failed to see what it had to do with genealogy, because most of the research had been done already, and I think that Rory and his brother could have found out all they needed to know without the help of BBC researchers.
I'm hoping this series isn't going to turn into a "look what my daddy did in the war" series, and if it does, I won't be watching it. Fortunately, looking at the BBC website, some of the other personalities appear to have stories which will appeal more to genealogists.
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That's just the point, Nick. many of us on here are Family Historians rather than Genealogists, so the programme appeals to us.
I do genealogy too, trying to read old latin hands, parish records etc, but like many my main interest is not pedigree but unravelling the social history, along with a bit of One-Name-Studying.
And after all this is prime time TV; not academic research.
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But Andrew, if they did as you say the production team would miss out a lot more.
They would miss out on expences paid overnight trips in the U.K. and expences paid jollies to far flung places, that are quite often irrelevant. :-X ;) ;D
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I would have been better watching ITV I forgot it was on Whitechapel
My grt grt Uncle and Justj's inspector John Stark was one of the inspectors on the case
Am I right with the grts justj
Elizabeth
Right Elizabeth! Either great great uncle, or great grand uncle, whichever you prefer ;D
I too watched Rory Bremner, but then wondered, if I would have enjoyed the other side better!
justmej
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The program is about people's own journeys of discovery, though it would be nice if a little real genealogy was there
The central part of the program - about Rory's father was interesting, as he had no idea about his father's war and post-war activities
Bob
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How much did Rory actually know beforehand, I wonder?
For an impressionist his face was expressionless most of the time.
Gillg
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There's an article in today's Daily Mail Weekend magazine saying that Lisa Kudrow's (this is for Lydart - she's an actress who played Phoebe in "Friends" ;D ) production company is making an American version of WDYTYA, with Lisa as the first subject, tracing her ancestry in Belarus.
Susan Sarandon and Sarah Jessica Parker are also confirmed - I'd be interested to see the series - I wonder whether they'll ever show it over here. ???
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How much did Rory actually know beforehand, I wonder?
For an impressionist his face was expressionless most of the time.
Gillg
A lot was cut including, apparently, his many impressions.
Cheers
Guy
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I can believe that a lot was cut out. I thought it was a very poorly edited programme. No wonder Rory looked so blank all the time. Where was the thrill of the chase that we family historians experience, even when our ancestors are but humble ag labs?
In his defence, he looked most animated when playing with his children, perhaps mindful of those absent fathers in his tree.
Gillg :D
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There's an article in today's Daily Mail Weekend magazine saying that Lisa Kudrow's (this is for Lydart - she's an actress who played Phoebe in "Friends" ;D ) production company is making an American version of WDYTYA, with Lisa as the first subject, tracing her ancestry in Belarus.
Susan Sarandon and Sarah Jessica Parker are also confirmed - I'd be interested to see the series - I wonder whether they'll ever show it over here. ???
According to the WDYTYA website, the BBC is planning to show this here.
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Thanks lahsunc, I'll look forward to seeing it. ;)