"who do you think you are 2007" on TV

[stonechat]

Yes they seemed to follow John Hurt's feeling that he must be related to the Irish aristocracy above any basic methodology.

[Elliebob]

I blinked and missed the quantum leap from finding the Stafford lass' baptism in Croydon (with a Holborn link ? ) to how she was deemed to be William Lord Browne's cousin ?

Wonder why they didnt mention her parents - Edward and whomever - not being sought on the 1841 census ?

I'm glad you say you blinked - I fell asleep momentarily and thought I'd missed more than I actually did.  It's a habit I have - nothing to do with being bored.  I'm enjoying the new series.

Ellen

[willow2670]

About the same topic   

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,256353.from1190042070/topicseen.html#msg1429758

[teddybear1843]

I seem to be turning into a grunpy old man, but these family history programmes do tend to wind me up.

John Hurt broke all the rules of historical research by starting with some unknown person in history and trying to establish a link.  The "Experts" encouraged him!  The obvious way was to trace back from the known to the unknown but even when they did look at the 1861 census and found the family........................they ignored the "where born" column.

When they eventually found the young lady's baptism they discounted the parents with absolutely no evidence.  They didn't check for wills, they didn't look at the parish the family came from, they didn't do anything, just say that they must be covering up the truth by having her baptised in another parish!

I could go on, but I think you get the idea that I am not impressed, but I will have to see the rest of the season just to be wound up even more.

One good thing to come out of the first programme was to bring home to people the futility of war, the problem is that the same things are still happening today, not with the Jews but with other races.

We never learn.

Teddy
 

[PassionPlay]

You're all very lucky! Spare a thought for those of us in other countries who may have to wait years to see this, and even then it'll be on pay TV/cable!

Very envious!

I DID manage to see the last series on cable, which has left me wanting more!

Enjoy!

It might be worth you keeping an eye on this site http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ (look under the 'Shows' tab) they have series 3 on there now so may well follow suit with the rest.

Steph

[Meliora]

Must just have my say on the " who do they think they are " progs.

It annoys me to see the number of times someone walks into an RO & have all the records laid out for them, but the biggest niggle of all is when you see someone walk into to a church & the Bapt records are miraculasly kept in a cupboard, & produced at the drop of a hat.  After the John Hurt prog I took the trouble to look at the Philimore's Atlas of Parich Records & checked that the Bapt PRs for Croyden were kept at the Surrey RO at Chislehurst. !!!!

After seeing that I would not be surprised to see the world & his wife making tracks to all the churches , knocking on the door & expecting to find missing bapts.

Meliora

[JillJ]

I thought the John Hurt programme was a farce from beginning to end, particularly as the name Hurt was never mentioned!  I sat there with pen and paper waiting for some revelations about my family (I'm pretty sure he should be in my tree somewhere) but I rather got the feeling he didn't want to descend from Ag. Labs. and so headed off in the direction of the aristocracy, only to get egg on his face!

Jill

[Ruskie]

Thank you Steph - I will have a look!

[downside]

After seeing that I would not be surprised to see the world & his wife making tracks to all the churches , knocking on the door & expecting to find missing bapts.

As a member of 'the world and his wife' I have been to inspect 'live' parish registers at a rectory.  Space was kindly provided by the vicar who moved the cereal packets to one side on the dining room table.  In small rural parishes they are still using post-Victorian registers as there are so few events to record.  The vicar prompted me for a donation which I gladly gave him.