BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 6 Episode #4: Zoe Wanamaker

[Comosus]

I found the program very interesting, but the way they had edited it was a bit strange. To start off with they made out she didn't have a clue what happened about why her father left and wanted to find out more, only to stumble upon the fact that he fled - which she already knew about.

When anyone starts researching their family history, they need to contact family members - which was done, but rather late in my opinion. The first thing they did was ship her to America. Surely a better idea would have been to contact family members beforehand (and get that biography of her grandfather) while in the UK, and then fly over to explore it in more detail. It doesn't exactly point people in the right direction. Travelling to another country to find information is by far the first thing to do. They could have looked at the 1880 census from the UK, too (among others).

Or was that just done so all the information was not given away at once?

I would like to see a program focussing on British heritage to know about other sources I can find to go back further and find out more.

Andrew

[heywood]

Yes you have a point there Andrew. It was not made clear that there are other ways to research USA censuses without going to the country.
As I said earlier, I did enjoy it and thought the land of opportunity aspiration followed by the juxtaposition of the McCarthy era and the pogroms was thought provoking.
However, reading the comments here, it may have been better as a stand alone programme on that theme rather than under the guise of a genealogical programme. Then it would avoid the 'surprise' elements that were already known.
A worthy programme nevertheless.

[chirp]

I agree with others who said that the earlier series were more interesting and aimed to shed light on the various research possibilities that exist and not so much on pure entertainment. Zoe's programme was definitely the best so far in the current series. Thank you to the rootschatter who gave the link to the company which makes the programme - wall to wall. I have just spent an interesting hour or so reading about past programmes including one or two which I had missed. The one on Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen has short video clips too. Maybe we should make our views known to Wall to Wall. I would like to see a WDYTYA special where someone's ancestry could be researched in depth to make a two hour or two-part programme. Any suggestions for a subject? Who would you like to see "done"?
Chirp

[Fue]

I would like to see a program focussing on British heritage to know about other sources I can find to go back further and find out more.

Yes I have to say that I agree with you Andrew,  it is certainly where my interest lies and we have seen hardly any this series.

[downside]

I would like to see a program focussing on British heritage to know about other sources I can find to go back further and find out more.

The Matthew Pinsent edition went back to Alfred the Great.

Is that far enough back for you?

[Rosedale]

I enjoyed the Fiona Bruce episode too.

I thought this one was very good, though it doesn't live up in comparison to the old WDYTYA's I agree. Still I found it very interesting, I just wish they'd make more use out of the first 30 minutes of each program.

Might have to watch the Royal one now after reading some of these comments.

[Lydart]

Matthew Pinsent's went back even further than Alfred the Great ... his ultimate ancestor was God !

[bevbee]

According to today's paper the programme on Kevin Whately which will be on TV on Monday goes back 400 years, and as his grandparents had all died before he was born, his father died when he was a teenager and his mother has Alzheimer's, it seems that he really doesn't know much about his family at all, so it could be a very interesting programme (I hope 

B.

[Inchworm]

Saved the best until last, perhaps?