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

[Lydart]

Yes this was better than previous weeks! Would have been interested in her mother's family too.
Kooky

It is, of course possible that she didn't want her mothers line investigated ?   How old is Zoe ?   50 - 60 ?    Her mother may still be alive and didnt want it done ...

[nanny jan]

At the start of the programme Zoe did say that she wanted to find out about her father.

This series seems to focus on following the father's line; I wonder if the next series will follow the mother.


Nanny Jan

[Gillg]

I agree.  Fathers have had the major part of the programme in most cases, so that little time was left for other family members.  Still, I did enjoy this one much more than most of the others. At least we got to look at some records, and for those of us who have American or Jewish relatives, it was interesting to see how the records were kept.

Gillg

[Nick29]

I was totally enthralled by this episode.  It was so full of irony - Zoe's grandfather came over to America to escape poverty to "the land of the free", and his son was persecuted for his political views.  She has cause to be very proud of her father.

Just the right balance, as far as I was concerned.  I would like to have seen a bit more of the part of Chicago where her grandfather settled (I love Chicago), but there is only so much that you can put into an hour's programme.  Don't forget that you can see some of the parts that ended up on the cutting room floor for all the personalities on the BBC WDYTYA website.

[Siamese Girl]

Well I'm still a bit disappointed. There was a really good potential programme in there on McCarthyism and it would have been interesting to see Zoe research that and how it affected her father and the acting/arts profession in general.

I don't want to sound flippant, but it did seem to me that it was like a lot of other programmes in the series, only this time it was the Pogroms rather than the  Holocaust.

Carole

[lesleyhannah]

Although I don't have Jewish ancestors, I can see the relevance of the Holocaust/Pograms to genealogy. Both Britain and America have absorbed people from all over the world who have been fleeing from persecution or poverty. For their descendants (and the rest of us) it's interesting to know why they emigrated.

In my own case it was the other way round. My Scottish ancestors left Scotland during the clearances, and emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. My ex-husband's family left Ireland during the potato famine and ended up in Liverpool and the States.

I don't think this episode dwelt too long on the pogroms, it struck a good balance between social/politcal history and the nitty-gritty of research. I just hope they stick to this formula.

[Siamese Girl]

It just seems that there have been quite a few people  with Jewish ancestry on WDYTYA - it would be nice if other emigrations could be covered as well - some of my ancestors left Lancashire for Australia, others Ireland for England -  or few Non-conformist ancestors would make a change as well.
I do feel that a lot of the time that the makers are keen to go for the tear inducing stories.

Carole

[lookingforold]

One must remember that WDYTYA? is on BBC 1, for mass entertainment. Perhaps it should have been shown on BBC 2 and kept more to the Family Tree side rather than the 'Good Television' appeal.

[Benn2509]

I feel I must agree with most of you, definitely one of the better shows, but it is still lacking that certain something - I suppose I want to see them trace back to the beginnings of time, (well whenever it was the surname came about, and how).
One part that really surprised me, was the charity section of the burial ground in Chicago, the headstones were amazing!! Alot of my ancestors were buried in the late 1800s/ early 1900s in paupers graves, and there is not even a mark on the ground, I'm glad to see some places remember their dead whatever the circumstances.