WDYTYA The Reality A Letter to BBC

[Maggie1895]

Celebrity orders a certificate. Lots of film of celebrity waiting for the certificate to arrive. Eventually the certificate arrives. It is the wrong certificate. Celebrity's mother says she has some old family photos - two episodes are wasted as mother fails to find them although there is some interesting footage of the mother's attic.
Carole

I do appreciate this is a thread with a serious point to make - and one with which I agree - but I'm afraid I'm still laughing about the reality show genealogy would make, and particularly all the shots of mother's attic.   That's exactly what they'd end up with if they ever filmed my farcical attempts to organise my family photographs...

[Plummiegirl]

One thing that I think we all miss here is often the celebrity was probably not doing any research before being approached by the production team.  And I think that some quickie research may be done prior to contact.  Then once celeb say OK I am up for that, the "team" takes over.  You will notice that many of the celebs do go home to parents & other family members for photos & sometimes stories.

Also in most programmes the usually only touch on one side of the family very briefly then the rest of the programme concentrates on the more intersting side.

I do not think we can blame the celebrities for how easy the makers of the show make genealogy look.  And although it's all paid for & when they turn up at archives etc., it is all ready for them, it does give us all an idea of what is actually being held in archives around the country (and worldwide) that can be accessed.

[jobarnesmum]

Plummiegirl - Knowing Loopy lu as I do I think I can say that that is Lu's point ......She isn't blaming the celebs ....she says the makers need to be aware that a lot of newbies thinks it is that easy, that is why she is suggesting a type of here is how its done ....

Paul ...that's the sort of thing Lu means.... A how its done type thing and maybe show "ordinary bods" doing their searches....

Apart from anything else even if they did assist Lu with her family - her family history is anything but boring ...I can tell you as can other in the chatterbox......

Jobarnesmum

[jobarnes]

Loopy Lu 

I think what you are doing is an excellent idea, some people think its easy but as you you my family history was originally for a school project, we had several resources and were allowed the help of one adult other than our teacher, and although my teacher knew a bit, she was surprised how difficult it was for some pupils to find their families.

Me, I was lucky - my mum was interested in what we began to find and helped me, well she still does....
What I really wanted to say was - the difference in searching between countries within Great Britian and NI needs to be explained as well. I dont think people searching only one country will realise how things differ.
i.e on Scotland's People you see the cert, on English & Welsh records you don't and .....Ireland well thats a whole other story ...


sorry to waffle on and I hope you understand what I am trying say ....

JO

[Finley 1]

Yes the Scots certs are so good.  cos they have parents names on which is great, and there is no delay in sending off and hoping, or sending off and getting wrong cert..
Brilliant.  that is if you have Scots rellies.  like me  I have oooooodles of them.. bless them.

Xin

[DudleyWinchurch]

Oddly, what might bring out the difficulties more than most things, and it must be about due now given the proliferation of genealogy shows, could be a really well-done "Christmas special" or similar spoof show.

Starting with a common name like John or Mary Smith and a fairly common occupation, they could research a real person (I'm sure there would be lots of volunteers and could make them a spoof celebrity).

The stacks of alternatives to wade through and the strategies required for any small step forward (or is that backward) would quickly become apparent.  And it might present an opprtunity to demonstrate how to go into the family memories and some of the more obscure databases to separate out all the possibilities that arise.

[Siamese Girl]

Armstrong and Miller did an excellent spoof a couple of years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c65QRaR16io

Carole

[millymcb]

Love that sketch - but I wish I could find records for the 1921 and 1931 Census

Milly

[Elie]

They make it seem so easy because the show is a commercial for @$!&%try, a site which I know all of you love.