I agree with all of you and thought it was a great programme, back on form after last week's strange episode, and how good to show the depth and breadth of information the Scottish certificates bring. I know people sometimes feel that Scotland's People can be expensive, but I've always reckoned for what you can see it's actually better value for money than ordering the English / Welsh ones by post.
As to the leaps of faith, the first time they did it (stab in the dark to the last census, not Jessie? never mind, let's try Janet, oh, 2 of them, never mind this must be her..) I wondered what on earth they were playing at to make such a sweeping assumption, then realised they had done all their research before and were just truncating the process for the camera. After all, if they'd entered it into Scotlands People properly they'd have taken the'name variants' option and been given Janet anyway. I assumed they'd done it this way to give a better dramatic effect for the viewer and at the end that's what it is, a TV programme, not a documentary on research. I liked Annie's attitude to it all, she was proud of them and so she should be.
As with so many of you, everything struck a chord for me, the areas, the families, the backgrounds and occupations, but I suppose what made the producers decide it would make a good story was the Solicitor rich family/poor relation link, the royal connection, and above all those wonderful Kirk records. If only we could all find detailed records like that!
It's still frustrating though isn't it? The 'celebrities' always seem to be satisfied, "now I know..." whereas all of us would be screaming "know?! you haven't scratched the surface! what about grandma? what about the brothers and sisters? what happened to so and so?" and go on and on and on searching for the next ten years...
