WDYTYA Series 21

[jaywit]

I think the problem will be that the kind of younger people who may be attracted to family history will be the kind who expect everything to be a) now and b)simple .

WDYTYA does make it look like getting all the information and documents is simple, the fact that they walk into a library, sit down with a historian who produces everything 'just like that' How long will they continue when they realize it doesn't work like that?

[Jebber]

Did not watch GC, and no intention of watching the episode ever.

She represents everything wrong with Social Media and pseudo “reality” TV programmes.

As a northerner the Essex accent is horrendous.

Superficial characters are of no interest to me.

Fortunately not every one speaks like that. I take part in the Essex Family History Society Zoom meetings and you don't hear it in there.

[coombs]

As we know it does get harder the further back you go, but even 1837 onwards provides us with many challenges especially with common surnames. These so called celebs will have a team of researchers working on their behalf.

[candleflame]

I was a bit ‘nervous’ about watching this episode due to the negative comments about it, but it was very interesting I thought as it revealed the issues about the mental health admissions and she was reunited with cousins who had more photos and answers for her own mother.
It was interesting that they showed extracts from the I think it was fostering reports where they typed them up with a page number, which suggested there was more information that they didn’t show on the programme, but perhaps her mother might have been entitled to see the rest should she choose to.
Did anyone who did watch it spot what had happened to her Father - was he still on the scene, even though she didn’t need to research that side of the family.

[brigidmac]

The fathers side was not mentioned.

I am disappointed by some of the negativity on this topic

There was a very interesting discussion on a Facebook group which was about the death in the workhouse and people's own examples .started by someone who was provoked to ask why her own relative had died in workhouse tho he was not poor .

The whole debate was questions answers & personal examples .
There was no discussion about the personality or accent of GC

I still don't know if people who could afford it actually paid for workhouse hospital treatment.
It seems feasible to me that paying patients would help subsidize care of the poor pre NHS

[JAKnighton]

I think the problem will be that the kind of younger people who may be attracted to family history will be the kind who expect everything to be a) now and b)simple .

WDYTYA does make it look like getting all the information and documents is simple, the fact that they walk into a library, sit down with a historian who produces everything 'just like that' How long will they continue when they realize it doesn't work like that?

As a 'young' person who does genealogy (34 now, 21 when I started) I've experienced the exact opposite. People think you need to be invited onto a program like WDYTYA to get access to common records like the census, BMD certificates, parish registers etc. Many people are surprised when I show them how 'easy' it is to get beyond their grandparents with a basic Ancestry/Find My Past subscription.

[BillyF]

If you`re lucky you can get further back than your grandparents using free websites.

I have a lot of Lincolnshire ancestors andwas able to see the actual parish records online until they changed the website, making it difficult to use !

I believe that other counties also have free records online.

Anyone who is really keen then can decide if they want to subscribe to Ancestry etc.

[coombs]

I have a few ancestors from Lincolnshire who moved into London and Essex in the 1500s, thanks to wills and families being merchants. One Colchester ancestor of mine was from Algarkirk in Lincs originally, and a merchant ancestor of mine who flitted between London and Norfolk married a woman from Lincs.

I do miss being able to see the records online on Lincs to the Past. I am sure there were wills, but since they changed it I wanted to check an 1817 will in Lincs to see if a certain man was my ancestor.

[BillyF]

It`s now a very misleading website ( Lincolnshire Archives)! It looks as if you can access the images but I`ve never been able to achieve it !!