Reply #3: "Who Do You Think You Are?" is now in its second series,

[TheBaldyMan]

It traces the ancestry of that week's celeb back as far as it will go. Absolutely memsmerising television. The first series didn't get any huge stars and settled for people you wouldn't normally think of as celebrities, in the sense of being famous for being famous or perhaps actors and TV hosts. Mainly people who were famous for outstanding efforts in their own field.

One of the first subjects was Moira Stewart a BBC newsreader and the first Black woman to read the national TV news in the UK. She was able to trace her ancestors back to the West Indies to the days of slavery. It was quite touching seeing her examine the records of her ancestors' sale. It certainly brought a lump to my throat watching it.

There was also Jeremy Paxman from the "Newsnight" investigative news programme. He managed to track down his great-grandmother living in Glasgow, after she was widowed she was reduced to the conditon of extreme poverty, forced to relay on parish charity she later had an illegitimate child and some busybody informed the church authourities and all financial assistance ceased. Mr. Paxman was understandably upset, evenly mixing grief and rage.

All the people involved didn't come from aristocratic backgrounds and the series are priceless documents of social history for Britain in the last three centuries. Our ancestors had a really hard life, truly awful working and living conditions contributed to high mortality and poor health.