"Who Do You Think You Are?"

[Little Star]

Did anyone watch last weeks show about Sarah Jessica Parker's family history? I missed it. The show is on NBC Friday night at 8/9c. Tomorrow night they are doing Emmitt Smith's ancestry, I won't miss that one! It is a seven-episode program that will lead celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees. They also list Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields during the eight episode program.

[Little Star]

1. I watched the Emmitt Smith segment.

It was pretty good. Emmitt got pretty emotional.

Has anyone else watched this show? If so, what did you think?

[unc70]

2. Saw part of it, thought the VA segement on Mariah was weak

I only saw the second half, but the interviews in VA about the young Mariah seemed vague and possibly missing the obvious. There was a bunch of speculative BS about if one of the Puryears was Mariah's father, about Mariah being sent away to avoid being a reminder to the wife, etc.

It looked to me that Mariah was mentioned in a will, that she was inherited by son from father. If so that would throw a lot of cold water on the other speculation. It also appears that the son, his family, and slaves were part of the migrations south and west from VA and NC in the 1820-1840's. These migrations often involved members of younger generations from various families moving as a community. In this migration, slave families often remained relatively intact, often dividing in ways similar to the slave-owning families .

Maybe they had specific documentation about Mariah not revealed during the broadcast. It seemed rather flimsy based on just what we saw in the show. I don't know the specifics of that family and that county, but from what I know of neighboring areas, I would not be surprised if there were not more documentation than one might think. While slaves were bought and sold in that region, more-often at that time, they were inherited. This meant that slave families showed up on the census and on wills and marriage bonds. If I heard properly, Mariah was the only slave inherited by that son (along with the saddle, etc.) implying that the family did not own very many slaves, maybe no more than an extended family.

Using the document on the bloodlines of the horses also seemed a bit overly dramatic.

This is all just speculation at the moment. I plan to bring this up with several people I know who actually know something about these topics; curious what they think.

[kestrel91316]

3. I love this show. I think it might be behind my hooking up with a heretofore

unknown half second cousin once removed. She JUST started doing her genealogy about two weeks ago. I need to ask her if the show is what got her started.

I had my family tree posted on Ancestry.com for a few years, ever hopeful that SOMEONE would see it and help me with a brick wall, and I guess it's like fishing - you just have to bait your hook and WAIT.

[kestrel91316]

4. Kick. I've enjoyed every episode so far.

[Little Star]

5. I've only caught Emmitt and SJP so far, but love the series!

I have the others, that have shown so far, on DVR and will watch all of them at my leisure. I want to see them at a time when I will not be disturbed by every day life. :rofl: Just selfish of me I guess!

I find their stories so fascinating and would recommend them to everyone.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE genealogy!!!!

[Little Star]

6. I have now seen 7 of the 8 episodes. I found them all

interesting. I especially liked Susan Sarandon's episode. Now I have to find the only one I've missed this season which was Spike Lee.

[sandnsea]

7. They're online

I watched them all except Spike Lee and Matthew Broderick. Really good. I will probably watch Spike Lee's later tonight.

http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/

[Little Star]

8. I watched the Spike Lee episode the other night.

It was very interesting. I think they are planning on doing more shows next year. I hope so.

[Lucinda]

9. You can catch them all on HULU

Just saw them all recently:

http://www.hulu.com/who-do-you-think-you-are