"Who Do You Think You Are?": Helen Hunt

Some of my thoughts on last week's Helen Hunt-centric episode of WDYTYA:

• Funny that just as I wrote a blog entry saying I wanted to see some Western genealogy, this episode did a little bit of tracing Helen's San Francisco-based family, who took advantage of the 1849 Gold Rush to expand their business.
• I kinda dug that portion of the show because Helen's ancestor became a successful and wealthy businessman who ended up investing in a bank (the eventual Wells Fargo) that is still around today. I could totally identify with this, as my great-great grandfather Rudolph Stutzmann became a successful and wealthy businessman (as an undertaker) who ended up a founding member and first president of a bank (Ridgewood Savings Bank) that is still around today. Loved it.
• I really wanted to see more emotion on Helen's part, at least for the first three-quarters of the episode. When she was talking to the woman who had written a book on her own San Francisco-based genealogy and it turned out that their ancestors had been friends and business partners, I just loved it, and yet Helen was all, "meh." She really didn't seem like she wanted to be there and she really, really didn't seem excited about anything she was finding out (except that her ancestors were rich, and that kind of bothered me, too). But I was getting more excited than her, and it wasn't even my family they were talking about!
• I loved the last part of the episode, when Helen traveled to Maine to learn about her great-grandmother Augusta Hunt. That was where Helen seemed to finally emotionally connect to a specific person in her tree and to her ancestry in general. The irony of Helen's great-grandmother fighting alcohol abuse and her future daughter-in-law being killed by a drunk driver really seemed to resonate with her, as well as finding out her great-grandmother was instrumental in the fight for women's suffrage and that she lived to be able to register to vote and be the first woman to cast a ballot in Maine. That was really cool.
• I loved that Helen was able to read the keynote speech her great-grandmother wrote and gave at one of the meetings. I've read newspaper articles where my great-great grandfather Rudolph has been quoted, and more than vital records and obits and census records, these things are an actual voice from the past - these are words your ancestor spoke, these are thoughts they actually had, reaching out over the years, the decades, the centuries, to us today, a tiny glimpse into their personality, their psyche, their lives. I just love that.

Overall, I would say that I really wanted to throttle Helen for the first part of this episode for not realizing how immensely cool this all is, but by the end of the episode, it was probably my favorite one so far this season...and of course, I was crying. Well played, show.

Next up this week (tomorrow): Rita Wilson explores her Bulgarian roots, answering another thing on my wishlist, seeing more Eastern European genealogy. 

Tombstone Tuesday: Rodney Dangerfield

Tombstone Tuesday always makes me think of my dad because a love of cemeteries and headstones is something we share. He said his dad also liked them, so that's right there is three generations of weirdos. I joke, but I really did not realize how strange my fascination with cemeteries was to other people until recently, because I could talk about them with my dad like it was normal. We'd even go on cemetery field trips together. Anyway, now Tombstone Tuesday always makes him think of me and he'll send me photos of some of his favorite headstones, some of them belonging to relatives, some of them not. Here's this week's offering: comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who died in 2004 and is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The inscription under his name always makes me laugh.

Most cemeteries could use a little humor. :)

May the road rise up to meet you...

Today I'd like to take a moment to just remember my Irish family members, some of whom fled Ireland to escape the Great Hunger in the mid-1800s, many of whom emigrated years later, all of whom were well established in New York by the turn of the 20th century. St. Patrick's Day is an Irish holiday, but it's also a very New York-Irish holiday. I'm a bit of a mutt, but my biggest ancestry percentage, at 50 percent, is Irish - my paternal grandfather, Elmer Gorry, was 100 percent Irish, as is my maternal grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor. Grandpa's great-great-great grandparents were both potato famine era Irish immigrants, settling in the Lower East Side of New York City: James Gorry from County Meath and Mary Corr, who came from County Cavan with her mother and two brothers. And Grandma's father, Timothy Cronin, came to Brooklyn from County Cork with his mom and brothers and sisters in th 1880s. When I was in third grade, we were talking in class about things that aren't real and one of my classmates mentioned leprechauns. I was hardly one to participate in class, but my hand immediately shot up so I could correct her - leprechauns ARE real, and I know for a fact, because my grandmother told me that her father told her he had seen one when he was a boy in Ireland.

To this day, I'm not sure he was joking...

And in between the Gorrys and Cronins, we had Tormeys and Horgans and Murphys and Prendergasts and Enrights who left Ireland for New York, and lets not forget all the Donnellys and Collins and Donoghues and Cullinanes who they also came from. I don't identify as much with my Irish side anymore, but I'm very proud to be of Irish descent. They are the hardest family for me to trace and I'll probably never be able to go back much further than my immigrant ancestors, but I always think of them anyway - whenever I think of me and my siblings with our Irish first names, or see my sister with her red hair, or when I misplace something and I know, I just know, that a leprechaun took it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"Who Do You Think You Are?": Jerome Bettis

Like how I'm waiting a whole week to post about these episodes? Way to stay current...

I actually don't have that many thoughts about this episode of WDYTYA. Two things in particular struck me, one good and one bad: when Jerome Bettis discovered his great-grandfather had abandoned his wife and young children, and that's why his grandfather didn't know much about him or never really talked about him, it was a little heartbreaking. It started out like Kim Cattrall's search for her grandfather, which didn't have a happy ending. But then Bettis searched for his great-grandfather's early history and discovered that he had pressed charges against his (white) boss in the Jim Crow south and brought him to court and - poof! - like magic, the guy was no longer a scoundrel, he was a hero. That disturbed me a little, that Bettis so quickly and easily forgot or chose to ignore that this man, while yes, was brave in standing up for himself in his youth, grew up to be a man who completely abandoned his family. Bettis kept saying how proud he was of him and that kind of bothered me.

What didn't bother me was his great-grandfather's father's story of not only taking a giant railroad company to court for injuries he incurred on their property, but for the case going in his favor, despite the all-white jury. That was impressive - that he had the courage to embrace that David and Goliath fight, but also that he got a fair trial. Yes, there was a lot of racism and hate and segregation and ignorance and all that jazz, but people forget (like Bettis seemed to) that there were also a lot of people who believed in equality, and even if they didn't necessarily believe in equality, they believed in fairness and justice.

Anyway, this episode kind of made me realize that while the original series has been broadcasting in the UK for years, that after awhile, the episodes start to feel repetitive. Unless it's a celebrity you're particularly interested in or like, or there's a real unique angle, the nuts and bolts of everyone's family story are the same. Although I guess you don't really know what surprises or unique angles you're going to find until you already start looking.

 I'd like to see some diversity in the storytelling - except for Sarah Jessica Parker, we haven't really seen anybody trace their family west of the Mississippi River; if I'm correct we haven't really seen any Eastern European genealogy except for Lisa Kudrow. What about all those Canadian and Australian actors out there? I'd love to see some Canadian and Australian genealogy. And I know this would be much more work for the researchers and possibly not fiscally feasible given the number of staff and time restrictions, but what about branching out from the white/black divide to our Central/South American and Asian brothers and sisters? These are the things I think about when I'm at work...

There's no new episode tonight, so don't sit there looking for it...go out and get a head start on celebrating St. Patrick's Day! I am half Irish by blood, but as I always say, we're all Irish on St. Patrick's Day! ;)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

"Who Do You Think You Are?": Reba McEntire

Though I didn't love this episode - for some reason, it felt really light on the whole "going on a journey to solve a family mystery/make a discovery" thing - two things stood out for me in the Reba McEntire episode last Friday of WDYTYA.

The first was the realization that just as it must be devastating for African-Americans to come face-to-face with the reality that they have ancestors who were slaves, it must not be a picnic for white Americans to realize they had ancestors who were slaveholders. My family has been here for hundreds of years but because they were concentrated in New York/New England, that hasn't ever been an issue for me (although its entirely possible that even in the north I had family who owned slaves - I just haven't found any records of it yet). But Reba seemed absolutely heartbroken when she came across that record for George Brasfield. So while I imagine it has to be harder to know your ancestors were slaves, it was interesting angle to see that it can be a struggle on both sides of it to come to terms with this shameful part of our history.

I also always find it interesting to see which ancestor a person ends up identifying with and Reba, as a mother, really seemed to struggle with the fact that the other George Brasfield, the first on her side of the family to come to America, came here as a 10 year old indentured servant. Since she couldn't imagine ever sending her son on a dangerous voyage across the ocean, knowing she would never see him again, she really needed to find out why that happened. There are all sorts of reasons we identify with certain ancestors, whether its because we are in a similar situation in life or we have similar personalities, but I also appreciate anybody who after undertaking this journey, needs to know not just the who, what, when, and where, but also the why, because without the why, the rest is kind of meaningless. But I actually identified with Reba and George Brasfield the Senior in this episode because I have a similar ancestral story, in that my first Raynor in this country, Edward, was only 10 years old when he came here in 1634. He was an orphan, but he had the advantage that at least he didn't come alone - he traveled here with his uncle and his cousins. But I still always wonder what it must have been like to be uprooted from your life at 10 to undertake a dangerous sea voyage to a completely unknown wilderness. That has always fascinated me.

So looking back at what I wrote, I guess it turns out that even when these episodes don't really speak to me...they still kinda do!

"Who Do You Think You Are?": Marisa Tomei and Blair Underwood

We're gonna talk about both episodes today, just cuz I'm feeling lazy. But both episodes sorta jumped out at me because of the use of newspapers and court records to flesh out the stories of certain ancestors of both Marisa and Blair - Marisa had questions about the murky circumstances and official records regarding her great-grandfather's death and Blair was intrigued by the fact his 3rd great grandfather ended up in a mental institution, and I think these episodes highlighted the importance of finding out the stories, not just the facts. Plus, I have that same kind of relative in my family - the brothers Ricklefs, John and Charles - where you find out one little factoid - in my case, that they were in jail - and it snowballs into a mountain of information that not only tells you they were criminals, but gives you this amazing insight into their character and personality and makes you think about their motivations and what influenced and drove them. So that also made me think again about the Martin Sheen episode, where I noted that it didn't really speak to me - but I think maybe I was a little harsh in not liking it, because we all have that particular story or that particular relative who speaks to us, who fuels our genealogical curiosity, and even though Martin's uncles didn't do it for me, they did it for him, and that's what matters.

In the Marisa Tomei episode, I liked that she was able to alleviate some of the stigma her mother had attached to their murdered predecessor, that he hadn't been a philanderer, that he didn't deliberately break up the family. Because that kind of legacy can weigh on a person. And I thought it was just wonderful that a relative and friend of Marisa's great-grandmother was found and wrote her a letter who was able to give her a firsthand account of what her great-grandmother was like in life, and how broken up she was by her husband's death, but how happy she became with her second husband. And it's true - if the great-grandfather hadn't died, his wife wouldn't have remarried to a fisherman, and her son maybe wouldn't have taken up the trade and emigrated to America. It's all the little things that come together to bring us to where we are today.

I thought Blair's story was interesting - I wasn't really into the whole cousin reunion thing but for African-Americans, I think it's definitely great to be able to find a country or tribe in Africa that you're probably descended from, since so many of them really hit an unbreakable brick wall before the Civil War. But a 10th-cousin is almost no relation at all - I don't know this offhand, but Cousin April and I are related somewhere way back when that's so far back that it almost doesn't even matter. We feel related because we have that common ancestor we're both chasing, but I'm probably just as closely related if not more closely related to half the people in my town, half of whom I've probably never even met.

But I did like, as I said before, all the story he was able to find on Sonny Early, and how he was actually able to get both sides of the story when it came to why Sonny was shot. But not everybody has that colorful character in their family tree, and someone like that is always a good hook to get people interested. But my absolute favorite part about the Blair Underwood episode was his discovery that he had free black ancestors living in this country as far back as 1790 - what an incredible find. There are so many African-Americans who are more American than so many white Americans, if their family came here as slaves in the 1600, 1700s, except they can't prove their ancestry back that far. But for a black American to be able to look at an 1840 census and see his relative's name, or original records from even earlier in the 19th century proving that his relatives were free more than half a century before slavery was officially abolished in the U.S. - well, I'm not black, but for many who are, they know deep down that someone, somewhere down the line, was enslaved, and that has to be a terrible realization, especially when these people start to become three-dimensional, real, and well, alive to you. So to be able to say your family was free - I would be proud. Relieved and proud.

Anyway, I enjoyed them both. I think I really enjoyed Blair Underwood's episode because Blair turned out to be so nice when I went to see him at the Paley Center. And if we're keeping count, I'm three for three with the tearing up this season. Closest to crying while watching Blair's episode. And that was in public, surrounded by 100 people in a tiny theater. Embarrassing...what can I say...when I see people blown away and emotionally affected by the genealogical discoveries they make, I'm a total sap.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

"Who Do You Think You Are?" panel at the Paley Center for Media

I love anything that combines the things that I love, which is part of the appeal of "Who Do You Think You Are?" for me, since I am both a media buff and a genealogy geek, so when I saw on Facebook and on Ancestry.com that the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) in New York was having a WDYTYA panel discussion last night, I immediately bought a ticket ($20 for nonmembers, but $15 with the Ancestry promo code) - I mean, what is the point of living so close to the city if you don't jump at these opportunities, right?

The event started at 6:30 but I got there 45 minutes early, which netted me a seat right in the center of the second row. The auditorium was not huge by any means but I was literally 15 feet from where the panel members would be sitting. The audience was an interesting mix - many were genealogy enthusiasts who were either hobbyists for themselves or professionals for others; the guy sitting behind me had his own company that helped people scan all their photos, digitize all their home movies, and record interviews with family members. A lot of people were simply fans of the show and a handful, you could tell, were celebrity stalkers. I don't blame them for going to the event even if they don't watch the show - I would've shown up just to see Blair Underwood, too!

So, the panel consisted of moderator Maira Liriano, archivist for The New York Public Library, who did some work for the show; Alex Graham, the creator of the original British series; Josh Hanna from Ancestry.com; Lisa Kudrow, executive producer of the American series and featured during the season; Kim Cattrall, who was featured in the first season; and Blair Underwood, whose episode airs this Friday. Kim, who is a trustee for the Paley Center, gave some opening remarks, then Lisa introduced the Blair Underwood episode, which we got to watch and which, as per usual, made me tear up. I'll remark on that episode after it airs, as I still haven't talked about the Marisa Tomei episode, but we'll get to that in another post.

WDYTYA panel: Josh Hanna, Kim Cattrall, Blair Underwood, Lisa Kudrow, and Alex Graham

Then there was the panel discussion. It was actually quite interesting - Alex Graham talked about how he came up with the concept for the show and how hard it was to not only convince the network that it was worth putting on the air but also convincing celebrities initially to participate, although now the show is so popular, at least in England, that people approach him saying they want to be on the show. He was very entertaining, and his Scottish brogue was awesome. Lisa talked a little about the importance of knowing your family history and passing that on, as well as helping to bring genealogy to the mainstream. Lisa, Kim, and Blair all talked about their particular episodes and how some of what they discovered was painful but how they were all glad they did it. Blair and Lisa also talked a little about the process of the show, which I found very interesting - there's an initial meeting where the celebrity is asked if there's something in particular they're interested in finding out or if there's a family mystery they want to solve, and then the researchers do some digging to see if there's a story to be told. I had wondered what happens if there's not an interesting story to tell and Alex Graham noted that sometimes, they do have a celebrity interested in being on the show but there's just no story to tell in their family history.

Kim Cattrall, Blair Underwood, and Lisa Kudrow

So anyway, the researchers get cracking and they know where the story and episode is headed but the celebrity is kept in the dark so that the viewer really is seeing them make those family discoveries as they are making them. I also liked that Lisa, in response to an audience question, remarked that its an imperfect process, due to money and time constraints. They only have so many researchers on the show and only so much time to film and to air, so they can't trace every line and they can't always be as thorough and sometimes some lines that may be interesting have to be dropped in order to focus on another line. Which of course makes sense - we as genealogists know we spend YEARS researching our family trees and they're still not complete.

Kim and Blair

One thing I will say about the Blair Underwood episode right now, just because Lisa was giving so much acknowledgement to the people who do the actual research on the show, is that while other episodes have glossed over the work and time that goes into finding genealogical information and how its other people, and not the celebrities, who are doing a lot of the grunt work and leg work, this one kept mentioning it, which I liked.

WDYTYA panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media in New York.

And just as a side note, all three celebrities - Lisa, Kim, and Blair - seemed so nice and so down-to-earth, in their interactions with the moderator, with each other, and with the audience, and that was just so cool to see.

Blair Underwood and Lisa Kudrow talk about "Who Do You Think You Are?"

Also, Blair Underwood is as yummy in person as he is on television. I could just eat him up with a spoon.

Just sayin'. :)