Who do I think I am?
Like many people, I’ve been eagerly watching Who Do You Think You Are, the show where celebrities get to learn about their genealogy. While I could do without the typical network sensationalism (see [celebrity] make a SHOCKING revelation about their ancestors!) and obvious product placement (let’s go to Ancestry.com to look that up!), it has in general been a very good show.
The celebrities make meaningful connections to their ancestor’s lives, and there are little tips along the way that I can glean and use in my own search. Plus, we get to learn about history.
The New York Times disagrees. The author’s primary critique seems to be that not all of us have such interesting ancestors in our family tree. Well, I emphatically disagree with him. I don’t see any one region or historical event more interesting than any other. I never favored my ancestors who traveled in ox carts across the United States over the ones who took a train to Chicago. All of them had their own unique part of a fascinating history. I never felt bad that I wasn’t related to royalty (though, granted, it would make a genealogical search for records easier!). I never felt cheated that as far as I can tell, the ancestors on one particular line were farmers in a small, close knit community, probably for hundreds of years before my last known record. I find that fascinating enough on its own. Can you imagine the life of farmers in medieval northern Germany? What did they deal with? Were there land disputes? Sickness? Did they survive The Plague? Surely, they did or I would not be here today. Was their community ever invaded by foreign powers? How were they governed? What holidays and traditions did they celebrate? Even the most boring and basic life is so interesting to me because the context of a foreign culture in a long ago time is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced.
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