Who Do You Think You Are? (NBC)

[Eagleye]

Been doing family history research on and off for some years. Been a $29 per month member of Ancestry.com for the past year. Yes, the collection of family history is amazing. I've found the ship manifest with my grandparents names from 1907. Traced my mother's side back to the 1700s where the first relative in the US from her side came as an indentured servant to Philadelphia about 1760. My wife has a prominent English name, and recently found that Rodger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island was her grandfather 10 times removed. Found other prominent and famous ancestors in her family as well. Based on her family history, she's applying to the Daughter's of the Amrican Revolution for membership. ALso found an ancient family coat of arms, and direct line to William the Conquerer, and Othe of Windsor. We now have downloaded copies of old wills, photos, birth and death certificates, ships passengers lists of relatives coming to America. It takes time, but each inquiry can set of an amazing adventure into who you really are and where you came from. We're not historians, but just folks who have been married 42 years, retired, got some extra time, and want to get this done to pass off to our children and grandchildren. My wife has a hand written scroll done by a relative in 1902 that lays out her family tree back to the 1200s. We used that as a document to validate and as a basis for starting this. We found quite a few errors in the old scroll. Mainly birth and death dates, and sometimes additonal children in a family. The US Census documents that are available on Ancestry.com are really helpful. Although we found many spelling errors of names and ages in the Census, it nevertheless shows you where your ancestors lived, how many were in that house at the time, their ages, occupation, father and mother of the adults, and places or countries of birth. If you are interested in this stuff, it's worth the $29 per month do get it done. You should be able to trace most of your family members over a couple months or so and then you can end your membership. So....who do you think you really are? You may be very surprised. We were.

[dreamonia]

Eagleye: that is so amazing!! WOW!!!

my family is from Hungary they came over here in the 1950's and 1960's so I am having a really hard time getting the information I am not sure if ancestory will help me at all.

My parents are both deceased that is what started me on my adventure, the history of a family is so fascinating....and some very sad like accidents that killed family members (small children) and to find that report online is astonishing.

I hope one day to go to Hungry and meet my relatives and have them fill me in on all the information I need.

[Debb70]

I was told years ago that the Mormon church has a lot of records for ancestory searches.

[psucashcow]

I was told years ago that the Mormon church has a lot of records for ancestory searches.

Actually, the Mormon church is an owner or sole owner of Ancestry.com. They are the repository of the most extensive collection of records of all kinds. At the same time, in the 16 years that I have been researching my family, as well as my husband's, I have not found all that many records that were germaine to my particular searches.

[Debb70]

Actually, the Mormon church is an owner or sole owner of Ancestry.com. They are the repository of the most extensive collection of records of all kinds. At the same time, in the 16 years that I have been researching my family, as well as my husband's, I have not found all that many records that were germaine to my particular searches.

I certainly did not know that.

Years ago I went with a group to Europe. Some of them were doing ancestory searches in Scotland. I really wish I had been as interested then as I am now. Most all of my family names are English on both sides.

[swissmiss150]

When my father researched his ancestors about 25 years ago, he used the local Mormon library for part of the research. You do not need to belong to their church.

[Critical]

When my father researched his ancestors about 25 years ago, he used the local Mormon library for part of the research. You do not need to belong to their church.

Pretty much every town or city has at least one stake that has an LDS family history center. I used the one in my college town and found that the ladies who worked there were always very helpful and NEVER preached or tried to get me to join their church.

The largest genealogical research library in the world is in SLC. One of these days, I'll get there!

I really enjoying Gwyneth Paltrow's episode! This was the first time we got some info about both sides of the family too, which was nice. While they didn't go back too far, it was cool that she got to learn so much in such a short time. This episode seemed really jam-packed vs. some other episodes that it doesn't feel they get much done. I was really curious about what brought her family to Barbados, although I fear it might have been slavery (owning), so maybe NBC didn't want to investigate that any further.

[Critical]

I guess we know why they left Ashley Judd's episode for last! I'll bet the producers were drooling when they found out she's a Mayflower descendant!

I really enjoyed the episode, although I thought the complete lack of reference to her mother and sister was really glaring. I know her sister has a different father, but I wondered if her new book has caused more of a rift and that's why she chose to look into her father's side of the family. Still, it was nice to see her with her father, who I didn't know much about.

I'm excited to see which celebs they have lined up for next season!

[Debb70]

I guess we know why they left Ashley Judd's episode for last! I'll bet the producers were drooling when they found out she's a Mayflower descendant!

I really enjoyed the episode, although I thought the complete lack of reference to her mother and sister was really glaring. I know her sister has a different father, but I wondered if her new book has caused more of a rift and that's why she chose to look into her father's side of the family. Still, it was nice to see her with her father, who I didn't know much about.

I'm excited to see which celebs they have lined up for next season!

Ashley was on THe View one day last week and her mom and wynonna were on there the next day. They all talked about everything openly and there seems to be no resentment, anger or anything wrong between them. They all have been through extensive therapy. Naomi and Wynonna both revealed that each one of them had also been sexually abused as children.

[Critical]

I guess my feeling is that, if everything was totally fine with them, they would have been on The View together I remember the two of them being on Oprah years ago and Ashley was in the audience to support them. I read an article - of course, I can't remember where now - that indicated Naomi was NOT happy about the revelations in Ashley's book. Ashley was on Craig Ferguson last night and Wynonna was on the night before. Something Ashley said - or maybe the way she said it - made me think there was still some distance there.