Who Do You Think You Are?

This is a fascinating series on the genealogy of famous people. I love the way these stories unfold layer by layer to reveal the drama that is humanity from the great wars, massive migrations, and religious persecution to stories of everyday life. Birth, census, marriage, property, court and death records provide factual information of those that came before us and are woven with general historical information that is known about the time period to bring to life ancestors who were not previously known. These stories are often poignant and emotional as we come to know personal struggles. They educate us today of the way life used to be; where young children often died from diseases that today are easily prevented, where prejudice was accepted as the norm and a lack of social safety nets led to destitution. It reminds us how far we have come. How medical advances such as vaccinations and contraception have improved lives by saving children from horrible diseases and helping families plan the size of families in order to better support them. For all that is wrong with media today, it can put a spotlight on abuses and human suffering which lead to social change today. It brings to mind that great quotation attributed to George Santayana and repeated by Winston Churchill "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Although I really enjoy this series, it sometimes has a scripted feel and is a blatant commercial for Ancestry.com. I rate this series an 8 out of 10.

Humans love stories, and this show does an excellent job of using television to tell the stories of real people, without being maudlin or mawkish, or throwing them into contrived situations for comic or dramatic effect.

While we are dealing with the ancestors of a very select group of people (after all, how many would watch a show about *my* family tree?), the stories they tell are the stories of all of us: the former German POW who loved his time in an Iowa POW camp so much he came back to the U.S. after WWII. The story of a family torn apart by alcoholism and abuse. The story of people fighting for justice, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.

To get stories told this well, I am willing to put up with the heavy handed references to ancestry.com, and the smiling, infallible librarians and archivists who seem to always have just the right document.

Lisa Kudrow was great in "Friends" but I think this is the show should should put at the top of her resume

This show was first shown on NBC for 3 seasons, and is now continuing on TLC. I'm happy that they're continuing without much decline in the production value. I doubt it costs much, and the most important ingredient are the celebrities.

Each episode, one celebrity investigate his/her ancestral history usually concentrating on something they're interested in. That's really the only rub I have against this show. The celebrities could certainly hide things they don't want to air in public. But most importantly, they might be interested in a really boring ancestor.

That doesn't happen a lot. Most of the discoveries are quite fascinating. Not only does it reveal personal history, but sometimes it reveals little known world history events. It brings the past worlds to life in the most personal ways.

I loved Shannon's episode of Who Do You Think You Are, since it was so real. I have Irish family I'd love to locate and to see her chance, it was amazing. Love her even more now.

As a genealogist, I've gotten ideas from this show on locating info on my relatives. Also, it's fun to see where celebrities have come from.

However, I do wish they'd do this same thing for "not celebrities" and us common folk. Celebrities can afford to pay someone to do their genealogy. Regular folks can't, and it would be nice if this show would occasionally choose someone from the world and do it for them for free (including what they do for the celebrities, flying them to different cities to meet with people and see from whence they came)