03 April 2010

Who Do You Think You Are?

Have any of you watched this show? It's on NBC and it is the stories of tracing celebrities family trees. At first I was a little meh about it but it turns out that it is fascinating. Granted, they have all the means to their disposal to discover their origins so it is easier than if I were to research my family tree.

One of the things that I like about it is how little surprises like continuity of tastes or interests are passed along, either genetically or environmentally. Brooke Shields has always been drawn to all things French and it turns out that her family is of French descent.

Or how a simple document can tell a whole story. One marriage certificate or death certificate tells an important chapter.

I wonder if Americans don't consider much beyond their own simple American heritage. It doesn't occur to us that perhaps there was family beyond the Mayflower.

At one time, my father's family tree was traced. It turns out that I am a descendant of Robert E Lee. Unfortunately, those documents have since been lost. My mother's tree would be difficult as there are multiple marriages, siblings, etc.

I would be curious to trace Kevin's family tree as his grandmother was originally from Australia. She was brought over as a young bride and lived in Canada before coming to the States.

Each of our family names are common, common name: Moore, Thomas, and Johnson. Good Gosh, we might as well both be named Smith.

There is a strange coincidence between Kevin & my mothers. Each are named Donna Leigh, and each have an April birthday. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Gulick and Kevin's mom nearly married a man named Vern Gulick. My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Johnson and that is Kevin's family name.

Maybe I will do a little snooping around. Now is the time, we're not getting any younger.

Do you know your families heritage?

3 comments:

creative kerfuffle said...

i have a great aunt that did some of our family tree on my mom's side, and my paternal grandma had some paper work for that side of the family, but the hubs has done most of the work. he pieced together things from his family (he has an uncommon last name, like there might be 200 at most of them in the US) and research his great uncle did had betsy ross marrying into the hubs' family (second marriage?) but no blood relation. his line is cajun/french and german. my maiden name is quite common but names on my mom's side aren't. we know that part of the family is german/polish (though one great grandpa was adopted from a canadian orphanage), then there's some english and scotch in there, plus cherokee. the hubs has used family tree maker program and ancestry.com. it's all fascinating to me.

Not Your Aunt B said...

No! Since we're Hispanic (and almost nearly impossible to trace since there are so many freakin' Hispanics in the world all with very similar last names) and my family is retarded- instead of telling you facts they instead go on gossip which gets you nowhere. Somewhat like this: your great grandfather, Paco, who was a very handsome man by the way and was a good man, unlike his brother Pablo who was a marijuanero, married in this little town, I don't remember the name to Rosa or was her name Maria Rosa or Rosa Maria...
and on and on. Impossible.

Bethany said...

I started watching the Lisa Kudrow episode last night and then my internet shut off. I do want to see some of them! It sounds really interesting :)