New Series of Who Do You Think You Are

[LaliqueSaltGrinder]

Anyone watching? I liked the Zoe Ball episode, interesting story on both sides ofher family and she came across very well.

The Amy Dowden one was interesting but there was a fair amount of her leaping to conclusions such as people being hard working, or the motives for murder when there was no evidence for it. She did come across as very engaged with it all though.

Yeah, I thought the Amy one was poor, she seemed to think she could work out the past from the tiniest of details.

They often do, I wonder if this is promoted or emphasised by the producers?

Zoe Ball one , part was in a place I used to work, interesting for me. Imagine as a child not seeing your mum for 14 years.

I thought Amy Dowden's one was boring. There seemed to be a lot of filler.

I liked them both, love Johnny Ball and would have liked the Ball side of her family to be explored but I suppose they're only going to select lines that have some interest

I really liked the Amy Dowden one but I too wondered how she could be sure so quickly that it was murder and not an accident and then she changed her mind

But, what I will say with all of these WDYTYAs is that every single celeb tries to make out that there is some sort of genetic link with some distant ancestor to hold onto 'oh my 14x great grandmother was a florist, thats why I love flowery curtains, I knew it!'

I was watching the Ross Kemp one again and the Layton Williams ones and they're leaping to all sorts of connections about travel, swimming, living in South London as if there is some sort of genetic link with life experiences from someone hundreds of years back!!!

I think the producers have a "story" they want to tell and choose ancestors who feed into that - so Zoe's story was about strong women and resilience, and with Amy they clearly wanted to feature the breast cancer story because of her own diagnosis. Some celebs seem to want to extrapolate and leap to conclusions more than others.

Zoe Ball's estrangement from her mum was never really explained, she and I are around the same age and that would have been unusual. But concerning living people which isn't really the remit of the show.

I stopped watching for years and am now enjoying catching up. People with Ag Lab ancestry seem to be very underrepresented.

Probably because if their Ag Lab ancestors are anything like mine, there is no story there. Mine just lived in the same place for ever, kept their heads down, and worked. Boring!

What is Ag Lab? I googled and got lots of pictures of lovely labradors.

Agricultural Labourer.

Am so jealous of these famous people who have a whole team of genealogists working to find out things about their families. All they have to do is turn up at a bar or restaurant and be presented with a folder full of detailed research and photographs, and they don't have to pay a penny.

I enjoyed the Zoe Ball one. Amy Dowden's was quite dull. I can't even remember the conclusion of the murder story because I got bored that they spent 30 minutes on it. She did seem disappointed that her dad's side were from Somerset rather than Wales.

I'm hoping it's a blip and they've put one of the dull ones early on in the series.

Even if they don't reveal they do on the show, do you think they do DNA tests as well?

Probably no need to do that. They have expert professional genealogists, historical researchers & archivists working on the programme.

I don't think so - WDYTYA has always been about the paper trail and the records. There are other shows concentrating more on the DNA. Maybe some of the celebs will go on to have a test done for their own interest.

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. I know there are a few other programmes that are DNA based but I was wondering if they also do a DNA test now to back up the paper trail? But don't say so. If you're convinced your great grandparents did x, y and z, but then discover you're not related to them at all, it makes the paper trail (for the celeb), meaningless, possibly.

I remember the Alistair McGowan one where they discovered an ancestor wasn't who he thought it was but that must have been through documents. Might need to rewatch. But he was quite shocked/upset. So I was wondering if they did DNA tests as well. That way, they'd mitigate that shock and would be more assured that the paper trail was correct.

It’s highly unlikely they do DNA tests. I mean, quite apart from the possibility of multiple celebrities discovering they’re not their dad’s biological child, or a raft of half-siblings from affairs etc etc, freaking out and not subsequently participating in the show, the whole point of the programme is the documented evidence of family stories. Bluntly, it doesn’t matter whether you’re not actually descended from Great-Great So and So, it matters that the birth and marriage certs say you are, and that he got transported to Australia and made it big/was a music hall magician /was wounded at the battle of Waterloo or whatever.

Yeah, I get it's a social history programme. I was just musing on whether there was DNA discussion in the background, now it's so popular. They probably wouldn't show those episodes though. "You're directly decended from Henry V. Oh, now you're not." 😄

I was quite shocked with the Zoe Ball one that they got her grandmother’s medical records. It felt a bit intrusive to me.

Gosh I thought Zoe was very forgiving of her Mum. It’s beyond my comprehension how you would leave your darling children.
Which I know makes me out to be very judgy. Sorry.
I really felt Amy was doing a terrible injustice to the 17 year old who accidentally shot dead her distant ancestor.
But I also thought he should have been locked up for manslaughter. Even for a short time.

Yes, this happened on ITV’s DNA Journey.

A family member is an historian and has been an adviser on the programme a couple of times. Such an interesting job!

We have a family legend/myth on both sides of my family which, if true, would be quite special (involving very famous people from history and sport). Despite fairly comprehensive family trees, we still can't prove them either way. I'd love an episode of WDYTYA for "normal" people like us.

If you're convinced your great grandparents did x, y and z, but then discover you're not related to them at all, it makes the paper trail (for the celeb), meaningless, possibly

But then you get into a philosphical debate about what "family" is. DH and I have both done DNA tests, nothing unexpected on mine but his showed quite clearly that his grandfather's father was not the man stated on the birth certificate and who brought him up. We shared the information with DH's dad, who knew the man and as far as he was concerned, the fact they weren't biologically related didn't change how he felt about him as a "grandfather".

It's complicated.

It was the actor John Simm who discovered the man who brought him up wasn't his biological father.

I’ve watched since the first series and I’m getting very frustrated with how slow it’s become - I’m sure in earlier series there were more investigations done and more ancestors stories told. Now we get 30 minutes on one long drawn out incident like the killing of Amy’s family member. With far too much chat and making things up from the celebrities!

I do like Jonny and Zoe Ball though!

Liked the Joe Swash one better than Amy. Really interesting story and he came across well.

Yes Joe was great, seemed genuine and such an interesting family history.