Who do you think you are?

[kittya]

I like Dervla and I really enjoy this show. Do you reckon they have an idea of what they are going to find?

Yes I forgot about SJPs mum - I feel a bit sad sometimes when you see celebs parents houses - she must be worth millions it would have been nice of her to buy her mum a house.

I thought their house was ok actually. And it's the home where she raised a large happy family, so maybe she wants to keep living there. SJP probably takes them on expensive holidays

I hope she does.

how much is she worth 30 million? but, thats what I liked about it. Im sure she wouldve offered her mum a house. It was a lovely house but nothing outstanding by American standards. She seemed very down to earth to me.

Zoe Wanamaker was good because it took her back to the US at the time her father was blacklisted during the height of Macarthyism. I've been a fan of hers for years (I sound like a teenager!) and knew a bit about Sam so it was really interesting.

I was a Dervla fan as well so last night's was good but yes, DH and I were both that she didn't even know her grandparents' names. Interesting though.

SJP and her husband had a very bad press here years ago over a car accident in Ireland where 2 people died (pre SATC fame).
Can't make my mind up about her - the surrogate twins thing is a bit odd too imo.

I was going to mention that!! and it was quite soon after she found out her husband was allegedly having an affair.

strange

Paxo's was good as he had to face some harsh realties.
Brucie's was interesting.

Enjoyed Barbra Windsor finding out she was related to Turner the painter.

Boris's was interesting - connected to those Royal familes and Turkish roots.

As a keen genealogist myself who spends months and years trying to obtain those key missing pieces of the jigsaw I PMSL when the 'sleb' opens a book / seraches the records and the info immediately pops up.

Hmmm.

I've never really bothered about her much - didn't watch SATC. She seemed very little-girlish in her mannerisms on WDYTYA - mind you so did Brooke Shields. I was a bit surprised by that. Much prefer the UK version of the series generally, bit more room for the narrative to breathe with the extra ten mins and slower pace.

yh my parents have been on a quest lately to find info - they spend hours searching old records and soooo many maybes or possibles hardly ever a definite match, some are so old/handwriting illegible to be of any use too.

I am an archivist and part of my job is helping people research their family history. We've helped with a few of the WDYTYA programmes (not all of our research is used) but we were featured in one episode and we have had Nick Barratt (geneaologist involved in the series from the start) give a talk at our place. Apparently the celebrities are not told anything so that what you see is their true reaction. When we offered to set up the microfilm in the correct place we were told not to by the producer as they thought it would be amusing to see the celebrity struggle to load the machine!

I really enjoyed the Esther Rantzen one - how she found out that her great-uncle (?) became one of the wealthiest men alive in his day through buying diamond fields in Afrida and that is how her family moved from the East End to a house with servants etc. She had no idea about any of that when it was obviously how she ended up being quite posh.

, PicklePumpkin.

If I had my time again I would do some sort of qualification in archive management/conservation. Love that sort of thing.

i love it! So much history jumps out into real lives. brilliant!

I cry at the stories all the time, (yep, right old softie!)

Did anyone see Jodie Kidd...who went over to USA to follow up family back about 300 odd years and then... traced it back again to Yorkshire where a stained glass window in a church showed her family shown sailing off to America with other puritans?