Thursday, August 21, 2014
Who Do You Think You Are?
I am very impressed wi>th TLC;s Who Do you Think You Are? This series starts with various celebrities (Reba McEntire, Vanessa Williams, Kelly Clarkson) and traces back to various interesting ancestors. It often brings out important parts of American history. Kelly Clarkson;s g-g-g-grandfather survived Andersonville POW camp. After the war, he was elected sheriff. in Ohio, then to the Ohio state senate. where he pushed prohibition, and was defeated at the next election because of it.
Vannessa Williams has one of the other inspiring stories, a grandfather who joined the U.S. Army in 1874, and another who was one of the black Tennessee legislators.
McEntire's stoey is one that could easily be turned into a liberal morality tale. Her g-g-g-grandfather was a North Carolina slaveowner, and Reba clear;y freaked at the records showing his sale of children. I can see But then she found that her g-g-g-g-g-grandfather had been an indentured servant sent to America because mother died young inEngland, and his father sent the son to America to give him a better shot than he would have had in England.
Ancestry.com is a sponsor of the series, and is prominently featured in the programs. Not only emotionaally powerful, but a painless way to lern U.S. history. I can see using this in the first week of a UlS. histoey class.
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Being into genealogy now, Bitter and I are also big fans of that show. Genealogy takes you places in history that most interests will never take you. Because my 4th great-grandfather was a mid 19th century bottler in Philadelphia, I've learned more about bottling in that era than I would have ever known otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI've also learned enough about the archaeology about glass bottles, and glass bottle collecting, to even want to think about engaging in the novelty of bottling some beer in one of my 4x great-grandfather's bottles, which are relatively plentiful an cheap to come by in collectors circles. He was apparently a major bottler.
I hope you're recovering well.