Cousins Are Not Ancestors

UPDATED after another error was found.

There was a statement made on this week's episode of Genealogy Roadshow that made me do a double take. But first, a statement that probably had historians yelling at their television sets.
The opening of each episode contains some history of the city they are filming in. The Saint Louis episode included this "fact":

 Narrator: "Named for the French Monarch, Louis the Fourteenth..."

According to the city's official site, Saint Louis was named for Louis IX.
The quote that made me do a double take was in the Laura Ingalls Wilder segment [starts at 44:25]. The entire segment, most of this episode in fact, was filled with "may be" and "might be." There was no definitive answer on whether the family was related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, just a huge leap of faith based on proximity. That was bad enough but then there was this:

 Kenyatta Barry: "You've been reading the books written by your pioneering ancestor."

Aunts, uncles, and cousins, no matter how distant, are not ancestors. If these families are connected, and that's still a pretty big if, Laura Ingalls Wilder would be a distant cousin. They are definitely not the author's descendants which means she is definitely not their ancestor.

UPDATE: 
Starting at 38:35 in the episode linked above you see James Whaley (b. 1921-). He is the grandfather of the young man Josh Taylor has at his table. Dass Whaley (1883-1967) is the young man's great-grandfather.

Josh Taylor: "He married a woman named Chanch Leopold and we were able to trace the Leopold family back..."

While it is never stated that Chanch Leopold is the mother of James Whaley the on-screen chart shows they are linked and reads, "Great Grandmother: 1931 - ??."
Dass made quite the catch finding a woman willing to marry a man almost 50 years her senior. And giving birth to James 10 years before she herself was born? That miracle should've been the highlight of the show.
*head/desk*head/desk*head/desk*


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Etched in Stone

I love most episodes of Finding Your Roots. Some I've watched over and over and over again. Unfortunately last week's episode, "The Melting Pot" [video is available until 21 Nov 2014], made me want to throw things at the television.
Below are a few transcribed portions and my notes.

[Dr. Gates narrating] "When Ming's grandfather left China, there was one object he took with him. A book tracing the family's genealogy back to the year 891 A.D.. It's a treasure in the Tsai family. But unfortunately for Ming the book is simply oral history set down by his ancestors. There's been no way to know if it's true, until now.
We sent researchers to China to try and confirm the Tsai genealogy. It was a long shot. The communists had ordered that all genealogical records be destroyed in an effort to break down family structures. This was, in fact, a fundamental part of the Cultural Revolution. But in some cases stone carved tablets, known as steles, have survived. Before communism the Chinese landscape was dotted with hundreds of thousands of these steles. In Ming's hometown only one remains standing."

"Ming's hometown"? Ming Tsai was born in Newport Beach, California and was raised in Dayton, Ohio.

[Dr. Gates talking to Ming] "Our researcher kept asking around and someone told her that of all of the family shrines that had existed before the Cultural Revolution there was only one that remained standing. Can you imagine that? I mean, of all these thousands, just one."

 Screen cap from "The Melting Pot" episode of Finding Your Roots.

Of course it's for the Tsai family, Ming's 36th great-grandfather, and there is a great television moment...and then genealogy brain kicks in. That stele looks like it was created in the last 25 years so who created it? Where did the information come from? How well is it documented?
Someone on Facebook commented that this stele was actually created in 2007 to memorialize the thousands of steles that once were. I don't read Chinese so maybe someone else can confirm that. Is it "the only one" still standing because it has only been standing for 7 years?

[Dr. Gates narrating] The stele confirmed Ming's family history to the letter. It documented his ancestry back to 891 A.D. and beyond.

Not even a question about whether the book was copied from the stone or vice versa? Do we know who provided the information for the stone? How does this "confirm" anything? I just have more questions.

[Dr. Gates narrating] But for Ming the biggest surprise was yet to come. His family stele lead our researcher to records in the Shanghai Library. Records that allowed us to construct a Tsai family tree that stretched back more than 90 generations. It was the largest family tree that we've ever constructed and it connected Ming to a legendary figure in Chinese history, Huang Di, one of China's first five emperors, often cited in folklore as the father of the Chinese language."

 Screen cap from The Melting Pot episode of "Finding Your Roots."

Oh, they're looking at microfilm. It must be true.

[Dr. Gates narrating] The records skip several generations so precise genealogy is impossible here but Huang Di is roughly Ming's 116th great-grandfather and just one of the hundreds of new ancestors that we were able to name for him.

The records skip several generations. The records SKIP several generations. The records skip SEVERAL generations. There is no way to say that, continue speaking as if it's no big deal, and not have genealogists everywhere question any research you have ever done.
I was hoping that there would be an explanation on the Finding Your Roots website. Research info, a history lesson, something to help us understand. No such luck. Their genealogy blog only has posts about DNA and Dr. Gates' blog hasn't had a new post since May of 2012.



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Pet Peeves: WDYTYA? Edition

These Who Do You Think You Are? pet peeves are not about the show itself but rather the "Me! Me! Me!" fans. I know, you're shocked.


I love you. Now change.

The show is amazing but they should change it and feature regular people. They should listen to ME since my idea is so original.

I'd volunteer.

After the show is completely revamped they will need people to feature so why not ME? The producers will have to beg people to participate just to fill a single season so they will appreciate ME offering to be the recipient of free research, free travel, and national exposure. Look at ME being completely selfless.

Everyone would want to watch ME.

Once this show happens there is no question that they would pick ME. An episode about ME would be just as interesting as Gwenyth Paltrow's or Tim McGraw's and would definitely draw the same number of viewers.

Behind my brick wall is an amazing story.

No one knows what is behind that brick wall but it would definitely make for the most amazing television show you have ever seen. The research blocks couldn't possibly be because the family has been peasant farmers for 10 generations. Doesn't matter, a show about ME would be completely fascinating.


This is what goes through my head when I read comments from WDYTYA? fans. I really should stop reading them.


Related Material: Interview with Lisa Kudrow (Aug 2014)
                             Interview with Dan Bucatinsky

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Bizarro Genealogy World

One thing that really sets me off is getting facts wrong. You can ask any of my friends. If anything they post on Facebook is urban legend or just a flat out lie I'm there with the link to the Snopes.com article.
Sadly last Monday's episode of Genealogy Roadshow (PBS) continued the spread of a common genealogical myth. You can view the episode here. The following starts at about the 32:30 mark.

D. Joshua Taylor, Roadshow genealogist, speaking:
This is something, as a genealogist, we get asked all the time. People say, "My name was changed at Ellis Island." That's partially true. It wasn't necessarily a case of you saying, "My name is Abraham Blechmann" [pronouncing it as Bleekman] and we say, "Okay your new name is John Smith." Didn't exactly happen like that. When you arrived you were basically taken to a room and they asked you what your name was. The person sitting behind the table might not speak German. Might not speak Russian, or Italian or whichever country they are dealing with. They are literally processing thousands of immigrants. They would spell the name how they heard it. So in this case we don't know how Abraham pronounced his name. What we know is that the person who wrote down the name spelled it b-l-e-c-h-m-a-n-n.

If you aren't familiar with this particular myth here is an explanation from Megan Smolenyak's book Who Do You Think You Are? The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History.

Our name was changed at Ellis Island. No, it wasn't. Your ancestor changed it after the fact, probably Americanizing it by lopping off a couple of syllables (Villapiano becomes Villa), translating (Weiss becomes White), dropping accents or "extra" letters (Smolenyak used to begin with Szm), picking an Anglo-sounding version (Lewinsky becomes Lewis), and so forth. Ellis Island was staffed with people who spoke dozens of languages and were mostly checking names against lists generated at the port of departure. In spite of what you might have seen in The Godfather, they didn't substitute village names for surnames or arbitrarily assign "more American" names to immigrants.

Is it possible someone changed their name before getting on the boat? Yes, but whatever name they gave for the ship's manifest before it set sail was the name they had when they left Ellis Island. 
To Mr. Taylor's credit he published a correction on his blog on Tuesday. Unfortunately the average viewer isn't going to ask, "Is that really true?" They saw it on television, on PBS even, so it must be true and so the myth will live on. A great opportunity to dispel the myth and it's gone.
This episode had another genealogical Bizarro World moment. Not only did Ellis Island intake agents just write down what they heard but census enumerators were completely accurate. Josh Taylor again:

It isn't until the 1910 census he delivers his name as Blackman. [Census image is shown on the screen.]

Really? So that's it? The census shows "Blackman" so their name is Blackman? Census takers rarely asked for the spelling of someone's name. They really did just write down what they heard. My ancestors are on two censuses as Galespy and Gilaspie. That doesn't make either of those the definitive spelling of my surname.
On Monday I'm hoping to just sit back and enjoy the show. We'll see.


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RELATED POSTS: 
Your Ancestor's Immigration Experience and the Ellis Island Myth from the Genealogy Insider Blog
Why Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island (and one that was) from the New York Public Library Blog

Another WDYTYA? Rant

Cindy Crawford on Who Do You Think You Are?:

"That's really incredible to go back that far
on my first day really, doing this."

"I think this sets the bar really high for a first day.
I've already gone back to 1633..."

Bless her heart. Sweetie, you didn't do anything. A group of professional genealogists worked for 1000 hours so you could get that far in a day. This was an episode to make clickophiles feel good about themselves. I can hear it now, "Well if Cindy Crawford could get to Charlemagne in an hour why don't you believe I got there during my 14-day free trial?"

There was no mention of any of the important sources used to make that huge jump to Charlemagne and no explanation of the "unestablished" notations on the behemoth scroll she was given.

Screen caps after the jump.

Ordinary People

The complaints about Who Do You Think You Are? not using "ordinary people" are becoming as annoying as playing cello on Pachelbel's Canon for a wedding with a dozen bridesmaids. (If you don't get that there's an explanation in the video at the end of this post.)
After the jump I take on the whiners.

Dear WDYTYA?

Today's post isn't so much a tip as it's a plea to Who Do You Think You Are? to provide us with tips. I'm sending this letter to the show and hope others will too. Go HERE.
Look down the page for the "Select Show" dropdown. Once you select a show the message box will appear.
Here's the email I sent:

Dear Alex, Lisa, Dan, Jennifer and Al,
I would love to see a fact sheet for each episode. Some facts that would be interesting and helpful:
Number of genealogists employed ___
Number of total research hours ___
Number of online research hours ___
Number of states visited (for research) ___
Number of countries visited (for research) ___
List of documents used ____________________________________________
List of repositories for those documents (on and off line)____________________________________________
Information provided by featured guest (a checklist to see how much information they already knew):
___ Paternal Grandfather’s birth date/place
___ Maternal Grandfather’s birth date/place
___ Paternal Grandmother’s birth date/place
___ Maternal Grandmother’s birth date/place
___ Paternal Great-Grandfather’s birth date/place
___ Maternal Great-Grandfather’s birth date/place
___ Paternal Great-Grandmother’s birth date/place
___ Maternal Great-Grandmother’s birth date/place
ETC.

I hope you'll consider providing this information to your many genealogy obsessed fans.
Thanks!

UPDATE: I only got error messages on the NBC website. On their corporate site I found a link and sent a message about the website errors. Instead I'll be posting this on the WDYTYA? Facebook page and on Dan's Facebook page. If you're able to send a message through the NBC site please let me know. Also, if you wouldn't mind, let me know your platform and browser. I'm using Firefox 6 on a Mac so maybe that's an issue.


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