Family History as Reality TV

As everyone is very well aware, NBC’s new show Who Do You Think You Are is airing tomorrow night. And PBS’s Faces of America is wrapping up. So hooray for mainstream coverage of the obsession that most of us share. I have a bit of a problem with these shows however. Kinda the same problem I have with a lot of genealogy enterprises: Selling the idea that everyone is going to find an ancestor on the Mayflower, in Salem, a concentration camp or fleeing catastrophe. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not down playing any of these events. I would just occasionally like someone to acknowledge that most people are descended from farmers, miners and entrepreneurs rather than Indian princesses, famous shipmates, or accused witches or those that burned them at the stake. Guess it would make boring television to most to watch a series about the less glamorous ancestors that were miners and before that farmers and before that nameless people on a ship coming from a country that we have yet to identify but believe could be Ireland.. or Scotland.. Or..Or..England..maybe Germany. And I would find it far more entertaining to watch a celebrity that is actually interested in genealogy trace their roots on their own rather than watch a professional sit and tell them about it while they only seem somewhat interested. I do like Lisa Kudrow.. so I won’t be too hasty to judge the new show.