March 10, 2012

Who do you think you are?

I really enjoy this show. I do. You would think, though, that I hated it and I'm pretty sure my husband would agree. My main problem with this show is that they make it look so easy. I'm sure that's part of the premise so that ancestry.com subscription increases, ie, Look! It's so easy! But it's not. Even as I attend monthly meetings at CDGS, I'm amazed at the people who have made so much progress without the technology that I have available today.

Even so, with the resources that are available for the public online in this day and age, it is still necessary to 1) write, call, beg for someone to get the documents one needs from the far away land or 2) travel to the far away land and get them for one's self. The show makes it look like 2 is the easiest option, when in fact, it can be very difficult to actually do so. In my life, I have dreamed of going to Wayne County, Ohio to look at the original land owned by my ancestors. Living in NY, I still have trouble getting to the genealogy section of NYS library that is a mile away.

Jobs, life, family and money all play a factor in getting to the original sources. While I enjoy the show, I wish they would put in one non-celebrity to show how it's a difficult, but full-filling hobby.