In our generation, in this era of documentaries and reality shows, T.V. shows have featured stars and news anchors who have traced their ancestry to other centuries and faraway places. But genealogy started with average people and viewers and readers like us. I did my family’s genealogy in the 1980s and 90s. When I located ancestors and was lucky, exploring colonial records, family nicknames and folklore history, I did DNA comparisons in 1999 with dozens of descendants of ancestors I identified.
Genealogy, for example, the popular television show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” airs on NBC on Fridays at 8 p.m. The show started in England, which has a long deep history, and skeptics said the show would not work here in America, for Americans don’t know their heritage, but this show has done very well. This is the third season, and this season it featured on February 3rd, the worldwide search for ancestors of Martin Sheen in Ireland and Spain, on February 10th, Marisa Tomei in Italy, and will feature Blair Underwood this week, on Friday, February 24thin America’s South and Africa.
So if you’ve followed the show in earlier seasons, when it featured the genealogy of Spike Lee, Lionel Richie, Emmitt Smith, Vanessa Williams, and other American stars, the upcoming workshop may interest you. On Friday, Blair Underwood will be discussing the show and his ancestral journey on NBC’s Today Show at 8:30 a.m., and on ABC’s Anderson Cooper’s Show at 4 p.m. Or if you followed Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates, Jr’s PBS ancestry and DNA series, you will be intrigued by the presentations at this workshop in March.
Twenty years ago, I did my ancestral searches at the LDS’ FamilySearch.org Family History Center here in New York. The center closed a few years ago for renovations, but is now reopened. I wrote about New York’s history here on NearSay, (a hundred articles so far), because after doing my genealogical search, I discovered so much of my ancestors’ complex history, and also the history of others in the city. I will be sharing details and tips about how to combine family interviews and searches of genealogical documents to discover your family’s, the region’s and the nation’s most fascinating folk stories. I traced my family names and nicknames and found their birth and marriage records and their history. I even found nobles, royals and a castle like the one on Downton Abbbey on the ancestral tree.
The Family History Center for doing genealogical research is now reopened on the 1stfloor of the LDS Chapel at 125 Columbus Ave., at 65thStreet. Afternoons, evenings and Saturdays, 212-799-2414. There are also Family History Centers in Brooklyn and Queens. Family records from ancestors all across the world are available on microfilm and in computerized databases the LDS collected and makes available for a small fee. Once a researcher locates specific records, he or she requests the microfilms with the documents from the Utah archives.
8thAnnual Harlem African-American Genealogy Conference, Harlem LDS Chapel, 360 Lenox Avenue at 128thStreet, co-sponsored by the LDS, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and theAHGS, New York Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Saturday, March 10, 1-5pm. My presentation and workshop will focus on I found the historical stories, folk narratives and live descendants in Africa and Europe when I followed the records and documents I uncovered in the archives. The presentations and workshops are for genealogy beginners and advanced researchers, all are welcome. HarlemAAGC@gmail.com.
