Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Genealogy TV Show

Hey genealogy buffs sitting there in your pajamas (or whatever) on a Saturday Night - it's time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and I REALLY hope that you will, because I know how creative my genea-readers are) , is to:

1) Create a Title and outline an episode of your own Genealogy television show. Be funny, crazy or serious, it doesn't matter!

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Twitter or Facebook.

This idea was prompted by a long thread on Facebook on Paula Stuart-Warren's page - her comment was:

"A new reality show -- the Housewives of Genealogy. Imagine the possibilities. Sitting at a computer, standing at a copier, scanning a document, attending a conference, data entry, and the big draw would be trying to top each other with stories of the horse thieves, murderers, farmers, shopkeepers, and soldiers in our past." And it took off from there... into cabana boys and all sorts of funny ideas.

Thomas MacEntee listed some candidate television show titles back in February with this post, spurred by Donna Pointkouski's post here, if you want some ideas to embellish upon.

Here's mine (an oldie but a goodie, which I've used before):

"Desperate Genealogists": where the sexy ladies on Wisteria Lane compete with each other to find the male with the best pedigree (hmm, related to the Queen, descended from Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Washington, Jefferson, or maybe fathered the most children through a sperm bank), or conspire with each other to hang a loser (maybe with a horse thief or a black sheep in his ancestry) on one of their "friends." There are plenty of potential episodes in this show idea, eh? Maybe they'll even romance the librarian in the process. Or a fsemi-amous genea-blogger and researcher.

6 comments:

Jim said...

Where does a name come from?

My first ancestor here had last name Barrow/Barow/Barowe,Barrowe.
I haver no idea of the exact spelling. I have found a couple of reasons it is Barrow. That was what was called a mound at the base of a tree or similar.
From him it went to Barrows, then Barrow. Then most of a family died (I have from plague or similar disease.) Two children were taken in by relatives and told they spelled it wrong. It should be Barrus. So I am Barrus.
One was born when his folks were crossing the Atlantic. Therefor he is Seaborn -last name Cotton.
A village relied on a supply train but was cut off by a blizzard. The day the train got in he was born.
So he is Supply Weeks.
There are others but those are the 2 that stick in my mind and the only ones I really know the stories to.

Joan Miller (Luxegen) said...

LOL, this is a good theme Randy. We were just having a facebook discussion about doing Justin Bieber's genealogy or starting a tabloid genealogy magazine so Genealogy could be in the top ten twitter list just like Justin Bieber :)

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

My "To Tell the Truth" TV show proposal is at my blog:
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2010/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-gen-tv.html ;-)

Cynthia Shenette said...

Survivor: Ahnentafel Island. Serious genealogists (preferably in skimpy outfits) compete for one million dollars AND a free year's subscription to Ancestry. This week's challenge--be the first to successfully load a microfilm machine, locate an obit for the right John Smith in the October 18, 1918 issue of the East Podunk Bee, AND print off a copy using exact change. Don't forget to cite your source. You may NOT ask a librarian for assistance. The winner will receive the "Necklace of Immunity." The losers will eat bugs, and the competitor with the worst time will be voted off the island. "I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to win this thing..."

JMK said...

Randy,

I believe you already know about out Top genealogy tv shows:

http://www.zazzle.com/jmkgifts/gifts?cg=196782704944635671

and our genealogy movies:
http://www.zazzle.com/jmkgifts/gifts?cg=196282355616114587

Eileen said...

"Generations"

A new ancestor is discovered for the narrator and a story showing the narrator how they lived is broadcast each week in this series.

Randy, with your database this show could last forever.