I had my head down all afternoon working on my database - adding sources, editing notes, checking names, dates and places, and so I missed the announcement that Who Do You Think You Are? - the Television show produced by Lisa Kudrow, will start airing on Friday night, 5 March from 8 to 9 p.m. EST (7 CST, 8 MST, 8 PST), and will run for eight weeks in that time slot.
The announcement says:
"Among the celebrities featured are Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith. Ancestry.com is NBC's official partner on the series."
This show has been on-again, off-again several times after the initial announcement about one year ago. Some of us were wondering if it was "vapor video."
When the first announcement was made, there was speculation by myself and other genea-bloggers that after this show starts there would be a "run" on genealogy societies and libraries by people asking for classes and help on doing their genealogy research and family history.
I think that it is likely to happen, and that genealogy societies and libraries should be ready to help and educate those folks newly inspired by the celebrity ancestral stories. That's one reason why I accepted the challenge last spring to teach an eight-hour, four-session "Beginning Computer Genealogy" class at the San Diego OASIS center (a senior education center) and have taught three classes to date, with another in February and then in June. Along with the class, OASIS offers their speakers to the public libraries for a 90-minute presentation, which I've done twice now at San Diego libraries. I see a major marketing opportunity here!
I'm ready! Bring them on... you're either for genealogy, or... um, got carried away there, sorry. Time for my meds... er, nap, I guess!
Unfortunately, I'm going to miss at least three of these shows because we are going on an extended vacation to the South Pacific in mid-March. Hopefully, there will be online access and reruns.
Thank you to Anastasia Tyler for forwarding the NBC press release this afternoon.
2 comments:
And Professor Gates's PBS series will air on February 10th. I'm looking forward to the PBS special because I trust PBS to give better content, but the network commercial series will probably attract more mainstream viewers. The race is on!
I have really enjoyed watching the WDYTYA series in the UK and it has certainly inspired many people to try and trace their family trees.
Generally they try to tug on the heart strings of the celebrities by uncovering unexpected sad tales of their ancestors and the trailers tend to show them with a tear in their eye.
It does however provide some basic genealogical research ideas and information which can be helpful for beginners and more experienced genealogists alike.
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