It’s Friday Night

Tonight is my favorite show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” Reba Mc Entire is this week’s featured celebrity. I really know very little about her and am looking forward to her story.

My entry into genealogy was delayed for a long time because I thought that genealogy was reserved for important, famous people such as Mayflower descendants, presidents, kings, etc. Published genealogies of famous, blue blood families can be found in libraries and now on the Internet. The books provide a great resource for those who are related but they were not for me.

My roots are much more humble. Despite my humble roots, discovering those who came before has been so exciting and so interesting. The celebrities on “Who Do You Think You Are?” respond to familial discoveries exactly as I do. We are basically all the same. Celebrities, blue bloods and even  those with humble roots all experience the same joy in the discovery of our ancestors’ stories.

History is part of that discovery and I think the television show does a very good job of putting the ancestral information into historical and social context. Our family trees are not just names and lines linking parent to child they are real people who lived in real time. To better understand our ancestors, we need to understand the time in which they lived for that time shaped the society they lived in and affected their actions.

Cecina, Italy and the Island of Elba

Marisa Tomeii was Friday’s featured celebrity on Who Do You Think You Are?  She was able to explore her Italian roots and focus on the mystery surrounding her great grandfather, Leopoldo Bianchi. The family legend told of a philandering Leopoldo being shot dead in a bar. This unflattering image had been carried down through the generations.

How flawed family legends can be.  As Marisa learned the Bianchi family story, the image of a scoundrel great grandfather slowly faded away.  The Bianchi family was in the business of making kilns and had acquired a partner who later fired Leopoldo’s brother for being disloyal. Disloyalty can mean many things in my mind but at that time and in the Italian culture disloyalty was a matter of honor; which led to an argument and the eventual shooting of Leopoldo Bianchi from behind. To make matters worse, the incident was declared to be self-defense and the assailant went free.

Original documents and archived newspapers gave evidence of the murder and the trial. We visited cemeteries, archives, and cafes on the beautiful Tuscan coast while listening to beautiful Italian names roll off Italian tongues. Who Do You Think You Are? takes viewers on genealogical research trips to the most amazing places.  Oh how I wish I were of Italian descent!

Who Do You Think You Are?

Mark your calendars! Friday, February 3, Who Do You Think You Are? returns for a third season. The NBC series focuses on the family history of celebrities. This season’s celebrities are: Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paul Deen.