Who Do You Think You Are?

I also wondered if they would mention Richard Rich. Fascinating series and this episode so interesting. I'm so jealous!! JW seems like a really nice person.
I've gone back to Robert 1, Rollo Ragnvaldsson Duke of Normandy through William the Conqueror and Edward 1, and a couple of mistresses! Once you get back to aristocracy /royalty their genealogy is well documented so 'easy' to follow.

Lesley60

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all have someone to do all that research for us, although maybe I’m in the minority I wouldn’t want to be related to the present royals
I’m Welsh so would like to be related to some noble Welsh people

I always think that Lesley. You can only do so much by yourself.

I throughly enjoyed this episode.
Josh 's reactions were a joy to watch

GreenGran78

MayBeMaw your story about the football match reminded me of an episode of The Likely Lads, many years ago. One of their friends was determined to tell them the result, and they went to endless trouble to avoid finding out, wanting to see the match on tv.
After many narrow escapes they finally switched on, only to find that the match had been cancelled, due to flooding, and there was an ice-skating programme on instead.
I hope that no-one has just bought the boxed set. SPOILER ALERT! ?

I was puzzled by this, so I went looking up thread and see it was actually EMM who had the football anecdote!

my heritage is a bit mixed so unable to trace much on my father's side as there is Russian, Dutch and German in the mix whereas mother's family came from the Scottish Borders and have been there since James III was on the Scottish throne.

MayBeMaw your story about the football match reminded me of an episode of The Likely Lads, many years ago. One of their friends was determined to tell them the result, and they went to endless trouble to avoid finding out, wanting to see the match on tv.
After many narrow escapes they finally switched on, only to find that the match had been cancelled, due to flooding, and there was an ice-skating programme on instead.
I hope that no-one has just bought the boxed set. SPOILER ALERT! ?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all have someone to do all that research for us, although maybe I’m in the minority I wouldn’t want to be related to the present royals
I’m Welsh so would like to be related to some noble Welsh people

My grandchildren are 8th cousins to Prince George, princess Charlotte and Prince Louis via Michael Middleton - 6th cousin to my father and I am 7th cousin to Kate.

Germanshepherdsmum

Yes, I have come across quite a lot and some even publish erroneous family trees on the web.
I've contacted a couple or more people on Ancestry to suggest that they may have the wrong person in their tree as I check, double check and follow every lead to make sure it's right.
Some people just copy from another person's tree whether right or wrong or if the name is the same as one of their ancestors.

Interesting, Grandtante

As an aside, I think the Plantagenets should be on the throne as the rightful monarchs! ?

Dh seems to have some ancient Scottish nobility. I got him back as far as a Lord Chancellor of Scotland in about the 15th or 16th century if I remember rightly.

I agree with the person who said they must tell WDYTYA participants to feign igorance of history to allow experts to explain and for the benefit of viewers who dont know. I did however think it was a bit of a stretch when the Virgin Queen was being discussed and Josh asked if the suitor trying to win her hand in marriage had succeeded! Feigning ignorance needs to be a bit believable. Wikipedia informs me Josh Widdicombe has a degree, admittedly not in history, but then I failed my history GCE and I knew the Virgin Queen never married!

I was quite intrigued when right at the beginning of this programme Josh said it was the first bit of TV he had done where he didnt know what was going to happen.

On my mum's English side I've gone back to the 1400s and on my dad's paternal side I've gone back to around the 800s but things start getting murky then, all hearsay and folklore and very little written down. But according to legends we go back to the sister of Saint Patrick and Joseph of Aramathea.

Callistemon

Someone had put a family tree in Ancestry which included my great-grandmother, showing a direct line to Henry VIII through his marriage to Anne Boleyn.
I thought it was a load of rubbish because their only child, Elizabeth, did not marry or have any children.

Now I'm beginning to wonder ..... ?

And one DD is a redhead ?

I'm more excited to think I might be related to Josh Widdecombe!

But the link could be to Richard III - a lot of the Plantagenets were redheads - that's probably where Henry VIII got his red hair from, his mother was Elizabeth of York.

Richard III had an illegitimate son who was brought up by Richard, whose wife seems to have felt quite rightly that a bairn is a bairn, and should at least know his father. I had an old aunt who insisted that her mother's family was descended from this son of Richard by an unknown mother.

My aunt's mother's maiden name was Plant and family tradition held it to be a deliberate abbreviation of Plantagenet because after the Battle of Bosworth the young man felt it wise not to go around proclaiming that his father had been Richard Crookback!

It is almost certain that one of my ancestors painted the famous portrait of Elizabeth 1 in her silver/white gown.
Other than that - they were all peasantry, so obviously we slid downhill financially and socially rather rapidly.

tictacnana

My family tree on Mum’s side can only go back to her grandparents on one side as they were both abandoned in the work house. I found this very inspiring because , although they were both illiterate, they were great believers in education. My grandfather, their 13th child, became an optician and his son became a doctor. My brother has traced our family back to the 1500s . It is a great thing to do if you can spare the time.

tictacnana, were they both born in the workhouse or were they anonymously dumped on the doorstep? Have you searched the workhouse records if they still exist? If they were born in or after 1837, do they have birth certificates?

Mine go back to royalty on my mother’s side. The Plantagenets, who were all bumped off pretty early on. Shame, wouldn’t have minded living in a palace.

I think I’m unusual in that unless it’s something where the reveal is crucial to the plot (as in Line of Duty), I don’t mind seeing a spoiler, and if I did I’d avoid threads about specific TV series or books I don’t always watch WDYTYA, but will certainly catch up with this one now that I’ve learnt what happens!

We watched it and loved it! What an amazing start to the new series. Looking forward to the Judi Dench episode, I'm a big fan. I'd love to know how they research and how many people work on it. I often think they make it look too easy.

I've been researching my FH for twenty years but have only got back to about 1650 on one side of the family, the Welsh side. The expense of research and documents is a big drawback, and not being able to travel to places to research 'on the ground' as it were. I've hit a couple of brick walls now but will pick it up again sometime. No particularly exciting ancestors though.

He's such a nice cheerful lad. I like the way he laughs loudly at other comedian's jokes on various panel games. They don't all do that.

I heard Josh W on the radio the other day and he said that Anne W had moved to the small Dartmoor village where his parents live - which must cause much confusion!

Obviously remained living not remains !

I did Ancestry this year and through DNA matches it seems like my ancestors lived in a few houses that are now National Trust properties . My 8th great grandmother was Margaret Bowles . The family changed their name to Parker - Bowles , I researched this as recognised the name , and it was a surprise to find out I'm related to Camilla 's first husband Andrew.
I also have an ancestor who was privy to Henry V111 , and he was one of the men who took Thomas Cromwell to the tower. It's all so fascinating .
At the opposite end of the spectrum a great great grandfather took part in a farm Labour revolt and was sent to Australia for 7 years hard labour . He was married with 8 children . On release he remains living ( in Tasmania ) and I'm getting lots of DNA matches from Australia ( I wonder how ? )

The further back you go in time, the smaller the number of people there were. My husband has got his family tree back to the year 800 and the first Kings of Finland. He’s now working in mine and my go back to the first Kings of Wales and France. If you have an unusual name and a place plus not living in a big urban area which might have been bombed it helps. Non conformists also can have greater difficulty as less was recorded.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.