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Friday’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” was pre-empted around here due to coverage of the severe weather Friday. Our immediate area was lucky to come through unscathed. Not so for many of our neighboring communities, and our hearts go out to those people.

I
watched the show online, which is a bit of a problem for me because I want to
sit there and do research, so then I had to watch it again. The
ratings are already out and apparently this episode did the best of any so far.
Who doesn’t love Reba McEntire?

Here’s the full episode if you still need to watch it:

She started the show at her family ranch in Oklahoma and traveled to Aberdeen, Miss.;
Raleigh, NC; Oxford, NC; Tappahannock, Va.; and England in pursuit of her mom’s family
tree.

I was surprised to see Josh Taylor (formerly of the New
England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), now of FindMyPast.com)
walk into the library in Aberdeen. This scene was in
the clip I posted Friday, but I had assumed they were at the NEHGS library in
Boston.

One theme is McEntire’s discovery of her family’s slave-owning past. When she’s confronted
with her fourth-great-grandfather’s life as a slave trader, I like what the archivist
says, that slavery is part of all of our histories.

Later, she learns the same ancestor’s grandfather (McEntire’s sixth-great-grandfather)
came to the country as a 9-year-old indentured
servant. He was one of the fewer than half of all indentured servants who lived
long enough to become free citizens—and became successful enough to purchase land.

When she learned the boy’s father put him on the ship, McEntire cautions herself against
drawing early conclusions. Good for her: Before making judgments about an ancestor’s
actions, it’s a good idea to learn the context of their lives.

I like the variety of records used in this episode (though we didn’t see where Josh
found his information). Censuses, obituaries, land records, tax records, newspapers
(she used GenealogyBank at
the Granville County courthouse, but they didn’t show the name of the site), slave
bills of sale, deeds, baptismal registers and more.