General Chat

Well maybe I am being too critical but as a relative newcomer to searching my family I found the BBC programme a great let down it was more like the Bill Oddie show - showing how he found out about his poor mums illness and in the process found a couple of lost aunts - it would not have spurred me on to searching my family and the chap at the end well he made it look like you just pressed a buttom and ha presto certificates and all. I have learnt more by reading comments on this site and from magazines.I hope that the rest of the programmes are not going to be the same - what a waste of time - only good light entertainment. Marilyn

I felt the same it was a real let down. I am glad I taped it and forwarded all the boring bits. Most of the time he was in the car or on the train just sat in deep thought. I thought it was going to be seeing him how he found all the certificates and that. Will tape it again next week might watch it but I doubt it.

I did enjoy the programme but like I said on the other thread, I was expecting to see him doing more actual searching. When I found a strange cause of death on a cert, I didn't get to see a consultant paediatrician, I had to search on google like everyone else! And wasn't it clever how he just walked into a building and came out with the certificate in his hand! I know they have to cut out a lot to make a programme, but it would have been more realistic to have seen a brief glimpse of him searching 1837online and getting frustrated when he couldn't read the entries lol - or running out of credits at the vital moment! But look at it this way - he doesn't have all the fun of the searching like we do! Mandy :))

Mandy - true, and he didn't have the joy of searching 1901 census online and wondering if his ancestors had been abducted by aliens, or merely mis-transcribed as 'Oodle' or 'Boddie'!

Have to agree I found it a bit of a let down... he was more interested in solving a mystery than tracing his roots! Dont get me wrong, since I started my research I have discovered a few mysteries and have great fun trying to solve them.. I have actually succeeded with a one or two! I did think he read into everything a bit too much and also agree that when I find a dodgy couse of death I dont nip down to the hospital for a chat with a consultant paediatrician either. Dont think I'd have much luck getting to see one anyway on the NHS... there are kids waiting for appointments for months so I hardly think they'd see me just to answer a wee query I had about a cause of death! Hope next weeks is better!! SHAZ XX

I didn't expect to see a "how to" show so wasn't disappointed. BBC2 takes more serious subjects than BBC1 but is not a specialist channel and still has to entertain. What I thought was good was the way the programme portrayed the emotions that can be released when you find out about your family, whether immediate or further back. You have to be prepared to find out the bad as well as the good, to discover things that explain why you are what you are and why you feel what you feel about things. Tracing your family history is as much about you as the people you find. If you are not prepared for what you may discover, then you should not do it. That was the message I felt this programme gave and it is a message that those who are attracted to this as a hobby sometimes don't get until they are well into it. There are many other easily accessible and excellent sources of the nitty gritty about how to go about getting certificates etc. Why duplicate them? Angela

I agree with you Angela, it was a shock for him to find out about his mom, and how his nan was all those years ago, he started to research his family to try and find out why he had been suffering from depression, and it did give him a lot to think about, his reason was different than most of ours for his research, so I think he got what he was looking for, also I don't think the program is to teach us how to research it is more of a pointer to how it can be done and most of all entertainment, and that it was, but have you been onto the site that was advertised at the end of the program, I went onto it to day good and lots of info for newbies, also a starting out pack for recording all the research you have done. Bev

Beverley Yes I did look at the site and should have mentioned it in my message. I appreciate that not everybody is comfortable with using the internet and so some might argue that all of this should also have been covered in the programme itself. But I thought the site was where to go for more practical advice on how to get started presented in a simple manner that complemented the programme. As such, I think it is a very helpful addition to what is already available on the web. And the leaflet that accompanied the Radio Times giving information on getting going, combined with the more detailed one included in the current issue of Ancestors, provide alternative sources of information. Angela

Kate, I'm lol here because I said exactly the same to my husband! When the chappie showed a certificate on his laptop, I was getting quite animated and saying that everyone would be thinking you could look at certificates online - easy peasy!! Mandy :)

Yes It was a program about Bill Oddies' search.......... At least there was a character to gel with, instead of joe bloggs or john smith. Yes also, the trouble is that with all these type of programs.....all the reference books have been pre-bookmarked. even Michael Aspels' version on Sunday was, on the same lines.They dont have the time to stand looking into viewers' on air...... I found it most interesting.....Bob