J K Rowling on Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are? “J.K. Rowling” (US premiere, originally aired in the UK)

Tune In: J.K. Rowling’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? airs Sunday, August 2 at 9/8c on TLC

 Ancestry.com , the leading family history company, is teaming up again with TLC as a sponsor. As part of the show sponsorship, Ancestry provides exhaustive family history research on each of the featured celebrities to help make discoveries possible and build out the story of each episode.

Famed Harry Potter author and philanthropist JK Rowling is eager to trace the  French roots of her maternal side, having always been very close with her mother who’s passed away. She knows that her great-grandfather, Louis Volant, received the Legion d’honneur for his WWI efforts, but she doesn’t know why. 

She embarks on a journey in France to trace her mother’s roots. She discovers that a family war story might not be what she thought when military records reveal a surprising truth. Tracing the trail even further back, Jo learns of her 2x great-grandmother, who had plenty of struggles both as a poor, single mother and a witness to German invasion during wartime, which forced her family to choose sides in a time of turmoil.  

Who Do You Think You Are? With Blair Underwood

Season 3 of Who Do You Think You Are? sponsored by Ancestry.com takes you all over the world and inside the fascinating family histories of 12 celebrities.

The celebrities that WDYTYA will take on a journey to find their ancestors are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

Next is Episode 3 on February 24th with Blair Underwood who travels to Africa to uncover his roots.

Who Do You Think You Are - Featuring Marisa Tomei

Who Do You Think You Are, sponsored by Ancestry.com is back for a 3rd season. Be sure to watch Episode 2 this Friday, February 10 at 8/7c on NBC.

Tomorrow's episode features Marisa Tomei who travels to Italy to find out who killed her great grandfather.

$10,000! Trip Of A Lifetime Ancestry.com Sweepstakes

Who Do You Think You Are is back for a 3rd season and will premier this Friday with Martin Sheen to lead off the series. In conjunction with Season 3, Ancestry.com is running a Sweepstakes where 3 Grand Prize winners will win a trip of a lifetime to uncover their own family history valued at $10,000! The Sweepstakes includes a trip to the winner's homeland to explore their family roots, round-trip airfare for two, hotel and $2,000 in cash, plus a 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership and an Ancestry.com DNA test to discover their genetic ethnicity. 20 First Prize winners will receive a 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership.

Win the Ultimate Family History Journey at Ancestry.com!

In conjunction with Season 3 of Who Do You Think You Are, Ancestry.com is running a Sweepstakes where 3 Grand Prize winners will win a trip of a lifetime to uncover their own family history valued at $10,000!  

The Sweepstakes includes a trip to the winner's homeland to explore their family roots, round-trip airfare for two, hotel and $2,000 in cash, plus a 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership and an Ancestry.com DNA test to discover their genetic ethnicity.   

20 First Prize winners will receive a 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership.  To enter, click on the graphic where you see the words ENTER NOW

Who Do You Think You Are is back for a 3rd season on Friday

Who Do You Think You Are, sponsored by Ancestry.com is back for a 3rd season and will premier this Friday, February 3 at 8/7c on NBC. Martin Sheen will lead off the series and other celebrities lined up include Marissa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Helen Hunt, Jerome Bettis, Robb Lowe, and Paula Deen among others.

Be sure to tune-in and see what each of our celebrities learns about their family history!
Check out the WDYTYA site at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/

As well, watch for the Martin Sheen interview on Olive Tree Genealogy blog at http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com

Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy was invited to participate in the Media Conference Call with Mr. Sheen and Lorine tells me her interview article will be online in a few days.

Who Do You Think You Are with Spike Lee

Tonight is the last episode of Who Do You Think You Are? This Week's Episode features Spike Lee and looks like it should be quite interesting. The website for Who Do You Think You Are? can be found at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/. The website features bios of the celebrities featured in the show, photos, and several video clips as well as articles on how to get started in family history.

Ancestry.com is a partner with NBC on this genealogy show.

I'm going to miss the show when it is over but NBC has picked it up for another season!

Who Do You Think You Are?

Last nights episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Susan Sarandon was pretty good. I enjoyed this episode quite a bit more than the last one. This episode focused on Susan's attempts to find out what had what had happened to her grandmother Anita who was last seen in the 1930s. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not had a chance to see it yet but I will say that they do find out what happened to Anita.

If you did not get a chance to watch last nights episode I would recommend you take the time. You can watch past episodes at NBC.Com

Or go to
Ancestry.com to start looking for your own ancestors. Ancestry.com is a partner with NBC on this genealogy show.

Dont Forget, Who Do You Think You Are? Is Back On This Week

This Week's Episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will air this Friday. Susan Sarandon sets out to learn more about her grandmother Anita, who led a life shrouded with mystery and who disappeared out of Susan's mother's life when her mother was just a child. In the episode, Susan visits the New York City Public Library and the New City Library in Rockland, New York.

You can learn more about
Who Do You Think You Are? on the NBC website.

Who Do You Think You Are - Who's On When

The TV genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are? at 8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central Time is on NBC every Friday. Here is the schedule so you don't miss it:

* March 5 – Sarah Jessica Parker
* March 12 – Emmitt Smith
* March 19 – Lisa Kudrow
* March 26 – Matthew Broderick
* April 2 – Brooke Shields
* April 9 – Susan Sarandon
* April 23 – Spike Lee

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog posted thoughts and critiques of the last two episodes. You can read them at

Episode 1

Episode 2

There is also a companion book which sounds pretty good!

My Thoughts on Who Do You Think You Are

It seems like everyone is talking about Who Do You Think You Are. So I guess it is time for me to join the crowd and say something. Having watched the first two episodes I can say for me the second one was a little better than the first. So hopefully it will continue to improve as we go along. It is not that there was anything really bad about the first episode. I just found the second one a little more interesting, perhaps because of my own black ancestry.

There were of course some issues with the genealogy presented in each of the two shows. But you must give the producers a little leeway in this as they are trying to produce an enjoyable and exciting television show that is only one hour in length. No one would want to watch if they did not spice it up a little.

The first two episodes featured Sarah Jessica Parker and football player Emmitt Smith as they journeyed around the United States and the world in search of their ancestors. Now I know most of us can not afford to go flying all over the world looking for our ancestors but fortunately we can do a lot of our research on line with company's like Ancestry.com. In fact Ancestry was one of the sponsors of Who Do You Think You Are.

In the case of Emmitt Smith they also used DNA testing to explore his ancestry. This DNA testing is quite interesting as it can provide information that you sometimes just can not find any other way. For Emmitt it gave him some insight into his white and native American background that researchers using more traditional methods were unable to find.

So all in all I think it is a good show that is well worth watching. It will inspire many current genealogists to get back to work. I also think it will create a whole new crop of genealogists both young and old to start digging into their family tree.

I just hope all the new genealogists don't take up my place at the microfilm reader.