Finding Connections in the Final Episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?'

     I was excited to watch the final episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?,' knowing that Paula Deen's episode would cover Georgia genealogy. I was surprised at how closely the story shown in this episode mirrored a branch of my own family tree.

     Paula's 4x Great Grandfather, John Batts, had a lot in common with my 5x Great Grandfather, Willis Craft. The most remarkable connection: they both served in the Georgia House of Representatives as pro-slavery Democrats from 1857-1858. Paula did some research at the Georgia Archive, similar to what I've done, including using their General Name File. Here's a photo I had taken of my ancestor's card, as well as a screenshot of Paula's ancestor:

     Paula learned that after the war John Batts suffered, due to his politics pre-war and a bad economy. The listing for Willis Craft in the 1870 census lacks estate and property value information and I have not seen tax information from this time. However I imagine that my ancestor suffered much like Paula's did.  He lost his ten slaves, which were valued at $8,800 in a 1860 tax record. If he managed to maintain his land during the war, it would now cost him a lot more to cultivate it.

     Due to their political activity, both John Batts and Willis Craft, would have needed to seek a pardon from the post-war government to participate in certain activities, such as voting. John did this, and can be found in ancestry.com databases for a pardon and voter registration. For some reason Willis chose not to seek a pardon and never re-registered to vote, though his sons were registered.

     John Batts died in 1879 of suicide after economic ruin. Willis Craft died in 1874 at age 64, only a few months after selling 320 acres of his property, on which he lived, to his son, John. In the land deed, it is specified that Willis and his wife, Martha, will live on and cultivate the property until they died.  I always thought it a bit strange that Willis didn't just will the property to his son, though Willis actually left no will at all. Perhaps he needed the money to pay off personal debts? Somehow, I am under the impression that Willis was in financial difficulty.

My Take On WDYTYA: Tim McGraw

     I watched the latest episode of Who Do You Think You Are on Saturday afternoon, having missed the original airing due to work. I have to say that I did not enjoy this episode as much as I did Vanessa Williams',  though I did still think it was a strong and compelling story.

     After thinking about it, I've decided that the reason I found this episode lacking compared to the prior one is for one reason only: the multi-generation jump. In this episode Tim McGraw goes from finding out the names of his Great-Grandparents, to jumping back four or so generations all at once. I understand why they did this: the older generations in his family had a very compelling story that was supported by some amazing documents. But the generation jumping just made me feel disconnected.

     I think a large part of this is due to the way genealogists usually do their research: one generation at a time, often at a rather slow pace. We search out multiple documents and family stories and, over time, get to know our ancestors. Rarely do we come across instant family trees, like the one presented to Tim McGraw in this episode (or at least when we do, we have to do our own research to prove validity).  So for me, this generation jump creates a dis-connect. With the way the family tree was presented, I felt more like I was watching a history documentary about random historical figures, rather than the family of the main subject. I felt an equal disconnect with last year's Brooke Shields episode.

     I hope that most future episodes of WDYTYA do not feature these jumps, though I do understand why they do them.

I'm a "Case Study"

In the August 2009 edition of the BBC magazine, 'Who Do You Think You Are,' I'm a "Case Study." The article is '3 Easy Ways to Share Research Online', starting on page 56.

The first tip is to share photos online, and flickr is recommended as the website to do it with. I'm on the bottom right of the page, along with a screenshot of one of my photos on flickr and a description of some of my "success stories," like this one.

Also mentioned in tip 3 (Blogging) as a case study is Tomas MacEntee and GeneaBloggers.