From the NBC Insider page: "A new season is coming back to NBC this summer. Who Do You Think You Are? will be returning to NBC on July 10th, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 7 p.m. ET. Episodes will be available to stream on Peacock the following day. The celebrities featured in this upcoming season are Allison Janney, Billy Porter, Nick Offerman, Zachary Levi, Bradley Whitford, and Zachary Quinto. " The past few seasons have been on the cable channel TLC. Nice to have it back on the broadcast channel.
The flamboyant singer and stage star, Billy Porter, with an assist from his sister and a series of local historians, explored the 1923 shooting death of one ancestor and the case of a free person of color who bought his own family out of bondage in 1819. Some good insights into racial issues through U.S. history.
@GrannyBarb I enjoyed it however never got to see it all. The only NBC station available to me was from Detroit. When I turned it on the news was still on. I guess there was a ball game of some sort that delayed the news so they cut out the first bit of WDYTYA. I have never heard of Billy Porter, he certainly is flamboyant!! So pleased his gr.grandfather who was so cruelly killed will finally get a headstone. It is so sad that these hate crimes still exist today and cover-ups continue.
There was a celebrity golf match that went into overtime. Blame Tony Romo. Our local station abbreviated their news so the national news could start on time. I guess the Detroit folks had different priorities. Both ancestors featured were property owners. Mr. Porter took some solace from that, even though both suffered discrimination, possibly partly because of it. He got to go to the graveyard in Virginia, where those folks had marble gravestones. At the end he had a moving "say their names" moment to remember all his ancestors mentioned on the show.
Last night was comedic actor Nick Offerman. The front part was him talking to his Mom and Aunt about their mother. Then there was an 18 month pause (Covid) before he could road trip to the Mohawk Valley part of New York. He caught the genealogy bug early on. He made some great "reaction" faces whenever a researcher presented him with a document. There were a few that I wondered about where were the white gloves? None to be seen anywhere. The focus was on land disputes between Mohawks and his early colonial Dutch and English ancestors. He had sincere mixed feelings about the outcome. Next week is actress Allison Janney.
I found that show to be "okay" . Not as interesting as a lot of the shows but. then I'm not American!!
Last night was actress Allison Janney. The focus was on an Englishman from the early 1600's who sailed to Bermuda, Jamestown, and was on the Mayflower in 1620. Very dramatic story. Hard to believe one guy was part of so much early American history. Next week is one of the Zacharys. I didn't catch which one.
I thought last night's show was great. Her 11th gr. grandfather was quite the man. To be on a ship that was wrecked in a hurricane and be the first settlers in Bermuda, building new ships and being the first settlers in Jamestown and then going back to England for his 2 children after his 1st wife had died, re-marrying and traveling with his family on the Mayflower to settle in Plymouth. She had every reason to be proud of him. What a story!
His name was Stephen Hopkins. Here's a profile on a Mayflower History site: Code: http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen
Last Sunday was actor Zachary Levi, whose birth surname is Pugh. I'd never heard of him. His claim to fame is the title role in the movie "Shazam." He also appeared in a show called "Chuck" with which I am not familiar. When the show aired on Sunday, I was also doing laundry and had a malfunction of the washing machine. The show was on, but I was distracted, to say the least. Anyway, I watched it yesterday on a streaming app. The first focus was on his mother's maternal line. Long pattern of abuse, addiction and troubled marriages, mostly in the St. Louis area. Next he turned to his paternal line, who were upright Puritans, going back to Connecticut in the 1690's. One of his folks was accused of witchcraft, so we got a lot of background on that. Her husband and over 70 townspeople attested to her good character, so she was freed from a death sentence. Mr. Levi expressed relief that at least one of the men in his family stood by his wife. Next week is actor Bradley Whitford.
That show almost gave me nightmares! It was his 10th gr. grandmother accused of being a witch. This was in Connecticut, but at the same time as the Salem witch trials. The accusers would take the accused, bind their hands and feet and tie a rope around their waist. They were then dropped in a deep pond..if they bounced back up they were a witch. In the records it showed she kept bobbing back up so she must be a witch. It was horrifying hearing the exerts from her trial. So thankful she was found not guilty at her trial.
It seems impossible to understand the logic of those Witchcraft trials, I would have thought if the person bobbed up the religious fanatics would think Ah! God has saved that person. It is almost as though killing the person on trial was more important than determining the truth.
Gosh, a whole week has passed since the Bradley Whitford episode. He's a film and tv actor. The focus of the show was three brothers who fought together for the Union in the U.S. Civil War. They served in the siege of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, and went with General Grant when he took command of the whole army. Mr. Whitfield was concerned with the outcome of every battle for all three brothers, not just his ancestor. Tonight's episode was Zachary Quinto, who played Mr. Spock in the recent remake of Star Trek. His maternal great-grandfather was a prominent labor organizer in Pittsburgh, after whom a local highway is named. The family was from Muncie, Ind, but they did not follow the line farther back. Instead he went to Italy to research his paternal great-grandfather's experience during the change over to a unified nation, rather than a group of independent kingdoms. One of the local guides he met turned out to be his cousin! I think this was all the shows planned for this year. I saw a news story that the PBS show "Finding Your Roots" will start airing new shows in January.
@GrannyBarb. Not being American I found the Whitfield show boring. The only highlight was his visit to battlefield where the brothers fought. Last night was interesting... Loved Zachary's reaction to his ancestor writing '" Live long and prosper" so many years before Spock was even thought or him paying Spock in the movie! The stories from Italy were interesting as well.
Hi, @Half Hour (Sue). I agree the Whitfield episode was not very exciting, and even a little repetitive. I'm glad the person helping with the Vicksburg story made a point to emphasize how important that campaign was to the Union winning the war, eventually. But unless you are into that stuff, it wasn't that engaging a show. I found Mr. Quinto's two stories more interesting, although, again, I wanted a mini-history lesson for the public at large to understand each highlighted ancestor's situations more fully. I think about what I learned in school that isn't taught, or even considered important, anymore. I really eat up all the history and socio-economic consequences when it's well presented. "Live long and prosper" - from an old version of the story about Rip Van Winkle... really? Who knew?
