Comments on: WDYTYA – Episode 2×06 – The Nitpicker’s Version

By: Banai Lynn Feldstein

Banai Lynn Feldstein — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:00:03 +0000

I always wonder when I see scrolling through microfilmed newspapers like that. What are they skipping? Rosie did that too, but it may have been while looking for an obituary or something specific like that.

I know these shows are for entertainment, but someone watching them who starts to think about doing their own genealogy might take these as a lesson of how to do the research. We want new genealogists to learn to do certain things right at the beginning instead of having to correct themselves later, and this episode more than others had a lot of bad examples.

By: David

David — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:20:31 +0000

I had the same thought you did about Steve scrolling through the newspaper microfilm. No mention was made as to whether there was an index.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:47:07 +0000

I agree with your critique of this episode. I’m sure that their research was sound, but the way they presented it… well, I wouldn’t have put that information into my family tree. I had many moments while watching the episode where I wondered how on earth they “knew” this was the Ralph they were searching for. At one point my mom, who follows my research but doesn’t do her own, asked how on earth they could think they were talking about the same man.

By: Annie in Austin

Annie in Austin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:17:46 +0000

Hello Banai,
I’m so glad I found your blog with these wonderful insights into the WDYTYA episodes. Even a haphazard episode can be enjoyable when it features Steve Buscemi and his family but it was annoying to not be clued in on how the right people were sorted from similarly named ones. I also wished there had been some follow-up on the deserted first wife and children.

The TB was not a surprise… as soon as I heard “dentist” thought of dentist-with-consumption, Doc Holliday, alive around the same time.

I kept thinking how cool it must have been to be the cousin who got to meet Steve at the special restaurant.

Annie (primarily a gardenblogger but am addicted to genealogy)

By: Banai Lynn Feldstein

Banai Lynn Feldstein — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:00:56 +0000

Thank you Randy! I really appreciate your comments here and on your own blog.

This episode posed problems because when I would check the episode to verify what I’d written, I’d find something else that didn’t make sense and have to rewrite several paragraphs. I wonder how many more details I may have missed.

I also hope the researchers share some more about what they found and how they justified some of those leaps we saw.

By: Randy Seaver

Randy Seaver — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:56:00 +0000

Bravissimo! Excellent forensic genealogy work. A++ for analysis and conclusions. (I don’t hand those out very often).

You hit all of the points I felt at the time of watching, and several that I didn’t. I too thought this was the worst episode, as far as the “flow” of the research went. My guess is that we’ll hear from the researchers about what else they found that caused them to go the path they did in the show. There must be much more information about the first Montgomery family, and the second one too. Too much information perhaps to show in the program.