Finding Your Roots

I just finished watching the 6th episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on PBS. It featured the family histories of Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I thought this particular show was absolutely fantastic and I'm trying to figure out why I liked it so much.
Both "stars" seemed to be genuinely interested in their family histories and in their DNA results.
Both family trees were traced waaay back in time. Both Robert and Maggie seemed genuinely surprised at how long some of their ancestors had lived in the U.S.
Maggie's family included Swedish royalty and a connection to Henry the first of England. The fact that she has a cousin who has spent years researching the Gyllenhaal line and hasn't contacted her was a bit troubling to me. Surely he must have tried contacting her, right?
The Eastern European history that was woven into the stories was also fascinating. It added credance to my theory that my husband's Swedish-Finn grandfather left Finland to avoid conscription into the Russian Army.
And I loved the footage of the county court records. I have no idea which courthouse was filmed, but it made me want to dig through some deed books!
What else did you like or dislike about this episode? Please click the "comment" button below and share your thoughts.

1940 Census Release

It's April 2nd at 10:30 AM and I'm already totally frustrated with NARA and their much hyped 1940 census release.
After all the assurances that they planned for and could handle the huge demand they generated, they certainly haven't lived up to their promises.
I, for one, believed the hype and thought they'd have sufficient capacity to handle the pent-up demand from millions of genealogists.
Not so.
Unfortunately, Dick Eastman was right in his prediction of massive frustration and lack of access.
I naively thought that I could just zip into the site and download the ED where most of my mother's family was living in 1940.
So far I've tried to access that ED about 10 times and haven't gotten past the little circle spinning around.
Have any of you had any better luck?
A few states are already up on ancestry.com, but not mine (of course).
I suspect that we in Seattle would have had better access if they'd released the 1940 census on microfilm. At least then we could run over to our very own NARA branch and scroll through the pages!

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates

This weekend PBS is beginning a new Henry Louis Gates series called "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates." According to my KCTS9 guide, the first two shows in the 10 part series will be aired this Sunday, March 25th, at 8:00 and 9:00 pm. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me which celebrities will be featured. According to the show's website (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/), it could be any of the following: Branford Marsallis, Harry Connick Jr., John Lewis, Cory A. Booker, Barbara Walters, Geoffrey Canada, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Angela Buchdahl, Rick Warren, Yasir Qadhi, Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, Ruth Simmons, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Sanjay Gupta, Margaret Cho, Martha Stewart, John Legend, Wanda Sykes, Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier, and/or Linda Chavez. Given that there are 24 names and 10 shows, I'm guessing that some "celebreties" will get more air time than others.
I have to admit not recognizing all of the names in the above list. Guess I'll have to watch the show to find out who they are and why they were selected.
And, of course, I'll be watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" tonight to find out about Helen Hunt's ancestry.