I have never seen this show , but this morning I was scouring YouTube for some Fry and Laurie moments or clips and came across Stephen Fry's research into his own family tree and , well amazing stuff. Just when I thought I could not be possibly more intrigued with this man he went and did it again. It's not easy to see this man break down and cry , but he did and it was touching. From his maternal side with thier roots in Hungary , and his fathers maternal lineage is something out of a Dickens story. Never in my life have I ever been so glued to YouTube.

This post is a bit of a threefor or even four if you will.... firstly the show , anyone here watch this?

Secondly the study of geneology , anyone delve and find some interesting tidbits , or pieces of the puzzle.

Thirdly , anyone who studies Holocaust and takes an interest in the individual epxeriences of some families will find Mr.Fry's findings poignant , heck heartbreaking.


Fourth, any readers of Fry books in the group? now that I have watched this I am appreciating his writing even more, esp all the WWII threads that run through his fiction. When I watched this episode I could pick tidbits that went into his books , pure fiction all of them but they all seem like little autobiographical easter egggs.

1) Haven't heard of this, will track it down. Mainly out of utter adoration for Mr. Fry.

2) My attitude toward genealogy isn't pretty. It's "Make your own life interesting and leave your dead relatives alone". Or, actually, it's "That's nice you're so interested in the lives of your family; I am not and please don't think that I want to hear all about it just because I'm sitting here at the reference desk."

3) Likely.

4) I love his books and his podcast.

I normally would not have been moved to watch a TV show about geneology , but it being Mr.Fry I could not resist, and Dewey , the man is very much on form in this show , plus. Pssst they also did segments on Barbara Windsor, Jeremy Irons and Nigella Lawson and others, I know this board is chockablock with girl crushes on Nigella (rightfully so , she is do wonderful I want to hate her but cannot).

I do see your point about being on that end of the reference desk. As for my own bunch I am very happy to sort of have it laid out right there for me , I still have one living grandparent coming forth with info , as for the rest I am sure there is a nice little church back on the Island and a registrar on the same island that can produce it easily enough . In a nutshell I have been a lazy thing about this. I suppose it would be a lark to look further back than that even.

I read the books , watch the shows and films , read the blog , but have not ventured into the podcast ..... must give that a go as well .

Nigella is the BEST! She just enjoys the HECK out of life!

I've traced my genealogy back to Germany, 1877 - and Spain, circa 1912. Funny enough the German side were meticulous record-keepers, and the Spaniards - well their history reads a bit like a Salman Rushdie novel, except maybe bowdlerized so it's a good deal more dull. After that the trail goes cold, and I run into all sorts of buried animosity between family members.

Oh, and Mrs. V - when I saw the title my first thought was...Spice Girls song. That was one of my favorites.

There is a new series starting shortly on BBC here in the UK. I believe we have had 3 before. This one will have Jerry Springer of all people.

Jeremy Irons the actor was convinced he was Irish etc and turned out he hadn't a Irish drop of blood in the family.