Auf den Spuren meiner Ahnen

I have a fascination for history, particularly social history and I always find this show fascinating. They have done a huge range of people and the amount of work which must go into each show is staggering. I think it's a very engaging and human way to learn about history.

I'd just like to refer to one of the other posters on here and say that these people are generally not employees of the BBC so their political leanings are of no import. There is a long tradition of creative types who lean a little to the left, so I'm not sure why that comes as a shock, and a large number of the subjects (actors or otherwise) of this series are far from uneducated. I think what may have got lost in translation is exactly who some of the individuals in earlier series are. And perhaps their sense of humour. A large number of these people are well-known in the UK but perhaps not elsewhere. I believe that this has been picked up in other countries now as well and made with more relevant subjects.

One of the reasons I think it's so interesting in the UK is that it highlights how mixed the people living here are.

I used to enjoy this, but I'm finding it increasingly irritating now we're on series 22.

The recent episode featuring Andrew Garfield is a good example of what's wrong with this programme. His great-grandparents were part of a large Jewish family living in Poland in the early 20th century. What could possibly have happened to them? Garfield has to pretend that he doesn't know. Fortunately he is an actor so he's able to play along with the programme-makers. WDYTYA has told this same story now at least a dozen times.

Standard well-known bits of history are presented as if they are news. Apparently Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Wow, who knew?

Any opportunity to criticise the UK via a biased view of history is eagerly grasped.

For example, the story of the Easter rising in Ireland is gone over again and again, always presenting Irish terrorists as valiant freedom fighters and the British as evil oppressors (most recently in the Aisling Bea episode).

Whenever there's a black individual doing the show (which of course is quite frequently - Layton Williams in the latest series) they go to Jamaica, and again, acting talent is required as they feign horror at the discovery that one of their ancestors was a slave.

Occasionally it's interesting, for example when some ancestor did something significant. But more often it isn't. It's just an excuse for emotional misery-wallowing and political opinion-pushing.

This is a fascinating series on the genealogy of famous people. I love the way these stories unfold layer by layer to reveal the drama that is humanity from the great wars, massive migrations, and religious persecution to stories of everyday life. Birth, census, marriage, property, court and death records provide factual information of those that came before us and are woven with general historical information that is known about the time period to bring to life ancestors who were not previously known. These stories are often poignant and emotional as we come to know personal struggles. They educate us today of the way life used to be; where young children often died from diseases that today are easily prevented, where prejudice was accepted as the norm and a lack of social safety nets led to destitution. It reminds us how far we have come. How medical advances such as vaccinations and contraception have improved lives by saving children from horrible diseases and helping families plan the size of families in order to better support them. For all that is wrong with media today, it can put a spotlight on abuses and human suffering which lead to social change today. It brings to mind that great quotation attributed to George Santayana and repeated by Winston Churchill "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

The BBC series is much better than the American version and it is telling that in the States it is referred to as a "reality show" where in the UK it is documentary. I rated the US version an 8 out of 10 for it's scripted feel and it's blatant commercial for Ancestry.com. I rate the UK version a 10 out of 10 for its more in depth analysis.

I'm watching the second series of "Who Do you think you are?" and am so interested!

All the personal history of the celebrity is interesting but they (the narrator,Mark Strong) gives you the general history of whatever they are talking about and me being a history lover find these parts really interesting.

It also helps people with their family trees (like me) don't bother with the website they give you its useless!

The person who said it should be on BBC1 was right but now it is!

I hope they carry on after this second series!

The second series has been running for a few weeks. The series opened with Jeremy Paxman (for those who don't know him, he's very well known in Britain as the most hard-nosed, cynical, bullying, political interview around). He was most humbled by his family's less than spectacular background.

I am posting now because last night's show featured Stephen Fry (a highly intellectual speaker, presenter and comedian). He uncovered ancestors on his father's side who were in prison or a poorhouse, and probably dies of TB. Worse, he proved that some relatives on his mother's side had been murdered in Auschwitz, and that the only evidence of his family in Surany (now in Slovakia) is an old headstone in an often vandalised Jewish cemetery. This town was once a thriving Jewish community, but now has just one Jew, a remarkably upbeat old man.

Stephen Fry found a plaque an the wall outside a block of flats in Austria, which mentioned the names of former residents taken to Auschwitz. The plaque mentioned the names of members of Fry's family. This plaque, the run down cemetery, the discovery that his relatives had died in Auschwitz, and a letter written by the old man still living in Surany, all moved Stephen Fry (and me) to tears.

This was a brilliant programme.