New British series 10

Great work, June! We'll have to see who else is coming up so we can get them ready in advance for Profiles of the Day. :)

I have listed them all on the page - most of them are not that well known on the world stage! Last night's episode was quite amazing - probably ranked there as one of the best in my book! Good to see that I had managed to get it all pretty well accurately!

Minnie Driver and Marianne Faithfull are definitely worldwide notables. I just wish they were from backgrounds I can do more work with.

Randy Schoenberg did you max out Faithfull's Austro-Hungarian family when you were working on her? I wonder if we could find a way in there.

I could not find any more on that side. What they will focus on is the connection to Massoch (as in massochism).

Ooh...nice catch, Randy!

Does anyone know if the British version is available in the US somewhere? I've been looking periodically through the day, but it seems to be sold only as region 2 dvd's (CA and Euro).

Thanks!

No, they have non-compete agreements between the various versions of the show, so they deliberately make it difficult to get another country's version if you're in a country that has its own.

Boo! that stinks :((

The US episodes are shown here via satellite - often on repeats too on outer channels - I enjoy watching them when I can. Looks as if a campaign is needed! When my brother visited from South Africa last month I especially asked him to bring me the SA series which I have now watched. Are the DVD's not playable on the computer?

I keep waiting for them to air the British episodes on BBC America, but no such luck. They can find the time to rerun "Orphan Black" and "Planet Earth" nine thousand times a week, but no WDYTYA. :( The only "new" shows we're getting soon are dramas, like "Luther" and "Law & Order: UK."

(Oh, but I am excited about getting "Broadchurch" soon!)

Just a thought - have your tried BBC iPlayer? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b037lfg6/Who_Do_You_Think_You_...

Usually available to download and play for a limited time

June, they block it in the U.S. Same thing TLC (the U.S. broadcaster) does to non-Americans.

Bumber!!!

Indeed very annoying.

The dvd's would be playable on the computer if you have the player set to region 2, which is for Canadian and European made dvd's. However, I don't think you can change the region and then change it back again. So basically... no :(

It is or was possible to buy a region 2 player, check eBay.

Eldon Lester Clark I'm sure it's possible, but on top of the $200 to buy series 1 - 7, I'm not sure i want to make that investment! ;)

I have done a fir bit on Hon. Nigel Havers - interesting background. Still scratching!

Have linked Nigel Haver's tree to the Bronfman family through his marriage to Rita "Georgiana" Webb.

I did some work on Minnie Driver today but it is very sluggish with some lines just stuck! Interesting reading through!

Hon. Nigel Havers is featured in tonight's episode - I have managed a fairly extensive tree for him with all lines to 4 generations and a few further back. It will be interesting to see how accurate my findings have been using only internet resources! Hope I haven't strayed too far!

Glad to say that what they covered I had accurately added. Concentrated on the Bankruptcy of his Hamblion ancestor - reminds me that we really do need to look at Newspapers! Good episode!

I have been exploring the family of John Simpson ahead of his WDYTYA program to see what could come up of interest! Very colourful past - in particular that of his Great Grandmother Lizzy Caroline Mearer King - otherwise known as Lela Cody. She was the common law wife of a very colourful American - Samuel Franklin Cody - who was born Samuel Franklin Cowderyin Davenport, Iowa, USA. (6 March 1867 – 7 August 1913). Seems very little is known about his early life - could this be a challenge to someone? Private User?

I have really enjoyed being a detective for the day - even got a copy of his book "Days from a Different World: A Memoir of Childhood" to try and tie in what I had found. If you look at his tree there are so many name changes - a challenge! Still working on it!

(Sorry - got the links wrong first time!)

The Minnie Driver episode last night was very interesting and confirmed what I had managed to add to her tree. The did concentrate very much on her father Ronnie and his parents - went a little sideways and down to get some living relatives but didn't touch her mother's side of the family.

I will see what I can find on Lesley Sharp who I think is next up.

June thank you for keeping us updated on these interesting people - I'm a big fan of Minnie Driver's work, including her music, as example. Hopefully one day we'll get these shows stateside - & meanwhile we have the trees!

Lesley Sharp is up but nothing on her biological mother's side. She was adopted at 6 weeks and I have not added here adoptive parents. Still working on it - believe there will be something of interest around one of her great great grandparents!

The episode for Lesley Sharp (she was in the Full Monty) last night was interesting in that it did feature the Dr. Barnardo's Children connection. By looking at the School book records in the Essex village of Great Easton, where her Great Great Grandfather Charles Patient lived, for information about one of the young children in the 1911 household they found that Great Easton was one of the villages where quite a number of Barnard's children were fostered. They followed up on George Maybury who was with Charles and his wife Jane in 1911 aged 11. He was born in Sheffield which is some distance from Great Easton. He had been sent to Canada and WDYTYA? had traced one of his descendants in Canada.
Otherwise it was an interesting delve into adoption and generally quite heart warming.

Thanks for updating us!

June,

Can you provide a link to George's profile, so that we can add him to the correct British Home Children project.

Kevin