WDYTYA: Matthew Broderick’s story, a caveat

Geneabloggers learn about each WDYTYA episode and the individual research process from Ancestry’s PR & Events Manager Anastasia Tyler.

CAVEAT:Tracing the Tribe reminds international viewers that although the episodes will be online at NBC.com until September 18, 2010, the video links do not work for those outside the US and territories. Personally, we believe this is a very shortsighted NBC policy, when so many people around the world are interested in family history. Perhaps Anastasia might want to get involved in rectifying this situation?

The NBC FAQ clearly states:

Can I watch episodes outside the United States?

At this time, full episodes on NBC.com can only be viewed within the United States and the organized U.S. territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Another section reads:

Can I get NBC Direct outside of the United States?

At this time, NBC Direct is only available within the United States and the organized U.S. territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. If you attempt to connect to the service outside these areas, you will not be able to download any new videos but you can download while in the U.S. and view it outside the U.S. until the license has expired.

And, in case you might have thought of asking someone in the permitted areas to download and send you the episodes:

Can I play downloaded videos on any computer?

NBC Direct videos will only play on the computer where the download request originated.

Here’s what she provided about Matthew Broderick’s episode for vicarious international readers.

Matthew Broderick’s first step in this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was to talk to his sister, who shared details about his paternal grandparents and started him on his journey. Information from family members can be priceless when researching family trees, but what happens when family members aren’t immediately accessible? That’s the scenario the research team faced when they started researching Matthew Broderick’s tree.

One of the fantastic things about the format of Who Do You Think You Are? is that the celebrities really are starting out with what they know. We watch them on screen learning information from their families or from records for the first time. Likewise, the research team started out only with the information that the celebrity knew.

A Common Ancestor
For Matthew Broderick’s tree, the researchers had the name of his paternal grandfather – Joseph Broderick – and a few other clues about Joseph’s life. Using these facts, the researchers set out to discover more about Joseph Broderick.

They quickly ran into somewhat of a brick wall. “When we started the research for Matthew’s tree, all we knew was that his paternal grandparents were Joseph Broderick and May Martindale,” says genealogist Krysten Baca of Ancestry.com. “We were quickly stuck; there were many Joseph Brodericks and not enough information to determine who the correct ancestral Joseph was.”

Don’t Overlook Anything
But Matthew was able to provide the research team additional clues – his grandfather Joseph Broderick was a postman in New Hampshire . The occupation was a small, perhaps seemingly insignificant detail, but in this case it broke down the brick wall. Immediately after learning this information, the team found a record for a James Joseph Broderick working in the Post Office in Manchester , New Hampshire .

This record matched Matthew’s tree in three ways: (1) the name Joseph Broderick, (2) the location of New Hampshire , (3) the occupation of postal worker. In addition, Matthew’s father was named James Broderick. Based on these pieces of information, the team hypothesized that James Joseph Broderick was the ancestral Joseph Broderick, Matthew’s grandfather.

Breaking through the Brick Walls
Focusing on this hunch, the researchers looked for additional records about James Joseph Broderick of Manchester , New Hampshire . The records they found matched the few additional details known about the ancestral Joseph Broderick and allowed the researchers to confirm that James Joseph Broderick was indeed Matthew’s paternal grandfather.

The records gave the team another brick-wall-breaking clue – an alternate name for Joseph’s wife. Previously the researchers knew her only as May; the additional records listed her as Mary. This information allowed further discoveries about Mary and her life before she married James Joseph Broderick.

Of course, Matthew’s sister held some of this information all along. But similar to many researchers’ experiences, sometimes research begins before family members can be consulted. “If this case proves anything,” says Krysten, “it’s that even the smallest clue could be the key to unlocking a family tree.”

If you missed this episode, you can watch it online at www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are – but only if you live in the permitted geographical areas. Some have indicated that the episodes can also be viewed on http://www.hulu.com/, but that site is also unavailable to international viewers.

Passover: The perfect genealogy holiday!

As we read the Haggada during our seders, we are reminded that each of us is considered to have come out of Egypt into the Land of Israel.

For many of our families, it was only one stop on the immigration trail.

If our ancestors had not left their homes in many countries, we might not be here today celebrating this ancient holiday.

Here are two resources to consider for this holiday.

Looking for a way to bring some humor into your seder?

Jacob Richman has a list of 108 Passover YouTube videos at his website. It runs from serious to wacky to satiric to just fun – with something for everyone. Here are some of them:

Matzo Man
Manischewitzville
Matzah Madness
The Passover Seder Symbols Song
20 Things To Do With Matzah
Ask Moses: Why eat Matzah on Passover?
Who Let The Jews Out
Passover Blues
Get Down with Moses
Japanese Passover Tip
The Story of Passover in 7 minutes
Ofra Haza – Deliver Us
Shlock Rock – “Seder Too”
Moshe’s Rap
The Gefilte Fish Chronicles
Passover Recipe – Kosher Brownies
The Aviv Matzha Story
The Barry Sisters Tribute – Passover Yiddish Medley
Sixty Second Seder
Aish: The Great Escape
Dayeinu (Hebrew, Sephardi)
Hand Made Matza Baking with David Sussman
Chad Gadya in Hebrew, Chava Alberstein
Had Gadya in Arabic (Moroccan singer)
Chad Gadya in Yiddish by Moishe Oysher

For a cyber exhibit of non-traditional Haggadot from the National Library of Israel, click here. Unfortunately, I can only find the section in Hebrew. However, there is a number on the right for each of the 28 items. Click on each and view the online exhibit or hit the PDF file on the right for each and see the Haggada that way, page by page. Videos and songs are lower down on the list.

Since the early 20th century, there has been a shift to non-traditional Haggadah – the text that provides the order of the Passover seder – which uses only some of the traditional text and has various additions.

It reflects changes in society, culture, Jewish history, new trends, the creation of Israel and more.

The Library has more than 600 non-traditional Haggadot. Of these, 28 have been chosen for the online exhibit. They represent various types: kibbutzim, youth movements, the Jewish Brigade, satirical Haggadot etc.

It also includes videos (kibbutz Passover and Omer ceremony) and recordings of seder songs.

Enjoy! And search previous Passover postings here on Tracing the Tribe.

RootsTelevision: The people have spoken!

Tracing the Tribe is delighted to report that, by popular demand, RootsTelevision.com will remain online.

Megan Smolyanek Smolyanek has announced that RTV viewers have convinced her – via emails, Twitter and Facebook – to keep the lights on!

Here’s Megan’s announcement in its entirety:

Dear RootsTelevision.com Viewer, OK, you convinced me! After getting inundated with emails, tweets, and Facebook postings and messages about the closing of RootsTelevision.com (RTV), I’ve decided to keep it going. I honestly had no clue how valued it was by the genealogical community, and I agree with the many of you who pointed out that it serves a somewhat different purpose than the prime time programming that’s on TV at present (much as I’ve been enjoying that!).

At the same time, I think many had not realized that RTV is a one-person company, but one that’s not inexpensive to provide. Thanks very much to all you who reached out to share your thoughts and experiences. Although I haven’t been able to respond to all of you, I hope you realize that your comments made all the difference in the world. Thanks also to the more than 20 individuals, organizations and companies that contacted me to explore the notion of adopting RTV. It’s refreshing to know how many were willing to step in and help. I also need to thank Brightcove, the video platform used by RTV, for working with me to find viable solutions.

I should probably clarify one point of confusion. Many were under the impression that even if RootsTelevision.com closed down, the video archive would remain. Quite a few also wrote asking me to send DVDs of the videos, but with more than 700 videos on the site, popping them on a DVD is not an alternative. Hosting and streaming this wide array of videos is one of the most costly aspects, and there are rights issues involved as well, so if RTV had gone, so would have all the videos.

That’s why I surveyed genealogists on Twitter and Facebook, asking whether you would be willing to tolerate commercials if it would help preserve RootsTelevision.com. I was beyond relieved how lopsided the response was! So please be aware that I will be adding commercials to help pay the bills.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to customize them, but I’ll experiment with ways to make them as painless as possible. I’d also greatly appreciate it if you let me know of any people, companies or organizations that would be interested in running banners ads on RTV. Boston University and Family Tree DNA have both helped support RTV in the past by sponsoring ads, and more of the same would help ensure that the doors of RTV stay open in the future!

Og and I are going to do a little tinkering under the hood at RTV, so you’ll see fewer new videos for a while, but please use that time to explore the hundreds of videos that are already there. Please also consider uploading your own videos (podcasters welcome!) through RootsTube and let us know of any great genealogical videos you come across in your online travels.

If we see something we like, we’ll do our best to secure permission to share the video on RootsTelevision.com, so you can have the widest, high quality viewing selection possible all in one place. And finally, I would ask that you spread the word to your friends, relatives, libraries, and genealogical societies that the lights are still on at RootsTelevision.com! The more viewers, the better – so watch often!

Thanks again,
Megan
P.S. Be sure to follow us online for new videos, announcements and special events:
Megan on Twitter
Megan on Facebook
RTV on Twitter
RTV on Facebook

Way to go, Megan!

RootsTelevision: Disappearing act :-(

Although Tracing the Tribe has heard about these plans for some time, it is never official until the “letter” is sent out. Here’s Megan Smolyanek Smolyanek’s official announcement:

Dear RootsTelevision.com Viewer,

It’s with mixed feelings that I’m sharing the news that I will be closing RootsTelevision.com (RTV) as of March 10th. Back in 2006, RTV was launched to fill a void. As I wrote at the time:

“We’ve been perplexed for a long time. These days, there’s a horse channel, a wine channel, a sailing channel, a poker channel, a guitar channel, and even a shipwreck channel. So why, we wondered, isn’t there a channel servicing the millions of people interested in genealogy and family history?”

The good news is that this yawning gap is now being filled.

Genealogy is finally going mainstream. Some of you are probably already watching Faces of America on PBS and The Generations Project on BYU. And many, I’m sure, have heard of the imminent launch on NBC of Who Do You Think You Are? (a series I’m proud to be affiliated with, and for which, I wrote the companion book).

The non-genealogical world is finally waking up to the long overlooked potential of what we roots-sleuths do on a daily basis, as you can read in this article: Roots TV Becomes New Branch of Reality TV

I’m honored to have had the opportunity to fill this void for more than three years.

I hope that you have enjoyed the hundreds of high quality videos that RootsTelevision.com has produced or selected. From the viewing numbers and kind comments, I know that many of you have. It’s been a privilege to give the genealogical community this resource, but this seems the appropriate time to move on.

We’ll be featuring some of RTV’s most popular videos during our final days, so please come on over and enjoy them. Thank you for your viewership and friendship. Og and I will miss you!

Warmly,
Megan Smolenyak2
HonoringOurAncestors

P.S. If any genealogical entities would be interested in “adopting” RootsTelevision.com, I would be open to that possibility, but would need to hear from you immediately. (Contact Megan)

Tracing the Tribe has enjoyed viewing the offerings and has even been featured in some. It offered a new way of looking at, and learning about, genealogy and family history.

Marcy Brown and Megan were fixtures at some conferences, interviewing speakers and attendees. We’ll miss the RTV booth!

I’m looking forward to seeing Megan at Jamboree 2010 in June.

Podcast: Save the deli!

The Book of Life offers podcasts on books and Jewish life.

The newest one at Book of Life.com covers the book launch for David Sax’s “Save the Deli!”

Anne Dublin recorded the event live at Caplansky’s Deli in Toronto, speaking with the author and fans, and capturing an a capella song about pastrami written especially for the occasion.

Listen to live event here:

Save the Deli! sound bite

See the accompanying book trailer video here:

Listen to other Book of Life podcasts here.