"Who do you think you are?" October

[Pheno]

Not a battle but I have a Horatia in my tree, she was born on the first anniversary of Trafalgar.  No previous Horatias or Horatios have been found in the tree so far.
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Yes I have a Nelson also born on Trafalgar Day.

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This seems to be the format of recent series.
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Aren't they otherwise doing what some family historians despise and just name collecting if they simply go back with ancestors and bare bones.  It puts a bit of meat on those bones by digging around on particular threads for just 2 or 3 ancestors each programme. 

Personally I prefer it.

Pheno

[jillruss]

I enjoyed it too. What a pleasant, down to earth young woman who was totally immersed in the subject. Loved her plain speaking dad as well!

Only last week I discovered a 2nd cousin who was born in 1916 and named Verdun Dixey (male). How times change: we'd no sooner think of doing that nowadays than naming children after pop stars etc. or would we...

I wonder if anyone got lumbered with being christened El Alamein in 1942? 

I agree that I usually like WDYTYA to go a bit further back (but not as far as Edward 1 or even god) but I don't think it was necessary in this case.

Still not sure about next week's episode and David Walliams who I worry might try treating the whole thing as a joke a la Whitehalls. My tv screen barely resisted a foot through it when their episode was on. However, I have seen a short trailer for his episode and he seemed quite serious + he appears to have fairground ancestors, as do I, so I shall have to watch it. I need a new telly anyway!! 

[ReadyDale]

Probably true also what was said about the naming of children after battles: I had an aunt with the middle name Mons.

Pheno

Thankfully, I haven't found a great, great aunt or uncle called "Little Big Horn" yet 

[BillyF]

I thought this was a good episode. As has been said before, Jodie seemed vey down to earth, plus a lot more aticulate than some previous celebs have been.

It just shows how family legend arises! I`ve no-one named after a battle, but I`ve had quite a few instances where the legend has proved to be just that!!

[brigidmac]

Pheno im sure many were named after generals too
My cousin has Horatio nelson Ashcroft b 1831 whose son.had same name.

I seem to remember finding a Florence Nightingale SMITH who turned out not to be connected to our lot.

There are also children named after town of conception which is more romantic than a battlefield name .

Quite a few of my Jewish relatives anliscized or completely changed their names to a town they came from or arrived in RUBINS became KURLAND ...so LANDSMAN became LONDON .
BENJAMIN  became BENNETT after street he went to school in + one dna march dosent know ancestors original name ..probably MENDELSON  butb he chose MALVERN because it bagan with.M and hes saw a poster of Malvern hills

[ThrelfallYorky]

I quite enjoyed it - like others, I do find it interesting when the lines go further back than the last few generations, even if it does all then turn out to be "Ag Lab" with trimmings. After all, most of us seem to trickle back to the early 1800s on most lines fairly easily, with help of parish records and censuses, without all the professional help that WDYTYA? has.
Like you, a few - the Dyer one (forgot his first name) the Whitehall double act, Ann Reid - had made me swear never to watch it again, but ... we can't resist, can we?
TY

[josey]

but ... we can't resist, can we?

No 

I did feel there were assumptions made, for example that John Walter was living with grandparents without any contact with mother & step father in 1901 [RG13; Piece: 3073; Folio: 74; Page: 12] - after all he could have been staying there briefly while mother had another child....

I wonder if it's only 4 episodes because they had to halt filming in March?

[durhamgirl73]

It took me back to when I first started researching and didn't know much:

eg when she looked at census records:

What does serv mean? (servant)
What does that say after coal miner? (hewer)

 

[ThrelfallYorky]

I wondered why she assumed that Walter had had much contact with his mother, and possibly even a touching deathbed scene .. just because he'd been buried in her local cemetery? He could have grown up totally without contact, secure with grandparents, and it probably was mother being N of K that resulted in him being buried there.