There are some annoying elements to the American episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? – the celebrities’ apparent need to respond to every piece of information with “wow” is top of my list. Nonetheless, they have provided us with some fascinating stories. Lisa Kudrow‘s episode last night was another of those.
We’ve seen several stars with Jewish connections over the years, but no matter how many personal accounts of the Holocaust I hear, I still find them incredibly powerful and moving. I can’t imagine how it must feel to find your relative listed on a document next to the words “killed and burned”.
Finding her cousin alive and well at the end was a nice twist, and an unexpected happy ending. I’d have liked to hear more about how he escaped Poland by joining the Russian Army, aged just 15 – this sounded like a remarkable story.
From a research point of view, we saw a perfect example of phone books at work. If you’re trying to track down living relatives, it’s all too easy to forget about the records that should be most obvious, as we still use them today. See if you can find your long lost cousins in our exclusive British Phone Books, 1880-1984.
I hope the BBC dig out the remaining episodes from the US series. In particular, I’d be keen to see Spike Lee’s programme, where he traces his roots through slavery.
What did you think of Lisa’s episode? Let me know in the comments below.