Who Do You Think You Are? Debut

NBC's second season of "Who Do You Think You Are?" made its debut tonight.  I have to say, I think it was the best episode they've done.  I guess it took a year to polish it up a bit.  The subject of tonight's episode was Vanessa Williams.

The big reason I enjoyed this episode so much is because Vanessa Williams was so articulate in her research goals: She wanted to learn about her ancestors to see if any of them were pioneers in any sense. For example, Vanessa was the first African American Miss America, paving the way for others. She wanted to see if any of her ancestors had any remarkable "firsts".  And sure enough, there were.  She then was able to learn a little bit about her ancestors that taught her a lot about herself!

That is a goal I strive for in my research: Learning about my ancestors as people as opposed to just names and dates on a chart.  There are so many ways we can learn about ancestors via research we are already doing: Census records, Military Draft Cards, Headstones. All of these genealogical treasures hold the key to learning about ourselves by learning about our ancestors.

I hope the rest of this season's shows match up to this season's debut!