Ancestors in the Attic - Episode 13

There were only two segments this week. The first was a complex story of family members losing touch owing to separations and divorces, and descendants finding each other. It appears that although the program researcher (Paul) did dig up information on the family history the work that lead to a reconnection was done by family members. They used data submitted by subscribers to ancestry.com, or perhaps more accurately submitted to rootsweb.com and then appropriated by ancestry. Touching scenes of a reunited family vividly reinforced the value of secondary sources -- even though viewed with a certain scorn by professional genealogists -- can be useful, and adequate, when used in pursuing some family history objectives.

The second segment drew exclusively on a published family history, something the panel seemed to have no qualms about accepting as the truth, even though these can be suspect.

If you haven't found it on the Ancestors in the Attic web site, which is an essential complement to the program, there are a few videos not part of the televised programs. They are short, and one of them features the story of the only woman Mason, one that is also supposed to link to one of my obscure collateral lines.