Interest in genealogy taking off thanks to new TV shows

SALT LAKE CITY — Genealogy is not the boring word anymore that applies only to your grandmother or mother.

Instead, it's penetrating the mainstream of American life.

Thanks in part to four new television shows, tracing personal ancestry is taking off again, some 33 years after Alex Haley's landmark series, "Roots," aired on TV.

There's the new NBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?" (Fridays, 7 p.m., NBC, KSL-TV, Ch. 5 in S.L.) It is based on an original British version of the show.

Then there's the just completed PBS-TV series, "Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr."; the "Generations Project" on BYU Television; and the ABC-TV show, "Find My Family."

"The stars are colliding to pull it all together," David E. Rencher, chief genealogical officer for FamilySearch.org, said of the increasing interest in family ancestry.

He said the newest of the four series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" is refreshing because Hollywood didn't stage anything. They picked the celebrities first and then let their family research tell a compelling but accurate story.

"Every family has a story. My family is American history," Rencher said, noting that he recently did some new personal family research based on 19th century letters he inherited. The letters intertwined with early Arizona history.

"It doesn't matter where your history goes, it goes somewhere. The excitement is uncovering that story," Rencher said.

The seven-episode "Who Do You Think You Are?" series premiered Friday and traces the roots of seven celebrities (Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmitt Smith, Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and Spike Lee).

Utah-based Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource, teamed up with NBC for the "Who Do You Think You Are?" series.

Each hour features professional genealogists who have done research into the celebrity's family.

"It's certainly our hope that the program will broaden the appreciation for how exciting family history can be," said Heather Erickson, a spokeswoman for Ancestry.com. She also said Ancestry.com experienced increased traffic around Friday night's premiere of the new series.

Rencher said FamilySearch.org receives about 10 million hits a day. He also said there seemed to be spikes of interest, relative to the premiere of the new NBC series last Friday.

"We think the trend will continue to grow," he said, adding that at least 50 million Americans are now believed to be into tracing their roots. "TV shows will drive that appeal."

Rencher said once you put your ancestors within the framework of American history, genealogy can become more than just dates or places.

FamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization in the world and is a service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

e-mail: lynn@desnews.com