Two new reality shows are using celebrities to explore ancestry.  NBC’s new series Who Do You Think You Are and PBS’ Faces of America are doing a surprisingly good job of making dramatic entertainment out of genealogy. We watched the premiere episodes of both series this week. It was definitely worth it. In the case of Who Do You Think You Are, Sarah Jessica Parker’s reactions on learning her family’s past were identical to mine when I traced my line back to the founding of Germantown, PA.

So how can you get started tracing your family tree? You can use a number of paid services. They have large archives and do most of the discovery for you. Or, you can save the money, but more importantly, enrich your life by doing it yourself. We can show you how.

Four Steps to Tracing Your Family History

First, type into Google the name of a great grandparent. For me, it was my great grandmother. She had an unusual name. A number of entries appeared with her full or last name. This is because a number of people have placed their family trees on the Internet to share with others and to aid in piecing together their own histories.

Second, compare notes. Don’t just take the first entry you see. You’ll want to compare as many postings as possible to be certain the information you’ve found is accurate. When different accounts start to tell the same story, you have some indication that it might be true.

Third, explore the parental lines of the name you initially entered. You may find the thread quickly. Others may take some guesswork. In Google, enter a name and the approximate date you know the person lived. This often helps the search engine discover documents related to that exact person, rather than someone else with the same name.

Last, you may have to do some legwork. Ancestors with common names like Smith make it more difficult for Internet searching. But don’t get discouraged. You still have a lot of clues to work with. You may know where the person lived. I have gone to cemeteries to examine gravestones to find dates. Other local resources like historical societies, religious and cultural societies and even local libraries can help. There, you can look at birth and death records, news accounts, books on family lines and more. Sometimes, these resources may charge a fee for using their document archives. This fourth step is probably one of the most powerful parts of the process. When you go to the actual location where some of your ancestors lived, you will feel a connection and sense of awe just by being there. When you visit historical societies, local museums, historical sites and libraries, you may get exposure to the material culture of your ancestors. This last point is what actually drove us to the antiques business.

Traveling back in time to visit ancestors is an amazing adventure. As Sarah Jessica Parker said, “It gives me a sense of belonging. I am an American.”

We just acquired an Amish tuilp applique quilt. We will be showing it for the first time at the Connecticut Spring Antiques Show in Hartford, March 13 & 14.

We like to bring one excellent quilt to every show. They usually sell in the first day. We're pretty picky about quality, artistry, condition, skill and price.  This one is an Amish red, white, and green appliqué tulip quilt. All hand quilted, it's in excellent condition. The maker stitched the date "April the 24 1862" on the vine and tulip border. She employed grid and feathered wreath quilting at a dense 12 stitches per inch. We're reserving it for show clients--it's not available here in our online store.

Visitor traffic was lighter than the first two days. Dealer comments indicate that people were buying cheaper items. Dealers who carry that kind of inventory seemed to do well. A few dealers who carry mid-range items did OK, too. But quite a few higher-end dealers sold little or nothing. Sentiment was mixed. Those who did well, of course, were happy. But even those who did not seemed to take it in stride. Melvin Arion did his job by bringing in a steady stream of customers. They just weren't ready to buy higher-value pieces.

Day 2 saw a slightly smaller crowd at the show. Notheless, the visitors came through steadily and were once again buying. Today's group seemed to have a broader range of people--not the purely serious collector we saw on day 1. But this can be fun. With more lifestyle and beginning collectors, it gave dealers the opportunity to educate and evangelize more. From my informal surveying, dealer sentiment regarding sales ranged from satisfied to barely good enough. No one is blaming the show: everyone that I talked to agreed that Melvin Arion has done a great job of bringning in the visitors. It's still just a sluggish economy. So, here are some more pictures from today's sights:

  Betty Berdan

Lisa Hammell and Thurston Nichols

 Stephen Douglas

Don and Pat Clegg

Kelly Kinzle  

Dan and Karen Olson

 Racoon Creek

Day 1 of the York Antiques Show got off to a good start. Buyers crowded the aisles from the open at 10 a.m. through around 1:30 p.m. At that point, things really dropped off. The crowd was generally serious, well-informed and ready-to-buy. My incomplete and un-scientific sampling of dealers shows that people were buying lower-priced items. We saw plenty of evidence of buying. Most dealers we spoke to were satisfied with early results. Which is good enough these days. Here are some pictures:

David Horst, Thurston Nichols and John Chaski having too much fun.

 Betty Berdan chilling after a long day.

 Jewett-Berdan

Axtell AntiquesGreg Kramer