WDYTYAL – Day #1

Hello from London! Today I had an opportunity to attend the “Who Do You Think You Are? Live” exhibition held in Kensington. This is the second year of this huge show, and I believe it is the largest genealogy/history/heritage show in the world.

I arrived at the exhibition hall a few minutes before the 10:00 AM opening and found a long line of people patiently waiting to get in. I went for coffee rather than wait in line. I returned about twenty minutes later and found the queue had disappeared, the doors were open, and the show was underway. I already had a ticket, so I walked straight in.

Upon entering this large exhibition hall, the first thing I encountered was a World War I British tank. I don't recall seeing any similar exhibit at any genealogy conference in the United States or in Canada. Admittedly, this is not only a genealogy show, but also a history/heritage/archaeology show. Indeed, much more space was devoted to military history this year than at last year's event.

As I wandered around the exhibition hall, I soon discovered that there was no reduction in the number of genealogy-related exhibits,. If anything, there may have been more than last year. The exhibition space also seemed to be better organized than last year's event with wider aisles. The various stages had been moved to the sides, which worked better for crowd control and noise reduction than last year's stages, some of which were in the middle of the exhibition hall. I believe that those who attended the presentations also enjoyed better acoustics. In short, they could hear better. The presenters didn't have to shout as much.

I could write pages about Day #1 of this year's event. However, if you believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, you'll appreciate the pictures that I snapped with my digital camera. Even if you cannot attend this year's event in London, the pictures will give you a taste of what transpired.

It is now late in the evening in London, and my jet lag is setting in. I'll invite you to look at the pictures. I'll return tomorrow and take more. I also am working with the folks at Roots Television to videotape interviews and other highlights of this year's show. You will see those become available in the next few weeks at http://www.RootsTelevision.com.

The videos are not yet available but my still photos can be seen at http://blog.eogn.com/photos/wdytyal2008.

Comments

[Kathryn Doyle]

Dick,

Very interesting to see all the military paraphernalia. I'm particularly interested in knowing a bit more about the WWI era tank. Is it the one used by the Americans in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive? I just blogged this week about Medal of Honor winner, Harold Roberts, for whom Camp Roberts in California was named. He drove and died in a French Renault, a two-man tank, weighing slightly over seven tons and with a top speed of seven miles per hour.

Roberts is one of buried 14,246 American soldiers buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France.

The 5 part series is here:

http://calgensoc.blogspot.com/2008/04/searching-for-harold-roberts_28.html

[theKiwi]

Interesting focus on the military stuff at this show. Some of this type of stuff we saw in the town of Moffat in Scotland when we were there in 2005 for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II with a display of some vehicles and uniforms in the main street of Moffat. The background of this photo

http://ClanMoffat.org/Gatherings/Moffat2005/Parade/pages/page_8.html

shows what I recall might have been a WW Two ambulance that was on display.

This page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_tank

might help with some history of the Tank. The bottom of that page includes a list of surviving tanks, and some photos, of which the one on exhibit doesn't "seem" to be one, but no doubt a close look at the rest of the descriptive sign might reveal just which model it is, and where it came from.

Cheers

Roger

[Dick Eastman]

The tank on display is a British Army tank. I doubt if the American army used this particular model. However, I know little more about it. I did talk with two of the men who were at that exhibit, dressed in British Army uniforms. However, we mostly discussed what life was like for a soldier assigned to tank duty in those days. We did not discuss the history of this particular tank. That discussion was videotaped and will be available on RootsTelevision.com sometime in the next few weeks.

- Dick Eastman

[Richard Heaton]

Hi,
Great Show, I went in for a six hour stint helping today (four hours on the Guild of One Name Studies Stand and Two Hours answering questions from the public for SOG) and it was GREAT FUN (and how many family history fairs can you describe that positively!). Loads of varied questions, all of which I was able to suggest sensible "next steps" to solve, from the beginner to the "been doing it for year." For all those who have missed it, you have missed a very enjoyable show, whether its Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or England, there was plenty of expertise to tap into.

The Tank and assorted Militaria were enjoyable to see as well, lots of enthusiasm, even some British "Red Coats" I'd guess early c. 1800's

Anyway being a glutton for punishment I'm back again tomorrow morning for Guild Stand, and maybe a short stint on the SOG, and hopefully this time get some photos from the gallery.

Best Regards
Richard Heaton

[Nathan W. Murphy, MA, AG]

From Chris Pomery's lecture on DNA I learned that a Ph.D. candidate named Bryan McEvoy at Trinity College in Dublin is conducting a detailed DNA study on my Murphy surname in Ireland -- what a surprise! Other surnames in his scholarly study include: Ryan, O'Sullivan, O'Neill, Byrne, Kennedy, McCarthy, McGuinness, Donohoe, McEvoy, and Kelly.

See: Brian McEvoy and Daniel G. Bradley, "Y-Chromosomes and the Extent of Patrilineal Ancestry in Irish Surnames," Human Genetics (2006) 119: 212-219.

Learning from Pomery's expertise was well worth my admission fee!

Nathan W. Murphy
Accredited Genealogist

[Eileen Souza]

Looks like a great show. Much of the military displays in your photos seem like the ones I saw at the British War Museum. This is a fascinating place with the first tank and WWI planes. It has a bunker and a simulation of the WWII Blitz. If you get a chnce you may wish to visit it or maybe not, if they stripped it for this exhibition.

Eileen

[Hugh Wilding]

Kathryn, I was at the show yesterday (Saturday) and I have to disappoint you. The exhibit is actually a plywood bodied replica which I guess has been used for film or TV purposes. It is not a reproduction of a French Renault but of a "male" British Mark 1. It didn't strike me as being full size - from the side it looked to be perhaps 3/4 in length - but I am not a tank buff. You can find out more about WW1 British tanks and what they looked like through Wikipedia - search on "Mark 1 tank". I am not sure that the AEF used British tanks operationally.

HTH

Hugh

[Rodney Foreman]

Thanks for the photos you send with various articles. It would be nice if you moved things up toward the blog banner line so we could get a jump start on reading the notes(text) without scrolling while the picture finishes downloading for our review. Just a few changes to tighten things up would bring this about. Thanks again for taking the time to include pictures.