{"id":482261,"date":"2010-03-28T15:47:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-28T19:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyblog.com\/?p=8135"},"modified":"2010-03-28T15:47:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-28T19:47:21","slug":"matthew-broderick%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cwho-do-you-think-you-are%e2%80%9d-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/482261","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Broderick\u2019s \u201cWho Do You Think You Are?\u201d Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew<\/a> I believe that Friday’s airing of “Who Do You Think You You?” was about as compelling a story as is possible. Matthew Broderick found out that his grandfather was a medic in WWI, wounded in battle in France and gassed as well. He then went on to find that his great-grandfather died in the Civil War. <\/p>\n

It’s quite a story… One that reminded me a lot of that of my own great-grandfather who also fought at Gettysburg, but did not survive the war years.<\/p>\n

The following is from Anastasia Tyler at Ancestry.com:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Matthew Broderick\u2019s first step in this week\u2019s episode of Who Do \"Matthew<\/a>You Think You Are? was to talk to his sister, who shared details about his paternal grandparents and started him on his journey. Information from family members can be priceless when researching family trees, but what happens when family members aren\u2019t immediately accessible? That\u2019s the scenario the research team faced when they started researching Matthew Broderick\u2019s tree.<\/p>\n

One of the fantastic things about the format of Who Do You Think You Are? is that the celebrities really are starting out with what they know. We watch them on screen learning information from their families or from records for the first time. Likewise, the research team started out only with the information that the celebrity knew.<\/p>\n

A Common Ancestor<\/strong>
\nFor Matthew Broderick\u2019s tree, the researchers had the name of his paternal grandfather \u2013 Joseph Broderick \u2013 and a few other clues about Joseph\u2019s life. Using these facts, the researchers set out to discover more about Joseph Broderick.<\/p>\n

They quickly ran into somewhat of a brick wall. \u201cWhen we started the research for Matthew\u2019s tree, all we knew was that his paternal grandparents were Joseph Broderick and May Martindale,\u201d says genealogist Krysten Baca of Ancestry.com. \u201cWe were quickly stuck; there were many Joseph Brodericks and not enough information to determine who the correct ancestral Joseph was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Overlook Anything<\/strong>
\nBut Matthew was able to provide the research team additional clues \u2013 his grandfather Joseph Broderick was a postman in New Hampshire. The occupation was a small, perhaps seemingly insignificant detail, but in this case it broke down the brick wall. Immediately after learning this information, the team found a record for a James Joseph Broderick working in the Post Office in Manchester, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

This record matched Matthew\u2019s tree in three ways: (1) the name Joseph Broderick, (2) the location of New Hampshire, (3) the occupation of postal worker. In addition, Matthew\u2019s father was named James Broderick. Based on these pieces of information, the team hypothesized that James Joseph Broderick was the ancestral Joseph Broderick, Matthew\u2019s grandfather.<\/p>\n

Breaking through the Brick Walls<\/strong>
\nFocusing on this hunch, the researchers looked for additional records about James Joseph Broderick of Manchester, New Hampshire. The records they found matched the few additional details known about the ancestral Joseph Broderick and allowed the researchers to confirm that James Joseph Broderick was indeed Matthew\u2019s paternal grandfather.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/a> The records gave the team another brick-wall-breaking clue \u2013 an alternate name for Joseph\u2019s wife. Previously the researchers knew her only as May; the additional records listed her as Mary. This information allowed further discoveries about Mary and her life before she married James Joseph Broderick.<\/p>\n

Of course, Matthew\u2019s sister held some of this information all along. But similar to many researchers\u2019 experiences, sometimes research begins before family members can be consulted. \u201cIf this case proves anything,\u201d says Krysten, \u201cit\u2019s that even the smallest clue could be the key to unlocking a family tree.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you missed this week\u2019s episode, you can watch it online at www.nbc.com\/who-do-you-think-you-are<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Week \u2013 Brooke Shields<\/strong>
\nBrooke Shields\u2019 episode is the most royal of the series, taking viewers to New Jersey, Rome, and Paris as Brooke seeks to learn more about her father\u2019s aristocratic roots. Check out the teaser<\/a> featuring Brooke Shields, and tune into NBC for the full episode on Friday at 8\/7c.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I believe that Friday’s airing of “Who Do You Think You You?” was about as compelling a story as is possible. Matthew Broderick found out that his grandfather was a medic in WWI, wounded in battle in France and gassed as well. He then went on to find that his great-grandfather died in the Civil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}