New series of Digging Up Your Roots from BBC Radio Scotland

John Gasson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:51:45 +0000

A new series of the BBC Radio Scotland genealogy programme Digging Up Your Roots started last weekend (I only noticed this because the podcast popped up on Google Reader, otherwise I would have been none the wiser).

According to the BBC website this is the sixth series, although the presenter (Bill Whiteford) says in the introduction that it is series seven, so I am not sure who to believe.

The first episode is about High Achievers, people who left their mark on Scotland and the World (in a good way). In some respects this episode felt like an antidote to the stream of celebrity family trees that regularly try to make the headlines.

Apart from the few famous people in this episode the programme is largely devoid of celebrities, either as guests or subjects, and it is quite refreshing to hear about the lives of ordinary people and the research of ordinary people.

Although my family tree is very short on Scottish ancestors it is interesting to hear about family history from a Scottish perspective, and it is also good to hear from a genealogy expert (in this case Dr Bruce Durie) other than the ubiquitous Nick Barrett.

Even if you don’t have Scottish ancestors it is well worth listening to, if you are not fortunate enough to live in Scotland then it can be found on the BBC iPlayer and is also available as a podcast, although I can’t seem to find it on the BBCs podcast page, but this feed seems to work for me.

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Tracing Your Roots is back for a new series

John Gasson — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:48:37 +0000

The BBC Radio 4 family history programme Tracing Your Roots is back for a sixth series. Unfortunately it is only a short series of four episodes, but the good news is that it is available as a podcast from the BBC website.

Even better news is that there are currently a total of twelve episodes available to listen to on the BBC iPlayer: the first episode from the new series, all of series four and five and the one-off census episode from earlier this year.

The first episode of the new series was broadcast on Tuesday 13th September 2011 at 4pm and was entitled “What’s in a name?” and looks at the problems surrounding name changes in family history. This is something most family historian will come across at some stage, myself included, and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say on the subject.

The next episode (entitled Life in Confinement) is scheduled for Tuesday 20th September at 4pm on BBC Radio 4.

The Wandering Genealogist » radio

New series of Digging Up Your Roots from BBC Radio Scotland

Tracing Your Roots is back for a new series