Living history show on SABC

2009-06-05 18:12

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - The SABC is screening a locally produced version of the UK show Who do you think you are?.

The SABC2 show follows a series of celebrities and aims to discover their heritage. Many of those featured don't know their full family history and participate fully with the show's producers as they track their history.

Each episode is personal, but gives insight into "wider historical themes" that has given birth to modern South Africa.

Heather MacAlister, of Ancestry24, spent hours assisting researching archives for information of the various celebrities included on the show.

Mysteries that are the hallmark of the show, from celebs related to royalty, to the role families played in the slave trade.

Fastest growing hobbies

"Some of the footage is going to be a surprise to me," MacAlister told News24. "But the best part of the work was watching the faces of people when we pulled out these records - they couldn't believe it was their family."

MacAlister said that family research is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world as people want to know about their past, and all the information can be found in the national archives - if one has time.

"Some of us think that our ancestors were completely illiterate, but it's a different matter when you open these documents and see that they signed their names and were quite important people."

MacAlister said that while the information was available, it was a tedious process to sort through it as documents weren't always filed correctly and she struggles to manage demand from users of the website.

The show on Sunday airs at 21:00 on SABC2 and will feature long-time newsreader Riaan Cruywagen.