The TLC genealogy docu-series, “Who Do You Think You Are?,” travels to LSU Shreveport for its seventh-season premiere Sunday.
Actress Ginnifer Goodwin of the hit ABC series “Once Upon a Time,” attempts to uncover her great-grandfather’s mysterious past. According to LSUS’s Laura Lyons McLemore, head of archives and special collections, Goodwin finds dramatic clues. McLemore says it’s not just Hollywood tapping into this rich archive of more than 23,000 linear feet of manuscript material and two million photos and negatives.
“The emergence of these genealogy websites like Ancestry.com, are actually bringing people into institutions like ours. They find some things on the Internet and that gives them a clue that they can follow up on. It’s still true that not everything is on the Internet,” McLemore said.
LSUS houses the Caddo Parish coroner’s records from 1922 to 2000. McLemore says it’s the most frequently used archive. Also in Noel Memorial Library is every city directory ever published. Caddo Parish tax assessor records are on file from the 1880s to 1930s. McLemore says coroner records have been digitized for decades, but LSUS archives still houses the real paper copies.
“That has turned out to be a boon for our researchers. But also for the coroner’s office because some of the digitized records are not legible or something got omitted when they were doing the scanning. They call us and we check the original record,” McLemore said.
McLemore says the TLC film crew spent an entire day filming at LSU Shreveport in June. “Who Do You Think You Are?” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. local time.
