MovieChat Forums > Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) Discussion > Aisha Tyler episode

Aisha Tyler episode

posted 8 years ago by vpurvis
4 replies | jump to latest

Interesting, but left unanswered questions.

1. The "Elder" Hancock was a Texas Congressman. Yet, did not show one photo of him to see how "similar" he looked to his son?

2. As a Congressman, he must have left his "papers" to some University or library in Texas. Was this searched for additional info on her great grandfather.

3. The Congressman's will might have given clues about his family. Perhaps even clues to who his mother was. In fact, if he great grandfather had a death certificate it might have had his mothers name on it - if he knew and told his relatives.

4. Seems there would have been some newspaper article about his mother and little brother dying around 1860 in the local newspapers.

[–] cdon 8 years ago

If you Google John hancock and Texas it brings you to a wikipage with a picture of him on it. He has a full beard, but you can see some resemblance between him and Hugh as well as aisha.

[–] ResponsibleAdult 8 years ago

From the Handbook of Texas Online. (If you want to know anything about Texas, try here.)

"Hancock was elected to the Texas legislature as a Unionist in 1860. During the Civil War he was an avowed Union man but took no part in active hostilities. In March 1861 as a member of the legislature he declined to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States and was expelled from the legislature. He practiced in the state courts but refused to conduct any legal business in the Confederate courts or in any way to recognize their validity or constitutionality. In 1864 he left Texas for Mexico, where he remained for several months. He was in New Orleans at the time of Robert E. Lee's surrender, whereupon he returned to Texas. Hancock was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and was conspicuous in that body for his efforts in favor of reconciliation and the restoration of the Southern states to the Union."

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Biographical Directory of the American Congress. James D. Lynch, The Bench and Bar of Texas (St. Louis, 1885). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Article by Anne W. Hooker

None of this was mentioned on the episode, and Hancock was pretty obviously not your stereotypical Texan. I hope Ms. Tyler finds out that there was more to her ancestor than that quote about the ability of Blacks to vote.

[–] faithdaily1959 8 years ago

Every episode of the show is edited for time and flow of the story. What may be 30-hours of footage gets taken down to about 44 minutes.

[–] bdbj_7 8 years ago

I wished that they would do 2 hour episodes and go into more detail. Also I liked when they reported back to the families in the earlier seasons. I had no idea how much was edited out.