It was probably inevitable. If entire television channels can be devoted to shopping, DIY (do it yourself), and the NFL, someone was bound to figure out that the genealogy community would support a channel dedicated to family history. Actually Roots Television (www.rootstelevision.com) is an Internet television channel so you won't be able to find it via cable or satellite. It debuted recently with an interview of Henry Z. Jones, author of Psychic Roots: Serendipity and Intuition in Genealogy by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. I've written several times about Jones' books and his Palatinate genealogical interests.

You can also currently access video clips detailing Megan Smolenyak Smolen-yak's search for the "real" Annie Moore at Roots Television. Annie was the 15-year-old who was the first immigrant to come through the "new" Ellis Island on January 1, 1892. At the time she was given a $10 gold coin by immigration officials.

She has since been commemorated in statues at Ellis Island and at an emigration museum in County Cork, Ireland.

Legend has it that after her arrival in the U.S., Annie moved to the Southwest, married, had children, became a successful businesswoman and died in a streetcar accident. This Annie Moore, however, is not the same Annie Moore who stepped off the ship and into the U.S. in 1892.

Enlisting the help of several genealogists through a contest with a $1,000 prize, Smolenyak was determined to find out what became of the "real" Annie Moore.

On September 15, 2006, Smolenyak and Brian G. Andersson, commissioner of the New York City Department of Records, shared the story and awarded prizes at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. (Registered NYTimes.com members can access the article free at www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/nyregion/14annie.html.)

What the genealogists discovered is that the Ellis Island Annie lived the life of a poor immigrant on New York City's Lower East Side, married a bakery clerk and had 11 children, five of whom survived to adulthood. She died in 1924 of heart failure.

This is a classic example of how far afield we can get in our genealogical research when we make false assumptions. I suspect that the common name of Annie Moore had a lot to do with ascribing to one Annie Moore the life of the other. It's always wise to be sure of several points of identification, especially when a common name is involved.

But getting back to Roots Television, you will also find, and enjoy a good laugh at, genealogist/comedian Heir Jordan's bit about the five stages of genealogy.

In addition, you'll find how-to footage (lectures, instructional CDs and storytellers' recollections) and be given an opportunity to tell site owners what you'd like to see (and be willing to pay for) on the channel.