6/1/2006
By Diane Haddad
A family historian takes a hard look — literally — at her ancestors' lives.
You'd probably love to try out life in your ancestors' shoes. But what if it involved backbreaking work, 110-degree heat and poisonous critters?
“I'll never forget standing next to the woodpile and pinning the head of a rattle-snake to the ground with a rake,” says 42-year-old genealogy buff Lisa Cooke. She and her family — husband Bill and teenage daughters Vienna, Lacey and Hannah — beat out thousands of applicants to star on the PBS reality TV series "Texas Ranch House." After a two-week boot camp, the California natives spent a sweltering Texas summer running an authentic 1867 ranch, complete with nine cowboys, a maid, 47,000 acres and 200 head of cattle.