''Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' is a

documentary television series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

hosted by

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African A ...

that premiered on March 25, 2012, on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage. All episodes air on Tuesdays. Season 9 will begin airing on January 3, 2023.

Premise

The series uses traditional genealogical research (written records) and genetics (DNA testing) to discover the family history of well-known Americans. Genetic techniques include Y-chromosome DNA,

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

, and autosomal DNA analyses to infer both ancient and recent genetic relationships. The show's professionals typically spend hundreds of hours researching each guest. The series has examined the family histories of celebrity guests with

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, Asian American,

British American British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...

, Chinese American, Dutch American,

Greek American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest e ...

, Indian American, Irish American, Italian American, Jewish American and

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

heritage. Each celebrity guest is given a ''book of life'' which contains all the information discovered about the guest's genealogy by researchers. Included in or within the book are comprehensive genetic results, a family tree that is as complete as paper research allows, copies of historical records used to assemble each tree and photos of newly found family members. In some episodes, particularly ones in which original DNA profiling research must be used to establish a past ancestor's parental link, guests are reunited with long lost relatives. However, in most episodes, each guest is predominantly shown seated opposite Gates as he guides them through their ''book of life''. To show correlations between the guests' family stories, each episode cuts back and forth between two or three guest stories. To draw further correlations, Gates uses examples from his own genealogy quite frequently. Examples of this would be a grandmother of his having multiple children with a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

man whose name she had never revealed, as well as Gates' membership into the

Sons of the American Revolution The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR or NSSAR) is an American congressionally chartered organization, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. A non-profit corporation, it has described its purpose ...

. In addition to celebrity guests, everyday people are sometimes featured in an episode to create a third or fourth story line. The non-celebrity guests are usually a group of peers. One example of this would be the episode in which Gates has his friends at his local barbershop take a DNA test to determine their ethnic makeup, each friend betting on their percentages of

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

, and Native American genetic heritage. Another episode uses a similar guessing game with students at a local school. Singular secondary guests include Robert Downey Sr. and Margarett Cooper, the latter being a friend of Gates'.

Episodes

Production

Background

The series has seen two past incarnations on PBS, both of which were hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. In 2006 and 2008, the series ''

African American Lives ''African American Lives'' is a PBS television miniseries hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., focusing on African American genealogical research. The family histories of prominent people of African American descent are explored using tradit ...

'' aired. Both seasons of the series consisted of a season-long storyline as well as an all

cast. In 2010, ''

Faces of America ''Faces of America'' is a four-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television television series hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates. The series originally aired February 10 – March 3, 2010 from 8–9 p.m. ET.WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

after it was discovered that actor

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS education ...

had persuaded Gates to omit information about his slave-owning ancestors. The series returned on January 5, 2016, although "Roots of Freedom", the second-season episode featuring Affleck, was pulled from all forms of distribution by PBS.

PBS America PBS America is a British free-to-air television channel derived from the American public television broadcaster PBS. Similar to the BBC and Channel 4, it is a joint venture between entrepreneur David Lyons and PBS Distribution, a joint venture ...

, a U.K. TV channel featuring content from PBS in the U.S., continues to feature three clips from the withdrawn episode on its YouTube channel.

Critical reception

In 2016,

Cal Thomas John Calvin Thomas (born 2 December 1942) is an American syndicated columnist, author and radio commentator. Early life and education Thomas was born in 1942 in Washington, D.C. He attended the American University for his undergraduate educat ...

of ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'' wrote that the show was "The most compelling television you will ever see." In 2015, it was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News/Information – Series or Special. Lauren Sarner of ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' wrote, "''Finding Your Roots'' has become a phenomenon."

References

External links

* * {{PBSTV 2012 American television series debuts 2010s American documentary television series 2010s American television miniseries 2020s American documentary television series 2020s American television miniseries English-language television shows Genetic genealogy Historical television series PBS original programming Television series about family history Works about American slavery Television series about the history of the United States Works about genetics