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

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 Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950), popularly known by his childhood nickname "Skip", is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of t ...

that premiered on March 25, 2012, on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. 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 11 began airing on January 7, 2025, and ended on April 8.

Premise

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

Y-chromosome DNA In human genetics, a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by specific mutations in the non- recombining portions of DNA on the male-specific Y chromosome (Y-DNA). Individuals within a haplogroup share similar numbers of ...

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

, and

autosomal DNA An autosome is any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome. The members of an autosome pair in a diploid cell have the same morphology, unlike those in allosomal (sex chromosome) pairs, which may have different structures. The DNA in autosomes i ...

analyses to infer both ancient and recent genetic relationships. The show's professionals typically spend hundreds of hours researching each guest. 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 DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

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 chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

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

Sons of the American Revolution The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), formally the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (NSSAR), is a federally chartered patriotic organization. The National Society, a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Louisvi ...

. 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, with each friend betting on their percentages of African,

European European, or Europeans, 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 other West ...

, 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. Robert John Downey Sr. ( Elias Jr.; June 24, 1936 – July 7, 2021) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He was known for writing and directing the underground film '' Putney Swope'' (1969), a satire on the New York Madison Ave ...

and Margarett Cooper, the latter being a friend of Gates's. The finale of Season 10 featured three ordinary people who wanted to solve mysteries.

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 an American television miniseries hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., focusing on African Americans, African American genealogical research. The family histories of prominent people of African American descent ...

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

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

cast. In 2010, ''

Faces of America ''Faces of America'' is a four-part American television series hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.. The series originally aired February 10 to March 3, 2010 from 8–9 p.m. ET.

'' aired. Though it continued to use the season-long plot from the prior installment, it was the first installment to be hosted by Gates which included Americans of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. Starting with ''Finding Your Roots'' in 2012, the series changed from a season-long plot to having plots extending only within a single episode. In doing so, it has allowed the series to extend its number of episodes each season to ten, as opposed to the prior four episodes a season.

Ben Affleck controversy

The show's third season was postponed by

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 Educ ...

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, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...

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.

Critical reception

In 2016,

Cal Thomas John Calvin Thomas (born December 2, 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 American University for his undergraduate educati ...

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, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'' 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 an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

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

References

External links

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