''Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'' is a documentary television series 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 Amer ...

that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. 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 In human genetics, a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by mutations in the non- recombining portions of DNA from the male-specific Y chromosome (called Y-DNA). Many people within a haplogroup share similar numbers of s ...

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 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 ...

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 Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peopl ...

, British American, Chinese American, Dutch American, Greek American, 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-e ...

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 ...

man whose name she had never revealed, as well as Gates' membership into the Sons of the American Revolution. 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, European, 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'' aired. Both seasons of the series consisted of a season-long storyline as well as an all

cast. In 2010, '' Faces of America'' 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 after it was discovered that actor Ben Affleck 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 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