Wow. I didn't grow up with my Father's family, but I learned 25 years ago that the Owens side of the family descended from free black people. So, when the Finding Your Roots episode aired on Queen Latifah aka Dana Owens, and discussed the Owens side of the family, they were discussing my family too! We are 4th cousins and the same age, our birthdays are days apart!
I was just wondering if something like this ever happened. Regular people watching celebrities find out about their history and realize "heyyy that's my family too!!!" lol pretty awesome.
Dr. Gate's show should be a mandatory history and science course for middle and high schoolers because the show teaches history and science and can go along way in tearing down the racial divide. If schools can't teach all of our nation's history anymore, Dr. Gate's show is a great substitute.
Yes from Henry Louis Gates Jr I learned that not a single black person was captured by whites in Africa, and that they were all captured and sold by other africans, mostly muslims, at Muslim slave markets. This was from one of his lengthy documentaries on slavery a while back Virtually every slave that ever arrived in the United States was sold at a Muslim slave market
I also learned from Henry that if you were one of those unfortunate enough to be captured by your fellow Africans into slavery, the absolute best thing that could ever happen to you from that point would be if you were sold to the Americans The next best thing would be if you were sold to brazil, and the absolute worst thing would be if you were sold do Arabs or other Muslims, or to stay in Africa as a slave You're absolutely right all of these things should be taught in our Public Schools, it definitely would help to heal racial divides and stop politicians from using race and slavery to stir up the blame game
I am white, did a DNA test and found out I have some African American ancestry. Proud of it!!! I have been married to a black man for 34 years and have 3 biracial children. We are all happy!!!
I'm African American and had my DNA tested and found 1,575 relatives with about 95% being white. I wasn't surprised. My grandfather on my mom's side was biracial.
Now THAT's touching. That made my day. Thanks for sharing. Your mother may have dementia but she is in there if she is cognizant enough to ask about her shows!!
Joe Manganiello was one of the most fascinating segments you have done, and that is saying a lot! I am so glad you are doing a follow up piece on him! This is my favorite show.
There are a lot of episodes that are good and surprising, but hands down that one was the best. It was like a roller coaster that never stopped. They could have done the entire hour just on him.
Dr. Gates is such a pioneer and visionary. This show is socially transformative on many levels. It really helps to erode some of the dark shadows that lie dormant in this country's past. Please keep shedding the light on how interconnected Americans are at a deep, visceral DNA level.
I love his show. As a black man, I've always been interested in family history as it's always harder for us to know our history because of slavery but also because the older people in the family who would know the history refused to talk about it, and now most of them have past away. Watching this show was what got me to do the AncestryDNA test as I was already using the site for my family tree. I found out that both sides of my family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe and that my 3rd great-grandfather on my mom's side was the slave owner of my 2nd and his mother, but also that as much as it could be possible that there was some kind of relationship between them because my 2nd great-grandfather was named after the owner his father and I can't imagine his mother doing that let alone the owner being ok with her doing it if there wasn't some kind of relationship between them. I also found out that on my dad's side not only did our family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe but also to India.
Amazing. Slavery was complicated, and every situation was as unique as the folks involved. We are all miracles! And a testament to love and relationships that persisted despite it all.
I always suspected my maternal family had African roots because of their coloring and their lips (which I always wished I had inherited) and after many years of mine and my cousins exploring our DNA we found that our family was not only of Iberian roots but also from the Bantu (I was very proud)! Our ancestors were world travelers! I love this show because it shows we are all related and brothers and sisters.
One of the best shows ever produced. Dr. Gates the ancestors are proud of you and your amazing staff. You are giving them a voice as others try to silence them.
My favorite was actor Ty Burell finding out that he had, as he put it, a "badass" Black great-grandmother who moved to the Oregon Territory & ran her own farm.
I just love Finding Your Roots with Dr. Gates. He is so thoughtful while he guides people through the journey of finding out many things about their personal history! Meanwhile, the show helps viewers learn about often little known history.
You need to do a "Finding Your Roots" show about the "Finding Your Roots" show. Show all of the methods, and to what lengths you go to, get to their roots. I would find the really fascinating.
God bless u, Professor Gates!🙏 I love that u PROVE people are more than what we see! It's a Truth that can't be denied and makes us ALL ONE FAMILY❣️🌍🌎🌏
Finding Your Roots is the best show ever. All props to Dr. Gates and the staff for developing this incredibly riveting show and bringing it to the people. Thank you Dr. Gates!
I love this show. The world needs to know there are very few people that are just of one ethnic group. It’s what I call the family of humankind. We should celebrate diversity.
My favorite was Joe Madison’s🕊️For starters, he wasn’t a Madison. Then found out he was descended from a a white Confederate POW that later took up with and had children with a Black woman. That relationship lasted for many years. And an aside, he was descended from a Revolutionary War soldier, executed desertion. It was a lot going on in his tree. Plus, Angela Davis, a Mayflower descendent. That was a shocker knowing that she was a “Blue Blood”.
Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. What he has done is a public good, helping us to understand our true history and ourselves in all our glorious diversity, both beautiful and painful!
My white family "passed" as Native American. When I called my mother with our DNA results and told her there was no Native American DNA, she said immediately, "Are we African? "
This old liar wants everyone to have Caucasian blood because he does. That's shit be fake. White and black are statuses. We have seen people go.from white to black between census and back to black. He first started off lying about dna ancestry. He is the modern Walter plecker. Lieing to Foundational Black Americans about them not being the true American Indians
I love this show, along with some of the others that help people find their ancestors. Everyone should be involved in their family history. It is enlightening and inspiring all at the same time. We are all one family - one race. Human race. The division and animosity are all man made.
Incredibly well said 💯!! Anyone that knows me knows that I NEVER use the term "race" when describing people of different colors or ethnicity because the only race is the human race.
Thank you, I have been saying it for years when asked my race I answer HUMAN after all every dog is still a dog they need to ask for our pedigree. Mine would be mongrel.
Wow!! How cool is this!! Yes, Dr. Gates is one of our biggest national treasures!! I am absolutely fascinated by him and have a pretty big celebrity crush on him!! I just listened to his segment with Dax Shepherd in January. I had NO clue of his background and all the incredible traveling he did so early on. Absolutely LOVE this guy and his work.
I love Skip Gates and Finding Your Roots. I wish they would do more regular people. Maybe one regular person each show. I know there are some interesting stories in my family. I have researched, but can only get so far.
I have always thought this too! My dad has our family traced back to the 1700s so far and it is full of all sorts of characters! He even proved the family myth of our uncle getting drunk and missing the Titanic to be true!
Dr. Gates is a hero of ours and we are huge fans of Finding Your Roots. We understand the premise of the program and would love to include folks other than celebrities. The thing that always hits home for us is that we are all brothers and sisters and should love and respect each other accordingly. What a great man.
Recognition flows both ways: when my father was dting 40 years ago and Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America, he said she looked Finnish. We thought it was the pain meds kicking in but then years later it came out she was 12% Finnish. I wished I could go back in time and believe what he said instead of dismissing it!
@@Tracymmothere's a big difference between the very "American" response of "oh, she has a lot of 'white' in her," and the much more nuanced response of "she looks Finnish." Most white Americans... Americans in general, really... seem to lack the appreciation for the "racial" distinctions within European groups that many from Europe are much more attuned to. I think a lot of this is tied to the broader legal and cultural concepts of "white" within American society on top of far more admixture. It took living in Eastern Europe for me to wake up to that reality. And, you don't have to go back very far to find where there was legitimate debate over whether Finns, Slavs, Italians, etc. even were "white." "Passing" as a concept is far broader in American history than just the very black-heritage focused angle we often get exposed to.
@@ahwhite2022 Excellent response…….In America the door for white people unknowingly having Black Ancestry was opened during slavery when there was the creation of biracial slaves [Mulattoes /Quadroons/Mestees] during the time of the so called emancipation, many biracial slaves were able to merge with the white race……Marry and live as white……
Love it! When I was doing regular family genealogy research I found that my grandmother had lied to everyone. She was NOT slightly olive complected because of a distant Native American ancestor. She was the descendant of a house slave's daughter that had been formally adopted by the wife and husband who owned the Yager Plantation in Alabama. That was over 200 years ago. My dad gets very dark when he is exposed to the sun, but otherwise has German-Irish features. I have blond hair and blue eyes (like my mother and my father's paternal grandmother) with skin so white I cannot tan. I only burn and peal if I am exposed to the sun for too long. Given that my mother and I are not racist, but my father and many of his side of the family are, it brought me great pleasure to rub it in his face that he has relatively recent African-American ancestry. Pure Joy seeing reports like this.
Love your show. I am Australian knowing that I have an Aboriginal mother but I was surprised that I also have an Afro American ancestor from the late 1800's to early 1900s.
I love this show! I am able to trace my roots which I think is a blessing. My friend who is African American can only go back a couple generations. This is why I love to see Black People discovering their roots. Their history was taken from them but we find it’s there all along waiting to be found out
There are increasing numbers of records available online for African Americans. Slave schedules, Freedman Bank records, and others. Never give up and keep checking
My respect to Professor Henry Gates Jr. I have watched Finding Your Roots for years and even introduced others to the show. They are all hooked on it and anxiously wait for new episodes to air on Tuesday nights. You can't beat the revelations concerning guests on the show. Maybe I will be lucky someday to get him do a research on me.
I love this show, too. It's helped me with my own genealogical research, ways to discover family history, and a better understanding of genetic DNA genealogy. There's a similar show called Who Do You Think You Are? It takes a bit of a different approach. It features celebrities also. Yet another such show was Genealogy Road Show. It's no longer aired, but I bet you can probably find old episodes on RUclips. It featured non-celebrities. Love them all, but Dr. Gates makes the difference. No one presents like him. He's the kind of history teacher I would want.
I love Henry Louis Gates for making finding our roots - literally an important aspect of Af Am's and all people's lives. While I've hit brick walls and cannot afford a genealogist yet, I know that with time and expertise it is possible. Thank you @Henry Louis Gates!!
Imagine going to pool hall to innocently play the numbers and a 1920s version of Idris Elba is standing there. All brown skinned, lol and sexy as hell. Emotions erupted. 😂😂
Nice work. I'm a mixed American guy and I've recently talked to two unrelated white guys who had just found that they each had some black ancestors from the early 19th century South. Seems pretty common in the US, actually, just unexplored (or hidden) until now.
Skippy's show is on every Tuesday night in our household - we love it! And all the other shows he does as well - they are always interesting and we usually learn something about science, history, or religion. We're not famous enough to attract his attention, but my Polish grandmother and her family was taken by Russians when they invaded during World War II and sent off to a gold mining camp in Siberia. She was 16. Apparently they didn't bother guarding it much because they figured if you were dumb enough to try and escape, you'd either freezed to death or be eaten by wolves... or perhaps both. She walked out, and followed the tops of telephone poles that were at her feet in the snow. Somehow she managed to make her way to Egypt and drove trucks for the British army, where she met my Polish grandfather who was fighting with the Polish resistance movement. She never talked about how she escaped Russia, and she was always cold for the rest of her life. We just wonder what Dr. Gates would be able to find out about her and the rest of our family.
I like watching this show and I love the mixing of the races. What I really like is when a black person finds out that they are descended from free black people. That a slave ancestor somehow got their freedom and thrived in a world that often despised them has to be a joyous revelation. Seeing their ancestor's real name listed in a census roll from the mid to late 19th century has to be a moment that is truly uplifting.
My family is white with no known black ancestry but my brother's dentist has told him he shares dental characteristics he sees in his black patients. Since archeologists have determined humanity, as we know it, began in Africa I assume we are all descendant from black people, at one time or another. So, we really are related to each other in the genetic pool.
My dentist told me something similar when he pulled my wisdom teeth. He told me that he usually saw wisdom teeth that big on black people. I never knew there were those types of physical differences.
All humans descend from Africans but your brother likely wouldn’t have Black dental features unless your family have recent African heritage e.g the last 300 years. I suggest your brother gets a DNA Ancestry test to verify.
The thing is it doesn't need to go too that far back for mix races to not look like one of their ancestor. It just takes between two to four generations to out-breed the phenotype. If it doesn't show up visually, it's likely to do so internally,.
I am a faithful viewer of "Finding Your Roots". Genetic make-up and genealogy is so interesting to me. It is so interesting to see black participants who assume their ancestors were slaves and then find free black people in their line and white participants who find they have black ancestry. Most people assume that when a black person has white ancestry it is due to rape. But (sometimes) when the research is completed, it turns out that it was a long term relationship. It is complicated. Seeing the admixtures of many guests on the show has helped me to understand that we as people are more than our appearance and gives even more reason to treat everyone as individuals. Thank you Dr. Gates!
My husband and I love watching Finding Your Roots, just wish I knew about it sooner. I love to see their expressions when they find out who they are related to.😊
See “Parade’s End” . That one’s a dead giveaway. She gave poor old Cumberbatch such a hard time, lol. When she got that attitude on her face it was plain as day!
Yesss I watched The Town and said this woman is black . We usually can see it. Skin color means nothing to us. We have a clear understanding it is deeper than skin color.
Dr Gates is so cool, I lived and worked for years in the Western MD region Piedmont Region of WV and SW Pa, he grew up in a little village on the mountain outside Keyser and next to Westernport MD and the paper mill, I just love him he is so classy and smart, I love the Finding your Roots show and his manner. Go HLG Jr
Continued to do this greatly needed work! I enjoy this program immensely! Thank you Dr Gates, much needed for these divisive times in which we live, to show we are all related in some form and not be so different than others!! 💜💜
It turns out these stories are true. My DNA test, having grown up a white kid in New York State, showed multiple black ancestors. My father hinted at it, and maybe he knew and may be not, as he died. But it was known that his father's grandfather was governor of the state of Louisiana in 1850, a Mr. Walker. Not only is that true, but he was a mulatto and descendent of a slave. And his wife was a mulatto. It even tells the story on Wikipedia, yet no scholar mentions him as the first white and black governor, even though he was most likely more black than PBS Pinchback, served during slavery for 3 years. What's more, his mother was a mulatto of French and Senegalese descent who married a white man, Mr. Walker, in 1778 while he was serving in the American Revolution in Louisiana under a French general. I got that Sons of the Revolution certificate and it's open information in records now.
Yes, I agree. Wish he would do maybe one show per season with a non celebrity. People could send in a story and let the producers choose or maybe select randomly.
Finding Your Roots is my favorite show on television. I wish there were new episodes every night.
Me too! I always make sure to record it so I don't miss an episode! Love this show!
I would watch even if there were no celebrities. ❤
❤❤❤❤I absolutely 💯 LOVE this show! I look forward to every season!!! I wonder who will be in Season 11!!!! Can't wait 🎉🤸🏾♂️🤸🏾♂️🤸🏾♂️😂❤
I love this show, I wish he could do my family!
Have you done your DNA testing? Never know what you might learn...
Wow. I didn't grow up with my Father's family, but I learned 25 years ago that the Owens side of the family descended from free black people. So, when the Finding Your Roots episode aired on Queen Latifah aka Dana Owens, and discussed the Owens side of the family, they were discussing my family too! We are 4th cousins and the same age, our birthdays are days apart!
❤❤❤
A VERY small percentage of white people have black DNA....I honestly think that this rats away at Henry Louis Gates🤣😅
That’s awesome! I love it when ppl find out about their family.
I was just wondering if something like this ever happened. Regular people watching celebrities find out about their history and realize "heyyy that's my family too!!!" lol pretty awesome.
@@cherylstewart8611I'd like to afford to do my ancestry,interesting ❤
One of the finest television shows that has been produced in the last 25 years. I love Dr. Gates!
Dr. Gate's show should be a mandatory history and science course for middle and high schoolers because the show teaches history and science and can go along way in tearing down the racial divide. If schools can't teach all of our nation's history anymore, Dr. Gate's show is a great substitute.
@godsloverevealed5003 what an excellent idea.
Yes from Henry Louis Gates Jr I learned that not a single black person was captured by whites in Africa, and that they were all captured and sold by other africans, mostly muslims, at Muslim slave markets. This was from one of his lengthy documentaries on slavery a while back
Virtually every slave that ever arrived in the United States was sold at a Muslim slave market
I also learned from Henry that if you were one of those unfortunate enough to be captured by your fellow Africans into slavery, the absolute best thing that could ever happen to you from that point would be if you were sold to the Americans
The next best thing would be if you were sold to brazil, and the absolute worst thing would be if you were sold do Arabs or other Muslims, or to stay in Africa as a slave
You're absolutely right all of these things should be taught in our Public Schools, it definitely would help to heal racial divides and stop politicians from using race and slavery to stir up the blame game
Great idea, but we all know the powers that be wouldn't be opened to those kinds of truths.
@@7x779"Look here kids, we were absolutely horrible to enslaved Africans, BUT WE WERE LESS CRUEL!!!🎉"
I love finding your roots, so happy Dr. Gates has been nominated for an Emmy, he deserves it ❤
I am white, did a DNA test and found out I have some African American ancestry. Proud of it!!! I have been married to a black man for 34 years and have 3 biracial children. We are all happy!!!
That's great.
Racism is inherit to the recessive gene carriers no matter what
@@jericherry3374 Super! Congrats 💙🌹
I'm African American and had my DNA tested and found 1,575 relatives with about 95% being white. I wasn't surprised. My grandfather on my mom's side was biracial.
Found out I have black Ancestry when I did a DNA test through Ancestry, proud of it!!
I absolutely love your show. My mother has dementia, but remembers that she wants to watch your show. We try not to miss it.
God bless her ❤
@@NileGoddess ---If you believe in god, then you must think that god is the one that caused her dementia in the first place.
That's wonderful
Now THAT's touching. That made my day. Thanks for sharing. Your mother may have dementia but she is in there if she is cognizant enough to ask about her shows!!
Berries, berries, berries, marshmallow root is one of the herbs that is supposed to help with Dementia. Check out Yahki Awakened TV
Joe Manganiello was one of the most fascinating segments you have done, and that is saying a lot! I am so glad you are doing a follow up piece on him! This is my favorite show.
There are a lot of episodes that are good and surprising, but hands down that one was the best. It was like a roller coaster that never stopped. They could have done the entire hour just on him.
@@scooterdover2771 now I want to see it -- have never seen the show 😞
@@scooterdover2771Micheal Strahan's also.
@@claudiascott6484 Huh, I know I have seen it, but don't remember it?
Women who saw Magic Mike knew.
Dr. Gates is such a pioneer and visionary. This show is socially transformative on many levels. It really helps to erode some of the dark shadows that lie dormant in this country's past. Please keep shedding the light on how interconnected Americans are at a deep, visceral DNA level.
Bestest!!!! show on TV. Wish Dr Gates could do more episodes. Thanks enjoyed your video.
I love this show. Also this man is one of the most intelligent articulate gents out there.
I love his show. As a black man, I've always been interested in family history as it's always harder for us to know our history because of slavery but also because the older people in the family who would know the history refused to talk about it, and now most of them have past away. Watching this show was what got me to do the AncestryDNA test as I was already using the site for my family tree. I found out that both sides of my family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe and that my 3rd great-grandfather on my mom's side was the slave owner of my 2nd and his mother, but also that as much as it could be possible that there was some kind of relationship between them because my 2nd great-grandfather was named after the owner his father and I can't imagine his mother doing that let alone the owner being ok with her doing it if there wasn't some kind of relationship between them. I also found out that on my dad's side not only did our family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe but also to India.
Amazing. Slavery was complicated, and every situation was as unique as the folks involved. We are all miracles! And a testament to love and relationships that persisted despite it all.
I always suspected my maternal family had African roots because of their coloring and their lips (which I always wished I had inherited) and after many years of mine and my cousins exploring our DNA we found that our family was not only of Iberian roots but also from the Bantu (I was very proud)! Our ancestors were world travelers! I love this show because it shows we are all related and brothers and sisters.
Wow you're quite a racist
I'm a descent of Bantu as well!
One of the best shows ever produced. Dr. Gates the ancestors are proud of you and your amazing staff. You are giving them a voice as others try to silence them.
My favorite was actor Ty Burell finding out that he had, as he put it, a "badass" Black great-grandmother who moved to the Oregon Territory & ran her own farm.
And how proud he was of her and her story of courage and tenacity.
I love Ty!
And he resembles her quite a bit!
Yes! I love him on that ep.
One of my favorites too!
I just love Finding Your Roots with Dr. Gates. He is so thoughtful while he guides people through the journey of finding out many things about their personal history! Meanwhile, the show helps viewers learn about often little known history.
You need to do a "Finding Your Roots" show about the "Finding Your Roots" show. Show all of the methods, and to what lengths you go to, get to their roots. I would find the really fascinating.
don't think that will happen. Since it's their whole operation and unique selling point.
@@m3j Probably not, but I'd watch it.
The UK version does that.
@sweetaliena, ooh, there's a UK version?
@@t.h.8475 yes. It's called Who Do You Think You Are? The UK celebrities actually travel and meet the experts.
God bless u, Professor Gates!🙏 I love that u PROVE people are more than what we see! It's a Truth that can't be denied and makes us ALL ONE FAMILY❣️🌍🌎🌏
Finding Your Roots is the best show ever. All props to Dr. Gates and the staff for developing this incredibly riveting show and bringing it to the people. Thank you Dr. Gates!
I love this show. The world needs to know there are very few people that are just of one ethnic group. It’s what I call the family of humankind. We should celebrate diversity.
My favorite was Joe Madison’s🕊️For starters, he wasn’t a Madison. Then found out he was descended from a a white Confederate POW that later took up with and had children with a Black woman. That relationship lasted for many years. And an aside, he was descended from a Revolutionary War soldier, executed desertion. It was a lot going on in his tree. Plus, Angela Davis, a Mayflower descendent. That was a shocker knowing that she was a “Blue Blood”.
I loved Joe Madison on Finding Your Roots. Very interesting, and it kept getting crazier.
May Joe Madison rest in glory. Fly high Black Eagle, Fly High🙏🏽
Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. What he has done is a public good, helping us to understand our true history and ourselves in all our glorious diversity, both beautiful and painful!
Most who talk about "diversity" flee in terror from any different idea/opinion, or just censor it entirely
Absolutely! What a great human being.
Blue Moon beer
My white family "passed" as Native American. When I called my mother with our DNA results and told her there was no Native American DNA, she said immediately, "Are we African? "
she was like "Oh Kel, Girl tell me .."
And you had to break the news that you are just European. Sigh.
No, we think the ancestor was really Black, because some family members have African DNA.
Passed or lied about ancestry, no one passes without first looking like said ethnicity
Well, my Black husband is a Coleman. lol
Way to go Professor Gates. From a former Harvard student.👍
This old liar wants everyone to have Caucasian blood because he does. That's shit be fake. White and black are statuses. We have seen people go.from white to black between census and back to black. He first started off lying about dna ancestry. He is the modern Walter plecker. Lieing to Foundational Black Americans about them not being the true American Indians
Wow. Another Harvard student letting us all know that they went to Harvard when we didn't ask.
My favorite show on any venue.
Finding your Roots is my all time favorite show! Love to you always, Dr. Gates!!
Im a white girl from Louisiana lol. I love to watch him. His voice and demeanor makes me calm. He seems very sincere.
I so enjoy "Finding Your Roots" that I emailed Henry Louis Gates Jr. to tell him . Mr. Gates was kind enough to send a nice reply !
I love this show, along with some of the others that help people find their ancestors. Everyone should be involved in their family history. It is enlightening and inspiring all at the same time. We are all one family - one race. Human race. The division and animosity are all man made.
Incredibly well said 💯!! Anyone that knows me knows that I NEVER use the term "race" when describing people of different colors or ethnicity because the only race is the human race.
Thank you, I have been saying it for years when asked my race I answer HUMAN after all every dog is still a dog they need to ask for our pedigree. Mine would be mongrel.
Wow!! How cool is this!! Yes, Dr. Gates is one of our biggest national treasures!! I am absolutely fascinated by him and have a pretty big celebrity crush on him!! I just listened to his segment with Dax Shepherd in January. I had NO clue of his background and all the incredible traveling he did so early on. Absolutely LOVE this guy and his work.
I love Skip Gates and Finding Your Roots. I wish they would do more regular people. Maybe one regular person each show. I know there are some interesting stories in my family. I have researched, but can only get so far.
Every person is a "regular" person. Unless you can s--t golden eggs or walk on water when it isn't frozen, you're a regular person!
@@avawest3833 What an ignorant thing to say. You should've just scrolled by instead of being a troll for no reason.
April 9,2024 will be Viewers Like You regular people on Finding your Roots..
Agree - but Queen Latifah's episode confirmed family lore that the Owens side of the family were free slaves, we predate the formation of the nation.
I have always thought this too! My dad has our family traced back to the 1700s so far and it is full of all sorts of characters! He even proved the family myth of our uncle getting drunk and missing the Titanic to be true!
My favorite person and show. Skip is who got me started on my ancestry search. I'm so thankful for all he has done.
This show is awesome. I love learning new things and hearing stories. It usually makes me cry too
Dr. Gates is a hero of ours and we are huge fans of Finding Your Roots. We understand the premise of the program and would love to include folks other than celebrities. The thing that always hits home for us is that we are all brothers and sisters and should love and respect each other accordingly. What a great man.
Recognition flows both ways: when my father was dting 40 years ago and Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America, he said she looked Finnish. We thought it was the pain meds kicking in but then years later it came out she was 12% Finnish. I wished I could go back in time and believe what he said instead of dismissing it!
She's so light skinned that I'm surprised you questioned his conclusion.
@@Tracymmothere's a big difference between the very "American" response of "oh, she has a lot of 'white' in her," and the much more nuanced response of "she looks Finnish." Most white Americans... Americans in general, really... seem to lack the appreciation for the "racial" distinctions within European groups that many from Europe are much more attuned to. I think a lot of this is tied to the broader legal and cultural concepts of "white" within American society on top of far more admixture. It took living in Eastern Europe for me to wake up to that reality. And, you don't have to go back very far to find where there was legitimate debate over whether Finns, Slavs, Italians, etc. even were "white." "Passing" as a concept is far broader in American history than just the very black-heritage focused angle we often get exposed to.
@@ahwhite2022, that’s a great point.
@@ahwhite2022 Excellent response…….In America the door for white people unknowingly having Black Ancestry was opened during slavery when there was the creation of biracial slaves [Mulattoes /Quadroons/Mestees] during the time of the so called emancipation, many biracial slaves were able to merge with the white race……Marry and live as white……
Love it! When I was doing regular family genealogy research I found that my grandmother had lied to everyone. She was NOT slightly olive complected because of a distant Native American ancestor. She was the descendant of a house slave's daughter that had been formally adopted by the wife and husband who owned the Yager Plantation in Alabama. That was over 200 years ago. My dad gets very dark when he is exposed to the sun, but otherwise has German-Irish features. I have blond hair and blue eyes (like my mother and my father's paternal grandmother) with skin so white I cannot tan. I only burn and peal if I am exposed to the sun for too long.
Given that my mother and I are not racist, but my father and many of his side of the family are, it brought me great pleasure to rub it in his face that he has relatively recent African-American ancestry. Pure Joy seeing reports like this.
😂😂😂 hilarious😂😂😂 coming full circle, he hasn't yet...
What did he say???
😂😂😂😂
Wow, hilarious
That’s racist.
I am an avid watcher and fan of this show. Now, I have my daughter tuning in to see it. Fascinating and interesting how DNA works! Love it!
Love your show. I am Australian knowing that I have an Aboriginal mother but I was surprised that I also have an Afro American ancestor from the late 1800's to early 1900s.
I love this show! I am able to trace my roots which I think is a blessing. My friend who is African American can only go back a couple generations. This is why I love to see Black People discovering their roots. Their history was taken from them but we find it’s there all along waiting to be found out
There are increasing numbers of records available online for African Americans. Slave schedules, Freedman Bank records, and others. Never give up and keep checking
My respect to Professor Henry Gates Jr. I have watched Finding Your Roots for years and even introduced others to the show. They are all hooked on it and anxiously wait for new episodes to air on Tuesday nights. You can't beat the revelations concerning guests on the show. Maybe I will be lucky someday to get him do a research on me.
I love this show, too. It's helped me with my own genealogical research, ways to discover family history, and a better understanding of genetic DNA genealogy.
There's a similar show called Who Do You Think You Are? It takes a bit of a different approach. It features celebrities also.
Yet another such show was Genealogy Road Show. It's no longer aired, but I bet you can probably find old episodes on RUclips. It featured non-celebrities.
Love them all, but Dr. Gates makes the difference. No one presents like him. He's the kind of history teacher I would want.
I just found Who Do You Think You Are and was so excited to find it!
I love Henry Louis Gates for making finding our roots - literally an important aspect of Af Am's and all people's lives. While I've hit brick walls and cannot afford a genealogist yet, I know that with time and expertise it is possible. Thank you @Henry Louis Gates!!
Oh lord, grandma went to the pool hall...😂
Momma was playing more than the numbers!! 🤣🤣🤣
Imagine going to pool hall to innocently play the numbers and a 1920s version of Idris Elba is standing there. All brown skinned, lol and sexy as hell. Emotions erupted. 😂😂
Stop!!!!! Lol
🎱 - corner pocket.... 😏
But she wasn't playing with pool balls.
Finding your roots is a fascinating program.
This is endlessly fascinating. I can't get enough. Keep it coming!👍
I love Professor Gates and I love finding your roots.
Dr. Gates you always open our eyes and hopefully our hearts.
We can open our own hearts and do not need Gates to do it for us. God will help us
It's fascinating to see all the ways we are connected - to the past, the future, and each other. Love this show.
Yeah Ty Burrell was the absolute Best special guest on Finding your Root's/Lupita Nyongo/& Norman.
Love Skip! What an amazing human being and an incredibly gracious and caring person. I've seen every episode at least twice, it never gets old.
My favorite TV show. Thanks, Dr. Gates.
Best show on TV.
Years ago I read a book titled "The Seven Daughters of Eve".It is very interesting & thought provoking .
It's so wonderful when someone uses science to educate us, entertain us, and (I hope) move us all forward in our understanding of our humanity.
I love Finding Your 2:07 Roots, regardless of what color your guests are. Prople's lives are fascinating!
I love Dr Gates and this show so much! And yes, we can see ‘em a mile away!😄
Finding your Roots is my all time favorite show can't wait for season 11
Nice work. I'm a mixed American guy and I've recently talked to two unrelated white guys who had just found that they each had some black ancestors from the early 19th century South. Seems pretty common in the US, actually, just unexplored (or hidden) until now.
My Wife and i watch Finding your roots here in Eugene Oregon on OPB
This is my favorite show to watch❤❤❤. I look forward to Tuesdays
I love genealogy and history…I enjoy watching Finding Your Roots and would love to be on the show.
Skippy's show is on every Tuesday night in our household - we love it! And all the other shows he does as well - they are always interesting and we usually learn something about science, history, or religion.
We're not famous enough to attract his attention, but my Polish grandmother and her family was taken by Russians when they invaded during World War II and sent off to a gold mining camp in Siberia. She was 16. Apparently they didn't bother guarding it much because they figured if you were dumb enough to try and escape, you'd either freezed to death or be eaten by wolves... or perhaps both.
She walked out, and followed the tops of telephone poles that were at her feet in the snow. Somehow she managed to make her way to Egypt and drove trucks for the British army, where she met my Polish grandfather who was fighting with the Polish resistance movement. She never talked about how she escaped Russia, and she was always cold for the rest of her life.
We just wonder what Dr. Gates would be able to find out about her and the rest of our family.
One of my favorite shows ❤ keep up the great work.
I like watching this show and I love the mixing of the races. What I really like is when a black person finds out that they are descended from free black people. That a slave ancestor somehow got their freedom and thrived in a world that often despised them has to be a joyous revelation. Seeing their ancestor's real name listed in a census roll from the mid to late 19th century has to be a moment that is truly uplifting.
My family is white with no known black ancestry but my brother's dentist has told him he shares dental characteristics he sees in his black patients. Since archeologists have determined humanity, as we know it, began in Africa I assume we are all descendant from black people, at one time or another. So, we really are related to each other in the genetic pool.
My dentist told me something similar when he pulled my wisdom teeth. He told me that he usually saw wisdom teeth that big on black people. I never knew there were those types of physical differences.
All humans descend from Africans but your brother likely wouldn’t have Black dental features unless your family have recent African heritage e.g the last 300 years. I suggest your brother gets a DNA Ancestry test to verify.
The thing is it doesn't need to go too that far back for mix races to not look like one of their ancestor. It just takes between two to four generations to out-breed the phenotype. If it doesn't show up visually, it's likely to do so internally,.
@@hezrenemckenzieEven then, there does seem to be something that tips people off someway, if you know what I mean.
You have no known black ancestry. But that doesnt mean you arent black, you just are unaware. Africa is a diverse continent too.
I love Henry Louis Gates Jr. and all he produces.
I love this show!
I’ve watched your program countless times and I’m truly amazed at how well you and your team can find so much history on people
Has PBS been canceled in Florida? If not, Wait for it. Great work. Mr. Gates
No, I see it on PBS every Tuesday!!! Wish it was on every day!!!
I've been watching this show since it started!! It has helped with my own genealogy search, where to go, how to look.... it's an invaluable tool !!!
One of my all time favorite shows
I am a faithful viewer of "Finding Your Roots". Genetic make-up and genealogy is so interesting to me. It is so interesting to see black participants who assume their ancestors were slaves and then find free black people in their line and white participants who find they have black ancestry. Most people assume that when a black person has white ancestry it is due to rape. But (sometimes) when the research is completed, it turns out that it was a long term relationship. It is complicated. Seeing the admixtures of many guests on the show has helped me to understand that we as people are more than our appearance and gives even more reason to treat everyone as individuals. Thank you Dr. Gates!
Absolutely phenomenal program
My husband and I love watching Finding Your Roots, just wish I knew about it sooner. I love to see their expressions when they find out who they are related to.😊
When Rebecca Hall was on the show I was like "Gurl, I could have saved you the trouble" I knew since The Town 😂😂
Yup
See “Parade’s End” . That one’s a dead giveaway. She gave poor old Cumberbatch such a hard time, lol. When she got that attitude on her face it was plain as day!
Isn’t her mom half black or her grandmother was black?
🤣🤣🤣
Yesss I watched The Town and said this woman is black . We usually can see it. Skin color means nothing to us. We have a clear understanding it is deeper than skin color.
I love the information this show gives.
I would love to be on the show and get information on my roots.
Steven Tyler from Aerosmith his great grandfather was mulatto, and he was so excited. You can see in his and his daughter's features.
WHAT?! 😮 I missed that episode
His father was italian...
@@adiza1616this was his maternal family that had Black ancestry. His paternal side (real last name is Tallarico) is Italian.
We're all mixed..many Italians from Sicily are from African descents@erikamantell7301
@@erikamantell7301 italy is a boatride from africa, btw
Dr Gates is so cool, I lived and worked for years in the Western MD region Piedmont Region of WV and SW Pa, he grew up in a little village on the mountain outside Keyser and next to Westernport MD and the paper mill, I just love him he is so classy and smart, I love the Finding your Roots show and his manner. Go HLG Jr
We are all connected.
True, and why this show is so important.
Right down to Adam and Eve.
We are all brothers and sisters under the skin.
True.
I have done geneology for many years. It is so facinating. Never miss his show. We are all related.
I Love this show!!! ❤❤ Thank you so very much!!
The episode with Joe was so good and so jaw-dropping I was captivated, I have to tell you. You couldn't have told me that that man wasn't Italian.
One of my all time favorite programs!
Continued to do this greatly needed work! I enjoy this program immensely! Thank you Dr Gates, much needed for these divisive times in which we live, to show we are all related in some form and not be so different than others!! 💜💜
It turns out these stories are true. My DNA test, having grown up a white kid in New York State, showed multiple black ancestors. My father hinted at it, and maybe he knew and may be not, as he died. But it was known that his father's grandfather was governor of the state of Louisiana in 1850, a Mr. Walker. Not only is that true, but he was a mulatto and descendent of a slave. And his wife was a mulatto. It even tells the story on Wikipedia, yet no scholar mentions him as the first white and black governor, even though he was most likely more black than PBS Pinchback, served during slavery for 3 years.
What's more, his mother was a mulatto of French and Senegalese descent who married a white man, Mr. Walker, in 1778 while he was serving in the American Revolution in Louisiana under a French general. I got that Sons of the Revolution certificate and it's open information in records now.
You’ve learned a lot about your history
Wonderful show! Hope it continues forever. Will watch it for as long it continues!
Favorite show and I’ve got a bit of a crush on Mr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr!
Me too.
Me three, lol. He has a great personality. I bet he has no idea.
One of my favorite shows, love all the history and stories you share Mr. Gates. Thank you.
One of the best shows on television.
Yes, and also the show Who DO You Think You Are.
I love Finding Your Roots, I never miss a show and Dr. Gates is the BEST.
I want to be on his show so bad Already prayed about it
The actors/positions on the show pay to be on the show.
I love this show! I watch it however I can whenever it's on! We are all far more interconnected than we think.
Love this show. ❤❤
Thank you Henry Louis Gates, I love the show! 🎉❤
I love the show Finding Your Roots, watching every one I can access from Aotearoa New Zealand. Awesome show, Henry Louis Gates Jr!!
Kia ora from the Midwestern US!
I never miss an episode.
I think it would be interesting to have a follow up show of the reactions of how these families reacted to the news.
I LOVE THIS SHOW I wish that Mr. Gates could do me, my Mom & Dad's roots...that would be a dream come true!!!❤❤
Me too! Then I could uncover my “Pirates of the Caribbean” history. Lol
If Dr. Gates picked my Mother for an episode, it would be so exciting. She’s been working on our family’s genealogy for some time.
Yes, I agree. Wish he would do maybe one show per season with a non celebrity. People could send in a story and let the producers choose or maybe select randomly.
How cool is that? I can’t wait to see the new episode!❤
love this show
I can't wait for the sequel. ❤️