Henry Louis Gates Jr. goes from host to guest on PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots’

NEW YORK AP For seasons Henry Louis Gates Jr has sat across from his guests on the popular PBS series Finding Your Roots and led them through secrets in their family tree On Tuesday it s his turn The Harvard scholar learns a long-buried puzzle about his great-great grandmother Jane Gates information which scrambles his ancestry and opens up a new branch that goes back to Ireland I was moved to tears Gates tells The Associated Press ahead of the airing I used to pass her grave at the Gates plot in Rose Hill Cemetery and I would say Grandma I m going to out you I m going to tell the world your secret Finding Your Roots is PBS s most-watched scheme on linear TV and the most-streamed non-drama campaign Season reached nearly million people across linear and digital platforms and also received its first Emmy nomination The two subliminal messages of Finding Your Roots which are needed more urgently in the modern day than ever is that what has made America great is that we re a nation of immigrants says Gates And secondly at the level of the genome despite our apparent physical differences we re the same Season secrets Season has featured Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell Melanie Lynskey chef Jose Andres Sharon Stone and Amanda Seyfried who learned why her paternal third-great-grandfather was murdered Gates shares the last episode with Laurence Fishburne who learns the identity of his biological father It turns out both men adored jazz which delighted Dyllan McGee who helped create and produce Finding Your Roots It underscored how family connections can shape us even unknowingly and made me wonder if reconnecting with our past somehow affirms the significance of our own stories by showing us how much each individual on our tree shapes us even when we don t know it she says How it started The series started in under the title African American Lives conceived by Gates in the middle of the night in his bathroom He invited prominent Black celebrities and traced their family trees into slavery When the paper trail ran out they would use DNA to see which ethnic group they were from in Africa Challenged by a viewer to open the show to non-Black celebrities Gates agreed and the series was renamed Faces of America which had to be changed again after the name was taken Along the way Gates had a crash class in DNA For a guy with a PhD in English literature I think I can do pretty well on the AP genetics exam he says before proving it with a thorough explanation of autosomal DNA Over the years the show has delivered fascinating results like when Natalie Morales discovered she s related to one of the legendary pirates of the Caribbean and when former Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg unveiled his biological grandmother and grandfather It revealed that RuPaul and U S Sen Cory Booker are cousins as are Meryl Streep and Eva Longoria Guests have included former U S House Speaker Paul Ryan Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard designer Diane von Furstenberg and Tournament of Thrones author George R R Martin I reliably tell my guests that you re not responsible for the crazy things your ancestors did I don t care what they did Guilt is not inheritable Gates says You have to understand how the people functioned in the past without judging them A kernel of truth He and his band particularly genetic genealogist CeCe Moore have discovered that traditional family stories passed down through the generations are often filled with a scarce lies often to cover up bad behavior I call it where there s smoke there s fire The stories are never accurate but they re often close says Gates There is a kernel of truth there It took researchers four years to resolve the mystery of who was Gates great-great grandfather the man who impregnated Jane Gates The story she recounted about her children s father turned out to be not correct The researchers show him an obituary for her and a ad for her sale Gates comments that he s seen a thousand bill of sales like it but this hit differently At the end he looks again at a photo of Jane Gates I see a lot of pain in those eyes and now I know why Something changed for him that day says McGee I remember him calling me after the reveal saying That was the best day of my life It was such a treat for the entire group to be able to give him the gift of a missing link in his family history that he has given hundreds of our guests Gates is a huge advocate that everyone should have their family tree traced and pushes back against the idea that digging up the past is divisive I believe that knowing about our ancestors is fundamental to knowing about ourselves he says The only way to deal with the past is to know about the past In terms of people who would pretend that the past is irrelevant and we need to look forward William Faulkner wrote The past is never dead It s not even past Gates adds It s still with us shaping both who we are and the society and our norms under which we function Source