| Author |
Message |
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 11:43 am 
Since there's discussion about this show on the Who Do You Think You Are thread, I thought it might be a good idea if this show had it's own thread. 
Here's a link to the official PBS site, with videos of past eps. Thanks to Kitt for the link.
http://video.pbs.org/program/finding-your-roots/
|
Mamabatsy
Member
08-05-2005
| Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 12:24 pm
Thank you Kitt for posting this link. I'm watching the Kyra Sedgewick/Kevin Bacon episode right now and freaking out. I attended Sedgewick elementary school in West Hartford CT. I always knew that Sedgewick was a famous name in WH but never connected it to Kyra.
|
Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 1:05 pm
I thought it was interesting how their ancestor helped free a slave and she's now buried in their family cemetary.
|
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 8:20 pm
I watched the one on Harry Connick Jr. and Winston Marsalis. I've always loved Harry, so I thoroughly enjoyed the show!
|
Riviere
Member
09-09-2000
| Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 6:57 am
Apparently I share ancestry with Kevin Bacon, talk about six degrees!
|
Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 9:57 am
have seen two episodes.
i always have found it fascinating how Spelling of names was so fluid back in the 1800s. since only a certain population could even write, names were constantly mispelled or even changed.
I think that the Canada, Canaday, Kennedy names all can be explained by accent.
Warmwater, warmewasser, wasser into watter into walter also makes tons of sense.
in my family there are dycks, dicks, Duecks....alll pronounced the exact same way.
i think its fascinating how some names remained Intact tho, regardless of Pronounciation. for instance, Toews. which is spoken as Taves.
Loewen is Lay ven.
missed the kevin bacon ep. I love online pbs, you can watch almost all the shows at the website
|
Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 11:03 am
In what way, Riviere?
I just watched the Kevin Bacon one. I'm glad they clarified his hair was for a movie role!
What a family they both had! Fascinating. And very interesting to find out a bit more about early slavery in the North.
I like the format, how they discuss it rather than the somewhat fake "I went to place XX to see if they would have any records" of WDYTYA. It's much more personal this way.
|
Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 1:54 pm
I keep getting the message: The selected item is not currently available. I guess I'm lucky the link for Lewis & Booker worked.
|
Riviere
Member
09-09-2000
| Saturday, April 14, 2012 - 1:19 pm
Kitt, it apparantly goes back to King Edward...
|
Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - 4:58 pm
I dislike this show because Henry Louis Gates Jr. has made it his mission to hit every white person who he researches over the head with an ancestor who was a slave owner. And then waits for them to express shame over the subject. The most heinous example of this was with Kyra Sedgwick last week - her family is long known for the famous case of freeing a slave in New England. The family has many accomplishments and any important people who could be discussed. He decided the most important thing to show Kyra was that the ancestor who litigated the slave to freedom had at some point owned a slave himself. And then he wanted Kyra and her family to tell him how that made them feel about their ancestor.
He did the same thing with Harry Connick Jr. Rick Warren made me laugh, he just wanted to know if the number of slaves his ancestor owned meant his family was rich. But of course Gates waited for and received Warren's disavowment of slavery.
He does the same thing with black people - if he finds a slave owner as an ancestor they're supposed to exhibit conflict over their feelings for this white ancestor who owned their other ancestors.
Every episode he finds some way to wedge in his mission to expose all things slavery. It doesn't seem to be about the people he is interviewing or the techniques of research, it has something to do with his own personal agenda. His interest/obsession with the subject makes sense in the context of African American research - it is ALWAYS going to come up. But somehow he has managed to make it a focal point of the research on white American subjects as well.
He also spends no time highlighting the means by which the research/results are accomplished. This is no help.
I do like his use of DNA research. I just don't appreciate Gates selling this show as one thing, but producing it as another. I MUCH preferred his African American Lives series on the intricacies and difficulties of researching African American genealogies. It was exactly as advertised, and I learned a great deal from it.
|
Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - 6:16 pm
My apologies for breaking that off, I had to get it out of my system.
I did get a kick out of Gates showing Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi that his DNA shows he came from Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and is related to Barbara Walters. Qadhi at one point famously denied the Holocaust, although he has since retracted that sentiment and done his best to make amends. His face definitely fell, though. He was not pleased.
|
Brenda1966
Member
07-02-2002
| Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - 8:14 pm
Interesting GAL. I'll continue to watch with that in mind. I have only seen one ep so far (the Kevin Bacon one) and really enjoyed the history lessons. I hope I enjoy the others as well.
I wish I could get him to look into my background. Poor farmers -- I think he'd have a hard time finding a link to slavery. Maybe he'd surprise me.
|
Sunshyne4u
Member
06-16-2003
| Sunday, May 13, 2012 - 11:07 pm
Great episode tonight. wanda sykes and john? legend.
both had FREE relatives prior to civil war. i always enjoy the complexities of how history is not clear cut.
omg at the murder and kidnapping of the children tho. those last ten yrs before civil war must hae been amazingly tense. lots of strong emotion
|
Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Monday, May 14, 2012 - 10:11 pm
Such an interesting one. I had no idea if a white woman had a child with a slave then that child was born free, whereas if the mother is a slave but the the father is free then the child is still a slave.
I am really enjoying this show, more than Who Do You Think You Are, I think, because you get so much history with it.
|
Jag2000
Member
07-01-2009
| Tuesday, January 05, 2016 - 8:57 pm
FINDING YOUR ROOTS premiered tonight on PBS and it was just great and soo interesting. This is one of my favorite shows.
|
Marameko
Member
07-14-2002
| Wednesday, January 06, 2016 - 3:03 am
I learn so much from Dr.Gates and I will be taping this show each week. I have had the pleasure of meeting him getting a hug as well as his autograph.
|
Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Wednesday, January 06, 2016 - 4:39 pm
That was a good show. Very informative about slave history. Ty Burrell is so different in person than on Modern Family. Love Donna Brazile. She got so emotional and she's normally calm cool and collected. The other lady I did not know, but her history was interesting too.
|
Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Wednesday, January 09, 2019 - 5:33 pm
Last night season 5, episode 1. Andy Samberg and George R.R. Martin. They both had interesting family histories. Andy Samberg's mother was adopted. She always wanted to know who her birth parents were. She had a few tiny bits of info from the adoption agency. She tried but got nowhere with that info. "Finding Your Roots" found everybody. Pass the kleenex, please.
|
Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Wednesday, January 09, 2019 - 5:53 pm
During the episode, Henry described Andy as being very affable. Yes, very much so. "Could talk with him for hours."
|
Jag2000
Member
07-01-2009
| Thursday, January 10, 2019 - 9:34 am
TY Coloreague, didn’t know it was on. Saw it’s repeated on 1/13 n set my DVR. Luv this show.
|
Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Thursday, January 10, 2019 - 9:52 am
I saw a different side of Andy Samburg on that show. It was a good one.
|
Cpaaa04
Member
06-14-2011
| Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - 12:14 pm
I'm really enjoying this show. I've only seen a couple of episodes but I think it's better than You Do You Think You Are?
|
Babyjaxmom
Member
10-20-2002
| Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - 1:07 pm
I love this show. Always makes me wish I was famous, just so I could be a guest and have them do my family tree.
|
Colordeagua
Member
10-24-2003
| Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 3:36 pm
Bjm, ditto. Michael Strahan's 39th great grandfather is . . . Charlemagne!!
|
Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 4:25 pm
I really like this show and want Louis Gates (?) to do my ancestry now! So interesting to hear everyone's stories...
|
Jag2000
Member
07-01-2009
| Friday, February 08, 2019 - 5:32 pm
Next week should be very interesting....Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard.
|
Jag2000
Member
07-01-2009
| Monday, April 08, 2019 - 7:24 pm
Tomorrow night Marcus Lemones “The Profit” is going back to Lebanon to follow his roots on CNBC. He was born in Lebanon and at 9 mos old, and in an orphanage, he was adopted by an American couple.
On Finding Your Roots....radio host Joe Madison and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the host, will trace his roots. I’m looking forward to Gates’ ancestry.
|
Jag2000
Member
07-01-2009
| Thursday, October 10, 2019 - 4:29 pm
My favorite show is back. This week was Isabella Rossellini, Anjelica Houston and Mia Farrow. Just awesome.
|
