S10.E10: Viewers Like You

[shapeshifter]

S10.E10: Viewers Like You
Episode premiers on PBS: 8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, April 9, 2024
pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/watch/episodes/viewers-like-you

Quote

After a nationwide search, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets 3 everyday Americans who are haunted by deep family mysteries. Gates unravels these mysteries, allowing his guests to understand themselves—and their families-—as never before.

 

[Mermaid Under]

Haven't seen this yet, so this is just anticipation.

I'm wondering if they will talk about the about the process for picking the people who "won" the contest. 

I'm hoping the stories really go farther than "your family owned slaves" or "your family were slaves".

And, I don't think this will become a regular event.  I get the impression that Gates likes the reflected glow of his celebrity guest from all walks of life.

[Suzn]

This episode was wonderful.  They picked people with interesting family mysteries who were better spoken that a majority of the celebrities.  I hope they do this again.

I wish I could have some professional genealogists to help me with my mysteries.

[tljgator]

2 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

I get the impression that Gates likes the reflected glow of his celebrity guest

This couldn't have been more clear to me after watching, lol -- he seemed fairly disinterested in the normal folks, who were lovely and definitely more thoughtful & articulate than the vast majority of celebs we usually get.

I was disappointed to get such small snippets of story for each, though they clearly did the full spiel for them, as they got the full family trees at the end, per usual. It'd be nice if they put the full stories for each up online.

Also hopeful that interest in this gets them to bring back the Genealogy Roadshow they did for a hot second a while back. *fingers crossed*

[Driad]

I enjoyed this, although I had hoped for a bit more variety in the mysteries than what they showed.

Would like to see a long article or video about the selection process.  They got thousands of applicants.  Probably they did some research on many of them, and chose the ones who had interesting mysteries that they were able to solve.

Yes, bring back "Genealogy Roadshow"!

[meep.meep]

The first woman made up an entire novel about her ancestor.  Motives, plot, supporting characters, etc.

We were noticing how sharp Dr. Gates' suit game is.  Does PBS shill out for a new suit for every person he interviews?

[sempervivum]

I find that I'm more interested in 'what my ancestors did' than in just who they were.

None of the revealed ancestors were known to have done anything special, other than 'fooled around with a neighbor' and 'beat up his wife'. But we can't all be descended from Charlemagne, I guess.😉

[iMonrey]

I actually liked this one better than a lot of the celebrity episodes (especially when I've never heard of or have no interest in said celebrity). Coming to the table with a specific mystery to solve makes the show more interesting. 

57 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

The first woman made up an entire novel about her ancestor.  Motives, plot, supporting characters, etc.

Yeah, I mean I understand wanting to give her ancestor the benefit of the doubt when it came to abandoning her child to start a new life elsewhere, but I kept thinking it's possible she was just a horrible person. And I'm not sure her great-grandfather would have preferred to know the truth after all. He might have been better off left in the dark about the whole thing. 

I hope going forward if they do more of these they pick stories that can find more information about. Two of them were very similar, too.

[buckboard]

When a white woman had a child with a black man, it was possible there was a loving relationship, but the couple couldn't be together because of the social mores of the times. With the first guest, additionally, the white woman was not only having an affair with a black man, but they were committing adultery, because he was  married.

On the other hand, it's possible their relationship wasn't consensual.  The first guest never seemed to consider this possibility.  I suppose I wouldn't want to think that about an ancestor, either.

In either possibility, it's understandable - however regrettable -  that the white woman would want to move away and eventually, give the child up for adoption. 

(Consider how times change:  The mother of author James McBride ("Heaven & Earth Grocery Store"), a white woman, married a black man in the 1950s and after his father's death, his white mother raised him in a black neighborhood.)  And, also, this was New York, not Georgia.

Edited April 10 by buckboard

[PRgal]

I hope they'd do this again.  I don't know how far they can trace back, but my last name at birth (i.e. my maiden name) has aristocratic roots.  I have a kinship book, but it doesn't go THAT far back.  Don't know if you can even trace back like 3,000 years.

[Driad]

3 hours ago, sempervivum said:

But we can't all be descended from Charlemagne, I guess.

True, but most people with any European ancestry are descended from Charlemagne (known in genealogical circles as "Chuck the Prolific.")

[carrps]

Like 90% of Mongolians are related to Genghis Khan. You go back far enough, nearly all of us have connections to royalty of some sort.

 

[Driad]

Yes, and one way to find them is to connect to certain way-back people who are known to have had royal ancestry.  For example, the New England part of my ancestry includes Thomas Dudley, who was a governor of Massachusetts in the 1600s.  His ancestors include King John Lackland (meh) and therefore John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine (yay!).

[iMonrey]

2 hours ago, PRgal said:

I hope they'd do this again.  I don't know how far they can trace back, but my last name at birth (i.e. my maiden name) has aristocratic roots.  I have a kinship book, but it doesn't go THAT far back.  Don't know if you can even trace back like 3,000 years.

This show doesn't really trace anything beyond American history though. They will go back to the first generation that came to America, and explore what conditions were like in the country of origin, but they seldom go back further than that. 

[carrps]

Yeah, I've found a lot about my father's side of the family (no new immigrants after 1840), but I don't know hardly anything about my mother's side where she was a first generation American.

 

[shapeshifter]

On 4/9/2024 at 7:47 PM, Mermaid Under said:

I don't think this will become a regular event.  I get the impression that Gates likes the reflected glow of his celebrity guest from all walks of life.

I had the exact opposite reaction. I imagined that HLG Jr had always wanted to explore the pasts of regular folks, but doing the genealogy of famous people drew an audience. I thought maybe now that the show has an established audience, he will be more free to do non-celebrities. 
But that's just my musings. Just like the featured people in this episode had their own musings about their ancestors.

And I’m sure HLG Jr does enjoy meeting the celebrities.

 

On 4/9/2024 at 9:30 PM, Suzn said:

They picked people with interesting family mysteries who were better spoken that a majority of the celebrities. 

I noticed that too. They all spoke so well and so distinctly. 

 

 

14 hours ago, sempervivum said:

I find that I'm more interested in 'what my ancestors did' than in just who they were.
None of the revealed ancestors were known to have done anything special, other than 'fooled around with a neighbor' and 'beat up his wife'.…

I do seem to recall a lot of the celebrities discovering at least one ancestor who was involved in the same type of artistic endeavors as the celebrity was.
If they do another episode of non-celebrities, it could be interesting if, for instance, one of them is a music teacher in a public school, and a connection is discovered to a musician was who relatively famous in their own time and neighborhood or town.

IDK. I like to do laundry and had great-grand uncles and aunts who ran a horse-drawn laundry service in New York around the turn of the 20th century. 🙃
One of this episode's people was a school bus driver. It could have been fun to discover one of her ancestors was too.

Edited April 11 by shapeshifter

[PRgal]

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

This show doesn't really trace anything beyond American history though. They will go back to the first generation that came to America, and explore what conditions were like in the country of origin, but they seldom go back further than that. 

Didn’t they tell David Chang (did you hear about his controversy?  Let’s not get into that here) they were able to trace back thousands of years in Korea?  

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, PRgal said:

they were able to trace back thousands of years in Korea?

And they go back at least a few hundred years for most Western European and some Eastern European ancestors.

They work with what’s available at this time.

[iMonrey]

22 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

And they go back at least a few hundred years for most Western European and some Eastern European ancestors.

Well, yes, the show tends to root around for an historical moment they can talk about. So they go back as far as that happened to take place. But my point is they don't do a lot of backtracking once they've landed on that story. So if they find an ancestor who fought in the Boer War, for instance, they will launch into a whole story about the Boer War. They're not going to explore much more about that ancestor and trace his roots further and further back in history, especially if it's in another country.

I think that's why I liked this episode more than most of the celebrity ones. It didn't serve as another excuse for a history lesson we've heard over and over again. 

[Yeah No]

I liked a lot of the same things others here liked about this episode but I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the mysteries he chose to follow.  And I thought all three women were a little similar in certain ways in terms of general age range, type of occupation, type of family mystery, etc.  Like we didn't see someone in sales or a construction worker or a small business owner, etc.  I was hoping for people from more diverse walks of life or occupations.  Maybe stories with more drama.  I don't know, maybe it's because I've watched so many genealogy shows or because this episode was so long foretold that my expectations grew too high.  I hope he does it again, though.  Maybe I'll feel differently next time. 

I would have liked to see someone with a mystery like I had when I reached a "brick wall" in my family research and it took me a couple of years to finally connect my great grandparents to families that went back to the Revolution and many historical figures and events that would elicit a "Wow, I never knew I had these roots" reaction as happened to me.  Finding that connection was monumental and mind blowing for me and my Dad.  These mysteries were kind of tiny and limited by comparison.  I love it when they show people that they are related to some famous people they never knew they were related to like I found out.  That's the kind of stuff I was hoping they'd do.

Like others have said, at least he didn't rehash some of the same historical events over again like he has with the celebrities.  I felt that he could have gone into the life stories of the three people a little more like he usually does to set us up better for delving into that one family mystery, but I think that was omitted because they decided to do 3 people and they didn't have the room for it in one hour.  Maybe they should have given him one and a half hours or two, but I guess this is PBS so I'm probably expecting too much.  He could have cut it back to two people, though.
 

17 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I had the exact opposite reaction. I imagined that HLG Jr had always wanted to explore the pasts of regular folks, but doing the genealogy of famous people drew an audience. I thought maybe now that the show has an established audience, he will be more free to do non-celebrities. 

I got the impression he only gave into doing this episode after repeated audience requests, not because it was his idea.  At least that's what I think I remember reading somewhere.  I sorta had the impression watching it that he wasn't as keen on it as he is with doing it for celebrities, maybe because he already knows who they are from their fame and is curious about their backgrounds.  I don't necessarily think that's primarily an ego thing but that may factor into it too.

10 hours ago, PRgal said:

Didn’t they tell David Chang (did you hear about his controversy?  Let’s not get into that here) they were able to trace back thousands of years in Korea?  

Yes and I think at least one other person of Asian descent, a woman I think, but I forget who.  I think I knew her but for some reason I'm forgetting her name right now.

[Yeah No]

On 4/9/2024 at 10:36 PM, Driad said:

Yes, bring back "Genealogy Roadshow"!

Yes, I liked that and was sorry it didn't come back.

On 4/10/2024 at 11:34 AM, sempervivum said:

None of the revealed ancestors were known to have done anything special, other than 'fooled around with a neighbor' and 'beat up his wife'. But we can't all be descended from Charlemagne, I guess.😉

On 4/10/2024 at 3:29 PM, Driad said:

True, but most people with any European ancestry are descended from Charlemagne (known in genealogical circles as "Chuck the Prolific.")

LOL, true, but once you go back that many generations it's more likely we're all related to each other than we're not.  At some point back in time calling someone your family involves most of the population of Europe at that time.

[Dirge]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:55 AM, iMonrey said:

 Yeah, I mean I understand wanting to give her ancestor the benefit of the doubt when it came to abandoning her child to start a new life elsewhere, but I kept thinking it's possible she was just a horrible person.

I was a little put off by how long she went on about that woman not letting anyone tell her what to do, and then she didn't have much to say about that woman abandoning her son. The second woman's story was pretty short, so I guess that's why Terrie got a lot of time to talk. 

[PRgal]

22 hours ago, Yeah No said:

 

Yes and I think at least one other person of Asian descent, a woman I think, but I forget who.  I think I knew her but for some reason I'm forgetting her name right now.

Women of Asian heritage who've been on the show so far:  Lisa Ling, Ann Curry and Jamie Chung.  

[ProudMary]

I can't remember whether it was Finding Your Roots or Who Do You Think You Are?, but several years ago, I remember they were able to trace Yo-Yo Ma's ancestry back thousands of years. The book of his family's history had been hidden deep inside the walls of their house during the Cultural Revolution. Millions of families in China had all their family histories destroyed during Mao's regime. It was miraculous that they were able to find it. I sat there crying while I was watching. I love Yo-Yo Ma and yes, I'm a softie.

I really enjoyed this week's episode, especially the last woman's history and her reaction. I also liked that this week they told each story individually. It annoys me when they bounce back and forth between the two (or occasionally three) celebrity stories.

[Driad]

1 hour ago, ProudMary said:

I can't remember whether it was Finding Your Roots or Who Do You Think You Are?, but several years ago, I remember they were able to trace Yo-Yo Ma's ancestry back thousands of years.

It was Faces of America, also with Prof. Gates.  The reveal.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Driad said:

It was Faces of America, also with Prof. Gates.  The reveal.

Wow. This gives value to the work of current gatherers of family genealogies. 
I wonder what the nature of the "poems" was.

Edited April 13 by shapeshifter
Grammar

[ProudMary]

10 hours ago, Driad said:

It was Faces of America, also with Prof. Gates.  The reveal.

I'd forgotten about Faces Of America and had just assumed it was FYR or WDYTYA. Thank you so much for remembering the source of the info and also for linking the video. I'm so happy to be able to watch it again. 

Finding those records was remarkable. What a gift!

[carrps]

I remember Margaret Cho -- and I don't remember which one of these shows she was on -- but Koren "clans" keep historical books that go back thousands of years. If you know your family name, you can go to "your" book and find thousands and thousands of relatives.

[carrps]

2 hours ago, carrps said:

I remember Margaret Cho -- and I don't remember which one of these shows she was on -- but Koren "clans" keep historical books that go back thousands of years. If you know your family name, you can go to "your" book and find thousands and thousands of relatives.

Argh. Korean, not Koren.

[buttersister]

Quote

Finding those records was remarkable. What a gift!

It was a gift to him. As Yo Yo Ma is a gift to us.

Edited April 14 by buttersister

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

I was a little put off by how long she went on about that woman not letting anyone tell her what to do, and then she didn't have much to say about that woman abandoning her son.

In addition to coming up with a "novella" to explain the genetics and paper trail, they definitely let her repeat herself for quite a while.  I wonder about that editing choice.  Was it supposed to be interesting or poignant to watch her trying to convince herself that all of her ancestors were good people?

But I'm wondering if her made up narrative is that much different from what this show does with its celebrity guests when the facts get a little thin?

 

[PRgal]

On 4/13/2024 at 4:08 PM, carrps said:

I remember Margaret Cho -- and I don't remember which one of these shows she was on -- but Koren "clans" keep historical books that go back thousands of years. If you know your family name, you can go to "your" book and find thousands and thousands of relatives.

Same with China.  And you can only trace the male line.  Unless you want to go through a billion books to find out about the women.  

[shapeshifter]

41 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Same with China.  And you can only trace the male line.  Unless you want to go through a billion books to find out about the women.  

The library consortium where I was employed had a machine that did automated page turning while scanning books.
It's wasn't perfect, but it could be useful for such large amounts of text. 
I lost count of how many books HLG Jr. piled onto Yo-Yo Ma. 
(I assume there's software to convert logographic writing to searchable text.)

[blueray]

I watched this episode yesterday. I do wonder how they picked the people. They all had a mystery about a grandparent but nothing sooner. My guess is there were people that had questions regarding their own parents, but weren't picked due to the controversy of the person still likely being alive. Then a lot like me (I didn't apply but wish I did). But honestly, there isn't a specific mystery there, just some questions that have been passed down over the years. But I guess we'll never know.

Anyhow, I enjoyed it. I did wish they spend a bit more time on each one's families but I guess their goal was to answer their question and that's it. I didn't get the impression that he was less interested or bored with them. Obviously they had the change their intros as they weren't celebrities, so that's was cool.

 

[meep.meep]

They already did a big episode on finding out about a celebrity's parents - the one about Andy Samburg's mother who was adopted.

I agree, these seemed very similar stories.

[Driad]

Among the thousands of people who applied, likely there were other mysteries that were different and more interesting, but that the researchers were not able to solve.