Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. - General Discussion

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, Dehumidifier said:

I think Danza was exaggerating his Noo Yawk accent. I'm close in age to him. also from Brooklyn and people my age don't generally talk like that.

I too was distracted by Tony's heavy "Noo Yawk accent," and wondered if his accent was part of his identity as an actor whose major roles used that accent.
My 90-year-old uncle hasn't lived in New Jersey for 40 or 50 years, but still has a noticeable accent similar to Tony's (but not so pronounced). My uncle is known among friends and relatives for telling stories, so perhaps he too kept his accent alive because it added to his schtick.
There are several ethnic identities from that area associated with that accent. Maintaining that accent can be a way to signal: I'm not a WASP.
Or, it might just be something Tony could never lose without coaching (and chose not to). Rosie Perez has used as strong of an accent even when the role didn't call for it. I had a coworker who came from Poland as a child who still had an accent in her 60s.
Bringing this around to the topic: Perhaps Tony's accent has served as a kind of personal ethnic identity, and his desire for such roots is what brought him to the show.

Edited February 12, 2022 by shapeshifter
Grammar

[Dehumidifier]

The Cuomo brothers exaggerate too.

[Yeah No]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I too was distracted by Tony's heavy "Noo Yawk accent," and wondered if his accent was part of his identity as an actor whose major roles used that accent.
My 90-year-old uncle hasn't lived in New Jersey for 40 or 50 years, but still has a noticeable accent similar to Tony's (but not so pronounced). My uncle is known among friends and relatives for telling stories, so perhaps he too kept his accent alive because it added to his schtick.
There are several ethnic identities from that area who are associated with that accent. Maintaining that accent can be a way to signal: I'm not a WASP.
Or, it might just be something Tony could never lose without coaching (and chose not to). Rosie Perez has used as strong of an accent even when the role didn't call for it. I had a coworker who came from Poland as a child who still had an accent in her 60s.
Bringing this around to the topic: Perhaps Tony's accent has served as a kind of personal ethnic identity, and his desire for such roots is what brought him to the show.

Yeah, I tend to think Tony is one of those people that never lost his accent and never tried to lose it either.  It sounds authentic to me, not played up, but authentic to the time when he was young, not now.  New York accents have changed since then.  They have all become milder and more like a general Northeast accent.  A lot of the younger New York natives don't have any NY accent at all.  They all sound like TV announcers and their "Mid-lantic" accent.  When I hear people over a certain age from borough NY they tend to have a thicker accent than the younger people. 

Plus it can be cultural too.  Italians from Brooklyn can have some of the thickest Noo-Yawkese out there.  I know people from the boroughs of NYC displaced here in CT who have been here as long as I have and still sound like the day they left the City 30 years ago.  Then there's me - I've lost a lot of my NY accent.  I haven't lost it completely, though.  Natives to my area say they can hear a faint "something" in the background that gives me away, LOL.

[blueray]

Just got around to watching this episode. And yeah, his accent seemed natural to me. He probably did get roles because of it. And never tried to lose it. 

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Tony and Terry seem like really nice guys, and their reactions came across as more genuine than a lot of the guests on this show. 

I remembered this as I was watching the Leguizamo/Waithe episode.   As talented as he is, and as much as I enjoyed his early stand up, I've always gotten the impression that John Leguizamo is uncomfortable in his own skin, being himself in front of people.   It didn't change last night.   And with both guests, they skipped merrily over recent history and went back many generations to tell a heroic story.  And HLG kept asking why they didn't know these stories.  Really?  Being cognizant of something that happened 500 years or more ago, when most working people, dealing with their everyday lives don't have the energy to remember last week.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Mermaid Under

[Suzn]

3 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

I remembered this as I was watching the Leguizamo/Waithe episode.   As talented as he is, and as much as I enjoyed his early stand up, I've always gotten the impression that John Leguizamo is uncomfortable in his own skin, being himself in front of people.   It didn't change last night.   And with both guests, they skipped merrily over recent history and went back many generations to tell a heroic story.  And HLG kept asking why they didn't know these stories.  Really?  Being cognizant of something that happened 500 years or more ago, when most working people, dealing with their everyday lives don't have the energy to remember last week.

So true.  I'd be surprised if most people know more than their grandparents, much less multi-great grandparents.  I found their histories interesting, but far more "historical" than any personal connections.  At the 15 great level, the connection is very very small.

It always strikes me as odd that it is announced that they've come to the end of the paper trail.  As each generation branches out, there are so many other lines to follow.  At 4 great, there are 64 people, each with their own line.

[12catcrazy]

Another episode that was interesting and where I had no clue who one of the people was (Lena Waite).   I've been a fan of John Leguizamo for almost 30 years - he's just such an amazing talent.   And it's eye opening that his father came from a father that had all sorts of money but since he was only a "natural" son, and apparently not acknowledged, he had to find his own way in life.   I wouldn't doubt if he had an inkling of who his father was and it must have stung.   There might be some really good reasons why John Leguizamo might  feel more comfortable in character than as "himself".  

And as an aside - nobody is commenting on HIS Noo Yawk accent - LOL.  Although I'd say his is more how most of us downstate Noo Yawkers speak as opposed to Tony Danza and his old style Brooklyn honk.   And I do know people of his age who speak like that.   Don't get me started on Cyndi Lauper though - nobody has sounded like that in the Bronx since Clara Bow left town.  

Edited February 17, 2022 by 12catcrazy
typo

[deirdra]

8 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

Being cognizant of something that happened 500 years or more ago, when most working people, dealing with their everyday lives don't have the energy to remember last week.

Also, most people who came to America were looking for a better future and hoping to forget past hardships and didn't talk about them. My father never spoke of his time in the Navy when we were kids; he was in his seventies when we finally got him to tell us what he did - treating Americans and Allies on hospital ships that stopped at numerous bombed-out European cities in the aftermath of WWII and took them to safer ports or home to America.  With what he saw and the burdensome bureaucracies & paperwork, they weren't the good old days. In earlier generations most people didn't live long enough to tell all their stories.

Edited February 16, 2022 by deirdra

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Also, most people who came to America were looking for a better future and hoping to forget past hardships and didn't talk about them.

Absolutely true. 
I remember when Roots was a big deal.  My father's mother was still alive, and I was relatively young, so I asked her something about what things were like for her growing up.  She said that her parents took her out of school when she was 6 and sent her to work for some horrible old woman as a maid.  I have no reason to doubt her, although I hope she was older than 6.  I had already heard that her father lost his business at some point, and it was normal at that time to offload your children because you couldn't afford to feed them.  Her situation at home had a lot to do with why she married my grandfather at 16, and was patently miserable with him for 60 some years.  And that is just one long story.  All the rest of my grandparents had similar memories that they did not wish to share or relive.   

Edited February 17, 2022 by Mermaid Under

[Mediocre Gatsby]

I'd never heard of the historical practice of paying people to leave their home countries, even for 5 years, so I was glad to hear that Dr. Gates had never heard of it either. 

It was striking how far-distant the relatives were in this episode. 

I thought that Lena did a good job expressing the pain of thinking about someone else putting their name on your family. And I was amazed to hear that more enslaved people were sent to Barbados than came to the United States, and the history of sugar as a commodity. This show often shines a light on deficiencies in my education or knowledge, but I also agree wholeheartedly with her point that this "is not meant to be understood."

 

 

[shapeshifter]

It’s interesting that Mitochondrial DNA only provides records of mothers  (like Lena’s Native American female ancestor) and does  not record the male ancestors —who are the ones most likely to be recorded in writing or even statues (like John Leguizamo‘s ancestors).

[Mediocre Gatsby]

1 minute ago, shapeshifter said:

It’s interesting that Mitochondrial DNA only provides records of mothers

Mitochondrial DNA always makes me think of the "A Wrinkle in Time" sequel "A Wind in  the Door."

[Lovecat]

On 2/18/2022 at 2:22 AM, shapeshifter said:

It’s interesting that Mitochondrial DNA only provides records of mothers  (like Lena’s Native American female ancestor) and does  not record the male ancestors —who are the ones most likely to be recorded in writing or even statues (like John Leguizamo‘s ancestors).

That's science's way of saying "F**k the Patriarchy" :)

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, Lovecat said:

That's science's way of saying "F**k the Patriarchy" :)

Exactly what I was thinking and trying to say!🤣

Edited February 21, 2022 by shapeshifter

[One Imaginary Girl]

Oh wow.  The town where Nathan Lane's ancestor died in a workhouse was where my great-grandfather was born, also in the late 1860s.  I wonder if anyone in my family ever crossed paths with him; I don't know if you were confined entirely to the workhouse if you were sent there.

I try to look at the records in each episode to see if there's any connection to my trees, and just seeing the name Ballinasloe seems close.  

[Mermaid Under]

I guess I'm admitting to being completely unwoke, but was I the only person who thought Nathan Lane was Jewish? Nope, 100% European and Irish.

And with Leslie Odom, Jr. HLG really kept overpushing the "how does that make you feel" button.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Mermaid Under

[sempervivum]

13 minutes ago, Mermaid Under said:

I guess I'm admitting to be completely unwoke, but was I the only person who thought Nathan Lane was Jewish?

Me, too. Would have sworn to it.

 

[Suzn]

1 hour ago, Mermaid Under said:

I guess I'm admitting to be completely unwoke, but was I the only person who thought Nathan Lane was Jewish? Nope, 100% European and Irish.

And with Leslie Odom, Jr. HLG really kept overpushing the "how does that make you feel" button.

Me too!  I would not have guessed he was Irish. 

And I really wish for an alternative question or something to get a response rather than that very, very tired "how does that make you feel". 

[Linderhill]

I did enjoy seeing Leslie's reaction to the fact that one of his grands came over from South Africa on his own in the 1900's.  I think it threw HLG a bit too.  I'm surprised that there wasn't more made of the fact that the white slave owner actually acknowledged his illegitimate daughter in his will.  There have been so many times that wasn't the case.  

I had no idea that Nathan Lane was from Jersey City but then I really haven't researched him at all.  I did enjoy when Nathan talked about seeing his parents dance together.

[12catcrazy]

Good episode.  Leslie Odom Jr comes across as an intelligent and thoughtful person.  And it always makes me shake my head when we see the white slaveowner who fathered a child with one of his slaves.  So the Black people were inferior and considered not quite human (a large part of the rational behind American slavery) yet they were totally fine to have sex with and have the SLAVEOWNER'S child who could then be added to the asset bottom line.   As a human you just want to hang your head in shame and disgust.   I don't consider myself the most "woke" person in the room but it just makes me so sad to know that it took a civil war to end slavery in the US.   

And count me as another person who until very recently thought Nathan Lane was Jewish.  I had read an article about him and it mentioned that he was of Irish descent and I went, "huh?"    He seems like a person who always feels the need to be "on" when in front of an "audience" (meaning when he is not working as an actor).  He is very witty but a bit too much for this show.   

Yes!  I agree  that HLG and his "how does that make you feel?"  over and over again is tired beyond belief!   It's like it should be a question on Jeopardy: "His catchphrase is 'how does it make you feel?'"   

Postscript: since many of us who watch this show enjoy history,  The History Channel is running a very good 3 part mini-series about Abraham Lincoln.  There's a million commercials so DVR it and watch it after the fact, but like the previous two History Channel President mini-series, it's very well done and interesting.  

[meep.meep]

HBO is also running a multi-part show on Frederick Douglas.

I think the reason why so many people think that Nathan Lane is Jewish is that many of his biggest roles were playing Jewish parts like Max Bialystock in The Producers.

[Sharpie66]

I just recently started watching this show on the PBS app. I’ve been working on my own family history, so I am loving the different stories that the show’s researchers are finding.

Leslie Odom really resonated with me. Having a grandparent who had no stories about their ancestors to pass down happened to me, too, but mine was my paternal grandmother. It’s only through my research that I think I’ve figured out why her parents didn’t talk about their families—their childhoods were just too painful.

I’ve been lucky enough to have discovered a fascinating second great grandmother whose story is interesting enough to get Ancestry’s attention, so they’ve included us on a tv commercial and a video for their social media platforms. The first thing they did was have a few long interviews with me via Zoom, and they also kept hammering on “How do you feel? Has she inspired you personally? How does your research change your life?” I felt almost guilty to tell them that I find my research fascinating as a lover of history, and I love the individual stories that I keep digging up, but no, they don’t change me fundamentally!

[shapeshifter]

On 2/24/2022 at 12:40 AM, Linderhill said:

I did enjoy seeing Leslie's reaction to the fact that one of his grands came over from South Africa on his own in the 1900's.  I think it threw HLG a bit too.  I'm surprised that there wasn't more made of the fact that the white slave owner actually acknowledged his illegitimate daughter in his will.  There have been so many times that wasn't the case.

I think as much was made of the "colored" (I believed that was the word used rather than "illegitmate"?) daughter in the slave owner's will as was appropriate given HLG's trademark "How does that make you feel?"
The show is about how the guests feel rather than how HLG feels about the discoveries or wants to influence viewers to feel.
For Leslie Odum Jr., the inheritance did not make up for her being labeled by the color of her skin. 
And we cannot know whether she lived in the home of her father or how her mother lived.

We do know that Leslie Odum's other white ancestor supported the Confederacy and slavery in spite of having fathered children who then became his property. 

This twisted thinking by Odum's Confederacy-supporting ancestor --perhaps part of some effort to prove racial superiority that a parent's natural love for a child had proven false-- gave me a glimpse of the origins of such present day thinking.

At the end of the episode, I saw Leslie Odum's pie chart indicated 15% white ancestry. It's interesting to think that if the "One Drop Rule" and other legal definitions of race in America were looked at from both perspectives, he could be labeled "white." 
Perhaps the slave owners thought if they claimed the reverse was true loudly enough it would block out the reality that these were their sons and daughters.

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by shapeshifter

[shapeshifter]

Tuesday, April 12: Episode 8.9: "Watchmen" 

Quote

Quote

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. guides Regina King and Damon Lindelof, the creative forces behind a visionary television series, as they discover that they have more in common than meets the eye.

 

https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/media/watchmen-preview

[Dehumidifier]

On 2/24/2022 at 12:40 AM, Linderhill said:

I did enjoy seeing Leslie's reaction to the fact that one of his grands came over from South Africa on his own in the 1900's.  I think it threw HLG a bit too.  I'm surprised that there wasn't more made of the fact that the white slave owner actually acknowledged his illegitimate daughter in his will.  There have been so many times that wasn't the case.  

 

Well, the widow wouldn't like her husband advertising that he was unfaithful (for lack of a more precise word) in his will, even though everyone probably knew or surmised.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 2/9/2022 at 12:36 PM, 12catcrazy said:

).  

And I agree 100% with iMoney above about Tony Danza's hair!  I kept saying, "Guy, it's not 1975 any more - get a freakin' haircut!".  It just looks bad - not flattering at all.  

Tony Danza recently appeared on Blue Bloods, and he looked awful, kind of emaciated. At first I thought it was Eric Roberts, until the other folks in the Blue Bloods forum set me straight. 

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Tony Danza recently appeared on Blue Bloods, and he looked awful, kind of emaciated. At first I thought it was Eric Roberts, until the other folks in the Blue Bloods forum set me straight. 

I thought Tony Danza looked well on that Blue Bloods episode. But then I was mostly checking out the hair——which was trimmed from what we saw on FYR. So I’m still wondering what was up with the pre-teen hair style he had when being interviewed with HLG.

But, also, I had seen him in the awful cop show series he he did with Josh Groban in 2018.  Maybe you hadn’t seen him in a few decades?🙃

Edited April 4, 2022 by shapeshifter

[buckboard]

I had to look up the pronunciation of Biyalistok, when Professor Gates kept saying Bee-a-LEE-stok, the town in the Pale where Damon Lindelof's ancestors came from.  It drove me crazy, because I'd never heard it pronounced that way and they said it his way at least 10 times.  I know it's not a big deal in the total scope of the story, but it kind of took away from the narrative for me.

I remember Max Biyalistok from "The Producers."  Pronounced Max Bee-a-lee-stock.  I googled the pronunciation of the town and it came up bee·a·lee·stuhk.  Neither the way it was pronounced on the show.  

 

[Mermaid Under]

I found this episode (Watchmen) unengaging.  Boring, even.  I didn't watch Lost and was unfamiliar with the rest of Lindelof's work, and with him.   I know Regina King's name, but that's about it.  But I've seen plenty of folks I don't know on this show, so I don't think that is it.   Their stories, while interesting to them, were repetitive.  And it was a bit of stretch to come up with the "trauma is passed down" theme to try and tie it all together.  

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Mermaid Under said:

I found this episode (Watchmen) unengaging.  Boring, even.  I didn't watch Lost and was unfamiliar with the rest of Lindelof's work, and with him.   I know Regina King's name, but that's about it.  But I've seen plenty of folks I don't know on this show, so I don't think that is it.   Their stories, while interesting to them, were repetitive.  And it was a bit of stretch to come up with the "trauma is passed down" theme to try and tie it all together.  

You're not wrong about the 2 stories being similar to others featured on FYR, but I was very engaged, probably because I am a fan of the work of both Regina King and Damon Lindlehoff. 
Too, the details uncovered about Lindlehoff's ancestors could be the same as mine, which, as with Lindlehoff's family, were never spoken of. So, for me, it was a possible personal glimpse.
Meanwhile, Regina King's emotions resonated with me in ways that just reading about the past cannot.

[12catcrazy]

I had heard of Regina King but not of Damon Lindlehoff.  Never watched either "Lost" of "Watchmen" (love the graphic novel and the show seemed as if it strayed from it).

The stories were more or less of the same old thing.  The stain of slavery, Jewish people escaping from Eastern Europe and left behind family members being slaughtered during WWII.  On one hand it gets repetitious after hearing about this so many times, on the other hand, modern Americans really need to be educated about these horrible parts of human history.   It outrages me that politicians rail against teaching about the truth of American history in schools and it also outrages me that so many people are now saying the Holocaust never happened.   As a nation we must NEVER forget these things.   I don't know if PBS makes Finding Your Roots available as a teaching tool for use in schools, but if not, they should.   The show humanizes history in ways that most text books can't. 

I thought that Regina King seemed so "real" (unlike some of the other actresses we've seen on the show).   She obviously was very emotionally touched by what she was learning.   And this show shines a light about  all the family secrets that past generations kept in the closet!  Unfortunately, generations down the line wind up opening those closets either by accident or on purpose and the skeletons hit them on the head.   

[iMonrey]

Quote

The stories were more or less of the same old thing.  The stain of slavery, Jewish people escaping from Eastern Europe and left behind family members being slaughtered during WWII. 

I agree. They are interesting stories but after awhile you sort of get desensitized to it. Kind of like "hey join the club, I've seen about 100 episodes now where other celebrities found out the exact same thing." 

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

 They are interesting stories but after awhile you sort of get desensitized to it.

This.   I don't know the psychology of why that happens but I recognize it happening.  It is sort of like the constant commercial appeals for money for various diseases.  All worthwhile, but you begin to not hear them.  Or maybe that is just me.

And I agree that this history needs to have light shone (shined?) on it.  But on PBS, you are pretty much preaching to the choir.  Folks who need to see it never will.

The late Andre Leon Talley is in the last episode of this season.  Although I have no doubt that his story will be exactly the same as every other  (How does it make you feel to find out your ancestors were slaves?  How do you feel about the person who owned them?) I'm hoping he will be interesting to watch.

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Mermaid Under
addendum

[One Imaginary Girl]

I feel heartened that other people are thinking that the series has gotten pretty repetitive.  I felt kind of guilty for thinking it, but a lot of the stories are so similar.  I don't know if the show recruits guests or if the celebrities approach them (as Sean Combs did), but I wish they could get some with different ethnic backgrounds.  Some that don't seem to have turned up much are Netherlands/Belgium/France, non-Jewish eastern Europe, or British people in the colonies that weren't in New England.  

[sempervivum]

3 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

thought that Regina King seemed so "real" (unlike some of the other actresses we've seen on the show).   She obviously was very emotionally touched by what she was learning.

I particularly liked the way you could almost hear her thoughts when she found out that dear old Gramps had basically abandoned Grandma to live with his 'other family'-I think she was close to saying 'I can't believe I let that trifling old goat walk me down the aisle'.

[Suzn]

Without a doubt the stories on this last episode are too familiar.  It gets very repetitive.  I don't have the answer because the slavery and Holocaust stories need to be and deserve to be told. It would help to offer a bit a variety of family origins from less common areas, but otherwise, I don't know.

I'm a fan of Regina King and found her to be very genuine and intelligent and though I didn't know Damon Lindeloff (sp?) but found him the same.

Here's something they could do - please find different wording occasionally other than "how does that make you feel?"

[Yeah No]

19 hours ago, buckboard said:

I had to look up the pronunciation of Biyalistok, when Professor Gates kept saying Bee-a-LEE-stok, the town in the Pale where Damon Lindelof's ancestors came from.  It drove me crazy, because I'd never heard it pronounced that way and they said it his way at least 10 times.  I know it's not a big deal in the total scope of the story, but it kind of took away from the narrative for me.

I remember Max Biyalistok from "The Producers."  Pronounced Max Bee-a-lee-stock.  I googled the pronunciation of the town and it came up bee·a·lee·stuhk.  Neither the way it was pronounced on the show.  

Thank you, I felt the same way.  I have known how to pronounce Bialystok my whole life and it was driving me crazy that neither of them got it right.  The correct pronunciation is like saying bialy and stock.  The bagel alternative known as the bialy is basically a bagel that isn't boiled first, only baked and has a depression in it that is often filled.  I grew up with both bagels and bialys.  Somehow the bagel broke free from NY in the US and spread all over the country/world but the bialy is still largely unknown.  It was named for the city it originated in, Bialystok.  It was originally called a bialy kuchen.  I'm kind of surprised that Damon didn't know this.

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

I feel heartened that other people are thinking that the series has gotten pretty repetitive.  I felt kind of guilty for thinking it, but a lot of the stories are so similar.  I don't know if the show recruits guests or if the celebrities approach them (as Sean Combs did), but I wish they could get some with different ethnic backgrounds.  Some that don't seem to have turned up much are Netherlands/Belgium/France, non-Jewish eastern Europe, or British people in the colonies that weren't in New England.  

4 hours ago, Suzn said:

Without a doubt the stories on this last episode are too familiar.  It gets very repetitive.  I don't have the answer because the slavery and Holocaust stories need to be and deserve to be told. It would help to offer a bit a variety of family origins from less common areas, but otherwise, I don't know.

I agree with you all, but I personally think that Gates has pet stories he likes to tell over and over again and that's the problem.  When I look at my own family history on my Jewish side the stories are fascinating, not humdrum and boring like they are typically presented on this show.  And it's not just because they're my family that I think that.  The story of how my Jewish family risked their lives riding on ox carts out of the Warsaw ghetto in the late 19th century to settle in Jack the Ripper era Whitechapel in London where they had a tailoring business is amazing and uplifting. Many Jewish immigrants to Whitechapel were in the tailoring business and made clothing to order.  My family made military uniforms.  Toward the end of the 19th century they would go and live in NJ with relatives for several months, working in their clothing business, then go back to London periodically until they finally sold their business and reopened in NYC in the Greenwich Village neighborhood.  Interestingly, pretty much all of my great aunts and uncles (and my grandfather) were born in London except for one uncle, who was born in NJ.  Because of that he was able to fight overseas in WWII, something only native born Americans could do back then.  He went on to become a WWII hero.  Also, I recently read that many Jews in Whitechapel sold their tailoring businesses to the new wave of immigrants to the neighborhood, many of whom were East Indian and Muslims from the Middle East.  They apprenticed them and then eventually sold their businesses to them.  I would be fascinated to find out that this is what happened.

Same is true for my Yankee/Revolutionary war side.  Absolutely fascinating.  I'm related to many famous and notable early settlers, including Ethan Allen and familiar names from April 19th 1775 during the Revolution.  I'm descended from founders of towns in Vermont and even the city of Hartford.  My Sicilian side was maybe a little less interesting but there were some fascinating stories there as well. 

Maybe I just have a particularly interesting background but I kind of doubt that they couldn't find more interesting sides of these people's families to highlight.  When you look at a family tree there are many branches and I just think there have to be some that are more interesting and less repetitive than what Gates chooses to discuss.

[Driad]

Some of the stories are repetitive, but I try to remember that any episode could be the first one that someone sees.  Maybe they see a promo, recognize a celebrity they like, watch the show, and learn some history.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

I agree with you all, but I personally think that Gates has pet stories he likes to tell over and over again and that's the problem.  When I look at my own family history on my Jewish side the stories are fascinating, not humdrum and boring like they are typically presented on this show.  And it's not just because they're my family that I think that.  The story of how my Jewish family risked their lives riding on ox carts out of the Warsaw ghetto in the late 19th century to settle in Jack the Ripper era Whitechapel in London where they had a tailoring business is amazing and uplifting. Many Jewish immigrants to Whitechapel were in the tailoring business and made clothing to order.  My family made military uniforms.  Toward the end of the 19th century they would go and live in NJ with relatives for several months, working in their clothing business, then go back to London periodically until they finally sold their business and reopened in NYC in the Greenwich Village neighborhood.  Interestingly, pretty much all of my great aunts and uncles (and my grandfather) were born in London except for one uncle, who was born in NJ.  Because of that he was able to fight overseas in WWII, something only native born Americans could do back then.  He went on to become a WWII hero.  Also, I recently read that many Jews in Whitechapel sold their tailoring businesses to the new wave of immigrants to the neighborhood, many of whom were East Indian and Muslims from the Middle East.  They apprenticed them and then eventually sold their businesses to them.  I would be fascinated to find out that this is what happened.

My Jewish family likewise has fascinating stories of migration not part of the Holocaust that I would love to hear corroborated by similar tales. But I appreciate every Holocaust story, listening for nuances that align with the empty spaces that were only filled with remarks like "we are a very small, close-knit family," in spite of the fact that we were not "close-knit" at all. Just small. 

And I do recall recent stories of African American guests on the show that were atypical. I appreciate the uniqueness of all such stories.

1 hour ago, Driad said:

I try to remember that any episode could be the first one that someone sees. 

I think of this👆 too.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

Some of the stories are repetitive, but I try to remember that any episode could be the first one that someone sees.  Maybe they see a promo, recognize a celebrity they like, watch the show, and learn some history.

I think that Gates is probably given more leeway in choosing what goes on the air than he would if this were a commercial network show, so there's less attention placed on how entertaining or repetitive it might be for a regular audience.  I do think that in earlier seasons he featured more interesting stories.  Somehow this season hasn't been as interesting as previous ones.  I haven't felt this way until now.  Just my opinion.

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Gates is probably given more leeway in choosing what goes on the air than he would if this were a commercial network show

The commercial network program Who do you think you are? (produced by Lisa Kudrow, among others) is returning to NBC for at least 1 season after spending 7 seasons on TLC.  I watched it before it went to TLC.  Similar to Finding Your Roots *everyone is a celebrity*, but  I remember it being sort of the commercial side of Finding your Roots. 

In Googling the information I found out that Regina King was also a guest last season on Who do you think you are, and that her son committed suicide in January, 2022.  

Edited April 14, 2022 by Mermaid Under

[Yeah No]

3 minutes ago, Mermaid Under said:

The commercial network program Who do you think you are? (produced by Lisa Kudrow, among others) is returning to NBC for at least 1 season after spending 7 seasons on TLC.  I watched it before it went to TLC.  Similar to Finding Your Roots *everyone is a celebrity*, but  I remember it being sort of the commercial side of Finding your Roots. 

In Googling the information I found out that Regina King was also a guest last season on Who do you think you are, and that her son committed suicide in January, 2022.  

That explains why I thought this episode was a repeat.  I knew I had seen Regina King on a genealogy show before.  I had heard about WDYTYA coming back, although it is news to me about Regina's son's suicide.  How sad.  😥

[Suzn]

2 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

The commercial network program Who do you think you are? (produced by Lisa Kudrow, among others) is returning to NBC for at least 1 season after spending 7 seasons on TLC.  I watched it before it went to TLC.  Similar to Finding Your Roots *everyone is a celebrity*, but  I remember it being sort of the commercial side of Finding your Roots. 

In Googling the information I found out that Regina King was also a guest last season on Who do you think you are, and that her son committed suicide in January, 2022.  

Who Do You Think You Are is a lot fluffier than Finding Your Roots, but I'm there for anything genealogy.  They spend a lot of time on sending the celebrities on "research" trips and most celebrities' only contribution is to frequently comment about how "amazing" and "insane" the findings are.

I'm sorry to hear that about Regina King's son.

[PRgal]

29 minutes ago, Suzn said:

Who Do You Think You Are is a lot fluffier than Finding Your Roots, but I'm there for anything genealogy.  They spend a lot of time on sending the celebrities on "research" trips and most celebrities' only contribution is to frequently comment about how "amazing" and "insane" the findings are.

I'm sorry to hear that about Regina King's son.

Same regarding Regina King's son.  

 

I'm interested in both shows and am looking into finding my own roots too.  Just need to have the guts to do so - LOL.   After so many comments by people wondering if I have "other" East Asian roots, I'm interested in finding out how much of me is ACTUALLY Chinese and how much of me is from other parts of Asia!  Or the world, for that matter.

[Driad]

I wish PBS would bring back Genealogy Roadshow.  The featured people were not celebrities, just people with interesting family stories.

[deirdra]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

I wish PBS would bring back Genealogy Roadshow.  The featured people were not celebrities, just people with interesting family stories.

I also wish it would return; it seemed to have a lot more variety in paths to America.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I agree with you all, but I personally think that Gates has pet stories he likes to tell over and over again and that's the problem.

I had always assumed this show deliberately chose stories about slavery given its title, "Finding Your Roots." I didn't start watching until a few years ago but I came into it with that assumption since most of the stories I saw either featured people with an ancestry reaching back into slavery, or reaching back into slave ownership. I'm not sure if that was actually the original intention and maybe they started branching out into other histories or not. 

In any case, like other genealogy shows, their aim is mostly too root around the family tree until they find an interesting story to tell. Something they can tie into a significant historical event they can turn into a history lesson. 

I wonder how many celebrities they have to pass over simply because they couldn't find anything interesting in their background. "Sorry, you come from a long line of no-accounts that never had anything interesting happen to them." That would be me.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I wonder how many celebrities they have to pass over simply because they couldn't find anything interesting in their background. "Sorry, you come from a long line of no-accounts that never had anything interesting happen to them." That would be me.

Aw, @iMonrey, I bet there are plenty of interesting stories in your ancestors' pasts.
Probably in a few more decades it will be easy for everyone to get as much information as they do on FYR.
Unless the world implodes or blows up before then. That would be a tad ironic.

[ProudMary]

I don't mind the seeming repetition of certain stories. First, FYR is limited by the fact that the subjects must be celebrities and second, that they must be celebrities who are willing to expose their ancestral history to the public. I'm sure FYR would like to show many different stories, but if those who agree to have their stories told don't have stories that are different and can be verified so, they can't make up the stories! Also, the reasons why we see repeated stories from selected regions may be because records from countries we don't often see, just aren't available due to wars or natural disasters.

I thought the Damon Lindelof/Regina King  episode was very good. Full disclosure: I think Watchmen may very well be the best television series I've ever watched, so to have the series' show runner and the series' star in the same FYR episode was brilliant to me. That both of their ancestral stories reflect two of the most horrific atrocities in human history, though covered in many past episodes, did not bother me. As both slavery and the Holocaust each fall into the "never forget" category, I don't believe we can ever showcase too many of those stories. 

Both Lindelof, who is Jewish and King, who is Black have lived their lives knowing the possibility (probability?) existed that they descended from or had ancestral family members who were Holocaust victims/survivors or enslaved people, respectively. Watching them discover that this was a fact and making a definitive connection to ancestors who endured never gets old IMO. I cry every single time.

I liked that when presented with the photo of the owner of her enslaved ancestor(s), Regina King, realizing that he was looking directly into the camera, refused to put on her reading glasses. A small act of defiance by refusing to look into his eyes.