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

[Suzn]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

Best and worst reactions to surprising ancestral news? In "The Pioneers" (not new but I just caught it) Neil Patrick Harris was told that an ancestor of his was accused of witchcraft. He said things like "I like magic" and "I hope she really was a witch." Not the worst, but why do so many guests act as though everything is about them? Does Prof. Gates ask them (off camera) to relate their ancestors' experiences to their own personalities?

I didn't like that he laughed about her being burned at the stake.  It was a long time ago, but she was a human being and his ancestor.  Not funny.

[biakbiak]

On 11/28/2019 at 8:26 PM, Driad said:

Best and worst reactions to surprising ancestral news? In "The Pioneers" (not new but I just caught it) Neil Patrick Harris was told that an ancestor of his was accused of witchcraft. He said things like "I like magic" and "I hope she really was a witch." Not the worst, but why do so many guests act as though everything is about them? Does Prof. Gates ask them (off camera) to relate their ancestors' experiences to their own personalities?

While I definitely think producers encourage them to highlight the similarities between their ancestors and themselves; I also believe it’s an extremely common reaction to do when you are exploring your heritage.

[bybrandy]

On 11/28/2019 at 11:46 PM, Suzn said:

I didn't like that he laughed about her being burned at the stake.  It was a long time ago, but she was a human being and his ancestor.  Not funny.

I don't think he laughed because he thought it was funny in a ha, ha kind of way but rather I mean what are the chances and I wasn't expecting that kind of way.   I don't think he thought it was genuinely funny that a human being was burned at the stake but weird and random that he was hearing this story associated with tracing his family tree.   

I think humans in general use their own experience when building empathy towards others so when they see something in their ancestors it is natural to try to find how that relates to your own life.  I have lived through a long, long, long, line on both sides of women who have lost everything and struggled on alone.   I don't think the females in my family have a genetic propensity for bad luck but I do think generation after generation of women in my family watched their mothers and grandmothers face adversity by saying, "Okay, what next" and each generation saw that and knew when their own adversity hit well, "what next?"    So when I heard the story of the great-great-great grandmother whose husband died in a sawmill accident the day the freaking mill opened who took over the operation and ran it while raising 9 children and tending the family farm, I went,, "Well, of course she did. What else was she going to do?"   

[Suzn]

On 12/2/2019 at 7:57 AM, bybrandy said:

I don't think he laughed because he thought it was funny in a ha, ha kind of way but rather I mean what are the chances and I wasn't expecting that kind of way.   I don't think he thought it was genuinely funny that a human being was burned at the stake but weird and random that he was hearing this story associated with tracing his family tree.   

I think humans in general use their own experience when building empathy towards others so when they see something in their ancestors it is natural to try to find how that relates to your own life.  I have lived through a long, long, long, line on both sides of women who have lost everything and struggled on alone.   I don't think the females in my family have a genetic propensity for bad luck but I do think generation after generation of women in my family watched their mothers and grandmothers face adversity by saying, "Okay, what next" and each generation saw that and knew when their own adversity hit well, "what next?"    So when I heard the story of the great-great-great grandmother whose husband died in a sawmill accident the day the freaking mill opened who took over the operation and ran it while raising 9 children and tending the family farm, I went,, "Well, of course she did. What else was she going to do?"   

I understand what you're saying, but I'm sorry, it still felt inappropriate to me.

I am in awe of what some of my ancestors endured.  I can only hope that some of their endurance passed to me.  So much seems like only a familiar story of days long past and it's difficult to really imagine yourself in those circumstances.  I don't  know how well I could manage traveling hundreds of miles in a covered wagon and arriving at a remote piece of land and digging in there to create a farm and a home.

[bybrandy]

2 hours ago, Suzn said:

I understand what you're saying, but I'm sorry, it still felt inappropriate to me.

I am in awe of what some of my ancestors endured.  I can only hope that some of their endurance passed to me.  So much seems like only a familiar story of days long past and it's difficult to really imagine yourself in those circumstances.  I don't  know how well I could manage traveling hundreds of miles in a covered wagon and arriving at a remote piece of land and digging in there to create a farm and a home.

You'd manage it fine because you only made those choices to get on that wagon and go all those miles and dig that land because it was, in your mind, a real leg up for your family.   It wouldn't be about how much hard work it would be, if you made the choice to go your life was already hard, this was putting the hard towards something that might pay off in future.

[shapeshifter]

6.3 "Homecomings" Januay 7, 2020: https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/watch/episodes/homecomings

Wow. Sterling K. Brown was born to emote. And I don't even watch This Is Us.

[One Imaginary Girl]

When Sterling K. Brown said that he'd initially put aside theatre when he started college because he needed to buckle down and be serious, I thought, "He IS Randall."

[Linderhill]

I first became aware of Sterling when he guested on Supernatural in which he was outstanding.  And then in the OJ Simpson trial show where he outdid himself.  I enjoyed his portion of the show the most.  The musician seemed to be high thru most of his segments.  

[shapeshifter]

38 minutes ago, Linderhill said:

The musician seemed to be high thru most of his segments.  

Jon Batiste? I don't think so. He's always like that. Well, okay, that might not be proof that he's not high, but I don't think so.

[Driad]

17 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Sterling K. Brown was born to emote.

When he looked at the birthplaces of his ancestors born in the 18-teens, we could tell exactly what he was seeing.

Disappointed that they did not mention DNA.  I prefer when they have two guests instead of three, so they can spend more time on each and it's less confusing.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, Driad said:

Disappointed that they did not mention DNA. 

I was wondering if these 3 didn't want their DNA done. There've been reports and stories recently about people who put their DNA in the Ancestry database which resulted in relatives being arrested --both correctly and incorrectly. 

[sempervivum]

20 hours ago, Driad said:

Disappointed that they did not mention DNA

Yeah, I was mildly interested in what part of Africa Sterling's ancestors (the ones who were apparently the children of the last group of slaves brought in before slavery become illegal in the US) came from. 

Jon Batiste just seems like a very positive personality, not intoxicated (but I could be wrong).

Sasheer -I didn't get the impression she was really moved by anything she learned. For a comedian, she seems strangely reserved.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Sasheer -I didn't get the impression she was really moved by anything she learned. For a comedian, she seems strangely reserved.

I noticed that but assumed the explanation was supposed to be her "military brat" upbringing of frequently moving and so learning not to grow attached to anyone
--if that makes sense.

[biakbiak]

Sasheer is fairly reserved. It’s a stark contrast to her best friend Nicole Byer who she hosts a podcast with about friendship.

[shapeshifter]

On 1/8/2020 at 10:42 PM, shapeshifter said:

I was wondering if these 3 didn't want their DNA done. There've been reports and stories recently about people who put their DNA in the Ancestry database which resulted in relatives being arrested --both correctly and incorrectly. 

6.4 "This Land Is My Land" with Queen Latifah  and Jeffrey Wright aired tonight ( pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/watch/episodes/this-land-is-my-land ) -- also with no DNA testing.

[Driad]

Interview with Prof. Gates on Amanpour & Co. 

Includes a few clips from episodes.

[sempervivum]

Not sure if the one yesterday was new- Jeff Goldblum, Terry Gross and Marc Maron. Again no DNA, although it was pretty clear all 3 were indeed Jewish to the core. 

I prefer the episodes that can go waaaay back; I understand why they couldn't do this in this case, but it was all pretty predictable. Although the tidbit about Maron's Polish forebears being oil rig workers of some kind was a bit unexpected!

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Not sure if the one yesterday was new- Jeff Goldblum, Terry Gross and Marc Maron. Again no DNA, although it was pretty clear all 3 were indeed Jewish to the core. 

FWIW, Titantv.com said it was "New." 
At the beginning they ran the intro that claims DNA was taken --don't know if it that was true for this episode or not.
Even if I am not likely even 2nd or 3rd cousins with Jeff Goldblum, Terry Gross or Marc Maron, their stories are my stories, 😢 and our ancestors were neighbors.

[bybrandy]

The lack of DNA this season has been conspicuous, however, particularly in this episode it doesn't surprise me.   Ashkenazi jews because they lived in small geographic location and married mostly within their own culture leading to people having a lot of similar DNA to people who aren't or aren't closely related to them. 

https://medium.com/@CleverTitleTK/no-you-dont-really-have-7-900-4th-cousins-some-dna-basics-for-those-with-jewish-heritage-857f873399ff

None of the episodes since Christmas have shown up as new on my DVR.   

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by bybrandy

[7isBlue]

On 1/8/2020 at 1:00 PM, Driad said:

When he looked at the birthplaces of his ancestors born in the 18-teens, we could tell exactly what he was seeing.

Disappointed that they did not mention DNA.  I prefer when they have two guests instead of three, so they can spend more time on each and it's less confusing.

I really wish they would focus on two, instead of three subjects. Though, I could definitely watch a whole episode devoted to Sterling K. Brown or Jeff Goldblum. They both seem so genuine in their enthusiasm and appreciation. 

Edited January 23, 2020 by 7isBlue

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, 7isBlue said:

I really wish they would focus on two, instead of three subjects. Though, I could definitely watch a whole episode devoted to Sterling K. Brown or Jeff Goldblum. They both seem so genuine in their enthusiasm and appreciation. 

Even though I could easily watch entire episodes about a single person, I think that for this episode, having three gave a better sense of the universality of the Eastern European Jewish experience and history, demonstrating that while there were individual nuances, the the impact of racism in the form of Anti-Semitism was inescapable. 

[Suzn]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Even though I could easily watch entire episodes about a single person, I think that for this episode, having three gave a better sense of the universality of the Eastern European Jewish experience and history, demonstrating that while there were individual nuances, the the impact of racism in the form of Anti-Semitism was inescapable. 

Though I agree that these three were tied together by the commonalities of their ancestry,  I much prefer that there are only two subjects.  There is always something that feels like it is given short-shrift to squeeze in a third person.

[Silver Raven]

One of the most emotional episodes of the UK Who Do You Think You Are was Stephen Fry going back to the town his Jewish ancestors came from and finding out about their deaths during the Holocaust.  Unfortunately, it isn't available on Youtube any more.

 

[zoey1996]

We watched the Queen Latifah and Jeffrey Wright episode last night.  Stories were so interesting. 

Until I moved to Virginia nearly 20 years ago, I was unaware of how many free blacks there were in the early years.  Particularly liked Queen Latifah's reaction to finding her ancestor Juggy, a midwife, was set free. 

[iMonrey]

Justina Machado never said whether she regretted snubbing her paternal grandmother at her father's funeral. I get why she felt that way at the time but that was cold, and she never expressed any regret about it after she learned about the tragic circumstances of her father and grandfather. That poor kid looked like he was about 12 when he was in prison. I think it's a safe bet he was taken advantage of and molested and then he got punished for it. 

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Justina Machado never said whether she regretted snubbing her paternal grandmother at her father's funeral. I get why she felt that way at the time but that was cold, and she never expressed any regret about it after she learned about the tragic circumstances of her father and grandfather. That poor kid looked like he was about 12 when he was in prison. I think it's a safe bet he was taken advantage of and molested and then he got punished for it. 

I too assumed it was prison rape that became a lengthy sentence to perpetuate that crime against a helpless boy, but I guess there’s no “proof” at this point, so they left it ambiguous. I was also confused about the grandmother story and thought maybe I missed something, but maybe Justina thought it was clear enough that she was confessing the rudeness of her younger self. As terribly unjust and cruel as her ancestor’s treatment was, Amy Ryan’s was no better, and at this moment such atrocities are continuing in and out of prisons. 😢

[Blergh]

While I think Miss Machado appears to regret being so curt with her paternal grandmother at her father's funeral as a teen, I have to wonder where had the older woman been when her son had left his small children in such a dire state from an early age.  Even if one  somehow gave her the benefit of the doubt that she had zero contributing factor re how he was raised and how he turned out as an adult, it seems a bit much that she never seemed to bother to seek out her son's offspring even to introduce herself until his death and only claimed to be their grandmother at that point.  

[Coffeewinewater]

This latest episode was particularly sad to watch. I usually tear up at some point watching this show mostly out happiness/pride for the subject finding out about family they never knew. However this episode left me with such sadness for all 3 women's families.  

Edited January 30, 2020 by Coffeewinewater

[Blergh]

It would have been one thing had Justina Machado's paternal grandmother said she was sorry she hadn't been there for the family before the father's death and asked for the chance for all of them to get to know each other thereafter  but it seemed she was virtually demanding  the privilege of grandparenthood  instantly at the funeral without having attempted to behave as one previously.  IOW, I don't thinks Miss Machado should beat herself up for having been curt. 

[Coffeewinewater]

Loved this episode. I could listen to all 3 scientists  all day. So intelligent and articulate. Have they done an episode in the past that was not about "celebrities"? 

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by Coffeewinewater

[Driad]

This show and "Who Do You Think You Are?" have all been celebrities by some definition. 

There was a PBS show "Genealogy Roadshow" that researched family mysteries for non-celebrities and aired the best stories.  I liked it a lot but have not heard anything about it in a while.  You might be able to watch GR on the PBS site or your PBS station's.

[shapeshifter]

Interesting that the 3 scientists were willing to have their DNA results shown on the show.
I understand the issues that seem to be increasingly making many hesitant to have their DNA become part of a database over which they have no control. 

All 3 had ancestors who were held in sub-human conditions, including the Revolutionary War descendant whose ancestor might not have survived being a POW had he not stolen a boat to escape. It makes me wonder if we all have such backgrounds of being oppressed by others.

I'm sure I have great-aunts, great-uncles, and cousins of various degrees who died in the Holocaust whose names I will never know. I'm not sure it matters, but I do get a kind of vicarious flood of emotions with these stories. 

Have they had anyone on whose ancestors included both slaves and Holocaust survivors? I would like to hear that person's thoughts on how they feel different about them, even though feelings are very subjective, so one person's reflections might not even be typical of either scenario.

Edited February 5, 2020 by shapeshifter

[Blergh]

Interesting that both Shirley Ann Jackson's paternal and maternal sides came from a community called Cuckoo, Virginia. I wonder if her parents may have been distant or not-so-distant cousins but not known it? Also, I wonder how that place got its name. I mean, it's not a surname, a Native American name and that bird isn't native to North America so did someone get a clock and somehow have the place named for it?

Francis Collins's paternal grandmother sure had had a tragic event with both her brother and father having committed suicide (with them at first vainly trying to pretend the first death was an accident). It's not unlike what happened to Katharine Hepburn who at age 15 discovered her older brother Tom having hung himself and in contemporary news stories their father Dr. Hepburn claimed that Tom may have been practicing to 'fake' hang himself as a prank but it having gone horribly wrong. There was a great deal of very public scrutiny over what happened then they buried Tom and the family never mentioned what happened again. Oh, and First Lady Bess Truman's father also took his own life when she was eighteen and this was gorily detailed in the Independence newspapers. Mrs. Truman's maternal grandparents had the shattered children spirited to Colorado for a year- and they then lived in the grandparents' home until Harry became President (and the Trumans would retire there until their respective passings)  but Mrs. Truman NEVER mentioned her father's suicide even to her own daughter Margaret in the many decades she'd know her. Yes, I think it's safe to say that this was a rather common reaction back in the early 20th century. 

I know it had to be painful for Harold Varmus to have found out in as much detail as was available what happened to so many members of his family in the Holocaust with the chilling realization that had his own grandparents not fled when they did, he wouldn't have ever been born. Oh, and it wasn't on this show but in Who Do You Think You Are? Rashida Jones found out about her mother Peggy Lipton's Jewish ancestors who'd perished in Holocaust but somehow had already known about her father Quincy Jones's side of the family so if she did know who her enslaved ancestors were, she didn't share about it much less compare them to those relatives who'd died in the Holocaust. 

 

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Blergh said:

did someone get a clock and somehow have the place named for it?

Surprisingly, yes. 
 

3 hours ago, Blergh said:

Interesting that both Shirley Ann Jackson's paternal and maternal sides came from a community called Cuckoo, Virginia. I wonder if her parents may have been distant or not-so-distant cousins but not known it?

That could be true of all 3 subjects of this episode, since all had ancestors who lived in closed communities, which could mean they could have a wider gene pool, but that enough similar genes came from separate contributors to skew the percentage. 

[Blergh]

16 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Surprisingly, yes. 
 

 

No kidding,that's AMAZING! Thanks for that!

 

I hope the community leaders somehow preserved that particular clock and one day invite Miss Jackson as an honored guest then take a picture of her next to it !

[pasdetrois]

I chuckled a little at Gates' heroic efforts to draw out comments from these taciturn folks. I also enjoyed their collective restraint, as some of the Hollywood guests are a bit too actorish for my taste.

Desert island game: Gates would be one of my top picks to be stuck on a desert island with.

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by pasdetrois

[Driad]

On 2/5/2020 at 10:05 AM, Driad said:

There was a PBS show "Genealogy Roadshow"

http://www.pbs.org/genealogy-roadshow/home/

[bybrandy]

4 hours ago, Driad said:

http://www.pbs.org/genealogy-roadshow/home/

This show one time had somebody researching one of my lines and while they gave him information about a speculation of who our shared ancestor was (a fair speculation but really the paper trail is BLEAK) it was a fun story (one I knew previously) and cool to see on TV.   

 

[bybrandy]

This whole season episodes haven't been showing up as new.  The last two weeks have shown up as new despite the fact that I've seen them before.   Sigh.

[7isBlue]

Being of Italian heritage, I found tonight’s episode (Jimmy Kimmel, Marisa Tomei, John Torturro) especially interesting. Great stories.
 

Even though my family is from northern Italy, finding information before 1900 has been difficult. I see that lines from southern Italy/ Calabria is even harder.  

[One Imaginary Girl]

I've been skipping the recent episodes because they just seemed to be repackaging of segments from old shows, but I let my DVR record them just in case there was something different.  I did FF through last night's, and I don't think the Jimmy Kimmel DNA connection to Martha Stewart was part of his original show, as I mentioned way back there.  I think I would have remembered his modesty about it, because I've heard he's a pretty good cook.

[iMonrey]

Quote

This whole season episodes haven't been showing up as new.  The last two weeks have shown up as new despite the fact that I've seen them before.   Sigh.

Yeah they just remix the segments with different ones then label them as new. TV is getting wise to DVR algorithms. They've figured out a way to trick them into recording rehash so they can claim the numbers.

[pasdetrois]

The re-issue of old episodes and labeling them as new is annoying in the extreme. I can only record two shows at a time, and I'd much rather record truly new shows than these old episodes. I'll have to start paying attention to the listings.

[Driad]

R.I.P. Johni Cerni, genealogist.  We saw her in many episodes, usually looking in files.

[Lovecat]

Oh no!  We called her "the microfiche lady."  I had no idea she had such a great career.  I'll miss seeing her on FYR.

[pasdetrois]

What an interesting life she had. Her obit says she was the first female leader of a US military forward operating unit.

[shapeshifter]

On 2/23/2020 at 10:04 PM, Driad said:

R.I.P. Johni Cerni, genealogist.  We saw her in many episodes, usually looking in files.

See also: nytimes.com/2020/02/22/arts/television/johni-cerny-dead.html

[zoey1996]

NY Times site won't let me read unless I subscribe. ☹️  The information on the other site was very interesting.  Bothered me a bit that they used the phrase, "real parents" to refer to the biological parents.  My adoptive parents are my real parents.

I thought I'd seen some of the segments before, but they're still informative.  I was a bit surprised that John Turturro's didn't mention his brother Nicholas. 

[shapeshifter]

55 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

NY Times site won't let me read unless I subscribe. ☹️

Quote

Deborah Christensen, Ms. Cerny’s partner of 23 years, said the cause was coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. 
…Jonnette Elaine Cerny was born on Aug. 27, 1943, in Kansas City, Mo. …
…in a 2019 interview she mentioned an episode with the comedian Sarah Silverman. “Her comment just took the words right out of my mouth,” Ms. Cerny said. “She was looking at a photograph of family members she had never seen before. And she just said, ‘I wish I could crawl into this picture and know what’s going on in there.’”

Above are some bits from The NY Times article not included in the PBS article. 

[Driad]

Tonight's episode "Criminal Kind" was a rerun (I think) but they added an "In Memoriam" page at the end for Johni Cerny.