Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots , the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. clearly demonstrates, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots and look further back in time than ever before.

In the second season, Gates's investigation takes on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Ken Burns, Stephen King, Derek Jeter, Governor Deval Patrick, Valerie Jarrett, and Sally Field. As Gates interlaces these moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success, he provides practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots and details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

Genres: Nonfiction

440 pages, Hardcover

First published February 8, 2016

About the author

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. is a Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He is well-known as a literary critic, an editor of literature, and a proponent of black literature and black cultural studies.

Reviews

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uses geneaology and dna tests to find out the ancestry of several celebrities from season 2 of his PBS show. I did not read the entire book, only those celebrities that interested me - Ken Burns, Anderson Cooper, Billie Jean King, Derek Jeter, Rebecca Lobo, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. There are 24 more people in the book.

"With each generation you move up your family tree, the number of ancestors doubles. Each of us has two parents, and each parent has two parents, so each of us has four grandparents, eight great-grand parents, sixteen great-great grandparents, thirty two third great-grandparents, and sixty four fourth great-grandparents.....Most simply do not know how deep their roots run. They knnow their grandparents' names, and possiblytheir great-grandparents' , but the line ends there. Older generations don't share, and younger generations don't ask."

[Mhd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting; far more detail than in the TV series. A lot of the family history of these select celebrities is packed in here. I wish there were more of the details of their research process, especially what didn't lead anywhere or where & what they would try next. Overall, this book is perhaps more interesting as celebrity gossip than pure genealogy. The DNA sections are perhaps most useful to genealogy students.

[Kris Springer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen part of one of the Finding Your Roots series and was intrigued. I've never been super interested in researching my own genealogy, but I soon realized, as I was reading this, that the main parts of history--the wars, revolutions, etc.--were told through these family stories. It's a positive to keep moving forward, to take responsibility for our own lives: that's an American attribute. But we're also shaped by the family who preceded us, and we can appreciate their hard work and sacrifice for their descendants. This was a worthwhile read and has made me consider my own family stories.

[Nancy Householder]

I learned a lot about how everyone is connected all over the country and the world.