User reviews

I started to watch this a few days ago and couldn't stop watching. I laughed and I cried while learning about people I never knew existed and had no relationship to me.

Another reviewer complained that the program is not telling the whole story about slavery and our founding fathers. No historical record can tell the whole story. We get bits and pieces from various sources.

When I studied U.S. history in school ---I'm 73, as I write this ---no one mentioned that many of our founding fathers had slaves. I learned that information during the intervening years because I've read a lot of history and watched many documentaries. But for many, who don't read history, this may be new information.

I learned much myself from the episodes I watched. For example, I didn't know that freed slaves were often captured and placed back into slavery. I didn't know that some free slaves bought their relatives and had to keep them as legal slaves so they could not be put back into slavery by someone else. I also learned heartwarming stories of slave owners who freed their slaves and gave them property before the Civil War, which I assumed was extremely rare.

I was impressed at how many people were willing to give DNA samples that could possibly prove that their slave-owning ancestors fathered the children of slaves, thus completing some stories about certain branches of a family.

The one thing that everyone can take away from these episodes is that our genetic makeup is rarely pure. We are mostly a combination of ethnicities and races, and therefore racism is not only harmful but stupid. Most of us don't know where all of our ancestors began their lives and under what hardships they lived in order to make life better for their heirs. No matter where they cam from, they contributed to who we are now.

Finding your roots pulls at our heartstrings and speaks to our senseability with their strong research. The Production Manager in this show really shines!

How can I get chosen for a research into my family roots ?

Dr. Gates takes the guest through history. He weaves the stories of forefathers with an eloquence that leaves the audience spellbound. The research is amazing but when Dr. Gates introduces the past to the present, it is truly magical. The profiles are beautiful and at times agonizing, but the past woven so articulately to the history of family is wonderful. It absolutely should be shown in history classes as it draws you into the eras of yesterday while letting the guests learn about occurences and activities that lead to who they are today. Brilliant work.

I didn't realize this is a show from. 2012. I found it on late night PBS. I love this slice of history. Dr. Gates is masterful.

What was once a dream for those who could afford the extensive research time & travel has become affordable for everyone thanks to genetic services such as 23&Me and Ancestry - and the series inspires the viewer to do just that, to discover their past through genetics.

The series is entertaining and informative as well as emotive and compelling. It's definitely a must "schedule record" on the dvr as not not miss an episode.

I am not that into genealogy that much. But, for me learning about the genealogy of famous people is fascinating.

On finding your roots there are usually 3 guests on each episode. Luis gates sits at a table with each guest and takes them through their genealogy. The show switches back and forth between guests.

And sometimes Luis gates jr even finds that two of the guests on the show are related or that a guest on the show is related some someone else famous.

It always interesting.

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates is soaring high this season. The celebrity guests are awesome. The American history, the story telling, and the surprise endings are so moving. Every episode is a must watch. Science Pioneers, The Slave Trade, Beyond the Pale, Secrets & Lies, Off the Farm, Italian Roots. I can't pick a favorite because they are all so good. Keep the stories coming! I love this show.

Genealogical research is often fascinating, illuminating and addictive. But here's the thing about televising something that involves a lot of library time and reading -- you have to make it engaging. Finding Your Roots means well but it is nowhere near as fun or interesting to watch as another genealogical show, Who Do You Think You Are, currently airing on TLC. Unfortunately, it is Gates himself that is a drag on the show. He is a scholar and a professor and his sit downs with his guests come across like a dry lecture. The guests show up like good students for the lecture but they have had little or no personal involvement in the quest up to that point. And frankly some of them don't look too interested in their own stories.

I've been involved in genealogical research for many decades and I have learned some remarkable things at the hands of Professor Gates and his association with PBS. I don't want the show to disappear but I would encourage PBS to reformat it in favor of engaging both the guest and the viewer to a higher degree. They have the perfect opportunity to do that in the wake of the revelation that Gates and the show's producers covered up the facts of Ben Affleck's slave owning ancestry.

Please do episodes on every day people and members of congress not just folks living in Hollywood.

I have a complicated ancestry which I've spent a ton of time on; because the dna doesn't lie!

How can I get CeCe to help me get my answers?

Celebrities have money and get this for free; I'm retired living below the poverty line and no help.

I know my father was adopted within family. But of course I'm the black sheep for bringing all this information to lite. I'm just not as young as I used to be and it's difficult for me to picture my matches three dimensionally- I have plenty of tested relatives.

I'd pay what little I have to find the answers before I die. That's all I'm asking for. A mystery solved.

In 2012 when I first started watching "Finding Your Roots" my family and I were so excited.

My husband parents and my mother were transitioning ftom here and we were their caregivers.. So when this fabulous fantastic new program came on p b s directed towards Black Americans of Afrikan descent we were excited.

As everyone knows Black Americans of Afrikan descent due to slavery have it almost impossible to locate their/ our roots. So to see Black people discover their connection with the ancestors it allowed a new rebirth. But It went downhill when pbs convinced Dr Gates to include non-Black Americans specifically white people.

Till this day I don't understand how we as a group who have gone through much more than any other people due to enslavement being sold and kidnapped from another continent thousands of miles away to this so called new land. And where we were regulated to being blind in finding our "roots" yet white people and other non black people don't have that problem yet pbs thought it was necessary to include white people? I guess to get their approval they MUST be included? It doesn't make sense! That's why i'm no longer a member of p b s because of its bias against Black Americans by always leaning towards white people of European descent and other non-Bkack lands.

I wish Dr Gates would have stayed strong and maybe some other network could have picked him up and kept it specifically for Black Americans of Afrikan descent.

We LOVE you Dr. Gates. Thank you!!!

I love genealogy, this is a great premise, but am only drawn to episodes where I know who the actor is, and actually like.

There's a lot of deep research, but also there often seems to be conjecture, rather than fact. Conclusions sometimes appear to be "jumped to".

The overriding factor that diminishes my interest in the show, is the host, Louis Gates.

He comes of as being smug , condescending,and patronizing. There has to be someone else that could take over this role and spare us the smarmy discourse, it's a great premise for a show, but would be far more captivating with a more palatable host.

The show it self is good feels a little cold not sure if its on purpose or if it's the narrator Mr. Gates somber voice or ment to be this way for the purpose of the show. My next issue is, it would be better if they used regular everyday people that really have a story to tell that have no clue as to where they came from and also don't have the money to figure out the pieces to their past, not like celebrities that are worth millions or in the case of the show i just watched headlining polotics and 3 politicions that all make a minimum of $174,000 a year plus. All these individuals all have the money to pay someone to do all their genealogy searches and put together a book like what they are all given made me not even finish watching this show. I also agree with another reviewer about the slavery issues, i know they are reverent but we live in such a divided world as it is now days and this makes a lot of people open old wounds of how slavery was back in the day and it makes me feel worse about how my ancestries were even treated. Like on the show i am talking about where Mr Gates Jr tells Marco Rubio "and who wants to revisit all their pain?" We as regular Americans have to relive a lot of pain just turning on the television and watching the news with all the hate in the world that is being spewed daily. I myself don't like what the world is becoming and how history is trying to be erased, its history good or bad its history and we should not repeat history, but we should not pretend it didnt happen that is why its called the past.