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Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 4
Language
English
Description
What do Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have in common? They are both famous actors and both descend from prominent American families that have been in this country since its inception. But they share something else, too: Both had ancestors who were early opponents of slavery. Bacon's Quaker ancestors repudiated slavery long before the rest of the country, in 1780. And Sedgwick's ancestor Theodore Sedgwick argued the freedom case of Elizabeth Freeman,...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 2
Language
English
Description
This program features two African-American politicians from different generations and opposite backgrounds. John Lewis grew up in a sharecropping family in rural Georgia, while Cory Booker was raised in an affluent, all-white New Jersey suburb. Although both men have devoted their lives to the betterment of African-American people, neither knows much about his own ancestors. In this episode, Booker is introduced to his white great-grandfather, a man...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 5
Language
English
Description
Pastor Rick Warren, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Sheik Yasir Qadhi - clerics of three different faiths - all have complex family histories that profoundly shaped their religious beliefs. Research of their roots unearthed a story about the spiritual foundations of this country, an unrelenting struggle to achieve the ideal of religious freedom and tolerance, but also the difficulties sometimes of holding onto one's faith and still feeling like an "authentic"...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 8
Language
English
Description
The three guests in this episode are all children of first- or second-generation immigrants and share the peculiar burdens of that heritage. In an episode that crisscrosses the planet, from India to Korea to Poland, catch a glimpse of three distinct yet oddly overlapping experiences of families leaving their homes and becoming American.
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 6
Language
English
Description
Many Americans descend from a variety of European ethnicities, with ancestral roots across every country in Europe. Actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal are textbook examples of Americans with a rich medley of European immigrant stories in their family trees. Delve into their deep American roots in early colonial communities and meet their Eastern European Jewish ancestors, who share almost identical migration stories. From the Mayflower...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 7
Language
English
Description
Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Brown University president, Ruth Simmons, have each climbed to the pinnacle of their profession, yet each started life as a second-class citizen in the Jim Crow south. DNA is used to investigate family mysteries: Where in Africa do they come from and who are the white men in their family trees?
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 1
Language
English
Description
Their European immigrant ancestors blazed unconventional trails in America, from capturing British ships for the American Revolution to crossing racial barriers in slave-era Louisiana. Generations later, as children growing up in New Orleans, Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis found a deep and abiding friendship through their common love of jazz and of the city itself. In this hour, trace the turbulent and contradictory history of the city of...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 9
Language
English
Description
Most African Americans struggle to trace their ancestors beyond Emancipation; slavery erased names and family ties with brutal efficiency. But what about the descendants of the handful of free black people who evaded bondage during that terrible time? Musician John Legend and comedian Wanda Sykes discover the extraordinary stories of the free black ancestors they never knew about, while Professor Gates himself and his 98-year-old friend Margarett...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 10
Language
English
Description
Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez all share Spanish colonial roots, yet each views their own identity very differently. In this episode we ask what it means to be Hispanic-and find that the answer lies in the tangled histories of European, Native American and African peoples. Crisscrossing Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, and the Southwest, Professor Gates reveals stories of ancestral Conquistadors, Indian rebels, and "Crypto-Jews"...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 3
Language
English
Description
Three iconic American storytellers have spent their lives chronicling the lives of others, while knowing almost nothing about their own family history. Ken Burns confronts the reality of his southern ancestors' role in the Civil War, including Confederate soldiers held captive and a slave-owning Virginian. Anderson Cooper, scion of one of America's most storied families, the Vanderbilts, longs to know more about his father's southern roots - including...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 10
Language
English
Description
Deval Patrick is the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and Jessica Alba is an actress who proudly embraces her Mexican-American heritage. But cutting-edge DNA analysis reveals that the family trees contain a far more diverse range of cultures and races. Alba descends from Jewish and Mayan ancestors and the official cartographer of France's King Louis XIV. Deval Patrick's roots lead to a black homesteader in Colorado and a white master...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 2
Language
English
Description
Three of America's greatest athletes, whose determination and love of sports were deeply shaped by their families, were all cut off from their true origins. Billie Jean King learns the story of her grandmother, who had always kept her orphan status a secret. Derek Jeter confronts his ancestors' lives as slaves and learns that they were owned by a white man named James Jeter - the source of the Jeter name and Derek's third great-grandfather. Rebecca...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 6
Language
English
Description
Trace three guests' roots into the heart of slavery, revealing that there is no singular narrative and challenging preconceptions of an era that profoundly shaped our nation's sense of itself. Hip-hop artist Nas discovers a web of his slave ancestors and their intimate relationship with their slave master; award-winning actress Angela Bassett meets ancestors whose slave family tragedy is rivaled only by a triumphant emancipation story; and presidential...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 1
Language
English
Description
Three guests know almost nothing about their fathers' past. Stephen King's father walked out on the family when Stephen was two years old and never returned; Courtney Vance's father was a foster child and never knew who his biological parents were - after his suicide, Courtney wants to learn more about his roots; and Gloria Reuben's father was 78 years old when she was born - he died when she was young, taking the secret of his ancestry with him....
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 9
Language
English
Description
"Ancient Roots" traces the family histories of three quintessential voices in American life. All descend from ancestors who were part of the wave of Greek immigrants in the early decades of the 20th century. But along the way, the stories of their Greek ancestors were lost. Tina Fey's fifth great-grandfather survived a terrible massacre and became a hero in the Greek War of Independence. David Sedaris' ancestors were also touched by the Greek War...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 5
Language
English
Description
Three celebrity chefs who cook the food of their ancestors discover family members who have shaped their lives - and America's cuisine. Tom Colicchio of "Top Chef" learns the hardships his family endured (famine, bandits) living in a tiny town in Northern Italy and celebrates the courage of his original immigrant ancestor, a man who crossed the Atlantic many times to bring the Colicchios to the United States; Ming Tsai, the child of immigrants who...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 7
Language
English
Description
In this episode we learn about the ancestors of three celebrated Americans who not only share a Jewish heritage but a history of perseverance in the face of withering opposition. Tony Kushner delves into the history of the Holocaust to discover his ancestors' fate; Carole King learns the origins of her family name and confronts the reality of the discrimination her ancestors faced in America; and Alan Dershowitz finds out that the first Hassidic synagogue...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 8
Language
English
Description
Sally Field learns that she descends from William Bradford, who arrived on the Mayflower and helped his fellow Puritans establish their new lives in colonial America. Her ancestors sided with the British crown during the war for independence and paid the ultimate price. Deepak Chopra's family made a similar gamble while living under harsh British rule in India - his grandparents pledged their loyalty to the British in hopes of achieving a higher place...
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 6
Language
English
Description
Uncover a long history of military service in the families of Patricia Arquette, Julianne Moore and John McCain, and how this has instilled in each of them an enduring spirit of strength and integrity.
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 5
Language
English
Description
Discover how the ancestors of business mogul Richard Branson and architects Maya Lin and Frank Gehry took audacious risks to create opportunities, and how their luck, ingenuity and chutzpah was passed on to these three visionaries.
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