To watch the webinar, visit http://www.classroom20.com/events/pbs-cr-20exploring-the-faces.

Gates: After my work on the African American Lives series, I got thousands of letters from people all over America saying, “Why not do my history?” So, I decided to do the same kind of analysis and research on people of Irish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and other ethnicities, and the results are just as dramatic as in African American Lives. All of the guests on FACES OF AMERICA were deeply moved by what we revealed about their ancestry. We were able to trace the ancestry of Native American writer Louise Erdrich back to 438 A.D. We found that Queen Noor is descended from royalty, and that’s before she married King Hussein of Jordan. We found that the African American poet Elizabeth Alexander is related to the emperor Charlemagne!

We went even further and used DNA analysis to look for “deep cousins” — common ancestors among our guests — and we found genetic connections between eleven of our twelve guests. I found that despite all our apparent differences in terms of culture and history, we are all the same.

Q: So what’s next for you? Were you left with any questions after completing FACES OF AMERICA?

Gates: I found it astonishing that some of our guests, despite their ethnic differences, were related. I would like to do a series about sequencing the human genome, and also analyze more human diversity among other ethnic groups – a FACES OF AMERICA 2.

Gates: I was surprised by the amount of genealogy data that exists for people who are not African American. Because of slavery, the “paper trail” for African Americans only goes back 200 years. Similarly, the records of Dr. Oz and Queen Noor’s families were destroyed during the fall of the Ottoman Empire. So it was a surprise to go back in history as far as we were able. We also uncovered surprising genetic connections between our guests, and their ethnic admixture. We presented each guest with a pie chart showing their racial admixture, and the people who were 100% Asian or European expressed regret at not being more mixed!

Gates: We always knew we were going to do genome sequencing for two people, because that’s what we had the budget for — the science is incredibly expensive. So I jumped at the chance to participate, and I was very interested in finding out the genetic differences between my father and I. We made history in the process. My father and I are not only the first African Americans, but also the first father and son to have their genomes sequenced. In addition, at age 96, my father is the oldest person to have the procedure done. He also made the results public, so scientists will be studying his genetic makeup for generations to come.

Right now, the science of genome sequencing is in its infancy. Imagine being in the Library of Congress, but only having the reading level of “See Dick, See Jane.” When it comes to genome sequencing, we’re at that level of analysis right now, but we’re learning more every day. For me, it was very emotional to see the presence of my mother’s genome in my own map; she died in 1987, so it was like having a piece of her with me again.