A Virtual Family: Finding Your Genealogy
On Saturday morning, June 18th, I found myself in the Admiral’s Club at Miami International Airport, killing time with my friend, Professor Lawrence Bobo. After settling in a quiet, unoccupied area that just happened to be near the bar, I fired up my iPad to continue reading Ralph Ellison’s classic novel, “Invisible Man.” Larry went off to get us something to drink. I heard a man ask him if I was who I was, and then I heard Larry respond that indeed I was that man. I kept reading, hoping to avoid being disturbed; we had just learned that our flight was delayed, with no end in sight to that delay, and that kind of uncertainty is irritating.
A few minutes later, I became aware of someone’s shadow, hovering. It was the bartender. As I glanced up from Chapter Ten of the novel, attempting to be as polite as I could while dismissing him at the same time so that I could get back to Ellison’s amazing novel, I couldn’t help but notice that this man had a rather dark complexion for a white man; “swarthy,” Shakespeare would have called it. He was obviously not black or of recent African descent. (I say “recent” because we are all of distant African descent, some 50,000 years ago, of course, since the ancestors of the entire human community migrated about of eastern Africa at about that time.) Or, I should say, if he was of recent African descent, then his complexion, facial features, and hair texture had fooled me completely. But he was dark, dark with what they used to call a “Roman Nose.”
He introduced himself to me then told me how much he enjoyed watching our series on genealogy and genetics. And how the series had inspired him to go online at Ancestry.com to trace his own ancestors. Then he told me how he had gone to Naples, looked in a phone book, I believe, and had gone to visit a family listed with his same surname. When he answered the door, a woman told him to wait a bit. Soon, he told me, a slew of folks arrived who looked just like him! And, miraculously, it turned out that a genealogist had actually traced his family tree back not only back to his first immigrant ancestors who migrated to America, but all the way back to the 12th century! They had even compiled their research into a book, a copy of which Peter is the proud possessor! Now, he is just as determined to trace his mother’s family back to its origins in Sicily.
What amazes me about this story is how much pleasure—joy, really—that recounting this tale of discovery brought to this wonderfully warm and generous man. I think he enjoyed recounting it to me almost as much as he enjoyed the actual experience. I marvel at that because this is how I feel, every time we give one of our guests the gift of reuniting them—or meeting for the first time, really—dozens and dozens of their ancestors, what we might call their “virtual family,” all the people on their family tree, people they can never meet but whose experiences and their stories about those experiences, whose triumphs and tragedies, whose joy and pain, and some of their tics and habits of mind, their customs, family traditions, and habits, and, inevitably, long stretches of their DNA, have all recombined (as geneticists say of the DNA you inherit from your ancestors) and blended to make you, well, you—the marvelously complex person that you have become, related to but unique not only on your family tree, but in all of human history, a being greater than the sum of her or his parts. And it is the pleasure I derive from identifying and, metaphorically, resurrecting those “parts” of another person’s past—those parts of themselves, those long-lost ancestors to whom we introduce each of our guests, that motivates every genealogist and historian of anyone’s family, and motivates me to make these series for PBS. And what a rare privilege this is.
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Comments
March 2, 2012 at 3:04 am
My Grandfather, who died in 1936, was born on an Arkansas plantation in 1861 the son of the slavemaster. His father (the slavemaster) was a Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, Judge, and one of the signers for Arkansas to seceed from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. It is reported by his white grandchildren that he had twenty children by his two white wives. Yet my grandfather and his mother were proof that their master still found it necessary to go to the slave quarters and have more children, ie my grandfather and his sister. We African American grandchildren are currently planning a family reunion for our grandfather and some of us are having a very hard time including the story of our slavemaster great grandfather, as well as, whether we should include a picture of him in our program. It is one thing to talk about slavery and the master, but believe me, it is another to look in the face of someone who you know for certain has violated your grandmother. Even if it is “just” a picture, it makes you feel sick. And who cares if he was considered a great man historically. Henry Louis Gates, I love what you have done with finding your roots, but now you need to talk about how to live with those roots of slavery, cause they are killing us.
March 18, 2012 at 11:52 pm
My daddy had served in world war II and what i find is i can’t trace his life in the military. I know he was a gunner, and I have a copy of his DD214, but supposly his service records burned in St. Louis, but they tell me to send money and they would send me meal certificates, or a couple other things,maybe….He has sinced passed away, and the records he had had been lost through the years.It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. All I wanted was a copy of the picture of the plane and his crew….But, I can’t locate anything..And i can’t read there military logo…
March 20, 2012 at 11:25 am
I hope some of the 99-percenters will be reunited with the 1% who share their DNA.
March 21, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Linda,
You may want to check the website http://www.fold3.com . They just released new WWII records and often have military records that are not available through ancestry.com
good luck!!
March 24, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Nue . . . I would tell your relatives to get over it. It is what it is. If it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t be around.
March 25, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Henry
God bless you for working so hard at creating “Finding Your Roots”. I wish I could find an answer to mine. Supposedly I have Jewish roots in our family tree but I don’t know how big a percentage. The roots are revealed in two bloodlines, of Gantz and Nichols which are on first my Grandfather Martindale’s side and on my grandmother’s side through the Whites. ( Descendant of Peragrim White of the Mayflower) If you can help me drop me a line. ( no pun intended) Rev. Paul C. Martindale
March 25, 2012 at 10:40 pm
can you help me trace my roots.. how do i become an canidate..
March 25, 2012 at 11:40 pm
I have southern ancestors and I do not understand why you keep saying the Civil War was about slavery. It was about money and control. Also, southerners weren’t the only people to own slaves. Even William T. Sherman had many slaves to serve him as did Ulysses S. Grant. Slavery in the north continued after the Emancipation Proclamation which only freed slaves in the south.
Get your facts straight, please!
March 26, 2012 at 8:59 am
Wow, just never know what great stories you can find out in the genealogy world. What an excitement to see people speak of their ancestors. I just love hearing the stories. It great work your doing. I am excited to your program on Finding Your Roots.
Of course I have a story. But this is a comment section. However your series on Being Black in Latin America was astonishing. My husband was a Haitian. He had told me stories of how the French were kicked out of Haiti. When you covered Haiti I was glad you had done so much research. Which you revealed the story my husband had told me about.
Keep up the good work.
March 26, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Dear Dr. Gates,
I appreciate and enjoy your Finding Your Roots series. I am always deeply moved by the impact uncovering ancestral information has on your guests. I treasure the information I have gathered on my family and the feeling of connection with the universe it has – horse theives and all. I am rampantly curious to have a genetic profile that tells my racial distribution. I haven’t been able to find where I can do this (did the genome project – fascinating!) Can someone help point me in the right direction. Thank you so much.
March 26, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Please do the Malveauxs (Julienne and Suzanne). I understand that we are related, according to my Aunt Julia. Aunt Julia, and Julienne are first cousins and share a namesake, their grandmother (my great grandmother), Julienne (Trahan) Malveaux. We are not sure of our link to Suzanne, so it would be great it you would make, yet another, connection.
March 26, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Mr. Glodean Gates, if I am to believe the secessionist documents from each state, the Civil War was very much about slavery. The southerners were not only upset that President Lincoln did not enforce fugitive slave laws, or extend slavery into the new territories, they were also afraid the he would end slavery, altogether. You may find this information in secession declarations from all over the south.
March 27, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Thanks so much for making the show “Finding Your Roots”.I am a fan of the show and I have been doing my family tree for years-your show gives me inspiration to try even harder on my family tree and I’m so glad to see others interested in the same thing.Thank you!!!
April 3, 2012 at 5:24 am
I really enjoy your show. I have been tracing my roots for years and always come to a dead end when it comes to my Dad’s side of the family. Myself and my sisters have always wondered what our DNA is made up of. We don’t know other then Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish. but stories told says Japanese, South American and Arabian as well. As hard as the times are now, I do not have the finances to pay for a DNA Ancestry test. I am asking if anyone or you Mr. Gates know of getting one done for free? Myself and my entire family would be for ever grateful! Thank you for your time.
April 3, 2012 at 9:47 am
I watched the show on Sunday and really enjoyed it. I’ve been on this journey into finding my roots. I’ve actually found relative but what I realize is we all are kind of in the same boat, we don’t know a lot about our history. There seem to have been some secrets so there are a lot of questions. My father’s last name was Windsor and we don’t even know if that name was originally something else or if that was really the original name. I wish you would put me on your show. I really have so much to share. There are people in the family that clearly look caucasion but they have Native American and possibly African American in them but that is not something that seems to be embraced by all. Would you consider putting just regular folks on your show?
Thanks,
Alou
April 8, 2012 at 9:40 pm
Laughing as my husband and I watched the Kyra-Kevin story. We recently found out we are 10 th cousins! Got married the next town over in Connecticut from where some ancestors lived! Very funny, but somehow makes sense. Now my much loved cousins are my double cousins!
April 9, 2012 at 1:00 pm
I did some research on my family but hit a brick wall after a while because some members migrated here from the south I know my Great Grandmother did because of her Cherokee Heritage and also the place where I live is historic and named after one of the founders back in 1875.
April 12, 2012 at 6:42 am
Linda, You can also request from St. Louis, your father’s Military Record (go to http://www.va.gov) and it doesn’t cost you anything. Other suggestions are to check the Yahoo Groups for a group with your father’s military affiliation (from his DD-214) and/or Google his unit information and other websites will come up, but be careful of those “outside” the Yahoo or government websites. You can also go on the branch of his service’s website and ask other members of his unit for information. The information is out there so keep trying and don’t give up.
April 12, 2012 at 6:56 am
I have researched my paternal ancestors (Chambers) – who, so far, were all born in North Carolina – going back six generations and even the sixth generation’s parents were born in North Carolina. So I’m trying to figure out how they got there and from where.
My maternal ancestors are a whole different story, and are a lot harder to trace with me knowing only that my grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather (Clark – and there’s a whole host of them) were born in Charles County, MD. My grandfather later moved to Washington, D.C. where my mother and our family were born, and he died. My maternal grandmother was born in St. Mary’s County, Md, but her father – Holt, my great-grandfather – lived in Frederick, MD. His parents probably emigrated into Pennsylvania from England/Germany – since that’s where the Holt/Holtz show up on the Census records. It’s interesting going through all of the records available and finding this information, but frustrating when I can’t go back any further. I won’t give up, so the search continues…
I’ve told everybody I know about the “Finding Your Roots” program – complete with airing time – hoping they’ll be as inspired as I’ve been in tracing my family’s ancestors, so that my children, grandchildren and now, great-grandchildren will know their roots. I truly enjoy how much work you put into the searches and well you present the information to your guests. I really appreciate you bringing this information to us. Thank You!
April 12, 2012 at 7:07 am
TO CATHERINE WILLIAMS post of March 26, 2012. The website referred to on “Finding Your Roots” seems to be the best – and the best bargain. It’s http://www.23andme.com. I’ve had my mitochondrial (mtDNA) test done by another company, but am still planning to use 23andme because they give more complete ancestral information – including how much of which ethnicities we are. There’s a wealth of information on their website and a lot of FAQs with answers and videos of explanation. Good luck with your search. I’ve been at it for about 10 years and am just making some headway, so don’t stop until you have the information you’re looking for.
April 12, 2012 at 11:15 am
hello Mr. Gates, i have enjoyed watching all of your shows and how you have managed to bring families tree lines to life. it is amazing to whatch you change peoples ideas and literally their identity. I myself have been researching my family, but it has been a very long and slow process do to the fact that my parents died when i was young. but i keep pushing forward. i have done dna and traced my moyhers lineage directly to the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. that was very exciting for me as well as all the other discoveries i have come across. i have many mysteries now that i can’t seem to solve yet, but i’m still enjoying the journey. i think it would be great if finding your roots considered maybe selecting one or two regular people like myself to help find their roots. although i truely enjoy watching the famous figures find their ancestors it would seem a lil more like somone i would know .
April 15, 2012 at 9:43 pm
How do I do research on my Korean roots when over 80% of Koreans share only 14 surnames? How did Prof. Gates find out about Angela Buchdahl’s Korean ancestry?
May 22, 2012 at 9:28 am
Bravo on a fabulous series, Prof. Gates. Just outstanding, and so inspiring. You have doubtless motivated tens of thousands of viewers to go digging for their histories. I’ve traced my family back to the 1500′s on both sides, and now want to get my DNA analyzed, as my daughter was born with a Mongolian spot and no one knows why…such great mysteries! Thank you for your amazing series of roots profiles, and such meticulous work to open the surprises to us and your subjects.