finding your roots

your stories

Canadian Challenge

Deborah Stover-Arsenault

My great grandfather Harvey R Russell came to Maine from Canada all I know is what is contained on his marriage liscense to my Great Grandmother Cecilia A Rockwell. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Josiah Thomas a freed slave serves his country at his own risk

Carolyn Boose

My great great grandfather Josiah Thomas, a free man wanted to serve his country. So he had to turn his papers in to show proof that he was free. He enlisted because he loved his country. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

A Sense of Self

Janice Conway-Klaassen

I was extremely lucky when I began to investigate my family history. Both of my parents’ families had kept a strong oral history of the people they were and where they came from. I began with my current elders and worked my way back – essentially confirming the oral history along the way. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Pacifists, Early and Late Comers to America

Mary Bullock

My mother's people, Menonites, came from Germany to Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn about 1740. Being pacifists, after the American Revolution, they found themselves unwelcome and undertook a six-week wagon train to Ottowa Canada, becoming the first European settlers in their area. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Just the Beginning

Ariana Fiorello

Despite the fact that I was adopted to an Italian-American family, I embrace the truth that I am a young, African-American female who has lots of questions about where I come from and from who. After watching “African American Lives 2” and Alex Haley’s “Roots” collection and “Queen”, I truly felt inspired. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

At age 40 I found a sister I never knew I had in England & My Irish family I did not know existed

catherine jackson

My Irish mother from Dublin traveled the world and landed in Boston. She then died when I was 8 due to terminal illness. Her Irish family had all predeceased her, or so I thought. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Soldiers and Statesmen. Adventurers and Artists.

Jean-Francois de Buren

Covering over eight centuries of history, in the United States, Switzerland and Argentina, the de Büren family saga is replete with passionate tales of soldiers, statesmen, adventurers and artists. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

virginia lee powellMother/FATHemersonharrison milmer

PEPPERJOHNSON(DONNA lUARENEMILNER)

The of anyblack person is the understand their heretiage, cultural deprivation is loplothe slaveholder of the blackman in this century. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Brett Family

Susan Brett Goodwin

My original ancestor, William Brett was here in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony about 1639, emigarting from Canterbury, England. Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

My Father Was Found On A Train

Nanette Maclin

My Father Was Found On A Train In Red Wing Minnesota. On November 11,1918. He Had Been Left Under the Seat In A Mans Shoe/Boot Box . Continue reading ...

April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

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About the Series

The basic drive to discover who we are and where we come from is at the core of the new 10-part PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the 12th series from Professor Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Filmed on location across the United States, the series premieres nationally Sundays, March 25 – May 20 at 8 pm ET on PBS (check local listings).

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