Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows us, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots, looking further back in time than ever before. Gates' investigations take on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Congressman John Lewis, actor Robert Downey Jr., CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, former secretary of labor Linda Chavez, and comedian Margaret Cho. Interwoven with their moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success is practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots. Gates also details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

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Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows us, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots, looking further back in time than ever before. Gates' investigations take on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Congressman John Lewis, actor Robert Downey Jr., CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, former secretary of labor Linda Chavez, and comedian Margaret Cho. Interwoven with their moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success is practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots. Gates also details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

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Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

by Henry Louis Gates Jr., David Altshuler

Narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn

Unabridged — 14 hours, 49 minutes

Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

Finding Your Roots: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

by Henry Louis Gates Jr., David Altshuler

Narrated by Bill Andrew Quinn

Unabridged — 14 hours, 49 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$19.95
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Overview

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows us, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots, looking further back in time than ever before. Gates' investigations take on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Congressman John Lewis, actor Robert Downey Jr., CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, former secretary of labor Linda Chavez, and comedian Margaret Cho. Interwoven with their moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success is practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots. Gates also details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.


Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Of interest to avid genealogy buffs.—Kirkus Reviews

In telling these stories, Gates provides clues to readers of how they can conduct their own searches and the value to be found in immigration records and the 1870 census.—Booklist

A painstakingly researched genealogical tapestry weaving a wonderful tribute to America as a very culturally rich melting pot.—Kam Williams

Library Journal

11/01/2014
Gates provides practical information for beginning genealogists and recounts stories of celebrity ancestry, from John Lewis to Robert Downey Jr.

Kirkus Reviews

2014-07-16
The latest from redoubtable historian Gates (African-American Research/Harvard Univ.; Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008, 2011, etc.) is not, despite the title, about finding your roots. A companion text to the popular PBS series, and following his similar Faces of America (2010), it's about finding the roots of 25 American notables of diverse ethnicity. From Branford Marsalis to Wanda Sykes, Sanjay Gupta to Harry Connick Jr., Cory Booker to Barbara Walters, the histories are uniformly told. The author introduces the subject of each inquiry with a concise biography and some apt words from the honoree. There follows the parade of progenitors discovered through oral history and documents like immigration records, realty transactions and census rolls. Experts were often enlisted. Finally, DNA was used to trace genealogy, sometimes back to the Ice Age. It appears that Martha Stewart is descended from craftspeople, and through the veins of Robert Downey Jr. flows a bit of Jewish blood. As many readers will suspect, climbing the family trees of these famous figures proves that many of us are related—perhaps not even six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon (his ancestry goes back to Edward I, and Brad Pitt is Bacon's 13th cousin twice removed). Throughout these family tapestries are a variety of common threads—e.g., poverty, name changes and mistreatment. Integral to the nation's history are the sorry annals of slavery as narrated by Gates in the African-Americans' case studies. Their stories are particularly moving. Unfortunately, the TV format proves static on the printed page. Despite the persecuted emigrants, the tycoons, the slave masters and all the other colorful ancestral characters populating Gates' passionate research, the individual tales rarely spring to life. Other subjects in the collection include Rick Warren, Condoleezza Rice, John Legend and Adrian Grenier. Primarily of interest to avid genealogy buffs.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169864823
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 09/15/2014
Edition description: Unabridged
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