Henry Louis Gates : biography 16 September 1950 - Supporters of Afrocentrics such as Molefi Asante and others say that they assert not that the study of Africa should be exclusively Black, but that the approach of Afrocentricity is critical for setting up black people as agents of their own history. One thing they dont cover on Finding Your Roots is how much it would cost to get a similar experience in real life. Jakes and Chris Tucker. John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are DNA cousins! This is FRESH AIR. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. So, to summarize, you probably cant hire Henry Louis Gates Jr. himself, but you can get a similar work product from a qualified professional genealogist. African American Studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in Keyser, West Virginia on September 16, 1950, the son of Henry Louis Gates Sr. and Pauline Augusta Coleman. GROSS: Whoa. And the average African-American has less than 1 percent Native American ancestry, but they have 24 percent European ancestry. GROSS: Totally stunned. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". GATES: They don't do that anymore for this particular kind of - I had a broken hip. There are a couple of ways that your real-life book might differ from those the show, which Ive outlined below, but on the whole, books are pretty fabulous. Update 1/31/23, 1:15 p.m. We'll hear more after a short break. You were 9 years old when you found her picture. Some books function more like reference books on your ancestors, while others are formatted like short biographies. After Ben Affleck Scandal, PBS Postpones 'Finding Your Roots'. Remember all the talk about post-racialism that GATES: We thought when Obama - we had turned a corner, and we could, you know, beat our - the plowshares into pruning hooks - right? Now she was born in 1819; died in 1888. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. What is race? Affleck himself posted an apology on Facebook, saying that he'd talked to Gates about these changes, but the process was, quote, "collaborative." GATES: You know, I'm totally exposed. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. When Henry Louis Gates Sr was born on 8 June 1913, in Patterson Creek, Mineral, West Virginia, United States, his father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates, was 34 and his mother, Helen Gertrude Redman, was 31. And TV was on kind of like the hearth in New England. Many other genealogists have not worked on Finding Your Roots, but are massively talented and can help you learn more about your family history, similar to the way guests do on the show. #FindingYourRoots#FindingYourRoots airs Tuesdays. His dynasty lasted for centuries, continuing up until the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland at the end of the 16th century. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. The show tends to highlight only a couple of ancestors for televisiona smart strategy, because it allows the shows researchers to allocate larger chunks of time towards researching the most interesting people. (PBS, 2019), and the related books, Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow, with Tonya Bolden (Scholastic, 2019), and Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White . And the first thing they said was, you don't have any of the genes that's going to give you Alzheimer's. CLIP. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. If so, youre in luck! 2023 WNET. Gates Jr. says since Moore joined the show, she has "changed fundamentally what was possible in terms of doing a person's family tree.". Henry Louis Gates Jr. . A team of geneticists at Trinity College led by professor Dan Bradley have discovered that as many as 3 million men worldwide may be descendents of the Irish warlord, who was the Irish "High King" at Tara, the ancient center of Ireland from A.D. 379 to A.D. 405. This is FRESH AIR. But one story not told to most Irish elementary schoolchildren was of Niall's prolificacy. And they would be published in the newspaper. S7 E7 | 0:01:16. It is the first known work of its kind and has great historical and literary significance. For tips, you can check out my three-part series of blog posts about How to Find a Professional Genealogist. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. (Preston Crawley) "I love being in Utah because I love genealogy," Henry Louis Gates Jr. said as he addressed BYU . He was there in exile because he had been in prison and to be offering civil war for 27 months and was given a fellowship at the University of Cambridge. DEGGANS: Well, Professor Gates has a reputation as one of the country's leading historians, so the question of his ethical standards is kind of important. Many thanks! A professional genealogist is the person who will build your family tree using records youre familiar with from the show, like censuses and vital records. When I became a teenager, my father and I bonded. Abby Wolf (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2012), a collection of three decades of his work, was published in 2012. Old photographs are usually kept in families and passed down through the generations, so family albums and attics are the most logical place to look for them. A research report walks you through the documents found, what those documents say and mean, and the conclusions that the genealogist has drawn about your family. I killed my mama. And she burst into tears because she used to read me that book all the time. in England and in the U.S. is the use of DNA. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. Off. GROSS: And it made me think about - because I was just reading this - it made me think about how a president can set the tone for the country on so many things, including, you know, racial issues, immigration. Henry Louis Gates Jr. doesn't seem too worried about "critical race theory" or "white fragility" or "woke warriors" or any of those ridiculous buzzwords . And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. Watching a list of 26 titles created 26 Jan 2019 And he fought in - for the Continental Army. And I gave it to her for birthday. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a popular and revered scholar who has written many acclaimed books and made many acclaimed documentaries about black history (and was also forced to drink a beer with the . Elizabeth Shotbolt , Phillip Fordham, Bridget Shelley , Anthony Hungerford. As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Watch: Ed Norton reacts to slave-owning ancestors in "Finding Your Roots". The new season of his TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now showing on PBS. Family history books are most similar to the Books of Life featured on the show, so Ill be talking about them here. GATES: Yeah, yeah. GROSS: But you had family that passed for white. Henry Louis Gates Jr. told CBS News that marking Juneteenth as a federal holiday was a long time coming.#cbsnews #juneteenth CBS News Streaming Network is th. PBS says it's now delaying the airing of new episodes until it can improve editorial oversight. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. You may yet have your own Bernie Sanders-style moment of genealogy-fueled surprise in the near future (though I cant say whether itll be because youre related to Larry David). If you are planning to get a family history book in the near future, now is the time to start emailing those distant cousins and rummaging around in your basement looking for pictures. GATES: Don't you? So then I became close to them but in two completely different ways. WAYNE, N.J. Henry Louis Gates Sr., 97, formerly a resident of Cumberland and Piedmont, W.Va., died peacefully on Christmas Eve, 2010, in Wayne, at home with his family gathered at his bedside. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. His expertise and experience eventually led him to TV, where he started working as a . In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. Reader, ed. GROSS: So when you had your DNA done, did you have a wish for a certain area of Africa or a certain group of African people who you wanted to be your ancestors? She loved nicknames (my brother Paul Edward is Rocky). The headline read " DEATH OF 'AUNT JANE GATES ' ": Last night at 11 o'clock "Aunt Jane Gates," colored, a . Dozens of your favorite THIRTEEN and PBS programs are available to watch on-demand on many popular platforms. And while youre at it, think about moving those pictures to dry, acid-free storage above-groundyour descendants will thank you! I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. And I realized only recently that though I was raised to be a doctor, deep down, I really wanted to be a writer. His PBS series "Finding Your Roots" returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series . I also cover the pros and cons of hiring an individual genealogist vs. a large company for your project, in case that interests you. Help me understand why this matters. There he found that he shared 10 of the 11 DNA matches with offspring of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fourth century warlord who created one of the dominant strains of Irish genealogy because he had so many offspring. GROSS: Yeah. We'd spit in a test tube. In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl. And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. Who is Henry Louis Gates Jr. married to? As a mediator between [] Username and password are case sensitive. The good news is that several of the genealogists who have worked on Finding Your Roots, as well as other shows like Who Do You Think You Are?, are available for hire. When we left off, Gates was talking about his own DNA mix. Members get extended access to PBS video on demand and more. Wrong username or password. GATES: For which she paid cash. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born Sept. 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. His father worked at the local paper mill during the day and as a janitor at a telephone company at night. However, it is perfectly acceptable to ask to view some sample pages or images to give you an idea of what youre getting. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. "My idea was that I would reveal where in Africa, on a guest mother's mother's line, they had hailed from. GROSS: Yeah. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests' family histories himself. Gates is one of many famous African-Americans with Irish heritage, including President Barack Obama and award-winning author Alice Walker. in Keyser, West Virginia, USA , United States (72 years), This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: Henry Louis GATES (1950), Biography from Wikipedia (see original) under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. And it's for my father. The story of Niall of the Nine Hostages is already the stuff of legend, which has been passed on to countless Irish schoolchildren over the years. He went to Trinity College in Dublin to have his DNA analyzed. DEGGANS: Well, PBS has insisted on some changes. January 16, 2018. Or they stayed home, and they listened to or played music. Gates wrote a friend of his who was a top executive at Sony to ask for advice after Affleck objected to the inclusion of all this slavery material, so those emails came out in April after hackers took a bunch of information from Sony and WikiLeaks published the material. And the DNA tests we were doing at that time - when they analyzed my Y DNA, it went to Ireland. This warlord was responsible for the very common Irish surname "O'Neill" -- which means "descendant son of Niall." If youve found this blog post helpful, please consider buying me a coffee to say thanks. Things change. And before I started school - I started school when I was, well, 5, turning 6 - I would get dressed up, and I would go to church with my mom. She was smart and she went to college, which was unusual for a woman in that era. In my experience, family history books may cost anywhere from $5,000 to over $50,000. A report is a little more nitty gritty than a book, sort of like how understanding the mechanics of an engine will help you understand what makes a car run. 1. So where does that come from? I mean, you're looking at, like, fancy celebrities talk about their backgrounds. If youre looking for a family history book in particular, here are some extra things youll want to look for during your search: Think about what youre hoping to get from a book: Some books mainly emphasize the genealogists findings, while others juxtapose findings alongside extensive oral history and/or interviews with living family members. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. GATES: No. If youd like to get an idea about what its like working with a particular genealogist, read their testimonials or reviews. When Bernie Sanders turned the page in his Book of Life, he was so shocked he put his hand to his temple and said, Youre kidding Oh my god! and burst out laughing. I don't think that's true for very many people in this room or any - or many people who are watching this show. Gates Jr. added, "Oprah just broke down and cried in the middle of the shoot. But I saw that photograph and read her obituary on the day that we buried my father's father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates. Those same tens of thousands of American who saw the show are also unlikely to distinguish "soldier" from a one who is a member of a "regiment", "troop", "militia" or the "Native Guard". GROSS: So given this kind of really rich mix that you've just described and all the surprises that you've just described, what does race mean to you? 44 Copy quote. But on the other hand, you can't say that biology doesn't matter because it does matter. I love my mother, and I love my nickname. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS.In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover . Listen 9:01. GATES: Well, I was on "The View." 799. The companion book to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS series, And Still I Risea timeline and chronicle of the past fifty years of black history in the U.S. in more than 350 photos. Preview E. Larry is joined by professor, historian, and host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots Henry Louis Gates Jr. And that is the strongest argument for brotherhood, sisterhood and the unity of the human species. Beginning with the assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965, And Still I Rise: From Black Power to the White House explores the last half-century of the African American experience. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. So I'm out there. Gates Jr. explained how mitochondrial DNA, inherited from the female ancestry line, doesn't change. GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. Not sure which channel that is? GATES: And they said, OK, we won't tell you. But the ancestry is being investigated against the will of the people being outed. Research reports are great! It was just put on the historic GATES: Register in Maryland. Last year, Gates uncovered a manuscript of a novel purportedly written in the 1850s by an African American woman who had been a slave. So lets look at some numbers! Related Articles Around the Web. Popular ancestry show Finding Your Roots is deep into its ninth season but host Henry Louis Gates Jr. admits he's "surprised" the show has worked so well with white people included. You can say on the one hand that race is a social construction. pic.twitter.com/1fYFMj9eYC. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. And he, and you, the officer and Joe Biden sat down, had a beer or two. And they got the brothers in uniforms with swords and stuff coming out of the church with this sad, black church music. His mother cleaned . Gates learned that he is part of a genetic subgroup that may be descended from or related to the fourth-century Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages. And then black people would tell each other - they would say, you know, be sure to watch "The Late Late Show" tonight because "Imitation Of Life," which is my favorite film - 1934, with Claudette Colbert. And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. I love you. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. They - but you're absolutely right. One way of comparing research reports and family history books is to imagine a car: A research report is like the cars engine. Gates co-produces and hosts the genealogy show, "Finding Your Roots." GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. So overseer, slave plantation - rape, right? Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. This is FRESH AIR. This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. And I don't think that he understands how much power that - to heal, to bind that the Oval Office metaphorically has. Here to talk about the controversy is NPR TV critic, Eric Deggans. And then he'd - and I read quite a lot. After more than 500 years of skewed, racist, Euro-centric interpretations of African history and culture, Wonders of the African World with Henry Loius Gates Jr. was to be a bold step towards reclaiming the oft-overlooked and minimized splendor of African civilization. Barack Obama understood that and, I think, certainly helped our nation to heal. . I only did black people. Why are they so expensive? DEGGANS: Well, I'm not really sure. And we knew the name of his great-great-grandmother and the name of this white man. The map below shows the places where the ancestors of the famous person lived. What do you think of that? To put it simply, Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a man who knows his history, and if knowledge is power, he is a powerful man indeed. Henry Louis Gates is an American literary critic, historian, professor, filmmaker, and public intellectual. GATES: But then they did another special test. Now think about that. It's beautiful. Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy. And that is a long time. July 23, 2009 / 7:43 AM / CBS. You know, I try to - doing "Finding Your Roots" is a way to paying homage to my mother and father every year. And when I was a young teenager, early adolescence, my father and I connected through the news. GATES: I said, thank God. Mama - I'm sorry, Mama. It comes from slavery. And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. He introduced the notion of signifyin' to represent African and African American literary and musical history as a continuing reflection and reinterpretation of what has come before. GATES: Terry Gross speechless - first time in 35 years. GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. 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