“I know our stories speak to people because I am stopped everywhere by old and young; white and Black; Christian, and Hindu, and they say, ‘We love your show,’” Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. told TV Insider in a preview for the eleventh season of his fascinating genealogy series, Finding Your Roots, that since has traced notable Americans’ family trees since 2012. (Leave it to PBS to make digging into celebrities’ lives smart and classy.)
The 10-episode installment premiered on January 7 with Broadway star Lea Salonga discovering an emotional connection to her family’s past and actress Amanda Seyfried learning why her paternal third-great-grandfather was murdered.
Gates answered our most pressing questions about the series and highlighted more jaw-dropping moments coming up, including the season finale in which he got answers about his own long-lost ancestors.
I have to compliment you for always being so dapper on the show. Is that a family trait?
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: My mother was a seamstress. [She went to] seamstress school in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the ’30s. She could make anything. The Singer sewing machine was treated with all the reverence of a Steinway grand piano in our house. My brother and I always had the nicest clothes and Stride Rite shoes. We had my mother’s taste. [When I went to Harvard], Charlie Davidson at the Andover Shop who dressed Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Ralph Ellison said, “I’m going to dress you. People are looking to see if you’re going to flee. They want you to fail. You have to look the part. I’m going to give you credit. I’m going to make you 12 suits.”
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That’s the kind of fascinating story we hear on the show. Which upcoming segment moved you the most?
One of the most moving moments of the season for me was for Laurence Fishburne. He had long yearned to know the identity of his biological father, a man he had never met. We found him through DNA. We found out that the two share much more including a passion for jazz. That is often a leitmotif of the series. When we uncover these ancestors, they tell us a story or share an experience, which has dripped down through the branches of your family tree. We introduced him to two half-siblings he never knew existed.
Who else’s past and present collided?
Michael Imperioli’s maternal great-grandfather had more in common with the character Michael played on The Sopranos than he’d ever imagined. This guy was bootlegging and running a tavern. Michael loved that.
What’s the longest lineage you traced?
Amy Tan learning that her paternal roots traced back to her 22nd great-grandfather, a man born in China sometime in the 12th century. Sharon Stone descends from not one but two kings of France. That connects Sharon to Charlemagne, who’s her 38th great-grandfather.
Were there any firsts?
Chrissy Teigen is the first person [on the show] descended from Roma ancestors, the so-called gypsies.
Can you share some of the big surprises the guests experienced?
Debra Messing discovered her family’s long-hidden connection to the Holocaust. She had no idea. Natalie Morales discovered she’s related to one of the legendary pirates of the Caribbean. A DNA test revealed that Rubén Blades’ biological father was the national poet of Panama. The great Native American chef Sean Sherman learned that his great-great-grandfather was a Black man who had served with a legendary 10th Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers. Sheryl Lee Ralph descends from a very unusual multiracial couple in the middle of the 19th century in Jamaica, her third great-grandparents were a white guy and a Black woman. When he died, he left his entire estate of 340 acres to his Black wife. That’s amazing. José Andrés, he’s not the first progressive in his family. His paternal third great-grandfather joined an armed uprising against the Spanish crown seeking to bring democracy to Spain. And he barely escaped with his life. Preparing for the reveal for each guest is a bit like being in graduate school again for me. You learn so much about world history through the ancestry of each of the guests.
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When did you first get interested in ancestry?
The day after I saw the picture of my great-great grandmother. It was July 3rd, 1960, the day after we buried my father’s father. My father showed my brother and me Jane Gates’ obituary and her picture. The next day, driven by forces that I have no idea about and I had no control over, I asked Daddy to buy me a composition book. That night, in front of the 12-inch, black-and-white TV, I interviewed my parents and made my first family tree. I was trying to connect back to Jane Gates. Her son and grandson looked white. I was trying to figure this out. Someone pointed out that subconsciously at some deep level, the whole reason to do this series was to try to find the identity of my long-lost, white, great-great grandfather.
And you did it this season, right? The finale is titled “Finding My Roots.”
I’m featured in this series at the very end, and it’s hugely meaningful to me. CeCe Moore [the show’s genetic genealogist] spent four years building family trees from my fourth, fifth and sixth DNA cousins on DNA websites. I descend from a white woman who was impregnated by a Black man who was a slave. She was an indentured servant on my mom’s side. The biggest reveal is the long-lost identity of my great, great grandfather, a white man of Irish descent. And now I can go back to my fifth great-grandfather who was born in Ireland on the Gates line. Gates is not even my real name. [My real name] is one of the big reveals. But it’s very special and very moving and quite a bonding experience for my cousins and me.
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I’ll put a question to you that you often ask guests: What would your ancestors make of you?
I would like to think that I made my family on both sides proud, that for whatever weaknesses they might find, mistakes, trials, and tribulations that I might’ve had, they’d say in the end, you did all right kid. You made us proud. Curiosity about other cultures, and my determination to fight xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia are values that have been passed down. And that would be the best report card I could get.
Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Tuesdays, 8/7c, PBS
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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