Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Finding Your Roots volume 5
Description
Pastor Rick Warren, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Sheik Yasir Qadhi - clerics of three different faiths - all have complex family histories that profoundly shaped their religious beliefs. Research of their roots unearthed a story about the spiritual foundations of this country, an unrelenting struggle to achieve the ideal of religious freedom and tolerance, but also the difficulties sometimes of holding onto one's faith and still feeling like an "authentic"...
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Finding Your Roots volume 3
Description
What's in a name? Well, a lot, at least when it comes to piecing together family history. For former slaves, choosing a last name was one of their first acts of freedom. For Jewish immigrants, it was a way to fit in in their new country. Whatever the reason for a name change, it can make the process of learning about one's ancestors difficult, if not impossible. In this episode, Gates unearths missing links in the family histories of media legend...
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Finding Your Roots volume 4
Description
Henry Louis Gates explores the family trees of pop star Cyndi Lauper and actors Jamie Chung and Danny Trejo, introducing them to ancestors whose stories were lost when their families immigrated to the United States. Drawing on long-lost records from Italy, Korea, Mexico, and Switzerland, Gates helps his guests to re-imagine their families and connect to history in a deeply personal way.
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Finding Your Roots volume 10
Description
Henry Louis Gates uncovers the roots of actors Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry-Housley, traveling back generations into the past to trace lineages from the Europe and Africa to the shores of the New World. With Gates' guidance, his guests re-imagine significant events in history-from the American Revolution to the journey of the Mayflower-and encounter surprising ancestors they never knew they had.
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Finding Your Roots volume 7
Description
Henry Louis Gates explores the family trees of actor John Legiuzamo and writer/producer Lena Waithe, introducing them to ancestors whose stories were lost when their families moved to the United States. Using a mix of documents and DNA, Gates guides his guests on journeys from Spain to Colombia to the Caribbean, compelling them to re-imagine their families as well as their nation.
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Finding Your Roots volume 5
Description
Three celebrity chefs who cook the food of their ancestors discover family members who have shaped their lives - and America's cuisine. Tom Colicchio of "Top Chef" learns the hardships his family endured (famine, bandits) living in a tiny town in Northern Italy and celebrates the courage of his original immigrant ancestor, a man who crossed the Atlantic many times to bring the Colicchios to the United States; Ming Tsai, the child of immigrants who...
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Finding Your Roots volume 9
Description
Henry Louis Gates explores the family trees of actor Regina King and writer/producer Damon Lindelof-the creative forces behind Watchmen, a visionary television series about America's tortured racial past. Though they come from very different backgrounds, King and Lindelof discover that they have more in common than meets the eye, encountering ancestors who overcame great traumas.
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Finding Your Roots volume 7
Description
Uncover family mysteries about two legends of hip hop, Sean Combs and LL Cool J, through the use of DNA technology that reveals information that shakes their very foundations.
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Finding Your Roots volume 6
Description
Trace three guests' roots into the heart of slavery, revealing that there is no singular narrative and challenging preconceptions of an era that profoundly shaped our nation's sense of itself. Hip-hop artist Nas discovers a web of his slave ancestors and their intimate relationship with their slave master; award-winning actress Angela Bassett meets ancestors whose slave family tragedy is rivaled only by a triumphant emancipation story; and presidential...
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Finding Your Roots volume 6
Description
Henry Louis Gates uses DNA detective work to solve haunting family mysteries for actor Joe Manganiello and football star Tony Gonzalez. Sifting through stories of the Armenian Genocide, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Jim Crow South, slavery, and the American Revolution, Gates unravels deep secrets and uncovers lost ancestors--compelling each of his guests to rethink their own identities.
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Finding Your Roots volume 1
Description
Their European immigrant ancestors blazed unconventional trails in America, from capturing British ships for the American Revolution to crossing racial barriers in slave-era Louisiana. Generations later, as children growing up in New Orleans, Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis found a deep and abiding friendship through their common love of jazz and of the city itself. In this hour, trace the turbulent and contradictory history of the city of...
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Finding Your Roots volume 2
Description
This program features two African-American politicians from different generations and opposite backgrounds. John Lewis grew up in a sharecropping family in rural Georgia, while Cory Booker was raised in an affluent, all-white New Jersey suburb. Although both men have devoted their lives to the betterment of African-American people, neither knows much about his own ancestors. In this episode, Booker is introduced to his white great-grandfather, a man...
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Finding Your Roots volume 3
Description
Henry Louis Gates explores the poignant roots of chef David Chang and actor Raúl Esparza-two men whose families fled their homelands to live in exile, never to return. From war-torn cities in North Korea to shark-infested waters off the shores of Cuba, Gates sets off to recover the stories of individuals who came to America against all odds and built a better life for themselves.
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Finding Your Roots volume 6
Description
Many Americans descend from a variety of European ethnicities, with ancestral roots across every country in Europe. Actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal are textbook examples of Americans with a rich medley of European immigrant stories in their family trees. Delve into their deep American roots in early colonial communities and meet their Eastern European Jewish ancestors, who share almost identical migration stories. From the Mayflower...
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Finding Your Roots volume 1
Description
Three guests know almost nothing about their fathers' past. Stephen King's father walked out on the family when Stephen was two years old and never returned; Courtney Vance's father was a foster child and never knew who his biological parents were - after his suicide, Courtney wants to learn more about his roots; and Gloria Reuben's father was 78 years old when she was born - he died when she was young, taking the secret of his ancestry with him....
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Finding Your Roots volume 1
Description
Henry Louis Gates explores the remarkable roots of actors Edward Norton and Julia Roberts-using DNA analysis and genealogical detective work to travel generations into the past, tracing lineages that run from Northern Europe to the American South. Along the way, Norton and Roberts reimagine their family stories and discover their hidden connections to our nation's history-and each other.
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Finding Your Roots volume 7
Description
Henry Louis Gates helps actors David Duchovny and Richard Kind trace their roots from Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East to the United States. Telling stories of triumph and tragedy, Gates reveals how his guest's ancestors tested the limits of luck and familial love as they battled to escape oppression and build a better life for future generations.
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Finding Your Roots volume 10
Description
Deval Patrick is the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and Jessica Alba is an actress who proudly embraces her Mexican-American heritage. But cutting-edge DNA analysis reveals that the family trees contain a far more diverse range of cultures and races. Alba descends from Jewish and Mayan ancestors and the official cartographer of France's King Louis XIV. Deval Patrick's roots lead to a black homesteader in Colorado and a white master...
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Finding Your Roots volume 5
Description
Discover how the ancestors of business mogul Richard Branson and architects Maya Lin and Frank Gehry took audacious risks to create opportunities, and how their luck, ingenuity and chutzpah was passed on to these three visionaries.
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Finding Your Roots volume 3
Description
Three iconic American storytellers have spent their lives chronicling the lives of others, while knowing almost nothing about their own family history. Ken Burns confronts the reality of his southern ancestors' role in the Civil War, including Confederate soldiers held captive and a slave-owning Virginian. Anderson Cooper, scion of one of America's most storied families, the Vanderbilts, longs to know more about his father's southern roots - including...