For more than a decade, renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion. Professor Gates has explored the ancestry of dozens of influential people from diverse backgrounds, taking millions of viewers deep into the past to reveal the connections that bind us all.
Program WebsiteCorporate support for FINDING YOUR ROOTS WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., Season Seven is provided by Ancestry and Johnson & Johnson. Support is also provided by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, Candace King Weir, The Zegar Family Foundation, Lloyd Carney Foundation, and by The Inkwell Society and its members Felicia A. and Benjamin A. Horowitz Fund; Demond Martin; Sheryl Sandberg and Tom Bernthal; Jim and Susan Swartz; Anne Wojcicki; John H. N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell; Fletcher and Benaree Wiley; Gwen and Peter Norton; and Darnell Armstrong and Nicole Commissiong. Major support is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.
00:43
Comedy runs in the family! Lewis Black and Marc Maron are cousins.
00:51
Roy Wood Jr. discovers his DNA cousin match is the great John Lewis.
02:02
Roy Wood Jr. learns how his ancestors and their children struggled through slavery.
02:25
Mandy Patinkin learns that he had family members in the Holocaust.
01:18
Audra MacDonald discovers that she is DNA cousins with Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
01:12
In an 1860s census, we uncovered Audra McDonald’s ancestors listed in a slave schedule.
01:20
Audra McDonald learns her ancestors survived slavery and purchased land post-Civil War.