Community Chat

[ahoymate]

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@sunshine 919 wrote:

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@WRXtoo wrote:

I watch it when I have a chance.  It's fascinating how they can trace a family's history.  I often don't know the celebrities but hearing people's histories and thinking about how knowing your own true history might or might not affect your own thoughts and perceptions today is really interesting.  Love Henry Louis Gates, Jr. too.

An "old" show?  They just started another new season.

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This is their 10th season.  Henry Gates was on the view a couple weeks ago celebrating it's 10th season.

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Old show, yes. 10 years is old for a tv show. The poster who initiated this topic  just found out about it.

[Mz iMac]

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@PickyPicky3 wrote:

I would like to see different ethnic groups represented, even if they're not famous. For example, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, people who lived in early California (Mexico), and ways to detect migration across the land bridge from Russia.

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@PickyPicky3 

The very first season (around 2012) Gates had ordenary Americans of all ethnic and racial backgrounds on the show.  The following season is when celebs started popping up all over the place.  And, I suspect the ratings went through the roof.

I stopped watching.  Haven't watched it in over a decade.

[PhilaLady1]

I like the show a lot.  I don't search for it or set it to record in advance, but if I am looking for something to watch and it happens to be on, I will watch it.  It's fun to see the celebrities reactions and mostly I enjoy seeing the old documents, ships manifests, what someone's town may have looked like.  I am more into the historical information and evidence rather than the people. If the featured famous people are those I like, I like the episode even more. The last one I caught was with Michael Douglas and Lena Dunham.  It was very interesting to me.

Edited to add: Henry Louis Yates Jr is a brilliant dude. Do a little research if you feel like it. 

[Puggywuggy]

I enjoy the show as well and watch it when I'm able. Many times I don't know the guests, nevertheless, I find the subject matter quite interesting.

[Big Joanie]

I watch it .. and do like it ...

[Love to Run]

When I traced my DNA relationships through Ancestry.com I would always have Henry Louis Gates' voice in my head.😂

[THEY CallMe Mr Wilkes]

It's a fascinating and educational show, regardless of who is being traced.

The process, tools and documents used are informative and often eye-opening.

They do use "regular" folks occasionally,  and the journey is as insightful and surprising as that involving any celebrity. 

[Carolina925]

I love the show but since I cut my cable don't get to see it with any regularity. I dabble into my ancestry, much too late since I'm now in the "elder" group and I didn't get information I should have. What grabs me most is hearing about the family lines from the slave trade who don't know their history. It's hard to imagine and I'm always so glad when they're able to learn about where they came from. I watch any time I can find it, along with a box of Kleenex.

[Melzie]

My favorite revelation on this show was when they traced Larry David's background and found that he was a cousin  to Bernie Sanders.  You can even see a resemblance.

[shoekitty]

Love this show. I coordinated in a museum for years, and loved the genealogy part of the job. However 20 years ago we didn't have the internet as much and it was hard to find things we used newspapers, other museums, the Bancroft and such.  Genealogy has gotten better and better especially with readily available DNA testing. Before we used to say, the information is only as good as the information we could find.