DNA analysis challenges guests’ ideas about their family’s history and their identities.

Decoding Our Past Through DNA Finding Your Roots

Premiered November 25, 2014
Decoding Our Past Through DNA

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. DNA is used to delve deeper into the families of other guests in the series, including Valerie Jarrett and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

About the Program

Finding Your Roots

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.

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