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  • 2017-10-03T00:00:00Z on PBS
  • 1h
  • 10h (10 episodes)
  • United States
  • English
  • Documentary
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

10 episodes

Season Premiere

2017-10-03T00:00:00Z

4x01 The Impression

Season Premiere

4x01 The Impression

  • 2017-10-03T00:00:00Z1h

Join Larry David and Bernie Sanders, who learn they have more in common than they thought.

2017-10-11T00:00:00Z

4x02 Unfamiliar Kin

4x02 Unfamiliar Kin

  • 2017-10-11T00:00:00Z1h

Guests: Carly Simon, Christopher Walken, and more. In this episode, three guests each learn about a grandparent whose real identity and background had been a mystery to them. Along the way, two of them also discover that their close relatives were on the wrong side of history.

2017-10-18T00:00:00Z

4x03 Puritans and Pioneers

4x03 Puritans and Pioneers

  • 2017-10-18T00:00:00Z1h

Guests: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and William H. Macy. Three mainstays of modern-day Hollywood discover family legacies that predate the United States itself.

2017-10-25T00:00:00Z

4x04 The Vanguard

4x04 The Vanguard

  • 2017-10-25T00:00:00Z1h

Guests: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay and Janet Mock. Three guests who have helped to redefine Black America in the last decade find their identities challenged as they learn about their family origins.

2017-11-01T00:00:00Z

4x05 Immigrant Nation

4x05 Immigrant Nation

  • 2017-11-01T00:00:00Z1h

Guests: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro. In this episode, three guests explore the tremendous challenges faced by their immigrant forebears.

2017-11-08T01:00:00Z

4x06 Black Like Me

4x06 Black Like Me

  • 2017-11-08T01:00:00Z1h

Guests: Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Suzanne Malveaux. Three African-American guests delve deep into their family trees, discovering unexpected stories that challenge our assumptions about black history.

Guests: Lupita Nyong’o, Carmelo Anthony and Ana Navarro. Three guests explore how their family trees were shaped by political turmoil and violence, discovering sometimes unexpected ancestry along the way.

Guests: Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni. Two guests whose lives have been shaped by family mysteries are introduced to biological ancestors they never knew they had thanks to genetic detective work.

2017-12-13T01:00:00Z

4x09 Southern Roots

4x09 Southern Roots

  • 2017-12-13T01:00:00Z1h

Guests: Questlove, Dr. Phil and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Three guests of disparate backgrounds dig into their Southern roots, where slavery and its aftermath shaped families both black and white.

Season Finale

2017-12-20T01:00:00Z

4x10 Funny Business

Season Finale

4x10 Funny Business

  • 2017-12-20T01:00:00Z1h

Guests: Amy Schumer and more. Guests who have found fame mining their family stories for comedy learn about ancestors who overcame immense suffering.

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