Ready for a new season of “Finding Your Roots”? The fourth season of this show will begin on March 25, 2012. The show combines genealogy and genetics, and looks into the family history of famous Americans. If you like the show “Who Do You Think You Are?” then you should check out “Finding Your Roots”.
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the person who writes, and presents, “Finding Your Roots”. In addition to being a professor, he is also an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, and editor.
In the past, he has presented other genealogy based series of television shows for PBS. This includes “African American Lives 1”, and “African American Lives 2”, (which were produced in 2006 and 2008). He was also involved with a special called “Oprah’s Roots”, in 2007, and “Faces of America”, in 2010.
“Finding Your Roots” builds upon the success of the other programs. Each of the hour long episodes will dig into the genealogy and the genetics of famous Americans. The show combines history with science. It explores the individual celebrities race, family tree, and identity in today’s America.
The fourth season of “Finding Your Roots” will air on March 23, 2012. In this season, Professor Gates worked with leading American genealogists. This includes people from the New England Genealogical Historical Society. He also worked with John Cerny, co-author of the book “The Source: Guidebook for American Genealogy”.
There will be ten episodes in season four. Each episode will feature two celebrities. It is my understanding that each person’s story will be handled separately, (for the most part). You can expect to learn more about a total of 12 celebrities in this new season.
Two of the people who will appear in season four are actor Kevin Bacon, and his wife, actress Kyra Sedgwick. Last year, she was a guest on “Late Night With David Letterman”. She revealed that the PBS series “Faces of America” found that she and her husband actually were tenth cousins, once removed. I don’t know what will be discovered about either one of them in “Finding Your Roots”.
The rest of the celebrities who will appear in the new season are: Tyra Banks, Cory Booker, Angela Buchdahl, Geoffrey Canada, Margaret Cho, Harry Connick Jr., Robert Downey Jr., Sanjay Gupta, Samuel L. Jackson, John Legend, John Lewis, Branford Marsalis, Yasir Qadhi, Condoleezza Rice, Michelle Rodriguez, Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters, and Rick Warren.
Image by R. Leslie Dalmore on Flickr