Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Finding Oprah's Roots

I am a big fan of Henry Louis Gates' programs, African American Lives, African American Lives 2, and Faces of America. What I like about them is he used the family histories of the show's participants to illustrate larger trends in African American history and American Immigration history. This is my favorite thing about family history research - its ability to connect us very personally to past events.

When I saw Finding Oprah's Roots: Finding Your Own at the library I picked up, thinking it would be similar to the previous programs. I watched it last night and learned otherwise. It was essentially an instruction manual on doing African American genealogy using Oprah Winfrey's and Gates' family histories as examples. (In my defense, lest you think I can't read, the library had placed a big sticker over the second part of the title, "finding your own."). There are also extensive interviews with genealogists and geneticists, which explain the processes of the research more fully than in African American Lives 1 and 2.

Henry Louis Gates may be a "genealogy junkie" but he is no historian. His academic work is in literary theory and criticism. On occasion he makes some overly general and sweeping statements about the past. In this particular program he even gets the date of the end of Reconstruction wrong. But the reality is history is for every one, not just historians. Additionally, I enjoy his enthusiasm and his desire to connect people, particularly African Americans, to their past.

I thought Finding Oprah's Roots was a good program. I think it would be useful if you didn't feel like sitting down to read one of the many books on doing African American genealogy. For those of you who do not have African American ancestry, you may find the expanded sequences on DNA interesting, particularly if you are considering being tested.