Henry Louis Gates Helps Martha Stewart Discover Her Past On 'Finding Your Roots' (VIDEO)

Every week, celebrities make fascinating discoveries about their family history with the help of Henry Louis Gates Jr. On his PBS series "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates," the renowned Harvard professor has tackled the genealogy of actors, politicians and university presidents. He's even found a family connection between husband and wife.

This week, Gates is digging into the ancestry of domestic diva and talk show host Martha Stewart, comedian Margaret Cho and doctor and television personality Sanjay Gupta. All three guests are children of first or second generation immigrants and share the peculiar burdens of that heritage.

Find out what the three discover on Sunday night at 9 p.m. on PBS.

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Comments

[mr whiteffolks]

11:27 AM on 05/07/2012

Yeah well it's easier to trace your roots when your ancestors weren't forced to come here to be enslaved thereby erasing any traces of your heritage from the face of the earth !

[zatoichiblack]

08:45 PM on 05/06/2012

Can someone explain to me how they do this? I'm serious and as an African american none of the elders in my family have no clue about our ancestry.

[mr whiteffolks]

11:32 AM on 05/07/2012

"Can someone explain to me how they do this? I'm serious and as an African american none of the elders in my family have no clue about our ancestry."

They trace family records but since African-Americans are descendants of slaves, it's a more difficult challenge to trace our ancestry unless someone along the way kept records and passed them down !

Slave owners purposely eliminated any traces of our ancestry beyond America so it's more difficult for us than someone whose ancestors came here willingly with their family history in tact !

Keep in mind that unlike Whites in America, our ancestors didn't willingly come here and to boot they didn't land at Ellis Island either so there were no records ever kept of our ancestry and that was done by deign ! It was no accident !

In other words as Malcolm X said, "we've been robbed of our heritage" ! "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us" !

[BlairCase]

06:30 PM on 05/07/2012

You should be able to trace your African American ancestors back until at least the 1870 Census. This was the first census was published after the Civil War. Slaves on plantations generally only had first names. They appear on "slave schedules," which were published in conjuction the the census, olny by their sex and names, Sometime their name appear in wills lef by plantation owners. However, many African Americans were free long before the Civil War or, for that matter, the Revolutionary War, and some were never slaves. So, you should not give up. Google African American Ancesty or Black Ancestry to learn how to the reseach. You will be surprise how much you can found out about your faily on line. Consider subscribing to ancestry.com and buying Faimly Tree software. Although I'm white, I've partially traced a black New Orleans family with names identical to my own New Orleans family

[Havana Thinks]

08:02 PM on 05/06/2012

For Martha, it's a good thing!

[LeftRightCenter]

03:58 PM on 05/06/2012

& this is on BLACK VOICES why?

[BlairCase]

04:42 PM on 05/06/2012

The host is Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is black. It's an excellent show. I think it's better than NBC's "Who do You Think You Are," which is also excellent. "Fining Your Roots" feature DNA reseach as well as conventional geanological research. This is of special importance to African Americans who have trouble tracing their ancestry beyond the Civil War. The DNA reseach at least tells them their tribal ancestry.

[mr whiteffolks]

11:33 AM on 05/07/2012

HLG is uh well Black !

[ussuri]

01:53 PM on 05/06/2012

I thought Marta was of Polish ancestry, Margaret of Chinese & Sanjay of Indian.

[BlairCase]

03:18 PM on 05/06/2012

Matha Stewart's parents were Polish Americans, but they weren't immigrants. Her father Edward Kostyra was born in New York and her mother Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra was born in Connecticut. Stewart is her husband's name.

[mr whiteffolks]

11:34 AM on 05/07/2012

They are but Gates is tracing their family history ! I watched his show and some of those folks are utterly surprised at he finds ! I can't remember the name but it was an actor and gates found out that their great great great grandfather opposed slavery and the person looked so relieved and said well that is nice to know !

[timesrtough]

01:38 PM on 05/06/2012

She needs to find her roots so she can get some more Clairol hair coloring on them.