Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Don't Miss My Behind-the-Scenes Article Series Published on the PBS "Finding Your Roots" Website

Credits from Season Two of "Finding Your Roots"

I haven't been blogging a lot lately due to my heavy workload, but I wanted to let my readers know that I am in the middle of writing a series of articles for the official PBS "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." website in conjunction with the airing of season two of the series. Since it is impossible to detail all of the research done for each of the guests in the actual episodes, I am providing a behind-the-scenes look at some of the genetic genealogy research - providing explanations about what does air and sharing research that did not make it into the final version of the show. Never did I imagine that I would be working on the show and writing for the PBS website when I wrote my series in 2012 analyzing the DNA research used in season one of "Finding Your Roots".



Below I have listed the articles that have been published so far:

Intro to the Season
DNA 101: The Secret's in the Science
"For me, working on this series is a dream job, and it presents a wonderful opportunity to showcase the potential of genetic genealogy to viewers. Over the next ten weeks, I look forward to giving you a glimpse behind the scenes.

Our ancestors’ stories come down to us in many ways – through historical records, oral history passed through our families and in each cell that makes us who we are. The research team at “Finding Your Roots” relies on all of these to investigate the family histories of our guests. Throughout production, family members are interviewed, genealogical records are intensively searched and DNA is thoroughly analyzed."

Read more...
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/blog/dna-101-dispatches-finding-roots-lab/

Behind the scenes of Episode One
Finding Fathers: Decoding the Y-Chromosome
"For last week’s episode, we researched the family trees of three people who yearned to know more about their paternal ancestry – Courtney B. Vance, Stephen King and Gloria Reuben. As a genetic genealogist, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear that there are paternal mysteries to unravel is that Y-chromosome DNA testing is a must."

Read more...
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/blog/finding-fathers-decoding-y-chromosome/

Behind the scenes of Episode Two
Autosomal DNA: Hints from Our Ancestors
"Last week’s episode featuring Derek Jeter, Billie Jean King and Rebecca Lobo concluded with a short vignette about each of their DNA. Cumulatively this 6-minute piece represented many hours of research and necessarily simplified the process that led us to the conclusions presented. As promised, I will share details of some of the genetic genealogy work done behind the scenes."

Read more...
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/blog/breaking-autosomal-dna/

Behind the scenes of Episode Three
Telling Stories with Autosomal DNA
"For last week’s episode, the 'Finding Your Roots' team researched the families of three storytellers, Anna Deavere Smith, Anderson Cooper and Ken Burns. For all three there were questions that traditional genealogical research could not answer, so we turned to autosomal DNA to see if it had its own stories to tell."

Read more...
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/blog/telling-stories-autosomal-dna/

Don't miss tonight's episode airing on PBS with Ben Affleck, Khandi Alexander and Ben Jealous. If you missed any of the previous episodes, they can be viewed here.

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