Finding Your Roots Seeks Family Mysteries



Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. is about to start filming its 10th season. To celebrate, they want to find a viewer to appear in the series! They are looking for someone with a family mystery that their team can solve. If you have one and want to be on the show, click a box on the Finding Your Roots website and tell them your story.

NJ.com reported that since 2012, the PBS series “Finding Your Roots”, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., has illuminated the family trees of public figures, including actors, artists, musicians, journalists, filmmakers and activists.

Henry Louis Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher university professor at Harvard University, is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. With the scholar at the helm the show has shed light on the family history of celebrities.

Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, an expert in finding the threads of ancestry through DNA, works on the series, as do genealogists Kimberly Morgan and Nick Sheedy, unearthing records and research from the United States and oceans beyond.

To celebrate the show’s 10th season on the air, “Finding Your Roots” producers are looking for regular people to feature on the show. The show’s 9th season will premier in January. Anyone interested in being featured on the show is asked to send in their family mysteries.

Start by visiting the Finding Your Roots website. Click a box on that website that says “Click Here And Tell Us Your Story”. To be considered, applicants must be 21 years or older and reside within the United States. Participants subject to additional eligibility requirements and other terms & conditions.

Beyond the button, there is a form for applicants to fill out. The information the show is looking for includes: your first name, your last name, and your date of birth. They also want an email address, phone number, city, and state where you live. 

Applicants are directed to share a detailed summary of their family mystery. The box below that request is the largest box in the form, giving the applicant some extra room to describe their family mystery. 

The rest of the form wants a link to your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or any other form of social media. Applicants must provide a short video of themselves (two to three minutes long) If you use your phone, you need to hold it in landscape (horizontally). Other options include recording from a camera or uploading the file. The goal of this video is to give Finding Your Roots an idea of who you are and your personality.

Applicants must be 21 or older, live in the United States, not have been convicted of a felony in the past 10 years, and not be a member of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, or any other performing artist union or guild.

Season 9 of Find My Roots will premier in January. It brings a look at the family trees of celebrities including Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, Danny Trejo, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, David Duchovny, Tamera Mowry, Brian Cox, Carol Burnett, Niecy Nash, Cyndi Lauper, and Billy Crudup.

Season 10 has not yet been filmed. Instead of featuring celebrities, Find My Past wants to include regular people who have a family mystery that they have not been able to solve. That person could be you! It will be interesting to see what Finding Your Roots is like when it chooses not to feature celebrities for an entire season.

Related Articles On FamilyTree.com:

Behind The Scenes At Finding Your Roots

Finding Living Relatives

National Roots Day December 23

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