Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his award-winning genealogy series, “Finding Your Roots,” returns October 3 to Georgia Public Broadcasting.
This new season runs until December 26 and will feature 28 people (at press time), including Aziz Ansari, Carmelo Anthony, Fred Armisen, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ted Danson, Larry David, Ava DuVernay, Bryant Gumbel, Gaby Hoffmann, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Scarlett Johansson, Tea Leoni, Tonya Lewis-Lee, Garrison Keillor, William H. Macy, Suzanne Malveaux, Dr. Phil McGraw, Janet Mock, Ana Navarro, Lupita Nyong’o, Questlove, Paul Rudd, Senator Bernie Sanders, Amy Schumer, Carly Simon, Mary Steenburgen, John Turturro and Christopher Walken. Each episode normally features three people and their ancestry — some with deep American roots, others with very recent ones. The episodes give listeners insight into how much family knowledge the participants had to start with. They then show what can be unearthed through the professional research team employed by Dr. Gates. Previous episodes can be found online. For further information, see gpb.org.
Creek Indian War records subject of Lunch and Learn
Michael A. Ports will speak October 13 at noon at the Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn lecture on “The Second Creek War, 1836: Records and Sources.” Free, bring your own lunch. Ports is an independent researcher who has recently begun editing and publishing records from Elbert and Jefferson counties, Georgia. Since the Creek Wars are often forgotten about in genealogy research, this should help researchers focus on some important sources. For further information, see GeorgiaArchives.org or call 678-364-3710. The Georgia Archives, in Morrow, is open Tuesday through Saturday for research.
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, more events during Genealogy Month
Here are a few more events that the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library is hosting at the Central Library downtown during Genealogy Month. Joanne Smalley will speak October 17 at 2 p.m. on the benefits of the Georgia Genealogical Society and how it helps people uncover their genealogy, whether they are from Georgia or not. A “Beginning Genealogy” class introducing attendees to Internet and print sources for researching their roots will be held October 18 at 2 p.m. There will be a lecture on Ancestry, Fold3, and Heritage Quest genealogy websites and how best to use them on October 24 at 2 p.m. For further information, call 404-730-1896, or email john.wright@fultoncountyga.gov, or afpls.org and check “News” at the bottom of the homepage. Accessible by MARTA.
