Henry Louis Gates Jr. is finally having his turn in the hot seat on Finding Your Roots, and is set to unearth his own family secret, on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. Gates, who has presented 11 seasons of the PBS show, will reveal previously unknown details about his great-great-grandmother Jane Gates. Piecing together the puzzle has taken researchers four years and includes family links to Ireland and reveals the man who is Gates’ great-great-grandfather. The tale also involves the revelation that the story Jane Gates told her family about her life was not entirely true. Documents included in the episode encompass an 1888 obituary for Jane Gates and an 1839 ad for her sale which, despite having seen thousands of similar papers, Gates says “hits differently”. It comes ten years after the show was mired in scandal in 2015 when it was revealed actor Ben Affleck had a slave-owning ancestor scrubbed from his episode of Finding Your Roots. “I was moved to tears,” Gates told The Associated Press about his family secret. “I used to pass her grave at the Gates’ plot in Rose Hill Cemetery and I would say, ‘Grandma, I’m going to out you. I’m going to tell the world your secret.‘”
Read it at Associated Press
