Singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams and Kasi Lemmons, director of the movie Harriet, are guests on “Write My Name in the Book of Life,” an episode of Finding Your Roots.
“Kasi and Pharrell both came to me feeling deeply connected to their African American roots, yet craving specific details about those roots,” says host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. “Like so many of us, both have very limited knowledge about the ancestors on their family trees.”
Genealogists trace Pharrell Williams’s paternal lineage back to Nash County, North Carolina. Much was found about the singer’s ancestors and their enslavement from his great-great-great-aunt who was interviewed for the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s. From this source, researchers were able to seek other facts about the Williams family.
For Kasi Lemmons, Dr. Gates presents a biographical sketch published in a newspaper about one of her Lemons (Lemmons) ancestors in Pickens County, Alabama. This remarkable find gives significant clues about the family’s background. Yet, the paper trail grew cold in the search for a maternal great-great-grandmother until DNA unearthed a connection to an eighteenth-century ancestor. “Our genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore, compared Kasi’s DNA to that of millions of people in publicly available databases,” explains Dr. Gates.
“Write My Name in the Book of Life” airs Tues., February 16, at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS.
Photo: Courtesy of McGee Media