For me, the day started off with a MyHeritage Friends buffet breakfast, which included the gift of a personal bag – with pouches and pockets. It’s kind of a cross between a backpack and a purse… Really cool. I will be proud to use it.
The opening session this morning was sponsored by Ancestry.com, and included presentations by Natalia Lafourcade, and Dr. Henry Lewis Gates Jr.
Here’s a couple predictions from Ancestry as deals with DNA research:
- It won’t be long and through DNA we’ll be able to tell you from whom you inherited your blue eyes.
- It won’t be long and through DNA, we’ll be able to tell you what your ancestors looked like.
Natalia Lafourcade is a Latin pop/rock singer with an amazing career. An example of that is that she leaves RootsTech to fly directly to the Oscar ceremonies where she will be one of the entertainers. Every year at the Oscars, the five tracks up for Best Original Song are performed that night by the stars who recorded them. This year the nominees include Gael Garcia Bernal, Miguel and Natalia Lafourcade for the song Remember Me from the Pixar animated film Coco. She performed several songs for us during the session, including “Remember Me.” When she was presented with her genealogy, she jumped for joy when she heard that she actually has French Ancestry, as she told us that her father loves Paris.
Dr. Henry Louis Gate Jr. took the stage and told us how he got his interest in family history – from an obituary, he saw as a child, of his ancestor Jane Gates (1819-1888). She was called an “estimable” woman. He didn’t know what estimable meant, but he looked it up in a dictionary that night. He’s searched for that obit for years, and it wasn’t until last Sunday that he found that its been posted at Newspapers.com. It was in The Sunday Civilian, dated January 8, 1898.
Dr. Gates went on to tell us of his education, and his envy of Alex Haley. How he wanted to trace his roots to Africa! In 2000 he got a call from Dr. Rick Kittles asking if he’d like to take a DNA test for ancestry purposes. He was so excited about the prospect that he flew Dr. Kittles to his home the following day, and had his blood drawn. That was the start of his adventures with DNA. After he got his results months later, it hit him that he could combine genealogy and DNA and possibly do television using black celebrities – and tracing their roots. That set African-American Lives in motion, which was watch by about 8 million people. Then they did a sequel… This led to the multi-ethnic Faces of America, and now Finding Your Roots, about to enter season 5, and the #1 PBS television show. While on stage, Dr. Gates noted my friend, Johni Cerny as being on the front row in the audience. Johni has been his chief genealogist for years – an amazing researcher. Several quotes made by Dr. Gates included:
- DNA is the best evidence of our unity.
- Black to the future. and
- Everybody has to have their DNA analyzed.
Finally, Dr. Gates turned the mic over to CeCe Moore, the genetic genealogist, and she told us a bit about using DNA results for the TV program as early as February, 2010 – which meant they had to film in 2009, when DNA research for genealogy was in its infancy.
It was a great opening program for the final day at RootsTech.
