It’s pretty silly - rich people are amazed at how special they are. Everyone has someone who battled for civil rights, someone who was a champion for social justice.

I watch it, I think part of my interest stems from my own limited knowledge of my family’s ancestry. Some of the participants are in the same boat so seeing them uncover new information is pretty cool.

Have you ever tried to find their naturalization records? Or are we talking colonial times? Census records will at least tell you what country they were from and year of naturalization and/or arrival.

Oh most definitely. They explain everything in context.

I would be more likely to watch it without famous folk. I love that regular old people could have wild family histories.

My belief is that if your ancestors have been here since the 19th century, the odds of you being of one racial descent is about zero.

Are we related?

I like it. Many of the show’s guests have discovered and discussed ancestral ties to history, notably including ancestors who owned slaves and ancestors who were enslaved. It’s probably one of the only places where we see people confronting that history so candidly and personally. It makes Affleck’s actions all the…

Not to quibble, but the indentured Irish woman was taken to court for having a child out of wedlock. I think she was whipped, but I can’t remember. No one knows what happened to the black slave father. They were not married. I don’t think slaves were ever able to legally marry and I assume an indentured servant would…

History/ancestry is interesting (to some). And Gates is a great host breaking the information down in relatable terms, and making it engaging—he is a very great teacher. Don’t really care so much about the celebrity aspect. Regular folks’ history is just as eventful and sometimes scandalous :).

Me, too. But then I love documentaries and historical shows. It's a great show!

I like this show but I work with genealogy researchers and history. I like the stories. I like that they show some of the little known or forgotten moments in history. I think the DNA aspect is interesting as well, especially what it can tell African-American families about their ancestry and heritage in a way that…

Strangely enough, I think I would dig hearing CN’s story and I have no idea why.

It’s fascinating if you’re into genealogy. If you’re into history, there’s a lot of that too, like the giant old books that contain records from centuries ago. Me personally, my family tree stops at the boats my ancestors took to the US and I like to read about other people’s lives, so this show allows me to see what…

I like that show. My Mom is a geneologist. Finding the stories of people you have a distant connection to is pretty cool, even when those people were not the best people or did not make the best decisions. None of us are the people we are related to and I like the way the show pulls back and shows the context of some…

First of all, I like history, and I like learning something new. Genealogy allows you to link history to an individual, to a real story. There’s the fun of discovery, and the feeling of empathy for an individual in the past. If it’s your ancestry, it ties you to events in the past. So, for example, there’s a murderer,…

I love it, love genealogy, love history. I was horribly disappointed in their caving to Affleck? Why the Hades would you agree to be on the show, if you were gonna be dishonest about the revealing s?

Honestly, why would anyone not just OWN the fact that their family, generations back, had slaves? It just historical fact; it’s not like you had any say in the matter. My family was pretty much Confederate royalty and I fall on the “Liberal As Fuck” part of the political spectrum, yet I would never consider trying to…

I just thought it was so weird that he thought trying to hide it somehow made him look better than owning the fact that one of his ancestors owned slaves - he’s hardly the only American running around out there right now that could claim this kind of thing in their family history. I imagine many people would have a…

This situation always made me roll my eyes and make a crybaby gesture. I will forever judge Ben Affleck. Your ancestors were on the other side of the whip and you’re hurt? HOW?! From my reading on the subject it seemed to be the side you wanted to be on. So I’m not seeing the problem.* But hey, I don’t purport to…