How many episodes of the Finding Your Roots TV show have you watched over the years?
I’ve watched many and had some favorites among them (hint – L.L. Cool J.) but no matter the episode, I always enjoy seeing how the guests react when their family stories are shared with them.
To that end, I was so extremely delighted earlier this year when my local PBS station, Nashville Public Television, approached me and asked if I would lead a workshop to be held as a community engagement and outreach initiative for the show. This was a fantastic opportunity and I quickly, said yes! I am so very glad that I did. In fact, I was able to participate in two activities!
Firstly, on April 13th, I was part of a panel session by Brigette Jones, Curator of Social History at the Tennesee State Museum on how people can access their own ancestry. The other panelists were Daniel Sharfstein, professor of history, Vanderbilt School of Law, and Nick Sheedy, the lead genealogist for the Finding Your Roots show. We all shared our experiences in family history and gave more background on our respective areas of expertise.
Then, on April 20th, I led a virtual workshop to take participants through the process of beginning to research their family tree – and it was ah-may-zing! We had more than 100 in attendance and as part of the workshop, we had some of the audience “come up on stage” to share something from their own family history. And -There was so much interest that I also led two post-workshop consultation sessions for more personal attention as part of my volunteer work with the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. I very much enjoyed it.
The impetus for this blog post is that now, these sessions are online!
If you are just getting started in your family history journey – you will definitely want to check them out!