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Finding Your Roots
The Butterfly Effect
Season 11
Episode 8
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces actors Debra Messing & Melanie Lynskey to ancestors who made bold decisions that forever reshaped their family trees. Moving from shtetls in Eastern Europe to a fruit stand in NY City to the wilds of New Zealand, Gates introduces his guests to relatives who took great risks, overcame enormous hardships—and unwittingly transformed the lives of their descendants.
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52:09
Bob Odenkirk and Iliza Shlesinger—two very funny people whose family trees brim with drama
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52:09
Sammy Hagar and Ed O’Neill discover the dramatic stories hidden within their own roots.
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52:09
LeVar Burton & Wes Studi grew up fatherless, haunted by questions about their family trees
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52:09
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. unearths the hidden roots of Valerie Bertinelli and Brendan Fraser.
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52:09
Explore the roots of Alanis Morissette and Ciara and their hidden connections to history.
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52:09
Henry Louis Gates uncovers the lost roots of actors Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry-Housley.
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52:09
Henry Louis Gates reveals the unexpected family trees of Angela Y. Davis and Jeh Johnson
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52:09
Joe Manganiello and Tony Gonzalez discover close relatives whose names they’ve never heard
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52:09
Cyndi Lauper, Jamie Chung and Danny Trejo uncover the stories of their immigrant ancestors