in his new season on pbs, henry louis gates jr. helps them uncover the truth about where they come from. s. field "i can't believe that these documents even exist!" c.b. vance "wow!" get to know them, as they discover who they really are. k. alexander "that's pretty amazing." finding your roots with henry louis gates, jr. starts tuesday, september 23rd - only on pbs. the women were breaking the glass ceiling and that just thrilled me. we're traveling back in time... wow. ...to help solve family mysteries. no way that's amazing. fdr: a new deal for the american people. we wouldn't be who we are without them. ♪ ♪ i just got to get get get on back to my home at any cost now now ♪ [laughing] connected every day in a thousand unseen ways. but sometimes these connections can pose an invisible threat... if the object we touch or the air we share carries a dangerous germ. simon fensterszaub: you don't have to cough, you just have to breathe. it's the worst kind of contagion; it's airborne. narrator: diseases largely unseen for a generation

. >> "bbc world d i'm henry louis gates jr. welcome to "finding your roots."pisode, we help solve family mysteries for the novelist stephen king and actors gloria reuben and courtney vance, each of whom knew virtually nothing about their fathers' origins. their childhood memories are haunted by silences and loss. remarkably, the stories that we recovered intertwine with major events in american history and introduce our guests to relatives they had no idea they had. to uncover these long-lost family members, we've used every tool available. genealogists help stitch together the past using the clues their ancestors left behind, while geneticists utilize the latest advances in dna analysis to reveal secrets

. >> "bbc world news" wasas i'm henry louis gates, jr. welcome to "finding your roots.", we reveal the ancestry of 3 of america's greatest athletes: tennis legend billie jean king... yankees' all-star derek jeter... and women's basketball pioneer rebecca lobo. athletes whose purpose and drive were profoundly shaped by their families. to discover their ancestors, we've used every tool available. genealogists helped stitch together the past using the paper trail their families left behind. while geneticists utilized the latest advances in dna analysis to reveal secrets hundreds of years old. answers are in this book. really? and we've compiled everything into a book of life, a record of all of our discoveries. i mean, it's just amazing to see her handwriting.

provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs henry louis gates, jr.: i've spent much of my life searching for the stories of the african american people. man: our first notation of anthony johnson essentially defines him as "antonio the negro." gates: i've always wanted to tell their history: 5 centuries in the making.