Plot Synopsis

GENEALOGY ROADSHOW travels to different American cities, where the host and experts meet residents who want to explore unverified genealogical claims, passed down through family history, that may (or may not) connect them to an event or a historical figure. After participants are chosen, experts in genealogy, history and DNA use family heirlooms, letters, pictures, historical documents and other clues to hunt down more information. Then, these experts enlist the help of local historians to add context to the investigations, ensuring every artifact and every name is a clue in solving the mystery. Each 60-minute episode features stories of six people from a different U.S city, including: Austin, with early Native-American settlements of Tonkawas and Comanches followed by Mexican, Asian, African-American and European communities; Detroit, which is home to the largest Arab-American community in the country after hundreds of thousands of African-Americans moved to Detroit from the rural southern U.S. as part of The Great Migration of the 20th century; Nashville, known as Little Kurdistan because of the recent influx of Kurdish immigrants following population swells of Mexican, Cambodian and Iraqi immigrants after the city's Jewish community laid roots in the area more than 150 years ago; and San Francisco, known as a Pacific port, a religious mission, a railroad hub, a mining mecca, and a hub of technological innovation. GENEALOGY ROADSHOW returned for its second season on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings), with genealogist Mary Tedesco joining Kenyatta D. Berry and Joshua Taylor from Season 1. The new season uncovers stories of diverse Americans in and around St. Louis, Philadelphia and New Orleans, including a woman seeking to find out if she is descended from the infamous pirate Blackbeard; a pair of sisters exploring connections to a survivor of the legendary Donner party; a man hoping to recover essential family history that washed away in Hurricane Katrina; and a man learns that the event that drove his family to the City of Brotherly Love changed the course of history. On Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 8pm (check local listings), PBS premiered the Season 2 finale of GENEALOGY ROADSHOW. The season ender, "Best of Genealogy Roadshow," highlights the most intriguing stories selected from both seasons of the series. From immigrant voyages and famous ancestors to murder mysteries and family connections, the episode revisits the journeys in cities across the country as people uncover their family histories.
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Season 3 of GENEALOGY ROADSHOW premiered on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings). This season, professional genealogists Kenyatta D. Berry, Joshua Taylor and Mary Tedesco are matched with everyday people in and around Albuquerque, Miami, Houston, Boston, Providence and Los Angeles. Among this season's mysteries: A man seeks to find out if he is descended from Boston's key founders; a woman explores connections to an ancestor's participation in the Manhattan Project; a couple hopes to recover the true story of their family pharmacy during Hollywood's Golden Age; and a woman learns of her family's involvement in the Trail of Tears.