Get the Strap

News

Cyndi Lauper’s Ancestors Played a Part in a Swiss Peasant Rebellion on “Finding Your Roots”

By  | 

Singer Cyndi Lauper, who has devoted her life to an array of social causes, had a great-grandfather who, as a “general agitator,” helped organize a rebellion against unfair monetary policies in Switzerland in the early 1650s.

Renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns for an all-new season of FINDING YOUR ROOTS. Over the course of ten episodes, Gates uses genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis to guide twenty-one influential guests through the branches of their family trees, uncovering buried secrets and inspiring stories of long-forgotten ancestors. As the pages turn in each guest’s book of life, emotional revelations give way to complex questions about individual and collective identity. Through Gates’ discerning touch, his guests learn what every family history shares—love, courage, and sacrifice—human experiences that transcend borders and merge to form an American root system fortified by its diversity. Along the way, viewers are transported from islands off the coast of Africa to the mountains of Korea; from the high plains of Mexico to rural villages in Scotland; from Eastern European shtetls to the slave plantations of the antebellum South—all in search of the scraps of paper and fragments of DNA that bring our guests’ ancestors to life.

Check it out below:

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *