Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered their Pasts

Introduction: Looking at Faces

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org© 2010 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. All rights reserved Faces of America, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is a Production of Kunhardt McGee Productions, Inkwell films, and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gates, Henry Louis. Faces of America : how 12 extraordinary people discovered their pasts / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. p. cm. Based on PBS television series Faces of America hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ISBN 978-0-8147-3264-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8147-3265-6 (e-book) 1. United States—Genealogy—Case studies. 2. Genetic genealogy—United States— Case studies. 3. United States—Biography. I. Faces of America (Television program). II. Title. CS49.G38 2010 920.073—dc22 2010016968 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Liza Gates, my champion during the summer of 2009. And for Larry Bobo, Glenn Hutchins, Marcy Morgan, and Charles Ogletree irrepressible, noble knights. This page intentionally left blank vii Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Looking at Faces 1 A Note on DNA Testing 10 1 Mike Nichols 14 2 Meryl Streep 34 3 Queen Noor 51 4 Louise Erdrich 72 5 Yo-Yo Ma 91 6 Dr. Mehmet Oz 107 7 Mario Batali 128 8 Elizabeth Alexander 146 9 Malcolm Gladwell 170 10 Stephen Colbert 192 11 Kristi Yamaguchi 216 12 Eva Longoria 234 DNA Appendix by Dr. Nathan Pearson 249 Index 257 About the Author 278 This page intentionally left blank ix Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the top-notch genealogists and DNA scientists who guided its research and grounded its claims. I will be forever in their debt. Of special note was Johni Cerny, who spent years combing over records, crafting family trees, and directing research across three continents. She was assisted by an incredible international team including Jane Ailes, Candan Badem, Valery Bazarov, Tony Browne, Wang Chung-Guang, Junel Davidsen, Mary Ann DiNapoli, Mick Dowling, Dave Emmons, Family Search International, Fiona Fitzsimmons, Roseann B. Garza, Dianne T. Golding-Frankson, Matthew Hovious, Don Huber, Shundou Koga, Raul Longoria, Robert Maloy, Jeff Marshall, Lilly Martin, Jim Matteucci, Father Donough O’Malley, Helen Moss, Rudy Sassine, Sabine Schleichert, Elyse Semerdjian, Vitaly Semionoff, Luri Silvestri, Keiji Sugimoto, Michael Szonyi, Junko Takahashi, and Elena Tsvetkova. Two excellent companies—23andMe and Family Tree DNA—served as consultants on the project from its inception and did testing and analysis for all our subjects. In addition, the geneticists at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard developed a special autosomal DNA test specifically for this project and applied it to our subjects using the data provided by 23andMe. None of this, of course, would have been the least bit comprehensible to me without the invaluable assistance of a team of scientific advisers, including David Altshuler, David Bentley, George Church, Mark Daly, Bennett Greenspan, Brenna Henn, Eric Lander, Joanna Mountain, Nathaniel Pearson, and Joseph Thakuria. They helped analyze the DNA findings and explained to me what it all meant (no easy task). They have my undying thanks. I would also like to thank Sabin Streeter, who searched through hundreds of hours of interviews and a mountain of scientific data to help identify the narrative threads of the stories found in this book, and a number of scholars and experts who gave considerable time and input to the project, including John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University, Mark Shriver of Pennsylvania State University, Sarah Gualtieri of the University x Acknowledgments of Southern California, Catherine Daly of the American Family Immigration History Center, Armando Alonzo of Texas A&M University, Lane Hirabayashi of the University of California at Los Angeles, Gary Okihiro of Columbia University, Martin Keane of the Donaghmore Famine Work House Museum, and Ainsley Henriques of the Jewish Heritage Center in Kingston, Jamaica. Finally, I would like to thank the production team that helped me to create this project and stood by me at every point in its...