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The Best Episodes of Finding Your Roots

Every episode of Finding Your Roots ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Finding Your Roots!

Binge this in 3d 15h•Peaking at 8.1/10

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Finding Your Roots Season 3 Episode 4 - Tragedy + Time = Comedy
    8.1/10(42 votes)

    #1 - Tragedy + Time = Comedy

    S3:E4

    Uncover a history of tragedies and triumphs in the families of three of America’s funniest men–Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear and Bill Hader—as they learn how comedy truly has its place in all aspects of life.

    Director:Hazel Gurland-Pooler
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Finding Your Roots Season 4 Episode 2 - Unfamiliar Kin
    8.1/10(58 votes)

    #2 - Unfamiliar Kin

    S4:E2

    Guests: Carly Simon, Christopher Walken, and more. In this episode, three guests each learn about a grandparent whose real identity and background had been a mystery to them. Along the way, two of them also discover that their close relatives were on the wrong side of history.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Finding Your Roots Season 4 Episode 8 - Relatives We Never Knew We Had
    8.1/10(46 votes)

    #3 - Relatives We Never Knew We Had

    S4:E8

    Guests: Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni. Two guests whose lives have been shaped by family mysteries are introduced to biological ancestors they never knew they had thanks to genetic detective work.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Finding Your Roots Season 4 Episode 9 - Southern Roots
    8.1/10(44 votes)

    #4 - Southern Roots

    S4:E9

    Guests: Questlove, Dr. Phil and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Three guests of disparate backgrounds dig into their Southern roots, where slavery and its aftermath shaped families both black and white.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Finding Your Roots Season 5 Episode 5 - Freedom Tales
    8.1/10(48 votes)

    #5 - Freedom Tales

    S5:E5

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delves deep into the roots of two African-American guests, actor S. Epatha Merkerson and athlete and television personality Michael Strahan. Both discover unexpected stories that challenge assumptions about black history.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Finding Your Roots Season 9 Episode 6 - Family: Lost and Found
    8.1/10(53 votes)

    #6 - Family: Lost and Found

    S9:E6

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uses DNA detective work to solve family mysteries for actor Joe Manganiello and football star Tony Gonzalez—uncovering close relatives whose names they’ve never heard and compelling each man to rethink his own identity.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Finding Your Roots

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  7. Finding Your Roots Season 9 Episode 7 - Chosen
    8.1/10(55 votes)

    #7 - Chosen

    S9:E7

    Henry Louis Gates helps actors David Duchovny and Richard Kind trace their roots from Jewish communities in Eastern Europe to the United States—telling stories of triumph and tragedy that laid the groundwork for his guest’s success.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Finding Your Roots Season 9 Episode 10 - Out of the Past
    8.1/10(38 votes)

    #8 - Out of the Past

    S9:E10

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uncovers the lost roots of actors Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry-Housley, traveling back generations to recount significant events in history—from the American Revolution to the journey of the Mayflower—in a deeply personal way.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Finding Your Roots Season 10 Episode 3 - Fathers and Sons
    8.1/10(58 votes)

    #9 - Fathers and Sons

    S10:E3

    Actors LeVar Burton and Wes Studi, two men who grew up without their fathers, explore their family histories.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Finding Your Roots Season 10 Episode 5 - Hold the Laughter
    8.1/10(50 votes)

    #10 - Hold the Laughter

    S10:E5

    Actor Bob Odenkirk and comic Iliza Shlesinger explore their family histories and learn about relatives who took great risks to overcome hardships.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Finding Your Roots Season 10 Episode 7 - The Brick Wall Falls
    8.1/10(36 votes)

    #11 - The Brick Wall Falls

    S10:E7

    HenryLouis Gates, Jr. helps musician Dionne Warwick and actor Danielle Brooks break down barriers imposed by the slave system to learn the names of their ancestors who endured unimaginable ordeals but emerged to forge families that thrived.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 1 - Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr.
    8.0/10(64 votes)

    #12 - Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr.

    S1:E1

    Their European immigrant ancestors blazed unconventional trails in America, from capturing British ships for the American Revolution to crossing racial barriers in slave-era Louisiana. Generations later, as children growing up in New Orleans, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis found a deep and abiding friendship through their common love of jazz and of the city itself. In this hour, we trace the turbulent and contradictory history of the city of New Orleans through the family stories of these two fascinating men.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 2 - John Lewis and Cory Booker
    8.0/10(67 votes)

    #13 - John Lewis and Cory Booker

    S1:E2

    In this episode, we feature two African American politicians from different generations and opposite backgrounds. John Lewis grew up in a sharecropping family in rural Georgia, while Cory Booker was raised in an affluent, all-white New Jersey suburb. Although both men have devoted their lives to the betterment of African-American people, neither of them knows much about their own ancestors. In this episode, we introduce Booker to his white great-grandfather, a man he never knew, and move Lewis to tears over the extraordinary ambitions and accomplishments of his slave ancestors..

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 3 - Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada
    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #14 - Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada

    S1:E3

    What's in a name? Well, a lot, at least when it comes to piecing together your family history. For former slaves, choosing a last name was one of their first acts of freedom. For Jewish immigrants, it was a way to fit in their new country. Whatever the reason for a name change, it can make the process of learning about one's ancestors difficult, if not impossible. In this episode, we unearth missing links in the family histories of media legend Barbara Walters and educational superstar Geoffrey Canada. Walters did not know her father's real last name. Canada did not know the name of his grandfather. Both of them had been unable to access their history... until now.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 4 - Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
    8.0/10(61 votes)

    #15 - Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

    S1:E4

    What do Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have in common? They are both famous actors and both descend from prominent American families that have been in this country since its inception. But they share something else, too: both had ancestors who were early opponents of slavery. Bacon's Quaker ancestors repudiated slavery long before the rest of the country, in 1780. And Sedgwick's ancestor Theodore Sedgwick argued the freedom case of Elizabeth Freeman, also known as "Mumbet," in 1781 -- which helped bring an end to slavery in Massachusetts. We reveal this fact - and many others - to Sedgwick and Bacon in this episode, and learn quite a bit about slavery in the North in the process.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 7 - Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons
    8.0/10(49 votes)

    #16 - Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons

    S1:E7

    Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Brown University President Ruth Simmons have each climbed to the pinnacle of their profession, yet each started life as a second class citizen in the Jim Crow south. In this episode we will use DNA to investigate family mysteries: where do they come from in Africa, and who are the white men in their family trees?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 8 - Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta
    8.0/10(43 votes)

    #17 - Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta

    S1:E8

    The three guests in this episode are all children of first- or second-generation immigrants and share the peculiar burdens of that heritage. In an episode that crisscrosses the planet, from India to Korea to Poland, catch a glimpse of three distinct yet oddly overlapping experiences of families leaving their homes and becoming American.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Finding Your Roots Season 3 Episode 7 - Family Reunions
    8.0/10(43 votes)

    #18 - Family Reunions

    S3:E7

    Uncover family mysteries about two legends of hip hop, Sean Combs and LL Cool J, through the use of DNA technology, which reveals information that shakes their very foundations.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Finding Your Roots Season 4 Episode 1 - The Impression
    8.0/10(71 votes)

    #19 - The Impression

    S4:E1

    Join Larry David and Bernie Sanders, who learn they have more in common than they thought.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Finding Your Roots Season 4 Episode 6 - Black Like Me
    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #20 - Black Like Me

    S4:E6

    Guests: Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Suzanne Malveaux. Three African-American guests delve deep into their family trees, discovering unexpected stories that challenge our assumptions about black history.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Finding Your Roots Season 5 Episode 1 - Grandparents and Other Strangers
    8.0/10(68 votes)

    #21 - Grandparents and Other Strangers

    S5:E1

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actor Andy Samberg and author George R. R. Martin answer some family mysteries when DNA detective work uncovers new branches of their family trees. The DNA analysis upends family history and reveals new relatives.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Finding Your Roots Season 5 Episode 10 - All in the Family
    8.0/10(43 votes)

    #22 - All in the Family

    S5:E10

    The family stories of actor Ty Burrell, and radio host Joe Madison. Also a look at how a summer camp for children is using genetic genealogy to help young people better understand their burgeoning identities.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Finding Your Roots Season 6 Episode 3 - Homecomings
    8.0/10(48 votes)

    #23 - Homecomings

    S6:E3

    Sterling K. Brown, Jon Batiste and Sasheer Zamata learn about the unexpected places their ancestors called home.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Finding Your Roots Season 6 Episode 4 - This Land is My Land
    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #24 - This Land is My Land

    S6:E4

    The unexpected family trees of Queen Latifah and Jeffrey Wright challenge preconceptions about America's past.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Finding Your Roots Season 6 Episode 13 - War Stories
    8.0/10(42 votes)

    #25 - War Stories

    S6:E13

    Guests: Kehinde Wiley, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Julianne Moore, comedian Bill Hader, and painter Kehinde Wiley, revealing how their ancestors’ military service left an indelible mark both on their families and on their country. (S03E06 was also titled "War Stories." Kehinde Wiley originally appeared in S05E09. Julianne Moore originally appeared in S03E06. Bill Hader originally appeared in S03E04.)

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Tragedy + Time = Comedy" is the best rated episode of "Finding Your Roots". It scored 8.1/10 based on 42 votes. Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/26/2016. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Unfamiliar Kin".