Historical records matching Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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About Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an author, documentary filmmaker, essayist, and literary critic. He is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. As of 2014, he has written seventeen books and created thirteen documentary films and film series.
DNA testing shows an admixture of 60% European, 34% African, and 6% Asian (1), and that his family descends from the Yoruba nation in the country of Benin. (2).
From "Native Sons of Liberty" By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. The New York Times, August 6, 2006:
"I have been obsessed with my family tree since I was a boy. My grandfather, Edward Gates, died in 1960, when I was 10. After his burial at Rose Hill Cemetery in Cumberland, Md. — Gateses have been buried there since 1888 — my father showed me my grandfather’s scrapbooks. There, buried in those yellowing pages of newsprint, was an obituary, the obituary, to my astonishment, of our matriarch, a midwife and former slave named Jane Gates. “An estimable colored woman,” the obituary said."
On the PBS television show "Finding Your Roots," aired 8 April 2025, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore proved that Charles Wesley Kelley, son of Hannah Kelley, was a partner of Jane Gates, and the biological father of Edward Gates, ancestor of the scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of the show. (relationship path).
See Finding My Roots | Season 11 | Episode 10 | aired 8 April 2025 on PBS < link >
References
- Staff writers (September 14, 2006). "Sons of American Revolution welcome Gates". The Harvard University Gazette.
- "African American Lives The Past Is Another Country 2 4of4 - YouTube". youtube.com
- Wikipedia
- imdb
- the Root
- Encyclopedia.com
- PBS
- Henry Louis Gates, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2012. < GoogleBooks >
- Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Born as Louis Smith Gates (after his mother’s best friend). Legally changed his name at age 25 to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- “Honoring Henry Louis Gates, Jr.”American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Summer 2022 Bulletin. < link > Awarded the “Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies.”
- Finding Your Roots. Dr. Gates, Jr. Reveals He’s DNA Cousins with John Lithgow. < link > DNA test results on his maternal side.
- Finding My Roots | Season 11 | Episode 10 | aired 8 April 2025 on PBS < link > DNA testing identifies white paternal ancestor Charles Wesley Kelley (d. 1859).
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s Timeline
| 1950 |
September 16, 1950
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Keyser, Mineral County, West Virginia, United States
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