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Roots
With Sherri Young
Featured in "Life 360" on PBS
Friday, Nov. 2, 2001; 3 p.m. EST

She searched her roots to find her unexpected history.

Have you ever wondered where your crooked nose or talent for music come from? Do you know what your great grandparents did for a living or where they got married? Are you ready to be surprised by your family's roots? We all come from somewhere. We all have a history. Most people think they have an idea of where they come from, or at least a general understanding of their family's history.

Sherri Young thought she knew, until she started digging. Young answered questions on how she traced her past and gave tips on how to uncover your family's history, Friday Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. EST.

Young found out that her ancestors led full lives in New Orleans as free persons of color. Sherri always assumed herself to be caucasian, and she had no idea of her family's African American roots. She has worked with various state and city agencies while undertaking her genealogical search, a project that she says has become "somewhat of an obsession."

Young's story is part of this week's episode of "Life 360," a Friday night series on PBS (check local listings). Each week, "Life 360" invites independent filmmakers, writers, comedians, musicians, and others to take a theme apart, put it back together, and stand it on its head to discover unexpected perspectives. This week, "Life 360" examines the significance of our "Roots."

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Sherri Young: I've been researching my family history for six years and the interest came about because of stories I heard from my grandmother.

Arlington, Va.: What inspired you to start tracing your family's history and how long did it take? I've tried to start a few times and never seem to keep the motivation because it takes so long to get records from the past.

Sherri Young: You just have to stick with it. I started out that way too and basically I started by asking information that relatives had -- what do you remember about this -- and getting family stories, approximations of dates and from those you can send away for records.

Marriage records give a lot of additional information as do birth records. Death records are generally not as reliable because the person who is involved has already passed away and those left behind may not know where they were born or from.

It is an ongoing process. Like I said, I started about 6 years ago and just by sending away for records I already knew were there and gained additional information from them, but it is an ongoing process.

Washington, D.C.: How did you feel when you found out more about your race?

Sherri Young: It didn't bother me at all. It was very upsettign to some members of my family. My father pretty much said let the dead stay in their graves. My mother thought there was some mistake, but my mother and basically all of my family have come to terms with it by now. It's been six years since we first found out. It never fazed me one way or another.

Washington, D.C.: How far back did you research your roots? What period of time was the most difficult... and, I wonder how accurate genealogy research is... I mean, say the name you're looking for in ships' logs is "John Kelly"... there were sometimes several on the same ship. Seems like it is easy to go down the wrong trail.

Sherri Young: And you do get led down the wrong trail, but then you backtrack and go at it again. I'm lucky in that the surnames I'm researching are not so very common. I hooked up with another researcher whose ancestors were from New Orleans and she had the same surname. Met her when I first started researching and we only -- from going to New Orleans with the show -- found out that we are related.

The hardest part: My ancestors were passing for white so a lot of times they didn't answer all census questions or ones on birth records truthfully, so you kind of have to watch for that. It's best to get two sources to back up your information.

Washington, D.C.: Did you use the Mormon family history centers at all in your research?

Sherri Young: I used them some. But the access in Alaska -- they don't have a lot of records from New Orleans. SO I did better ordering the records from Louisiana. I know several who have used Mormon resources and had great success.

Washington, D.C.: My first order of advice in finding out about your roots... ask your parents!

My parents were in town last weekend and we had a wonderful conversation about some of my ancestors. I found out that my great grandmother actually graduated from university (extremely rare in those days) and taught grades 1-12 in a one-room schoolhouse. Numerous stories like this kept popping up. I wish I had asked before!

Sherri Young: Right and that's how you get started and develop that interest and focus -- from listening to all those stories. And the more you talk about it the more they seem to recall. A lot of times they don't think about things till they get started on a subject.

Arlington, Va.: If you have the last name of a famus person, say a president, what are the chances you are related to them? Also, does inbreeding common in southern states contribute to closeness in family trees? Thanks.

Sherri Young: Oh my. If its a common name -- slim to none. It just depends. You'd have to do a lot of work for that. A lot of times on the Internet they'll have a lot of genealogies of famous people.

On my dad's sid,e we're distant cousins to Princess Diana and Admiral Dewey.

Falls Church, Va.: Did you find disappointment that some people in your family passed as white? Or did you consider the situation that they were in and their fear for admitting that they were Black? Did you in anyway feel some shame?

Sherri Young: I felt no shame at all. I was really saddened by it because all of their traditions and customs and everything they left behind. SO our family never did anything considered creole and it's sad that this whole family -- their history, customs -- is gone and we can never get it back.

Arlington, Va.: Sherri,
What if your grandparents immigrated to the U.S.? How would you go about finding your family tree beyond the U.S.?

Sherri Young: The best resource for that is Ellis Island and once the people got herer they had to become naturalized citizens, so they should check those records. And if they were here for any length of time, they'll have Social Security records. And that will provide some information.

Vienna, Va.: What was the most surprising thing you found out about your family when you were filming the Life 360 project? Great series by the way.

Sherri Young: While filming, remember the lady I told you about earlier who I research with. Through the show we found out concrete evidence that we were related. Her family is descended from the legitimate family of this gentleman and my family from the mistress. It was extremely hard.

At first, she kept thinking we were descended from slaves of her ancestors and just from the research I have done and finding out about my ancestors I didn't think this was the case, so it just -- we kept reserchiing and found out from the show that the house my ancestor had lived in was purchased for her by this other woman's ancestor, indicating that she was his mistress.

Albany, Calif.: The process of tracing birth parents by adoptees is complicated enough if just in the U.S. What about those of us who were given up for adoption in the early 1950s in Hong Kong. I don't have any details of where my birth parents came from. They were denied permission to marry by both sets of parents in a time of arranged marriages. All I have is their Chinese names on my birth certificate, and my adoptive parents now both deceased were not encouraged to have any interaction with them as were the prevailing recommendations of the time. I don't know where my Chinese birth parents went after I was given up for adoption. It is perhaps poignant that I was adopted by a white father from Pittsburgh, Pa. who met my adoptive Eurasian mother while serving in the U.S. military in China. Both parents have given me a mixed cultural and linguistic heritage and lecgacy which I cherish very much. Any ideas of how to possibly track down my birth parents who may have emigrated anywhere in the world if they are still alive? Thanks.

Sherri Young: Whoa. Oh man, that blows me out of the water. THe only thing I could tell you is to write to the record keeping agency in HOng Kong to locate a birth record. One must exist.

Do you know the names of your birth parents? Search the date you were born and maybe there are some adoption records. This one is a bit out of my league.

New York, N.Y.: I've been doing my family tree for a few months, and I've found www.rootsweb.com to be a great resource. I've been able to fill in a lot of info about deceased relatives in the US from the Social Security Death Index, at
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
I've been able to find lots of 2nd and 3rd cousins through the Internet. Just wanted to offer words of encouragement to folks!

Sherri Young: Right. Rootsweb is great because it is free. The only one on the Internet that is totally free. The New Orleans list and archives I belong to are continuously posting information to that site. They have a complete birth index from the 1700s all the way through to 1900... all from volunteers. They're working on a death index now and a marriage index will be next. Rootsweb is wonderful.

There are several other sites... thousands, but most of them charge a fee.

Vienna, Va.: Could you trace back your roots to Africa as well? Have you gone out and met some relatives that you had never met before?

Sherri Young: My cousin I just reestablished contact with a year ago and I told her about all of this and she was just shocked. She has established a Web site for the people of color of New Orleans and there are hundreds of people on the list and its like this mini-community on the Web. We have found another cousin of ours through that Web site. She is a little bit darker than we are, but still not totally black. My cousin just found a site on the Internet where Dr. Hall's research has been published and she has been able to find my 6th great grandmother, where she was freed in 1775. So now we've found a slave ancestor. Just two days ago. It's a continuing thing.

Maryland: Sherri,
Do you have children? Now that you have this information, are you going to pass it along to younger members of your family? What is a good way to get youth involved in searching their family history?

Sherri Young: Ya know, I have four children. The oldest is in 6th grade, the youngest in 1st grade and you'll see them on the show. My children for the most part have no interest in genealogy. In my entire family I'm the only one interested. That's usually the way that it is. The rest of the family likes to hear about it, but they don't want to research.

RE: Albany, Calif.: This is a reponse to the woman looking for international adoption records. I'm afraid she's in for an uphill battle like you wouldn't believe. It's not safe to assume there was a birth record. It may have been destroyed. Finding birthparents in the US can be a tremendous labor, doing it internationally, especially in a society which traditionally looks down on adoption, can be impossible.
I am married to an adoption counselor who brings sad stories like these home all day. If Albany does try an international search, don't go in with inflated hopes.

Sherri Young: Oh man, that's just said.

I have an ancestor who died -- we have no idea when exactly. We have no idea where he died. I don't know that we'll ever know. It's just one of those things. You don't always find what you're looking for.

Alexandria, Va.: I have tried to research my polish heritage since my grandmother was the first child born in the U.S., have searched the new site at Ellis Island to no avail. Do you have any other ideas on ports of entry into the U.S.? I don't know where to start. Thanks

Sherri Young: Do you know approximately when they came over or where they lived? You could check census records to try to get an approximate date that they would have come over and they might give you some clue to that. There are books at the Family History Centers that have ships registries.

Sherri Young: You have to be way more specific.

Sherri Young: If you have your heart set on finding your ancestry, I believe you can find something. You may not find exactly what you're looking for, but you can always find something. Just keep at it.

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