Henry Louis Gates Jr. Quotes

My mother was from West Bromwich; my grandfather was Pakistani. I had an aunt who started trying to trace the family tree and stopped when she saw what turned up.

I come from an immigrant culture. I'm only a couple of generations away from having been a servant girl myself.

To my astonishment, everything that I had assumed was now questioned by the findings. What started off as a search for identity that appeared to be purely Scottish in origin ended up as a discovery of my migrant roots - indeed an understanding that almost all of our families, at some stage, have been migrants - and my European roots.

My ancestry is really weird, because my great grandfather was from the Cayman Islands, and then his father was from England. But I lose track at that point.

My mother was from upstate New York; she's of Irish and German descent. My father was from Ghana.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

You can't be an American without being related to other Americans.

Of the Sturges family, much more is known than is available about poor Irish immigrants and obscure Scottish-English settlers around Rochester.

My father's parents were from Sardinia and my mother's from Barcelona.

My father came to England from India in 1957, and my mum came in 1960.

I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

I discovered that there is Indian blood in my ancestry on my father's side - a fact that had not been talked about in my family. No wonder I've often been cast in exotic roles - Indian princesses, Russian revolutionaries, Algerians, Gypsies and Greeks.

Dad's Jewish and Irish, Mom's German and Scotch. I couldn't say I was anything. My last name isn't even Downey. My dad changed his name when he wanted to get into the Army and was underage. My real name is Robert Elias. I feel like I'm still looking for a home in some way.

I'm a daughter of the middle class with a strong sense of social mobility and individualism, like the waves of immigrants, like my Spanish grandparents, who made Argentina.

I am Italian. Springsteen's mostly Italian, too. We're both Italians with Dutch names, one of the many things we have in common.

My father's family is German and Czech.

I'm proud of my Latin American heritage.

My mother is Brazilian, and her grandfather was Italian.

Both my parents were born in the Philippines. My dad is full Filipino, but my mom looks a little mixed, and her mom's name is Estelita Coquico.

My parents are Jamaican immigrants and both have a multiracial background. They're Jamaican but my genetic makeup is West African, European, Asian.

I think everyone wants to know why I look like this. These jokes I make about looking Chinese… My mother's from Hungary and my dad was from Canada. There's a lot of immigration in my past.

People ask where I'm from, and I say 'Los Angeles.' Then they ask again. 'Well, my parents are from Korea.'

Kunta Kinte's strength derives from the knowledge of where he comes from, but it struck me that I don't know where I come from. I understand that my last name is Kirby, that I was born in London, third-generation Jamaican, and at some point along the line, that name was changed. I didn't know my history past my grandparents.

It is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shaped us in ways that we might not understand.

No, my family is Russian, Georgian, via Ellis Island.