Angelou learns new family stories from documentary

Poet Maya Angelou had already participated in a museum exhibit about the family trees of four famous black people.

So it seemed unlikely that anything new would be unearthed when she was featured in the PBS documentary "African-American Lives 2," which traces the family histories of prominent black celebrities using genealogical research and DNA analysis.

But host Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor, described Angelou as "thunderstruck" by some of the revelations.

For example, an ancestor that she thought was part German was actually part Irish but was raised in a German community. Another ancestor sued the man who had enslaved her for paternity years after she was freed.

"So there are always new stories," Gates said. "There is always more research to do."

Angelou, who lives in Winston-Salem, said she has "much to learn."

"I also think it's important for each of us, whatever the background, to know the people who have been courageous before us so we can elicit from our history some encouragement to be courageous ourselves."

"African-American Lives 2" is the follow-up to two previous programs that Gates hosted.

Angelou compares the series with "Roots," the 1977 miniseries (in which she was a co-star) that led to renewed interest in genealogy.

"It behooves us to at least know who paved the way for us," she said. "We really need to know something about them so we can say thank you."