A woman from Birmingham, Alabama, is one of three “everyday Americans” whose story will be featured Tuesday on the popular public television show Finding Your Roots.

For the past 10 years, famed professor, author, filmmaker and cultural critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and his team have used genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis to trace the family trees of dozens of influential actors and musicians, news personalities and public figures on the popular PBS series. 

Now, in a milestone episode titled “Viewers Like You,” Gates explores the pasts of three non-celebrities, including Birmingham travel agent and bus driver Terrie Morrow. The episode premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, on Alabama Public Television (APT), as well as on PBS stations nationwide and on the PBS app.

After an open casting call last year resulted in more than 9,000 submissions, Gates chose the three “to uncover secrets that have haunted their families for generations,” according to an APT news release.

“Gates sits down with each of them, and with each turn of the page in their ‘book of life,’ he reveals long-buried secrets and hidden identities, allowing each of his guests to understand themselves – and their families – as never before,” the news release said.

In the episode, Morrow hopes to learn more about her maternal great-great-grandmother, who left her son with a local family when he was just 5 years old – never to return. Another guest hopes to unveil the biological identity of a great-grandparent who was adopted, and the third guest seeks to identify the biological father of her grandmother.

Morrow said she has been exploring her family’s genealogy since she was in her early 20s, when her grandmother asked her to help find some of her distant relatives. The search inspired a lifelong interest in history and her family roots. She was overjoyed to learn she’d have the opportunity to be on Finding Your Roots, which she has watched since it first began – but said it almost didn’t happen.

“I didn’t hear about the call for story submissions until just before the deadline,” Morrow said. “And then I missed the first email from the producers asking if I was still interested in being on the show. If they hadn’t sent a follow-up email I would have missed it entirely.”

Learn more about the ongoing television series here. To learn more about Alabama Public Television and the programs shown on its multiple channels, click here.