PBS
Johni Cerny, the chief genealogist on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots,” has died at the age of 77, according to a statement from Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Gates wrote on Twitter on the morning of February 22, “It’s with great sadness to share that Johni Cerny, our chief genealogist for #FindingYourRoots, has passed away. We’ve worked with Johni, one of the most highly respected and pioneering genealogists since we created the PBS series.”
Cerny Was a Graduate of Brigham Young University & Was Based in Draper, Utah
Facebook/Johni CernyJohni Cerny showing off her humorous nature in a photo on her Facebook page in May 2019.
In addition to appearing on “Finding Your Roots,” Cerny worked with PBS on the shows, “African American Lives 1 & 2” and “Faces of America.” Cerny was a native of Kansas City, Missouri, and attended high school in Los Angeles at Van Nuys High School. Cerny would later graduate from Brigham Young University, majoring in Geneaology and social work. Cerny lived and worked out of Draper, Utah.
A separate statement on PBS’s website recounted that Cerny began work in the broadcaster in 2005 when she traced the ancestry of Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones. From there, Cerny worked with celebrities such as Stephen Colbert, Meryl Streep and P. Diddy as well as politicians Senator John McCain, Senator Bernie Sanders and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Cerny Brought ‘Passion, Dedication & Originality’ to Genealogy
The PBS statement refers to Cerny as having “passion, dedication, originality” and being a master of the tools needed for genealogy research. The broadcaster said that Cerny’s love of genealogy began when she was 19 years old and had started to research her family’s history. Cerny was able to discover the identity of her grandmother and father. Cerny told Rewire in 2019, “My grandmother was adopted and she wanted to know where her real parents were and that launched me on a career path I never knew existed.”
Louis Gates said in the PBS statement, “Her lifelong love of the work inspired all of us who make Finding Your Roots, and she was always grateful to the viewers who make it possible for us to tell these stories. This calling, and all of the joy she brought to it, radiated throughout our show and was a key to the fulfillment of its promise to discover personal histories that liberate us from mistruths about our differences and foster a more human connection amongst us.”
Cerny’s Death Has Been Described as a ‘Great Loss to the Genealogical Community’
Fellow genealogist, J. Paul Hawthorne, called Cerny’s death, “A great loss to the genealogical community.”
Cerny started working professionally as a genealogist in 1979 and founded her own business, Lineages Inc., in 1983. Cerny left the company for a time in 2005 but would return as CEO in 2011. On her IMDb page, it says that Cerny specialized in American, African American, English, Scottish, German, Slovakian, Swiss and Italian ancestry. That profile says that Cerny had been unable to secure regular work as a genealogist until the television miniseries “Roots” became a hit in the 1980s.
Prior to her genealogy career, Cerny served in the United States army from 1972 until 1979 achieving the rank of captain. Cerny served on inactive duty between 1979-1983. During her time serving in Germany, Cerny was the first female commander of a forward support unit.
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