I’m Paul Crooks — genealogist, author, and speaker — and for over 25 years, I’ve been helping people of African Caribbean and African American descent reconnect with their ancestral past.
My journey began with a question: Where did I come from? That search led me to become the first person to trace African Caribbean ancestry back six generations using public records — something many thought couldn’t be done. Along the way, I uncovered a family history that reached from Britain and the Caribbean all the way back to West Africa.
This groundbreaking work led to national recognition, including my appearance as a genealogy expert in the very first series of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? — where I helped shed light on African diaspora histories that are too often overlooked.