Chris Haley, nephew of Roots author Alex Haley, strolled into this morning’s Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference opening singing the Banana Boat song (the one that goes “Day-o”). Turns out it’s the 30th anniversary of the publication of Roots, the book some say propelled genealogy fervor to the big time.

The younger Haley—special guest of the genealogy-focused Internet tv station RootsTelevision—is associate reference director for the Maryland archives, makes films and acts (which is why he looked perfectly natural singing the Banana Boat song at 8:11 a.m. to a roomful of people who for a split second didn’t quite know what was happening). You want to see a love of family history personified, that’s him.

Later, Haley turned the tables and interviewed me for RootsTelevision. Snippets will be on the site along with those from other interviews.

RootsTelevision also has added 24 channels, each with segments specializing in a different genealogy topic. All but one are free and you can watch all of it at your convenience.

Genealogists get their own version of YouTube, too: You can upload your genealogy videos to RootsTelevision's RootsTube.