Here's the Bryan Lair show on WNYC, good morning again everyone.

Now another Juneteenth segment, what is the importance of a name?

Sure it's what people call you and what you respond to, but what else does a name hold?

Is it a random set of letters and sounds that we attach meaning to, or is there something

more within a name?

Radio lab editor and producer Alex Neeson set out to find the answers to these questions

for herself in her piece Family People.

In it you'll hear her embark on a journey to Louisiana to discover the origins of her

last name, Neeson, after learning that her name may not actually be Neeson.

So what did she find?

Well, let's hear from Alex Neeson and professional genealogists, Nika Sule Smith, who also

joins us and is also in the piece Alex and Nika thanks so much for joining us.

Hi there.

Hi, thanks for having me.

And we're going to play a few clips here as we go and let's start off with one and

Alex, would you set this up?

You're asking your dad and your aunts in this 30 second clip about somebody named Wilson

Howard.

Do you want to set that up?

Yeah, so this whole journey kind of started with an obituary.

My grandfather passed away and after the funeral my parents brought an obituary back with

me and back for me and in that obituary it had all of the usual bio details that you

...