William Alexander Haley recited eight generations of his family's heritage with ease.

He rattled off dates, such as 1619, the year blacks were brought to Virginia, and 1939, the year his father joined the Coast Guard.

He described the illnesses that plagued distant relatives, such as gout and Crohn's disease.

And Haley, son of the late "Roots" author Alex Haley, urged about 100 people who gathered to hear him speak Tuesday at Virginia Western Community College to know their family history as well.

"It's the richness of the stories of the character of your ancestors that give you strength," said William Haley, whose heritage was chronicled in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book and 12-hour miniseries that was first broadcast in 1977.

The miniseries and the book will be re-released in 2007 after a dispute over copyright royalties took it off the air and bookshelves for several years, William Haley said.

Alex Haley spent 12 years documenting his heritage, tracing his roots back to the 1750s, when his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, was born in Africa and sold into slavery in America. Haley died in 1992.

Since the debut of "Roots" in 1976, William Haley said, his ancestry "finds me now more than I find it."

For instance, in a church many years ago, Haley said a man introduced him to a woman who said she was his grandmother. Haley didn't believe her. He later found out from his father that the woman had briefly been married to William Haley's grandfather.

"You can't dismiss what people tell you when you don't know," Haley said.

Haley "couldn't wait" to come to Roanoke, he said, because it is where Chicken George, a cockfighter and William's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, eluded legal trouble with Roanoke's mayor for selling goods on the side of the road.

"I wanted to see where this place was that they tried to confront Chicken George," Haley said, chuckling at the thought.

"A lot of times, I just like to touch the ground" my ancestors touched, he said.

Elizabeth Anderson, a Virginia Western student and a fan of "Roots," said Haley broke down his message to this: "Whatever our race, everybody's story is valuable."

Haley, who is chief operating officer at Carolina Pinnacle Studios in Yanceyville, N.C., frequently speaks to urge people to find their roots. Tuesday, he gave a few tips that helped his father and helped him:

n Census data date back to 1890.

n Look for similar name pronunciations and spellings, and remember that families tended to live in the same localities and attend the same church denominations.

n The Mormon church's genealogy records are free.

n Many slaves deposited money in Freeman's Savings Bank, which used a person's family tree to identify the person with their bank account.

"You're going to find out that you're almost related to everybody," William Haley said.