The part with the cousin was sooo staged. Think about this, you walk into a nearly deserted town and find the one store with a breathing body in it, and that body turns out to be your cousin, and you show him photos and expect him to have answers.

His cousin HAD answers, but the one answer that was staged, was his advice "you have to go to the Monroe County courthouse." I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Here this man provided Emmit with details about who he was, who their common ancestor was, and even added the fact that his father attended a family reunion in Pensacola where Emmit's family lived, and yet added that he needed to go to the county courthouse. Although it was a nice bit (cousins meeting cousins), it was so obvious that they (show producers) wanted to get Emmit to the courthouse and had his cousin send him in that direction. It might have been a bit different if for example, Burnt Corn was an all-Black town and the court clerk was family, or the town was so small that the ONLY place one could get records was the courthouse... Anyway I enjoyed the program and I tried my best not to critique too much of it.