Thomas Allen Harris has relied on his family photo album and film archives to explore identity in his deeply personal documentary films like “É Minha Cara/That’s My Face,” “The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela” and “Through a Lens Darkly.”

He sought to do the same with others’ family histories beginning in 2009, when he launched Digital Diaspora Family Reunion. The project took Harris across the country, collecting family photos and stories, through one-on-one interviews and in community photo sharing events, that he posted online with the goal of preserving the personal histories before they were lost.

Now comes the TV version. “Family Pictures USA,” premiering Monday night on PBS, is a kind of “Antiques Roadshow” for family photos, built around community sharing events where Harris talks to people about the pictures they bring. Then he investigates the common roots among the various participants, as well as the broader history of the region.

The first episode visits North Carolina — the other two are set in Detroit and Southwest Florida — where Durham’s tobacco money transformed a small town into a city of possibilities, as seen in family photos from black and white entrepreneurs, immigrants and a community of drag performers. Viewers also meet members of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, who repurchased their ancestral lands for future generations.