Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 6 weeks ago
Get ready for a journey through deeply moving family histories as we explore some of the most touching discoveries from “Finding Your Roots.” From tales of resilience and survival during slavery to uncovering lost Holocaust stories, these profound emotional revelations have left celebrities visibly moved. Join us as we relive the moments that connected stars like Pharrell Williams, Shonda Rhimes, and Sterling K. Brown to their powerful ancestral pasts.

Category

🗞
News
Transcript
00:00Yeah. I'm a free man's child.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most heart-wrenching discoveries
00:11made on the genealogy series Finding Your Roots that left the celebrity subjects visibly moved.
00:17It's just so hard to look at. Even if it wasn't my family, like these things are always very painful and hard to read.
00:24Number 20. Shonda Rhimes.
00:27Like many celebrities who appear on Finding Your Roots, TV producer Shonda Rhimes longed to uncover the hidden stories of her family,
00:35particularly on her father's side.
00:37As somebody who fills in every creative nook and cranny in my head, it's fascinating.
00:43You always wonder what their lives were like, who they were owned by. I mean, you always wonder that stuff.
00:49To fill this knowledge gap, the show's researchers turned to historical records.
00:53The 1900 census revealed the names of her paternal great-great-grandparents, Anna Watson and Burrell Love, who were born before the Civil War.
01:03It's fascinating to think about what their lives must have been like and who they must have been.
01:10That's incredible.
01:12Another census document from Anna's teenage years showed her living with her mother, Matilda, Rhimes' third great-grandmother.
01:19Rhimes was astonished by how far back the records reached.
01:23But what truly overwhelmed her was a personal coincidence.
01:26As a child, she had always planned to name her child Matilda,
01:30unaware she was honoring an ancestor who bore the same name.
01:35But for my entire childhood, Matilda was the name I was going to name my child.
01:38No.
01:39Yeah.
01:39So I kind of can't believe it.
01:48Number 19.
01:49Christopher Maloney.
01:50During his appearance on the seventh season of Finding Your Roots,
01:53actor Christopher Maloney got to know more about his paternal ancestry.
01:57You know, that's the thing, you know, my family wasn't very too chatty in that regard and, you know, on either side.
02:03His great-grandfather, Enrico Maloney, was born in Italy and endured a childhood that was plagued by unimaginable hardship.
02:11Shortly after he was born, Enrico was abandoned by his parents and taken in by a nurse who cared for him
02:17only until he was about 12 years old.
02:20After that, he was left completely on his own.
02:22At 12 years old?
02:23At 12 years old.
02:24That's the School of Hard Knocks.
02:26Oh, yeah.
02:26Yet, against all odds, Enrico managed to move to America and build a new life for himself.
02:33When Maloney reflected on the resilience and sacrifice it must have taken for Enrico to survive,
02:38he couldn't help but be moved to tears.
02:41For not allowing yourself to be crushed.
02:43Yeah, there you are.
02:45And, you know, not using it as an excuse.
02:47Yeah.
02:48Which, you know, is just so easy to do.
02:50Number 18.
02:52Dustin Hoffman.
02:53Growing up, actor Dustin Hoffman knew little to nothing about his paternal great-grandparents.
02:58In fact, he only learned their names when he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2016.
03:04Maiden name of mother, Esther Shizkowski.
03:08First time I've ever heard that name in my life.
03:10Really?
03:10Yes.
03:11Apparently, Hoffman's father had deliberately kept their history from him to shield him from the trauma they endured.
03:17Hoffman's great-grandparents, Sam and Liba Hoffman, were reportedly arrested during anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.
03:26The Dustin's great-grandmother was investigating the disappearance of her son and husband when, incredibly, she herself was arrested by the Chekhov.
03:37Sam was tragically killed while Liba survived five years in a concentration camp before escaping and ultimately making her way to America.
03:45Hearing this, for the first time, shattered Hoffman.
03:48However, it also made him more grateful for his ancestors' sacrifices and strengthened his pride in his Jewish heritage.
03:56What are you?
03:58I say I'm a Jew?
04:02That was a thought that went through.
04:04Number 17.
04:05Cheryl Lee Ralph.
04:07Actor Cheryl Lee Ralph has always viewed her family as resilient and determined, no matter the odds stacked against them.
04:14They would say things like, hmm, that Ralph family, and we've been carrying it with us all these years.
04:25On the 11th season of Finding Your Roots, she uncovered even deeper evidence of that resilience.
04:31Ralph learned that her paternal great-great-grandfather, a man named George Thomas Ralph, was born free.
04:37However, when he entered an apprenticeship with a white farmer, he was denied the right to read and write solely because of his race.
04:44Meaning, young black boy, I might do all of these things for you, but I will not teach you to read, write, and do arithmetic.
04:52That's right.
04:53Surprisingly, George defied those barriers.
04:56He taught himself, gained an education, and went on to establish his own farm, an extraordinary achievement for that period.
05:03The magnitude of his story was not lost on Ralph, who tearfully expressed how proud it made her feel.
05:09I come from good people.
05:12And I come from people who never gave up.
05:17And kept right on.
05:19Number 16.
05:20Don Lemon.
05:21From a broad perspective, slavery was a devastating period in history.
05:26But even when you zoom in on the details, its horror becomes all the more unbearable.
05:31News anchor Don Lemon was confronted with this reality when he uncovered the story of his own ancestors.
05:37Our history has been erased.
05:40It's as if my ancestors didn't exist.
05:43Didn't exist as people.
05:44They weren't as people.
05:45They existed as property.
05:46As property.
05:47Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented Lemon with a document listing the estate of a plantation owner.
05:53This document included the names and ages of some of Lemon's ancestors, who were held as slaves on the plantation,
06:00along with the dollar amount assigned to their worth.
06:03At $1,800.
06:06That was their worth?
06:08Right.
06:08Reading this figure aloud filled Lemon with emotion, as he was left grappling with the dehumanizing cruelty of the practice.
06:20That's where I came from.
06:21Number 15.
06:23Eliza Schlesinger
06:24Stand-up comic Eliza Schlesinger had a tangible connection to the Holocaust,
06:29but she never knew about it until she appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2024.
06:34Mind-blowing.
06:36Because I didn't know any of this.
06:38And I don't think my dad knew any of this.
06:40And he's kind of like the last of his family.
06:44That link came through her great-grandmother, Esther,
06:47who left Poland for the United States before the Holocaust began.
06:50However, she left behind at least two siblings, who became victims of that harrowing era.
06:56I know that feeling when your sibling's in danger and you feel helpless, especially from like an ocean away.
07:01So, I can't begin to imagine this.
07:07After the Nazis invaded Poland, Esther's brother Lipa was captured and forced into the walled ghetto of his town, Muava.
07:14From there, he was sent to Auschwitz, where his life was tragically cut short.
07:19For Schlesinger, learning about Lipa's fate felt like discovering a missing piece of her own story.
07:24One that carried a sorrow she never imagined she would inherit.
07:27You already feel that.
07:33You already feel it so much.
07:37And like, it's like a horrific missing piece.
07:41Number 14. Questlove
07:43I'm beyond excited for this.
07:46I've been waiting for this all my life.
07:49At the start of his episode, Questlove promised himself he wouldn't cry.
07:53But he had no idea the powerful revelations that lay ahead.
07:56Questlove learned about his third great-grandparents, Charles and Maggie Lewis,
08:01who were captured from present-day Benin and brought to the United States as slaves.
08:06Their arrival was illegal, since slavery had already been abolished at the time.
08:12I'm on the absolute last ship that ever came here.
08:19Through extensive research, the show's team traced other descendants of the Lewises
08:23and uncovered a rare photograph of Charles, which they presented to Questlove.
08:28Coming face-to-face with his ancestor gave the Oscar-winning entertainer a profound sense of identity and belonging.
08:34So profound that he broke his promise to himself and cried tears of joy.
08:39Until an hour ago, I didn't know who I was.
08:50I said I wasn't going to cry, man.
08:53Number 13. Maya Rudolph
08:55Saturday Night Live alum Maya Rudolph came on Finding Your Roots eager to explore a part of her family history
09:01she knew little about, her mother's African-American heritage.
09:05I kind of sort of grew up feeling a little orphaned by the idea of my heritage.
09:11I know I'm from peoples, but I don't know who they are.
09:16On the show, Rudolph discovered her maternal great-great-great-grandfather, James Grigsby,
09:21who was born into slavery in Lincoln County, Kentucky.
09:24The team was able to trace his origins using a census document from 1860
09:28that identified him not by name, but only by sex and age.
09:32Remember, James, he would have been about five.
09:36Can you find anyone who could have been the same age?
09:39Five. Oh, five.
09:41That breaks my heart.
09:43Realizing how young James was at the time, and the experiences he endured,
09:47moved Rudolph to tears, especially since she has children around the same age.
09:52I just think of my kids.
09:54It's really hard to see.
09:56Still, discovering this part of her life made her feel less alone in this vast world.
10:00Number 12. Mandy Patinkin.
10:03The horrors of the Holocaust are near impossible to fathom,
10:06even for Mandy Patinkin, who has built a career portraying human pain on stage and screen.
10:13My job is to imagine.
10:16That is my profession.
10:17Right.
10:18I have never been able to get a hold of that.
10:21While he had always known he descended from Jewish immigrants,
10:25Patinkin never realized that members of his own family were among the victims.
10:29He learned that some of his relatives from Bronsk, a town in northeastern Poland,
10:34were rounded up and sent to the Treblinka concentration camp, where they were killed.
10:39Patinkin barely finished reading out the gory details of their deaths before he broke down in tears.
10:44You know, I went there, and I would say to people,
10:47Oh, I've been interviewed so many times.
10:49I said, I don't think any of my relatives died in the Holocaust.
10:53He recalled asking his father about this in the past, but never receiving an answer,
10:58perhaps because his family chose not to burden him with the truth.
11:02At the time I asked, I didn't know why I was asking for that information.
11:06I'm incredibly grateful to have it.
11:11Number 11, John Lewis.
11:13In 1965, the late John Lewis led a bold march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama,
11:19demanding that African Americans be allowed to exercise their right to vote.
11:23I was wearing a backpack.
11:25In this backpack, I had two books.
11:28I had an apple, and I had an orange.
11:31A toothpaste and toothbrush.
11:32I thought we were going to be arrested, and that we were going to go to jail.
11:35The peaceful march descended into the infamous Bloody Sunday,
11:39when Lewis and his fellow demonstrators were attacked by law enforcement.
11:43Lewis was a guest on the first season of Finding Your Roots,
11:46where he discovered a striking parallel between his own life
11:49and that of his great-great-grandfather, Tobias Carter.
11:52In 1867, after he gained his freedom,
11:55Carter wasted no time in registering to vote in Alabama,
11:59becoming one of the first formerly enslaved people to do so.
12:02Two years after he was freed from slavery,
12:07the second he could register to vote.
12:10For Lewis, that through line across generations was almost too powerful to bear,
12:15and it left him wiping away tears.
12:18This is incredible.
12:20Number 10, Pamela Adlon.
12:22Actress Pamela Adlon went on Finding Your Roots in 2022
12:26to validate a long-held rumor in her family
12:29that her mother was the product of an extramarital affair.
12:32It's very hard, the English side,
12:35because there are things you don't do.
12:38Yes.
12:39If they have gone to their graves without talking about it,
12:42it's not anybody's business.
12:44Right.
12:45And that's frustrating for me.
12:47Through an arduous research process,
12:49the show ultimately confirmed that the rumor was indeed right.
12:52Adlon discovered that her actual grandfather
12:55was not the man she had known all her life.
12:57Instead, it was someone else named Joseph Walthu.
13:01Further investigation revealed that Walthu had another daughter named Gloria,
13:05who shared a 25% DNA match with Adlon's mother,
13:09making them half-sisters.
13:10Oh my god, this is crazy.
13:18Your mother's got a sister.
13:19Remarkably, Gloria was found to still be alive and well.
13:24Adlon was overwhelmed by this revelation
13:26and could not contain her excitement to share the news with her mother.
13:30What's your mom going to say when she sees that picture?
13:31Freak out.
13:33Oh, I can't wait.
13:34I just can't.
13:37Yes.
13:38This is awesome.
13:40Number 9.
13:41Claire Danes
13:42Claire Danes was named after her paternal grandmother when she was born.
13:46But beyond that, she didn't know much about the other Claire Danes.
13:49I wonder about her a lot.
13:52I have a portrait of her that my parents loaned me.
13:56Mm-hmm.
13:57And I stare at it all the time, you know.
13:59Who were you?
14:00On a 2023 episode of Finding Your Roots,
14:03Danes discovered that she and her grandmother shared so much in common.
14:07It turned out that her grandmother, like herself,
14:10was deeply involved in theater, directing local productions,
14:13and even writing her master's thesis on William Shakespeare.
14:17What's it like for you to see that?
14:19Profound.
14:20It's really, really meaningful.
14:22It just is.
14:23This connection was particularly poignant for Danes,
14:26who had her breakthrough role in the 1996 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
14:32After years of wondering about her grandmother's life,
14:34learning about their shared passion was enough to bring Danes to tears.
14:38Isn't that amazing?
14:40Sorry, it's very provocative, all this.
14:42It is.
14:44Yeah.
14:44It's like the most vital stuff, right?
14:46Oh, it is.
14:48And it's right there in your family chair.
14:50It's just remarkable.
14:51It really is.
14:52It really is.
14:53Number eight, Tamara Morey.
14:55I wonder what she did to escape her current situation.
15:01Right.
15:02Mm-hmm.
15:03What were her thoughts of hope?
15:06What's her flights of fancy?
15:08Yes.
15:09The horrors of slavery will forever be agonizing,
15:12regardless of how many times they are recounted.
15:14For actress Tamara Morey,
15:16it was particularly distressing to find out about the harrowing ordeal
15:20suffered by her third great-grandmother, Margaret Roll,
15:23who was born into slavery in the Bahamas.
15:26At a mere nine years of age,
15:27Roll was already listed in an official document as a field laborer,
15:31a reality that was incomprehensible to Morey.
15:35I know my kids.
15:36You want to protect them.
15:41You want them to keep that innocence.
15:44Yeah.
15:45But for Margaret...
15:47The actress was further overcome with emotion
15:49as she contemplated the unimaginable journey
15:51her ancestor was left to endure
15:53to attain freedom following the abolition of slavery.
15:57And she was old enough to be conscious of...
15:59That's yes.
16:00I was this, and now I'm that.
16:02And now there's this.
16:02Yeah.
16:02And that's what I'm feeling right now.
16:04Yeah.
16:05Mm-hmm.
16:06You know, just that moment of...
16:08Number seven, Sterling K. Brown.
16:13Wow.
16:15Oh my goodness.
16:16My family's going to flip.
16:18Although African-Americans trace their origins
16:21to individuals forcibly brought from Africa,
16:23it is rare to find people who were directly born on the continent
16:26in their family lineage.
16:28This is because by the time African-Americans
16:30were first identified by name in the 1870 federal census,
16:34most of those born in Africa had already passed away.
16:37One of such rare cases occurred with actor Sterling K. Brown.
16:42Birthplace of father, Africa.
16:45Birthplace of mother, Africa.
16:48On Finding Your Roots,
16:49Brown discovered that his fifth great-grandparents
16:52were among the few native-born Africans
16:54who were still alive when the census took place.
16:57While their exact country of birth
16:58was not specified on the document,
17:00the revelation still had a profound impact on Brown.
17:03When you hear, like, your friends talk about
17:06their German ancestors and their Irish ancestors
17:09and Italian ancestors,
17:11like, I feel like I'm on the cusp of, like,
17:14I can join in that conversation.
17:17Number six, Regina King.
17:19You know, I couldn't imagine that six-year-old being alone.
17:23Right.
17:23And, you know, seeing it like this and seeing it written.
17:26Yeah.
17:27Just, um, just kind of hits differently.
17:29The third great-grandfather of actress and director Regina King
17:33was a man named Bob Kane,
17:35who was born into slavery.
17:36At a very young age,
17:38Kane was treated like a piece of property,
17:40passed among the family members who enslaved him.
17:43Reflecting on such a harsh reality
17:44compared with her own life at the same age
17:46brought King to tears.
17:48At the age of six,
17:50I was...
18:00safe.
18:02Her sorrow eventually turned to joy
18:04when she learned that after slavery ended
18:07and voting rights were granted to formerly enslaved people,
18:10Kane immediately registered to vote.
18:12Despite being unable to read or write at the time,
18:15Kane was determined to exercise this fundamental right,
18:18which filled King with immense happiness.
18:22He understood the importance of that
18:24and what that meant.
18:26Mm-hmm.
18:26And like you said,
18:28even though he couldn't read
18:29and he couldn't write,
18:31he could feel.
18:32Number five, Scarlett Johansson.
18:34It's crazy to imagine that
18:36Saul would be on the other side selling bananas.
18:39Oh, yeah.
18:40On Ludlow Street.
18:41Yeah.
18:41And how different it would be being in America at that time.
18:45The fate of one brother versus the other.
18:48Scarlett Johansson's roots trace back to Poland and Russia,
18:51with her maternal ancestors migrating to New York City
18:54in the early 20th century.
18:56Although Johansson had prior knowledge of this ancestry,
18:59it was on Finding Your Roots
19:00that she uncovered the fate of her relatives
19:02who remained in Europe.
19:04Her maternal great-grandfather,
19:06Saul Schlamburg,
19:07had a brother named Moshek,
19:09whom he left behind in Groyetz, Poland.
19:12Moshek was about 60 years old at the time.
19:16He and his wife had 10 children.
19:19Through a document retrieved
19:21from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel,
19:24Johansson discovered that Moshek
19:26and some of his children
19:28lost their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto.
19:31This revelation not only made her cry,
19:33but it admittedly also helped her
19:35to consider her heritage in a new way.
19:37It makes me feel more deeply connected
19:39to that side of myself,
19:41that side of my family.
19:43I didn't expect that.
19:45Number four, LeVar Burton.
19:47Roots actor LeVar Burton
19:48indeed found out more about his roots
19:50when he appeared on the show in 2024.
19:53Can't even explain how it feels
19:55to get this information.
19:57It's like there have been pieces of me
20:01that have been missing.
20:03They've always been out there somewhere.
20:06For 23 years,
20:08Burton hosted the educational series
20:09Reading Rainbow on PBS,
20:11becoming an advocate for children's literacy.
20:14On Finding Your Roots,
20:15Burton discovered that his passion for education,
20:18which he once attributed solely to his mother,
20:20may have also come from the ancestors of his father,
20:23from whom he had been estranged for decades.
20:25So you just met your great-grandfather.
20:28Pearl.
20:28Yeah, Pearl B. Burton.
20:31And he and your grandfather worked in education.
20:35A 1940 Arkansas census document revealed
20:38that both his grandfather, Aaron C. Burton,
20:41and great-grandfather, Pearl B. Burton,
20:44served as school superintendents.
20:46This struck Burton profoundly,
20:48as he realized how deeply his family's legacy
20:50had influenced his own advocacy,
20:53despite not being aware of it initially.
20:55You just opened the door,
20:56and the whole room was on the other side of the wall,
20:59you know?
21:00No kidding.
21:01My reality has shifted.
21:03Yeah, because you thought
21:04all of these attributes you got from your mom.
21:06From my mom.
21:06Yeah.
21:09That's deep.
21:10Number three, David Duchovny.
21:13The ancestors of actor David Duchovny
21:15faced an arduous journey from their homeland
21:17before establishing their roots in the U.S.
21:19Upon learning that his grandfather,
21:22Moshe, was born in Russia,
21:24Duchovny was immediately brought to tears.
21:26I don't know what that affects me.
21:29It come a long way.
21:30I don't know.
21:31It just makes me so sad
21:38that I didn't get to meet him, really.
21:40He further discovered that Moshe and his family
21:43were part of about one million Jews
21:44who left Russia to escape anti-Semitic violence.
21:48However, even after moving to Yaffa,
21:50in present-day Israel,
21:52the discrimination continued,
21:53and they were eventually deported to Egypt.
21:56Newspaper articles from the time
21:58indicate that many of Yaffa's Jews
22:01were robbed of all their possessions,
22:04meaning that David's ancestors
22:06would have arrived in Egypt with nothing.
22:09Moshe and his father ultimately sailed
22:11to the United States and settled in New York.
22:14Their resilience in seeking a better home
22:16and securing a stable future for their descendants
22:18deeply touched Duchovny
22:20and left him with a sense of pride.
22:22They ran and they ran,
22:24and they got somewhere.
22:26You know, they...
22:27Yeah.
22:27They didn't give up.
22:29Number two, Tracy Morgan.
22:31Before the Civil War,
22:32only a small fraction of Black people
22:34living in America were not enslaved.
22:36One of them was Wiley Wharton,
22:38who happens to be the third great-grandfather
22:40of comedian Tracy Morgan.
22:42Did you ever imagine
22:43that somebody in your family line
22:45was free before the Civil War?
22:48Before the Emancipation Proclamation?
22:50Good for you, Grandpa.
22:58This fact came to light
22:59because Wharton was listed by name
23:01in the 1860 census.
23:03For Morgan,
23:04the revelation that his ancestor
23:05didn't have to endure being enslaved
23:07brought him a mixed feeling of relief
23:09and intense emotion.
23:11I'm free when I'm on stage.
23:12I feel free.
23:14When I'm on stage doing my comedy,
23:16I feel free.
23:18I know it came from you.
23:20However, although Wharton was free,
23:22his wife Judy and their children
23:24were still in slavery.
23:26Fast forward a decade
23:27after the practice had been abolished,
23:29records indicate that Wharton,
23:31Judy,
23:31and their children
23:32all remained together
23:33and learned to read and write.
23:35All the children stayed with them?
23:37Yeah, you all stayed with them.
23:38The Wharton family stayed together
23:40through slavery
23:41and freedom in Reconstruction.
23:43Before we continue,
23:45be sure to subscribe to our channel
23:46and ring the bell to get notified
23:48about our latest videos.
23:49You have the option to be notified
23:51for occasional videos
23:52or all of them.
23:53If you're on your phone,
23:54make sure you go into your settings
23:56and switch on notifications.
23:59Number one, Pharrell Williams.
24:02I don't want to cry
24:03and I'm trying not to be angry.
24:05You're not a machine.
24:08This is horrendous.
24:10What else can you feel?
24:12It's horrible.
24:15It's intense, sir.
24:16Few African Americans
24:17have gotten the opportunity
24:18to trace their enslaved ancestors
24:20and even fewer are lucky enough
24:23to read their first-hand testimonies.
24:25In a 2021 episode
24:26of Finding Your Roots,
24:27acclaimed musician Pharrell Williams
24:29was introduced
24:30to his great-great-great-aunt,
24:32Jane Arrington.
24:33Arrington was a participant
24:35in the Slaves Narrative Project
24:36in the 1930s
24:37and provided a detailed account
24:39of her years spent living
24:40as an enslaved person.
24:42I was born on the plantation
24:44near Tar River.
24:46My mother was named Louisa May
24:47and my father was named Louis May.
24:53My mother had six children,
24:54four boys and two girls.
24:56Through her words,
24:57Williams gained insight
24:58into her harrowing experiences
25:00and was able to reflect
25:02on the hardships that she
25:03and many others like her
25:05were forced to endure.
25:06He also discovered
25:07that Arrington's brother,
25:09Fenner Williams,
25:10his great-great-grandfather,
25:11spent the first decade
25:13of his life enslaved.
25:14It puts a very vivid,
25:17intense context behind
25:19what it means
25:21to be African American.
25:22And I thank God
25:27that I got to hear it
25:29when I'm so sorry
25:31they went through this.
25:32What other harrowing
25:33Finding Your Roots
25:34revelations did we miss?
25:35Trace them out
25:36in the comments below.
25:37I just can't imagine.
25:40How can you?
25:41How can you imagine
25:42anything like that?
25:43The story is the people
25:46that I want to ask
25:47to ask you
25:47what other people
25:48can learn
25:49what they do
25:49and think things
25:50can agree with you.
25:51And I hope the muss
25:52need to be
25:53so할 way
25:54that I do
25:54that I can't
25:54send you
25:55that I can't
25:56that I make
25:57the Support
25:58and the Depハ
25:59and the Training
25:59doesn't
25:59turn any
26:00that you
26:00accept
26:01unless
26:02well
26:02it's
26:03そんな
26:05in Schwe Matte
26:06in law
26:08of
26:09their
26:10and
26:10you
26:11Absolutely
Be the first to comment
Add your comment

Recommended