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Ancestry revelations that made jaws drop! Join us as we count down the most uncomfortable, surprising, and emotionally charged moments when celebrities discovered their family histories on "Finding Your Roots." From shocking slave owner connections to unexpected family relations, these revelations left both guests and viewers speechless!
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00:00I did not know that. So my poor mother was alone with her father.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most surprising familial discoveries celebrities made on finding your roots that left them feeling a little uncomfortable.
00:16I'm sorry. I have to laugh or I cry.
00:21Number 30, Anthony Ramos' enslaved ancestor.
00:25Emmy-nominated actor Anthony Ramos is best known for his role in the historical musical Hamilton.
00:31In 2024, he took a deep dive into his own history on Finding Your Roots, where he uncovered the turbulent story of his 15th great-grandfather Andres.
00:40Andres is described as a guanche, the Spanish word for a native islander, and it seems that he suffered a great deal for that very reason.
00:50An indigenous inhabitant of Tenerife Island, Andres was enslaved by a Spanish conquistador for at least 10 years.
00:57To regain his freedom, he convinced his enslaver to let him find someone to take his place.
01:02That someone was likely one of the recently arrived enslaved Africans in the Canary Islands.
01:07He had to find a substitute slave to take his place.
01:12What Andres did next had Ramos scratching his head.
01:23After securing his freedom, Andres joined the Spanish military, the very folks who had colonized his homeland, and joined the conquest of North Africa, where he likely died.
01:32I can only imagine that he was probably like, yo, this is probably the easiest way for me to have a better life.
01:38Yeah.
01:39So, you know, F it. I'm out.
01:43Number 29, Lea Salonga's father misses his ship.
01:46We often view our parents through the lens of who they are now, forgetting that they were once young and occasionally reckless.
01:52In the season 11 premiere, Tony-winning performer Lea Salonga uncovered a bit of her dad's mischievous side.
01:59She's heard that he was mischievous and playful out in the world, but at home, he was often emotionally distant.
02:07Although she remembers her father, Feliciano Salonga, as emotionally distant, she learned that at 19, he was preparing to leave the Philippines to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
02:17However, after slipping away from the ship to visit his cousin, Feliciano lost track of time and missed his departure.
02:24Your father missed the boat to the Merchant Marine Academy.
02:27Okay.
02:27He never told you this story?
02:29No, I can only guess what he might have been up to.
02:32His family eventually raised the money to send him by plane instead.
02:36While the discovery amused Salonga, it also confirmed her suspicion that he must have been up to some shenanigans.
02:42I wasn't wrong.
02:43No, you weren't wrong.
02:45And he never told you this story.
02:46Nobody ever told you this story.
02:48Nobody told me this story.
02:49All I know is about the days at the Academy.
02:53Number 28, the close relationship between Paul Rudd's parents.
02:56You know how they say married couples tend to look alike over time?
03:00Well, in the case of actor Paul Rudd's parents, the reason might be a little more awkward than sweet.
03:05In this season four episode, Rudd set out to explore his ancestry, only to uncover an unexpected family revelation.
03:11Ethel was Paul's great-grandmother.
03:15We had seen that name before because back in London, we'd encountered it while researching Paul's mother's family.
03:22Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed him that his parents, Michael and Gloria Rudd, weren't just married.
03:28They were actually second cousins.
03:31This means that in addition to sharing children together, they also shared the same great-grandparents.
03:36Uh, second cousins.
03:37That's, is that, it's illegal now, right?
03:40It's legal, but it's unusual.
03:44As you can imagine, this discovery caught Rudd off guard and left him feeling a little weirded out.
03:50Still, he managed to lighten the moment with a perfectly timed joke.
03:53As you will probably tell me, they were related.
03:57They were indeed.
03:58Which, of course, explains why I have six nipples.
04:01Number 27, Michael Imperioli's ancestors' illegal activities.
04:06On the HBO series The Sopranos, Michael Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti,
04:11a hot-headed mafia henchman who rises to the rank of capo.
04:15But when he went on Finding Your Roots in 2025,
04:18Imperioli discovered that his ties to crime extended beyond fiction.
04:21They would actually put, the cop would put the gun down and fight the kid.
04:26Like, that was, like, how they would kind of resolve, like, a beef in the neighborhood.
04:30It turns out his great-grandfather, Rafael Rea, owned a bar in New York in the early 20th century.
04:36And he continued selling alcohol even after Prohibition made that practice illegal.
04:41Apparently, Rea would store the liquor in the cellar of his apartment,
04:44a decision that led to a fire in 1923.
04:47Thinking about it now, it's like, it's such an obvious thing.
04:51Like, if you owned a bar and then Prohibition comes,
04:53it's like, either you're going to close it and do something completely different
04:57or you're going to, you know, do it illegally.
04:59Right.
05:00But that wasn't the only time one of Imperioli's ancestors was caught with alcohol.
05:05In 1922, Rea's sister-in-law was also busted for serving whiskey
05:09and ended up facing federal charges.
05:12What I'm really curious about is how much, like, my mother knows about this stuff.
05:15Like, did she know any of this?
05:16I'm really curious.
05:18Right.
05:18Because I never heard these stories.
05:19Number 26, Sharon Stone's Royal Ancestry.
05:23Given his title as the father of Europe, there must be thousands who descend from Charlemagne,
05:27the first crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
05:31But only few can trace their ancestry back to him with documented proof.
05:35And one of those is Sharon Stone.
05:37Through genealogical research, Stone discovered that her lineage is packed with royal blood,
05:55including not just Charlemagne, but two French kings as well.
05:59Naturally, this was a mind-blowing revelation.
06:02He's one of the most important people in history, of course, and he basically created modern Europe with an iron will.
06:09Well, if you want to see someone whose mind is completely blown, here it is.
06:12With so much royalty in her family tree, one would expect her ancestors lived a life of privilege.
06:17However, the reality was much different.
06:20Stone's mother, Dorothy Larson, actually grew up in extreme poverty in rural Pennsylvania,
06:25which she shared a cramped two-room house with her parents and four siblings.
06:30Feels good.
06:30Yeah.
06:31You know, um, it's a proud moment for me to look at this.
06:35Number 25, Espionage in Kristen Bell's Ancestry.
06:39As I entered my 40s and became an adult and was like,
06:42what is my history?
06:45What, collectively or individually, I want to learn more.
06:48On her father's side, actress Kristen Bell has Scottish roots,
06:52tracing back to her seventh great-grandfather, William Bell, who emigrated from Scotland.
06:57When the American Revolutionary War broke out, William joined the fight,
07:01not as a patriot but as a loyalist, much to Bell's disappointment.
07:05Wrong side of history, friend.
07:07However, William's allegiance wasn't that transparent at the time,
07:11because he actually worked as a spy for the British.
07:14An affidavit written four years after the war revealed that he had been secretly gathering
07:19intel in the U.S. and sending it to Canada.
07:22He was a spy.
07:24He was a loyalist and a spy.
07:26William, you tricky duck.
07:28His spy work eventually caught up with him and he was arrested.
07:32Although William was spared from execution, he was imprisoned and later exiled,
07:36along with his family from their home.
07:39Number 24, Ty Burrell's African-American Ancestors.
07:42For years, actor Ty Burrell had heard a family rumour that his great-grandfather,
07:47George Weeks Jr., was African-American.
07:50Tell me what happened.
07:51Well, it wasn't like, it wasn't a sombre thing.
07:54My mom was like, we just found out some pretty cool stuff.
07:58This seemed a bit far-fetched, considering that by mere looks,
08:01Burrell doesn't appear to have African-American roots.
08:04At first, it seemed the rumour was nothing more than family lore,
08:07as research showed that Weeks was identified as white in certain records.
08:11However, when researchers dug deeper, it became clear that Weeks may have changed the way he
08:16identified over time, as he was actually biracial.
08:19Which means that between 1900 and 1930, George's identity underwent a transformation
08:27from black to mulatto to white.
08:32His mother, Susanna Weeks, was a black woman from Tennessee who moved to Oregon,
08:37where she purchased land and established her family.
08:39She did that? That's insane.
08:42Susanna became the legal owner of that land.
08:46That is badass.
08:49Burrell himself was born and raised in Oregon, and attended the University of Oregon.
08:55Number 23, Carol Burnett searches for her real grandfather.
08:59Although her full name is Carol Creighton Burnett,
09:01this legendary performer spent years unsure who her real grandfather was,
09:06William Creighton or Herman Melton.
09:08Nanny was married to Mr. Creighton first, and he had your mother, and then my mama later.
09:15And my cousin said, no, your mama was Mr. Melton's daughter.
09:22Oh my goodness.
09:23Both men had, at different times, been married to Burnett's grandmother, Mabel,
09:27who was apparently quite the romantic, having tied the knot six times.
09:31Woo!
09:34She was a trip.
09:37Considering her middle name is Creighton, Burnett always assumed William was her grandfather.
09:42But about 30 years ago, her cousin suggested that she might actually be descended from Herman.
09:47Hoping to uncover the truth, Burnett turned to the show for answers, and she eventually got them.
09:53DNA tests confirmed her initial hunch she was indeed a Creighton.
09:56Are you ready to meet your grandfather?
09:58Yeah.
09:59Could you please turn the page?
10:01William Henry Creighton.
10:03William Henry Creighton is in fact your biological grandfather.
10:06Whoa.
10:07Still, Burnett was stunned by just how friendly her grandmother was with the gents.
10:12Number 22.
10:13Joy Behar's family's hometown connection.
10:16Joy Behar was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rose and Louis Occiotto,
10:21who had both immigrated to the United States from Italy.
10:25On Finding Your Roots, Behar came to learn more about the relationship between Rose and Louis.
10:30Joy's mother spent much of her childhood here,
10:33but Joy had no idea that the town had also played a role in her father's family.
10:40She discovered that not only did they originate from the same country,
10:43but they also came from the same region, the same village, and even the same street.
10:47Everybody who probably came to my neighborhood in Williamsburg,
10:49a lot of them must have been from that.
10:51They, you know, they, come on, I'll get you an apartment.
10:53You know, a lot of that must have gone on.
10:55They helped each other.
10:56Their childhood homes were practically staring at each other from across the road.
10:59As it turns out, Behar's grandparents from both her maternal and paternal sides
11:03lived just a stone's throw apart,
11:05making it almost inevitable that her parents would meet.
11:08For Behar, this connection was a little too close for comfort.
11:11I mean, just across the street.
11:12I mean, it's almost incestuous what we're talking about here.
11:15You look out the window and there is an object of your desire right there.
11:18Whoa.
11:18Number 21, Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick.
11:22Wow, what a, what a thing to choose to do with your life.
11:26Yeah.
11:27You know.
11:27I mean, what commitment.
11:28Yeah.
11:29After first meeting on the set of the 1988 film Lemon Sky,
11:32actors Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick got married and have been going strong ever since.
11:38With such a lengthy marriage, you'd think there wouldn't be any surprises left.
11:42But in 2012, the couple decided to dig into their family trees on Finding Your Root,
11:46and what they unearthed was more than a little bizarre.
11:49We decided to play our own game of six degrees of Kevin Bacon with Kevin Bacon.
11:55So let's take a look at that.
11:57This is an actual paper trip.
11:59It turns out the couple is actually related by blood,
12:03although it's a very distant relationship as they are ninth cousins once removed.
12:07While Bacon was clearly floored by the news, Sedgwick took it in stride,
12:11even admitting that she'd had a hunch.
12:13Oy, you're a volta smelter.
12:15I knew it.
12:15I'm telling you, I knew this was going to happen.
12:18Oy.
12:18I'm having a hot flash.
12:21Luckily, the family ties are remote enough not to cause any serious drama.
12:25Number 20, Nora O'Donnell's grandmother's citizenship revoked.
12:29It says Mary Teresa Monaghan, and then it says cancelled.
12:33Cancelled?
12:34Do you know what that means?
12:36Does that mean she was denied?
12:37The grandparents of CBS News anchor Nora O'Donnell immigrated from Ireland to the U.S.,
12:43where they met and got married.
12:45O'Donnell's grandmother, Mary Monaghan, came to America at 23
12:48and managed to build a life for herself, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen.
12:53However, Monaghan's citizenship was unexpectedly revoked,
12:56not because she committed any violent crime or act of treason,
12:59but because she told a little lie.
13:02Claiming that she was single when she was actually already married.
13:08Why did she lie?
13:09Since her husband, O'Donnell's grandfather, was still an undocumented immigrant,
13:14Monaghan lied about her marital status to protect him from being deported.
13:17Call it a white lie or a loving fib, but for O'Donnell, it was a surprising revelation
13:22that made her re-evaluate how she viewed her grandmother.
13:25It's a reminder that, you know, that we all, we all come from somewhere.
13:30And, um, sometimes we forget where we came from.
13:34Number 19, Sammy Hagar or Sammy Belcher.
13:37Sammy, genetically, you are not a Hagar.
13:41Get out of here.
13:42You want to find out what your real biological surname is?
13:45Yes, yes, this is, this is nutty as anything I've ever imagined.
13:48When Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar appeared on Finding Your Roots,
13:52he made some shocking discoveries, but none left him quite as bewildered as this one.
13:56The show's researchers unearthed a 1850 census document,
14:00which revealed that Hagar's great-great-grandmother Elizabeth was raising her kids alone.
14:06Oddly enough, her husband was alive and well, living in a neighboring county with his own mother.
14:10And as far as we could tell, they never reunited.
14:13They separated and never reunited.
14:15Wow, she raised kids by herself.
14:16She raised kids by herself, yep.
14:18Wow.
14:19So, this is where the story gets wild.
14:21To untangle this mystery, they tested Hagar's DNA
14:23and found that he shared no biological connection to the Hagar family.
14:27Instead, he was genetically linked to 27 men with the surname Belcher.
14:32Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. speculated that Elizabeth may have had an affair,
14:36which prompted her husband to leave her and move in with his mother.
14:39This gives me so much mind-chewing ability.
14:44I mean, man, my mind's going to work on this like a mouse on a wheel of cheese, man.
14:49Number 18, A Legal Dispute in John Waters' Family.
14:53This is like a Dickens novel and you never heard anything about it.
14:56No.
14:56Well, that's how the money was passed out.
14:58Bitter family disputes are nothing new.
15:00They have occurred for centuries, plaguing both royal elites and regular folks alike.
15:04In the season 7 premiere, filmmaker John Waters learned about a conflict within his own family.
15:10It's twisted history.
15:11It is.
15:12Yeah.
15:12Your family tree drips with drama.
15:14Yeah.
15:15Yeah.
15:15After the death of her husband, Waters' great-grandmother, Bertha Whittaker,
15:19was dragged to court by her mother-in-law, Mary.
15:22This fight was over custody of Bertha's young son, Clifford, and, as is the case with many
15:27other families, money matters.
15:29Mary argued that Bertha had an ungovernable temper and lacked the resources to raise the
15:34child.
15:35However, the court disagreed, granting Bertha custody of Clifford and even giving her a
15:40chunk of the family fortune.
15:41It's the kind of riveting twist you'd find in a John Waters film.
15:45And thinking up drama.
15:46You know, I'm always thinking up and saying things that happen to people.
15:49Yeah.
15:49That's how I make my living.
15:51Number 17.
15:52LeVar Burton learns of his white ancestor.
15:55Did you have any idea you had a white direct ancestor?
16:02No!
16:04No, I had no idea.
16:06When you go digging into your family tree, you might not be entirely thrilled with what
16:10you find.
16:11No one knows this better than actor and TV host LeVar Burton.
16:14Burton, who rose to prominence for playing enslaved protagonist Kunta Kinte in the 1977
16:20miniseries Roots, discovered his own roots traced back to a white farmer named James Henry
16:25Dixon.
16:26To make things even more awkward, Burton learned that Dixon had served with the Confederate
16:29Army during the American Civil War.
16:32Are you kidding me?
16:33That's true.
16:35Oh my god.
16:38Oh my god.
16:40I did not see this coming.
16:41To say that he was shocked by these revelations would be an understatement.
16:45However, he did manage to find a silver lining, acknowledging that it could help ease his
16:48conversations with white people in America.
16:51Especially in this current time frame, in this now moment, I believe that as Americans, we
16:58need to have this conversation about who we are and how we got here.
17:02Number 16, Neil Patrick Harris reacts to his ancestors' tragic fate.
17:07Do you have any idea what they are accusing your ancestor Gertrude of?
17:12Um, making some delicious meal?
17:15Long before the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century, individuals across Europe,
17:19especially women, faced accusations of witchcraft.
17:22One of such women was Neil Patrick Harris' 12th great-grandmother, Gertrude Stuhl.
17:27In 16th century Germany, Stuhl was accused of enchanting her neighbour's livestock to
17:33kill them, and she was placed on trial for her life.
17:35She is supposed to have bewitched the pigs and cows of her neighbours so that they died.
17:41The cattle had foam on their necks, one cow lost her hooves, and the pigs had breathed
17:47like a bellows.
17:49Sadly, the proceedings ended with Stuhl being found guilty of practising witchcraft and
17:53sentenced to death.
17:54You'd think this tragic family history would provoke a sombre reaction, but instead, Harris
17:58seemed oddly thrilled by the idea of his ancestor being burned at the stake.
18:02Even more unsettling, he drew a connection between Stuhl's accusation of black magic to
18:07his own love of magic.
18:08But I would like to think that she really was a witch, and she had magical powers.
18:14We lost one for the cause, but the witchcraft lives on.
18:19Number 15, Larry David's secretive mother.
18:21It can be astounding how little one knows about their own family history.
18:25For comedian Larry David, this truth hit hard when he went on to the show, hoping to learn
18:30more about his mother, Rose, who he admits was notoriously secretive.
18:33You know, she was older than my father.
18:35Right.
18:36I never knew that until she died.
18:37Oh, okay.
18:38So there you go.
18:39It's always puzzled me how little I knew.
18:42As researchers sifted through historical records, they unearthed a document showing that
18:46his grandmother had a daughter named Regina.
18:50But David was puzzled.
18:51He never had an Aunt Regina.
18:53Did she die, change her name, or simply vanish?
18:56Wow, so you think we made a mistake?
18:58No, I don't think you made a mistake.
18:59I think she must have left somebody there, or maybe she died.
19:03Well, no.
19:04Turns out David's mother, Rose, was actually born Regina, a fact that he was completely
19:09unaware of.
19:10Whatever reason she had for the name change, Rose took it to her grave, leaving her son
19:15utterly confused.
19:16Did you know your mother was born in Europe?
19:18No, I did not.
19:20You see, this is why she had secrets.
19:23Yeah.
19:24Secrets.
19:25Yeah.
19:26Number 14, a hidden relationship in Sierra's ancestry.
19:29Nathan, no, no, no, don't go there.
19:31Uh-uh.
19:31Nathan said, I'm going there.
19:33Yeah.
19:33He went there, and his wife went somewhere else.
19:36In the season 10 premiere, Sierra stumbled upon a family secret involving her great-great-grandmother,
19:42Emily Redding.
19:43The singer's DNA test showed a biological connection to Redding and her son, Willie Head,
19:48but not to Willie's supposed father, Nathan.
19:50To add to the surprise, the results also linked Sierra to several other people, all of whom
19:54were white.
19:55I think about, like, my grandfather's hair.
19:57Mm-hmm.
19:58Oh, yeah?
19:59You know?
19:59He had good hair.
20:00As he got older, he got a little more, you know, a little more coarse.
20:03I look at some of his, you know, the photos that I did get to see when he was younger
20:09with my grandma, and it was fine.
20:11Further investigation revealed Willie's actual father, a white man named Walker Lafayette
20:16Head.
20:17Apparently, Walker and Nathan lived near each other around the time Willie was conceived.
20:21Walker and Nathan grew up in the same house together.
20:24Wow.
20:24And at some point, when both men were about 40, Walker slept with Nathan's wife.
20:30Whether Walker and Redding's relationship was consensual is unknown, but Sierra seemed
20:35to believe that it was.
20:37However, considering the societal dynamics back then, that might not have been very likely.
20:42I'd definitely like to believe there was some connectivity that happened.
20:45People fall in love?
20:47You can't control it.
20:48Desire is colorblind.
20:50Oh, yeah.
20:51I mean, yeah.
20:52Love is love.
20:52Number 13, Sonny Hostin's Spanish roots.
20:55I'm still sort of shocked about the depth of the ties, I guess.
21:01What do you think?
21:02All these white people just came up out of the ground?
21:04They had to come from somewhere.
21:05TV host Sonny Hostin was born in 1968 to a Puerto Rican mother and an African-American
21:11father.
21:11So she always believed that her heritage was half Puerto Rican.
21:15However, when she appeared on Finding Your Roots in February 2024, she got an unexpected
21:20surprise.
21:20Hostin learned that she was only 7% indigenous Puerto Rican and that she descended from a
21:27Spanish merchant who, it turns out, most likely participated in the slave trade.
21:32Wow.
21:34I'm a little bit in shock.
21:36I just always thought of myself as Puerto Rican, you know, half Puerto Rican.
21:40I didn't think I was, uh, my family was originally from Spain and slaveholders.
21:46This revelation contrasted with her political beliefs, leaving her feeling a mix of shock
21:51and disappointment.
21:52Despite this, she admitted that the discovery enriched her understanding of her family's
21:56history, even though it didn't necessarily change her perspective.
22:00I guess it's a fact of life that, uh, this is how some people made their living, on the
22:05backs of others.
22:06Number 12, LL Cool J's biological grandparents.
22:09Getting told by your parents that you're adopted can be earth-shattering for everyone.
22:13Now, imagining making such a discovery years after they've passed away, on a TV show no
22:18less.
22:19That's exactly what happened to rapper LL Cool J and his mother, Andrea Griffith, on Finding
22:23Your Roots.
22:24But they had their reasons for not telling me.
22:28Finding out when I'm my age now, I can understand it.
22:32I can put everything in perspective.
22:34After his parents split up in his childhood, LL was raised by his maternal grandparents,
22:38who supported his musical ambitions.
22:41But one secret they hid was that his mother was not their biological child.
22:45There was something odd about this birth certificate.
22:47Notice that there are no parents listed.
22:49Notice also that it was made out in 1947, which is over a year after your mother was
22:56born.
22:58Wow.
23:00Even Griffith didn't know this, only learning about it through the show.
23:04The news was so sensitive that host Henry Louis Gates Jr. had to call LL privately, away
23:09from the cameras, to break it to him.
23:11Well, some people would have wanted to keep this information private, but you and your
23:15mom wanted to learn more.
23:16Yeah.
23:17Why?
23:17I need to know this.
23:18I mean, my mother deserves it.
23:20Number 11, Ben Affleck controversy.
23:23It's always been a kind of a blank canvas to me, and so I'm very excited to sort of fill
23:27in the blanks.
23:29Discovering that one's ancestors owned slaves can be embarrassing for some people.
23:33It was a sense of shame that pushed actor Ben Affleck to a drastic point.
23:37It makes it feel less academic and more personal, and I'm very surprised by this.
23:44Affleck appeared on the show in 2014, when he learned that his maternal ancestor, Benjamin
23:48Cole, was a slave owner in Georgia.
23:51The revelation unsettled him so much that he went to great lengths to keep it hidden.
23:55Affleck successfully lobbied Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the show's producers to omit this information
24:01from the aired episode.
24:03However, the infamous Sony Pictures hack that year unearthed emails that revealed Affleck's
24:07efforts to suppress the truth.
24:09The ensuing controversy led to the show being temporarily suspended, although it returned
24:13after Affleck apologised for his actions.
24:16We tend to separate ourselves from these things by going like, you know, oh well, it's just
24:20dry history and it's all over now.
24:22And this shows us that there's still a living aspect to the history, like a personal connection.
24:26Number 10, Laura Linney's felonious ancestors.
24:29I want to guess what I want to know.
24:30What did he do?
24:31What did he do?
24:32What did he do?
24:33You might be familiar with the British practice of sending convicts to Australia during the
24:3718th and 19th centuries.
24:39But did you know that before Australia, the primary destination for British prisoners was
24:43actually America?
24:44Transportation of convicts to the American colonies in the 18th century was a way for England to
24:49rid the country of criminals without killing them.
24:51If this fact didn't come as a surprise to you, it definitely did for award-winning actress
24:56Laura Linney.
24:57When she appeared on the show in 2019, Linney discovered that her fifth great-grandfather,
25:01William Linney, had been convicted in England of receiving stolen goods and was transported
25:06to Virginia in 1768.
25:08Well knowing them to have been stolen, the justice said, Mr. Linney, you hear what the
25:13lad has said, have you anything to say?
25:16Linney said, no, I own, I had the goods.
25:19Probably not the most flattering information to learn about one's ancestor, but Linney took
25:23it in stride with a hearty laugh.
25:25That is the passenger list from the ship on which your ancestors sailed from 1768.
25:30Probably, mackerel, felons transported from London to Virginia by the Neptune.
25:36Number nine, Soledad O'Brien's ancestor falls on hard times.
25:40Laura Linney was not the only celebrity to uncover their ancestors' criminal background.
25:44I didn't realize on the Whiteman side, which by the way, nobody talks about, and now I know
25:48why, because they also ran things like scams.
25:52In another episode, veteran broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien was also hit with a mortifying
25:58revelation about her third great-grandmother, Lilius Whiteman.
26:02Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented O'Brien with a prison register from 19th century Scotland,
26:08revealing that a 41-year-old Whiteman had been arrested for robbery alongside a group of
26:13teenage boys.
26:14It soon became clear that Whiteman might have been leading a gang of young thieves in Edinburgh,
26:22Scotland.
26:23This theory seemed to embarrass O'Brien initially, but when they dug deeper into the actual reason
26:28why Whiteman resorted to crime, her perspective changed.
26:31So her husband died at age 39.
26:33Yeah, the death of her husband, the breadwinner, was probably what pushed Lilius and William
26:38into the life of petty larceny.
26:41That's really sad.
26:43They were stealing to survive.
26:45Number eight, not Julia Roberts.
26:47The name Julia Roberts is instantly recognizable to millions around the world, but what if we
26:51told you it's actually not her biological name?
26:54Is my head on straight still?
26:56Am I facing you?
26:57The Oscar-winning actress derived her surname from Willis Roberts, her supposed great-great-grandfather.
27:03However, genealogical research uncovered a discrepancy.
27:06Julia's great-grandfather, John, was born more than a decade after Willis passed away.
27:11This meant that the actress couldn't be biologically related to Willis Roberts.
27:14We scoured Douglas County looking for any record that named John's father, and we found absolutely
27:21nothing.
27:22Through DNA analysis, the show eventually traced her ancestry to a man named Henry MacDonald
27:27Mitchell Jr., a married man who lived only a few miles away from Willis' wife, Rhoda.
27:32A few short miles, it would seem.
27:36And get this.
27:37According to the same census, Henry's widowed mother, Elizabeth Mitchell, lived just four
27:43households from Rhoda.
27:47Wow.
27:48Despite the biological inaccuracy, we still think Julia Roberts has a much better ring to
27:52it than Julia Mitchell.
27:54Number seven, Issa Rae's free ancestors.
27:57If they were named, would they be free?
27:59The Charbonnets were free.
28:02How did they get away with that?
28:04During the era of slavery, people who were enslaved were typically admitted from census
28:09records.
28:09However, during her appearance on Finding Your Roots in 2021, actress and producer Issa Rae
28:14discovered documents that identified her third great-grandfather, Dawson Charbonnet, by
28:19name.
28:20This was due to the fact that Charbonnet's mother, Melit, had been granted freedom by
28:24her owner, who also happened to be a black man.
28:26So you just blew my mind even more.
28:29Mm-hmm.
28:30So they were owned by a black.
28:34Another black person.
28:36Slavery was a very complicated institution.
28:38Yes, it was.
28:39Additionally, Rae learned that Charbonnet's father was a white man who had his own family,
28:45but engaged in a clandestine relationship with Melit.
28:48If this all felt like a convoluted television B-plot, then you're not alone.
28:52Even Rae shared the same sentiment.
28:54This is so...
28:56It's like you just took me through a soap opera.
28:59Like a slave soap opera.
29:02Whew, wow.
29:04That is some twisted family history.
29:07Number six, Gayle King's European ancestry.
29:10I knew her father was white, that her mother was black, but we were not to talk about it,
29:15and she never wanted to talk about it.
29:17Gayle King's family harbored a long-held secret concerning her maternal grandmother,
29:21Emma Brown.
29:22It was revealed that Brown was the product of a white father and a black mother, a fact
29:26seemingly concealed out of shame, at least according to King.
29:29What was his ethnicity?
29:31White man.
29:32Just white man?
29:35White man.
29:36Not from Germany, England, Ireland?
29:38No, white man.
29:39White man, okay.
29:40White man, and do not ask her about her father.
29:42The genealogists at Finding Your Roots were able to trace King's ancestry back to Robert
29:47Elliot Copes, a white man from South Carolina, and Emma Brown's grandfather.
29:53This discovery unveiled King's European ancestry, which comprises of over 30% of her genetic
29:58makeup.
29:59However, when the results of this DNA analysis were revealed to her at the end of the episode,
30:03King didn't seem to be very pleased with them.
30:05You are one third of white.
30:08Take that back.
30:09Number five, Angela Davis descended from white settlers.
30:13You'd be shocked to learn what some of your ancestors were up to.
30:16That probably should be the tagline for Finding Your Roots.
30:18In 2023, the show delivered yet another jaw-dropping revelation, this time to political activist
30:24Angela Davis.
30:24Any idea what you're looking at?
30:27That is a list of the passengers on the Mayflower.
30:30No, I can't believe this.
30:32No.
30:34My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.
30:37Throughout her lengthy career, Davis gained a fierce reputation from her unwavering advocacy
30:41for civil rights, as well as her relentless fight against structural racism.
30:46Hence, she was taken aback to learn that her ancestors were the complete opposite.
30:50Oof, that's a little bit too much to deal with right now.
30:57Davis was revealed to be a direct descendant of William Brewster, one of the 102 settlers
31:02who journeyed to the colonies on the Mayflower.
31:05Just goes to show that despite sharing bloodlines, people can still differ greatly from their ancestors.
31:10Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think that you may have descended from people who
31:16laid the foundation for this kind of thing?
31:19Never.
31:20Never.
31:21Number four, George R.R. Martin's grandmother's affair.
31:25When George R.R. Martin appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019, he uncovered a surprising family
31:30tale reminiscent of the Sordid Ones in his epic fantasy books.
31:34Author George R.R. Martin spent much of his childhood in the home of his beloved grandmother.
31:41Grace Martin.
31:43But George knew almost nothing about his grandfather, Grace's husband, Louis Martin.
31:50Martin had always believed that his Italian paternal grandfather, Louis, had abandoned his
31:54grandmother, Grace, for a younger woman.
31:56However, that notion was shattered when the show's team revealed the results of Martin's
32:00DNA test.
32:01What's missing from that chart?
32:03The Italians.
32:04The Italians.
32:05There's no Italian.
32:07Okay, that's shocking.
32:09Martin's DNA showed a call to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, suggesting his true grandfather was
32:14Jewish.
32:15It was quickly surmised that it was Grace who likely cheated on Louis, which eventually
32:20pushed him away.
32:21I've often thought of writing a book about, you know, that house.
32:26I haven't even told half the stories yet of some of the people who live there at various
32:30points.
32:30That book just got more complicated.
32:32Oh, we fully expect the next book to be chaotic.
32:36Number three, the identity of Viola Davis's great-grandfather.
32:40Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis came on Finding Your Roots, expecting to learn more about
32:44her ancestry.
32:46But she probably wasn't ready for the messy familial secrets that she would uncover.
32:50Did your mom ever talk about this?
32:52Never.
32:53Mmm.
32:53Isn't that interesting?
32:54That silence?
32:55Silence is always interesting to me.
32:57Davis learned that her grandfather, Henry Logan, had a mysterious lineage.
33:02In official documents, two different men had been listed as his father, Gable Logan,
33:07on his social security application, and John Young on his obituary.
33:12Mmm.
33:14Mmm.
33:15Ooh.
33:16Although Henry's mother, Corinne, was married to Gable, historical records showed that after
33:21he came back from World War I, Gable never returned to live with Corinne.
33:25Through DNA analysis and census data, the researchers inferred that Corinne likely had
33:31an affair with her neighbor, John Young, resulting in the birth of Davis's grandfather.
33:35It's the mess of relationships and the mess of, you know, love, sex.
33:42Mmm.
33:42Um, yeah, it's truth.
33:44Number two, Katherine Hahn's ancestors moved from Germany to America.
33:48Our forefathers often relocated to different countries for various reasons, economic prospects,
33:53fleeing conflict, or in the case of Katherine Hahn's ancestor, eloping with their lover at
33:58the expense of family ties.
34:00That is so complicated.
34:02Well, one thing you should know that you don't have to worry about in the guilt, uh, chart.
34:06No guilt!
34:07Just like, what?
34:08In 1853, Hahn's third great-grandfather, Wilhelm Luhlenschloss, was living in Germany
34:14with his wife and six children.
34:16However, by 1860, Wilhelm had moved to Wisconsin, now married to a different woman named Eliza.
34:22The Finding Your Roots team dug deeper into this significant change.
34:26On the right, you could see the name of the man who lived at Ehrenstrasse 48, just a few
34:32doors down.
34:33Could you read his surname?
34:35Anton Ternes.
34:37And whose surname was Ternes?
34:38Hers.
34:39Through a German city directory from 1854, they found that Eliza was the daughter of Wilhelm's
34:44neighbor.
34:45This suggests that Wilhelm met Eliza there in Germany, then abandoned his family to start
34:49a new one with her in America.
34:51The fact that that had to happen for this to happen is...
34:55You are the product of the scandal.
34:57I know.
34:57You are the end result.
34:58Isn't that nuts?
35:00Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
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35:10If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
35:16Number one, Niecy Nash learns who her grandfather is.
35:19Hollywood actress Niecy Nash was in for a rude shock when she appeared on the ninth season
35:24of Finding Your Roots.
35:25Turns out the man that Nash had always believed to be her paternal grandfather actually wasn't.
35:29I was in a state of shock.
35:31I think I said, I said what now?
35:35Um, what exactly does that mean?
35:40Um, and then I realized what you were saying.
35:44Naturally, this was an incredibly surprising revelation for the actress, who now faced the
35:48challenging task of breaking the news to her father.
35:51Researchers on the show used Nash's DNA along with that of a second cousin to uncover the
35:56identity of her biological grandfather, a man named Frank Jackson.
36:01What's it like to see this?
36:03So many things are going on in my mind right now.
36:05I'm like, I wonder if my father ever met him or if he ever knew him in his life.
36:13So how did this discrepancy occur?
36:15Well, that's the complicated part.
36:17Jackson actually lived very close to Nash's grandfather in St. Louis.
36:21So it's believed the two had an affair, which ultimately produced Nash's father.
36:27To where Mr. Jackson lives.
36:28So Mr. Jackson came round to the house a time or two while she was already married to Arthur.
36:34Well, we don't know if he came to the house or she came to his house.
36:37But they met on up.
36:39Have you ever gone digging into your ancestry?
36:41What uncomfortable secrets did you uncover?
36:43Share them with us in the comments below.
36:45Having a good time with the families.
36:47That's how I get at it.
36:48Shenanigans.
36:51Shenanigans.
36:52Shenanigans.
36:53Shenanigans.
36:54Shenanigans.
36:55Shenanigans.
36:56Shenanigans.
36:57Shenanigans.
36:58Shenanigans.
36:59Shenanigans.
37:00Shenanigans.
37:01Shenanigans.
37:02Shenanigans.
37:03Shenanigans.
37:04Shenanigans.
37:05Shenanigans.
37:06Shenanigans.
37:07Shenanigans.
37:08Shenanigans.
37:09Shenanigans.
37:10Shenanigans.
37:11Shenanigans.
37:12Shenanigans.
37:13Shenanigans.
37:14Shenanigans.
37:15Shenanigans.
37:16Shenanigans.
37:17Shenanigans.
37:18Shenanigans.
37:19Shenanigans.
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