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Ancestry can be full of shocking surprises! Join us as we explore the most jaw-dropping discoveries celebrities have made about their family histories on PBS's hit genealogy show. From unexpected connections to historical figures to surprising ethnic backgrounds, these stars learned things about their past that changed how they see themselves forever.
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00:00I don't even know what to say.
00:01Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most sensational moments
00:07from Finding Your Roots, where celebrities uncovered shocking truths about their ancestry.
00:13Even weeks later, Joe was still trying to process the news.
00:19Number 20, Carly Simon.
00:21All her life, singer-songwriter Carly Simon believed that her maternal grandmother,
00:26Ophelia Oliete, who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba, had Spanish and Moroccan roots.
00:32In 2017, Simon decided to dig deeper into her grandmother's ancestry, suspecting there was more to the story.
00:39She always wanted to remain completely private. She never shared any of her past with us.
00:46It was always a mystery, and she kept it a mystery.
00:48The Finding Your Roots researchers traveled down to Cuba, where they sifted through Catholic church
00:53documents and uncovered a surprising truth.
00:56Incredible. This is why she'd be said, you'll find nothing, because she couldn't find anything.
01:01She couldn't find anything, and she had things that she was hiding.
01:04Simon's grandmother was actually 40% black, and likely downplayed that heritage to avoid
01:10discrimination during the Jim Crow era. As a result, Simon discovered that she herself
01:16is 10% black, a revelation that left her genuinely stunned and eager to share with the rest of her
01:22family.
01:23We have never tested a white person as black as you.
01:27Can't wait to call my sisters and my brother and tell them this.
01:31Number 19, Dionne Warwick.
01:33Although she grew up in New Jersey, Dionne Warwick always knew her roots traced back to Georgia.
01:38The story of how her family ended up in New Jersey, however, remained a mystery until she
01:43appeared on the show in 2024. You know what you're looking at?
01:47The deed? The deed of them buying their land.
01:50Yeah. Isn't that cool?
01:52Warwick learned that her great-great-grandfather, John Drinkard Sr., owned a farm in Georgia in the
01:58early 1900s, likely growing cotton. This was a rare feat at a time when most black farmers were
02:04stuck in the cycle of sharecropping. But when a beetle infestation ravaged Georgia in the early
02:091920s, and a bank loan went south, Warwick's grandfather, Nicholas Drinkard, was forced to
02:16sell the farm and move to Newark. There, he formed a gospel singing group, setting the stage for Warwick's
02:22future stardom.
02:23He loved to sing. He had a voice that was angelic. And he knew his children could sing.
02:32And these are his children.
02:35Number 18. Questlove. The episode featuring Roots drummer and joint frontman Questlove was more than
02:42just a deep dive into his ancestry. It also unveiled a surprising connection to a pivotal chapter in
02:49American history.
02:50Amir Thompson, better known as Questlove, has one of the most astonishing stories we've ever recovered.
02:57Although the international slave trade was officially banned in the US in 1807, illegal smuggling persisted
03:03for years. The last known ship to bring captives from Africa to the US was Clotilda, which illegally
03:10transported 110 people from what is now the Republic of Benin.
03:15I'm on the absolute last ship that ever came here.
03:21Through Finding Your Roots, Questlove discovered that his great-great-great-grandparents, Charles
03:27and Maggie Lewis, were among those smuggled on Clotilda. Seeing a picture of Charles Lewis was
03:33so overwhelming for Questlove that it moved him to tears.
03:37I said I wasn't going to cry, man. I didn't know who I was or who I came from.
03:45Number 17. Julia Roberts.
03:47Imagine going through life only to discover you've been rocking the wrong surname the whole time.
03:54That's exactly what happened to Julia Roberts.
03:56The story begins with her great-grandfather, John Roberts, and with his mother, a woman named Rhoda Subtle.
04:05You ever hear that name?
04:06No.
04:06On the show, Roberts uncovered a family secret involving her great-grandfather, John Roberts.
04:11An 1880 census listed a two-year-old John living with his siblings and mother, Rhoda Subtle.
04:18But there was no mention of Rhoda's husband, Willis Roberts.
04:22You notice anyone missing?
04:25A dad?
04:26A dad. The dad is missing.
04:29That's because Willis died over a decade prior.
04:32Clearly, he couldn't have fathered John.
04:35Julia, Willis Roberts could not possibly be your great-great-grandfather. He was dead.
04:42But, oh, wait. But am I not a Roberts?
04:45A deeper dive into the family's DNA revealed John's true father was a married man named Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr., who likely had an affair with Rhoda.
04:54So technically, Roberts' actual name should be Julia Mitchell, which, let's be honest, just doesn't have the same ring to it.
05:01So we're Mitchells?
05:03You're Julia Mitchell.
05:04Number 16, Andy Samberg.
05:09From a young age, comedian Andy Samberg's mother, Margie, knew she was adopted.
05:14But uncovering the identity of her biological parents proved difficult.
05:18Even a private detective hired by the family came up empty-handed.
05:22So Samberg enlisted Henry Louis Gates Jr. to help crack the case.
05:26It's something that I really wished for my mother.
05:29Because I know that it would be something to give her peace about it, just to know.
05:34Using historical records and vague descriptions from the adoption agency, they zeroed in on a woman named Ellen Phillips-Borne.
05:41To confirm the connection, they tracked down Phillips-Borne's niece and compared her DNA to Margie's, which turned out to be a match.
05:49Your mother and Renata's daughter share about 13.5% of their DNA, which puts them solidly in the range of first cousins.
05:59Holy cow.
06:02They were also able to identify Margie's father, a sailor named Salvatore Maida.
06:07Interestingly, Phillips-Borne got pregnant while studying child psychology at UC Berkeley and shared Margie's passion for working with children.
06:16My mom is someone that always everyone describes as like a child whisperer, that she just knows how to deal with kids.
06:23She understands kids.
06:25It's the thing she was drawn to, to her inexplicably.
06:29Number 15, Edward Norton.
06:32The ninth season premiere of Finding Your Roots didn't just drop a bombshell about Julia Roberts.
06:37It also unearthed some surprising facts about fellow actor Edward Norton.
06:42Well, I was fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by the idea of Roots, the idea of what drives people to leave one place and go to another.
06:53To start, Norton found out he is actually distantly related to Roberts, but that's not all.
07:00He also discovered that Pocahontas is his 12th great-grandmother, confirming a family legend he had heard his entire life.
07:08Pocahontas is indeed your 12th great-grandmother.
07:10Oh my God.
07:11However, the journey through Norton's ancestry wasn't all rosy.
07:15An 1850 North Carolina census revealed that his third great-grandfather, John Winstead, owned enslaved people, some of whom were children.
07:24It was a sobering moment for the actor, who acknowledged it not as a judgment on his own life, but an uncomfortable truth that must be contended with.
07:33I mean, when you go away from census counts and you personalise the thing, you're talking about possibly a husband and wife with five girls.
07:44Number 14, Fred Armisen.
07:47Fred Armisen's grandfather, Masumi Kuni, seemed like an ordinary guy, a Japanese dancer who lived in Germany before moving to the U.S. later in life.
07:56I met him, I want to say maybe four or five times.
08:00What did your father say when he was thinking? He said, I'm taking you to meet your grandfather?
08:03Yeah, our Kuni's coming.
08:04But it wasn't until he appeared on Finding Your Roots that Armisen realised Kuni was anything but ordinary.
08:11In actuality, Kuni was South Korean, born in 1908 as Park Yong-In.
08:16He only assumed a Japanese identity after the 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan.
08:23While living in Germany, Kuni performed for frontline troops, subtly aiding propaganda efforts for the Nazis.
08:30In essence, your grandfather travelled around occupied territories, putting on performances for German soldiers.
08:36Wow.
08:36That's what he was being paid for.
08:38Perhaps even more surprising, Kuni also doubled as a spy for Japan during this period,
08:44gathering intelligence from the Germans and feeding it back.
08:47He wasn't just a dancer, he was practically a master of disguise.
08:52And it's one way in that isn't a soldier.
08:55I suppose that is what espionage is all about.
08:57Number 13, Mandy Patinkin.
09:00Actor Mandy Patinkin was born to a family of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland.
09:05This is the very moment that your great-grandfather arrived in America.
09:09Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
09:11Nevertheless, he went his entire life believing that none of his relatives had perished in the Holocaust.
09:18In this season's seven episode, however, Patinkin learned he was sorely mistaken.
09:23Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed a document showing that his grandfather's cousin,
09:29Lazor Patinka, and his family were among those rounded up in the Polish town of Brantz.
09:34Did your grandma Celia ever talk about this with you all?
09:37No.
09:37They were then sent to the Treblinka concentration camp where they all sadly lost their lives.
09:44Discovering this heartbreaking truth brought Patinkin to tears.
09:48A powerful reminder that the consequences of hate are never too far away from any of us.
09:53I was never given this information.
09:56This is...
09:57I don't have words.
09:59That's...
10:00That's unbelievable.
10:04Number 12.
10:05Sunny Hostin.
10:07Sometimes new information comes and flips your world upside down.
10:11The View co-host Sunny Hostin knows this all too well.
10:15When did you first realize that you wanted to make an impact on the world?
10:18Oh.
10:19I was probably seven or eight.
10:21Hostin had already identified as Afro-Latina, proudly embracing what she believed were her half-Puerto Rican roots.
10:29But the reality was much different.
10:31A DNA test on finding your roots revealed Hostin was only 7% Puerto Rican, with a significant portion of her ancestry being Spanish.
10:40I'm a little bit in shock.
10:42I just always thought of myself as Puerto Rican, you know, half-Puerto Rican.
10:46She also learned that her maternal fourth-great-grandfather was a Spanish merchant likely tied to the slave trade.
10:53And his son, Ferman, even owned at least one enslaved person.
10:57I guess it's a fact of life that this is how some people made their living, on the backs of others.
11:04The discovery was a bitter pill to swallow, especially for Hostin's mother, who identified as Puerto Rican and was involved in the civil rights movement.
11:13My mother especially was very politically active and would sort of take me on marches and protests and stuff like that.
11:22And I took it to heart.
11:23Number 11. Joe Manganiello
11:25When Joe Manganiello appeared in this Season 9 episode, he uncovered some jaw-dropping truths about his family tree.
11:32The Turks came into her home in 1915 under the guise of World War I.
11:37His maternal great-grandmother's survival of the Armenian Genocide was a heroic tale.
11:42But it was his paternal ancestry that host Henry Louis Gates Jr. labelled one of the show's all-time greatest hits.
11:48I'm going to tell you about your Cutler family.
11:50Okay.
11:51You ready?
11:51Yeah.
11:52DNA analysis showed that the actor was not related to Emilio Manganiello, the man he believed to be his grandfather.
11:58Instead, the team traced his roots to his actual paternal great-grandparents, William Henry Cutler and Nellie Olsen,
12:06an interracial couple who defied societal norms by marrying at a time when it was unacceptable.
12:12So your great-grandparents had a tremendous amount of courage.
12:18This revelation was confirmed by further DNA testing, which showed that Manganiello is 7% sub-Saharan African.
12:25Number 10, Tina Fey.
12:28At first glance, it may appear that Tina Fey and founding father Benjamin Franklin share nothing in common.
12:35Other than their luscious shoulder-length locks, of course.
12:38However, a surprising connection between the two was revealed on Finding Your Roots.
12:43It turns out Fey's paternal fifth great-grandfather was John Hewson, an English textile manufacturer trained in London.
12:53That looks so much like my dad.
12:55Really?
12:55Yes.
12:56Hewson moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the suggestion of his friend Benjamin Franklin,
13:03who helped him establish a quilting factory there.
13:06Shortly after, the American Revolution broke out and reached Pennsylvania.
13:11Despite being English himself, Hewson seemingly opposed British colonialism in America and served as a patriot during the war.
13:20Full name of soldier, Captain John Hewson.
13:23Today, his quilt work still hangs at the Met.
13:27I tried to make a quilt once. I didn't finish.
13:30So maybe you didn't get the quilting gene.
13:31I didn't get it. I didn't get the quilting gene.
13:33Number 9, Brandon Fraser.
13:36It's not uncommon for striking employees to harbour anger and frustration towards so-called scab workers.
13:44But it seems one of actor Brandon Fraser's ancestors may have taken things a little too far.
13:50What's it like to read that to think that is your ancestor shooting another man?
13:56Fraser's great-great-grandfather, Patrick Devine, migrated from Ireland to the US
14:03and found employment in a Pennsylvania coal mine.
14:06As an Irish immigrant, Devine faced discrimination at work and protested a wage reduction by going on strike.
14:14The 1900 census shows him working again in the mines, meaning that somehow he got himself rehired,
14:22despite having fired shots at his replacement.
14:25When scab workers replaced the striking employees, Devine and another engineer shot one of the replacements,
14:33although he miraculously survived.
14:35They had a plan. That's criminal.
14:38It was a shocking revelation for Fraser, who couldn't help but wonder if his ancestors' extreme actions did anything to solve the underlying issues.
14:49I don't believe you should fire guns at people to get what you need, but then again, it's not 1875 right now.
15:00Number 8. Angela Davis
15:02Throughout her career as a political activist, Angela Davis has consistently fought against various forms of structural racism.
15:12Racism is indeed the key problem faced by the people of the country, and the threat of fascism is growing.
15:20So when she appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2023, it was shocking to learn that her ancestors were among America's first white settlers.
15:30Davis was revealed to be a descendant of William Brewster, one of the 102 passengers who arrived at the colonies on the Mayflower.
15:39The ironic discovery serves as a poignant reminder of the intricate nature of human ancestry.
15:47Davis' heritage also extends throughout a complex mix of bloodlines involving slave owners and enslaved people.
15:56Notably, one of her ancestors played a pivotal role in securing the freedom of his nephews by taking their master to court.
16:04So do you see a little bit of him and his determination trickling down that family tree of yours?
16:09Absolutely, absolutely. Yes, definitely.
16:14Number 7. Kerry Washington
16:16Although Kerry Washington didn't necessarily make this shocking discovery on Finding Your Roots, it might not have come to light if not for the show.
16:25We need to talk to you. That simple six-word text message changed Kerry Washington's life forever.
16:31The actress, who had reportedly always felt a disconnect with her dad, opted to undergo a genealogy test on the series.
16:39However, she noticed her father's reluctance to provide DNA samples for the procedure.
16:45This apparently stemmed from the fact that Washington's parents had conceived her using a sperm donor, a detail they never disclosed to her.
16:54The revelatory news that she was not her father's biological child sent Kerry on an emotional journey of self-discovery that she's sharing in her new memoir, Thicker Than Water.
17:04Realizing that the test would uncover this information, Washington's parents finally revealed the truth.
17:11The actress credits host Henry Louis Gates Jr. for encouraging her parents to come clean, acknowledging that it has strengthened her bond with them.
17:22You know, at some point we have to accept that our parents do the best they can and then we have to fill the gap by parenting ourselves.
17:29Number six, Anderson Cooper.
17:32When award-winning journalist Anderson Cooper appeared on Finding Your Roots in October 2014, he made a disconcerting revelation about one of his ancestors.
17:42Holy crap.
17:44Cooper's fourth great-grandfather, Burwell Doikin, was a slave owner in the southern United States, overseeing a plantation with 12 slaves.
17:54At some point, one of the enslaved people managed to escape, but he was later recaptured and locked in a shed.
18:03The escapee eventually rebelled and fatally attacked Boykin with a farm hoe.
18:08Oh my God.
18:11That's amazing.
18:13For this act of defiance, the slave was executed without a fair trial.
18:19Despite being stunned by the violent nature of the murder, Cooper acknowledged he felt no sympathy for his late ancestor.
18:28You think he deserved it?
18:29Yeah.
18:30You do?
18:31I have no doubt.
18:31It's a horrible way to die, Anderson.
18:34He had 12 slaves, I don't feel bad for him.
18:36Number five, Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly.
18:39They are two of the most contrasting political commentators on the air.
18:44Bill Maher is an outspoken liberal atheist, while Bill O'Reilly is as much of a conservative Christian as anyone can get.
18:52I mean, if you're a religious person and the Bible is written by God, why is stuff in the Bible untrue?
18:58Well, because it's allegorical, Bill.
19:00However, despite their stark differences, both men share a surprising connection.
19:05In a season three episode of Finding Your Roots, it was revealed that the two polar opposite personalities are actually distant cousins.
19:15Through Y-DNA test analysis, both men were traced back to a common male ancestor from the medieval Irish kingdom of Brethna.
19:24It just goes to show that no matter how different we may appear to be, we often share more similarities than we realise.
19:32You can pick your friends, you cannot select your relatives.
19:37Number four, Joe Madison.
19:39Imagine going your entire life believing you know who exactly your parents are, only to have that belief completely shattered.
19:48Growing up, he spent very little time living with his parents and came to me with basic questions about his roots.
19:55That was the plight of veteran radio talk show host Joe Madison.
19:59In 2019, Madison appeared on Finding Your Roots and discovered, through a DNA test, that Felix Madison, the man he thought was his biological father, actually wasn't.
20:12This revelation was so sensitive that host Henry Louis Gates Jr. had to share it with Madison privately, away from all the cameras and recording equipment.
20:22I appreciated the, uh, your sincerity and concern.
20:29Through the show, Madison also learned that his biological grandfather was one of the study subjects in the controversial Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
20:41Number three, Kevin Bacon and Kira Sedgwick.
20:44The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon trivia game purports that every actor in Hollywood can be linked to Kevin Bacon by just six or fewer connections.
20:55If true, this would apply to his own wife, actress Kira Sedgwick.
21:00However, in 2011, the couple discovered that their connection goes far beyond marital vows or a fun trivia game.
21:07In fact, through Finding Your Roots, Bacon and Sedgwick learned that they are cousins.
21:14Did that guy have a four?
21:16See? I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!
21:18Although, their relationship is quite distant, as the two are actually ninth cousins once removed.
21:26Interestingly, it appears the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon isn't limited to just Hollywood.
21:32Bacon was also revealed to be related to Brad Pitt, Barack Obama and King Edward I.
21:38Oh, the King of England!
21:40Edward I, King of England, is your 22nd great-grandfather.
21:45Look at that!
21:45You are descended from gold.
21:46Wow!
21:48Number 2, Ben Affleck.
21:50Ben Affleck's appearance on the second season of Finding Your Roots sparked a controversy that threatened the show's future.
21:57Wow, that is incredible.
21:59Results of the genealogy tests exposed the fact that one of Affleck's ancestors was a slave owner.
22:06This revelation seemed to embarrass the actor, prompting him to request that the producers omit it in favour of less controversial details.
22:14You are descended from a patriot.
22:18I knew I felt a special affinity for the football team.
22:21But you know what they say, nothing stays hidden under the sun.
22:25During the infamous Sony Pictures hack in 2014, an email leaked which revealed Affleck's unusual request.
22:34As a result, the third season of Finding Your Roots was temporarily suspended.
22:39Affleck later apologised for his actions and the show eventually returned to the air.
22:45Yeah, I'm sure that there's so much of people's history that gets lost over time.
22:50You have to really work to hold on to it, I suppose.
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23:06Number 1. Larry David and Bernie Sanders
23:12On the surface, comedian Larry David and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders share a lot of similarities.
23:19All of that activity has certainly shaped my life.
23:24They're both elderly Jewish men born in New York City in the 1940s.
23:29Sanders even had a brother named Larry, while David has impersonated the senator multiple times on Saturday Night Live.
23:37Not a fan of the banks.
23:39They trample on the middle class, they control Washington, and why do they chain all their pens to the desks?
23:46Who's trying to steal a pen from a bank?
23:49Makes no sense!
23:50However, when they both participated on Finding Your Roots in 2017, they discovered an even deeper connection.
23:59Their sixth cousins once removed.
24:02This surprising revelation seemed to delight both men.
24:05What the hell?
24:07Although they were clearly taken aback by it.
24:09You're kidding!
24:11What other celebrities do you think may share an eerie connection?
24:15Share your suggestions in the comments below.
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