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00:15I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
00:18Welcome to Finding Your Roots.
00:20In this episode, we'll meet America Ferreira and Darren Criss,
00:26two actors who grew up knowing very little about their very recent ancestors.
00:33Well, this is not what I was expecting to learn. It's awesome.
00:37My family was my immediate family.
00:39Yes, we had family in the Philippines, but that was far away.
00:42This will be the most connected, I think, I'll have ever been in my life to grandparents and beyond.
00:49To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.
00:54Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
00:58Oh, I love that!
01:00While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis
01:05to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.
01:09Yeah, cool! Oh, man!
01:11And we've compiled it all into a book of life.
01:14Wow.
01:14A record of all of our discoveries.
01:17Woo!
01:17And a window into the hidden past.
01:20America, this is a love letter.
01:22Oh, my God!
01:23A love letter?
01:24Written by your grandmother.
01:26Stop it!
01:26I'm dying.
01:27What an amazing...
01:29It's a miracle.
01:30It's a miracle.
01:30It's a miracle.
01:30That is the word.
01:31What a miracle.
01:32What a gift.
01:33It's like learning there's a new room in your house that you've never seen.
01:36America and Darren share a common thread.
01:40Both were raised, in whole or part, by parents who'd immigrated to the United States,
01:46leaving their roots behind.
01:48In this episode, they're going to recover those roots, hearing stories of sacrifice, courage,
01:55and survival, all hidden in the branches of their family trees.
02:00My family takes place for God's love.
02:02I'm so sorry.
02:03I'm so sorry.
02:04You're tears of patience.
02:18Oh.
02:19Oh.
02:19Oh.
02:20Oh.
02:21Oh.
02:22Oh.
02:23Oh.
02:26Oh.
02:30And I need your help.
02:30Oh.
02:46America Ferreira is living proof of the American dream.
02:51The beloved actor has defied all expectations, creating opportunities where others saw none.
03:01And she's been doing it her entire life.
03:06America was born in Los Angeles, the child of Honduran immigrants.
03:13She grew up at a time when there were very few Latinos in Hollywood, but she didn't care.
03:21When she was eight years old, America heard about a play being staged at her older sister's
03:27school and decided that she had to be part of it.
03:33There was a teacher, Mr. Protho, who did a Shakespeare play every year that was open to all the kids
03:39in the school.
03:40Wow.
03:40And so my sisters were going to go audition for it.
03:43And I was in third grade at the elementary school.
03:45And I begged my siblings to take me with them, please let me go to the audition.
03:51And they were like, no.
03:52And my mom was like, you have to take her.
03:54So they took me.
03:56And I snuck to Mr. Protho, who was sitting in the middle of the theater.
04:01And I said, can I audition for you?
04:03And he was like, sure.
04:04And so I read, like, I don't know, the Samson and Gregory scene in the beginning of Romeo
04:09and Juliet.
04:10They were doing Romeo and Juliet.
04:11And my sisters were just there with their friends, and they look up, and there's their
04:15eight-year-old sister auditioning.
04:17They were so mad at me.
04:18And then he cast me as the apothecary.
04:21Wow.
04:21And I took it so seriously.
04:23And I remember being like, that's it.
04:27Like, that's what I want to be doing.
04:29And yeah, I just like, I can remember it like it was yesterday.
04:33Though America knew what she wanted to do, it would take her a little longer to convince
04:39the world to actually let her do it.
04:43She found an agent when she was still a teenager, yet often didn't get the part she was seeking.
04:49Then in 2001, everything changed when she was cast in an independent film and found a role
04:57she could embrace.
04:59It was so me.
05:03It was so my life.
05:04It was everything that I knew.
05:06You know?
05:07Daughter of immigrant, hardworking parents.
05:11Mother who, like, you know, didn't understand the thing that I wanted for me.
05:19Mm-hmm.
05:20But still, like, love, but conflict, and also the body image issue.
05:26You know?
05:27I had grown up, like, internalizing so much loathing of my own body for so many reasons.
05:34The color of my skin, being Latina, being short, being chubby, you know, not fitting into all
05:41the shows that I loved watching on CW.
05:43You know?
05:44I didn't see myself in those shows.
05:46And so, which to a lot of people was proof that I would never make it, right?
05:51Mm-hmm.
05:51And that's how it was presented to me that, like, if I was going to make it, that I was
05:55going to have to find a way to turn myself into that.
05:58Mm-hmm.
05:58And that was the message, like, lose weight, like, get skinnier, get smaller, get more American,
06:09more polished, more whatever you see on TV.
06:13Mm-hmm.
06:13Like, be that if you want this career.
06:17And luckily, I couldn't be that.
06:22America has been lucky beyond all measure.
06:26Since her breakout, she's been in the limelight almost constantly, earning an Emmy, a Golden
06:35Globe, and an Oscar nomination.
06:38Along the way, she's also become a prominent social activist and a leading voice in the Me
06:45Too movement.
06:46But for all she's accomplished, America still feels a deep connection to the eight-year-old
06:53girl who first set foot in a theater.
06:56And to all the people who helped her realize her dream.
07:01Indeed, she told me that even recently, during a crisis of confidence, she found herself buoyed
07:08by their support.
07:10Where I felt like giving up, because it felt so hard.
07:17It felt like, how much does it matter?
07:20How much difference am I making?
07:22Mm-hmm.
07:22Like, you climb one mountain, and then you're just at the bottom climbing another mountain,
07:26and you come up against these old, deeply historical dynamics of feeling like you're worth nothing,
07:35or you're used.
07:35And I've had, luckily, a lot of people in my life who've been with me, like, who have said
07:45to me, like, stay, keep going.
07:49Mm-hmm.
07:50Like, follow your longing, trust yourself.
07:54They were your lifelines.
07:55Yeah.
07:56And is it they who allowed that girl to become the woman sitting across from me?
08:01Absolutely.
08:03Absolutely.
08:03Absolutely.
08:04I think I've, I feel like I, I am who I am today in relationship with the people who
08:13have loved me.
08:15My second guest is Broadway sensation Darren Criss.
08:20Darren is living his own version of the American dream.
08:24His mother is an immigrant from the Philippines.
08:27His father's roots stretch back to colonial America.
08:32But Darren grew up wanting to be on stage, and nobody in his family knew how to get him
08:39there.
08:40So Darren took matters into his own hands.
08:44His brother went to school with the child of an actor named Peter Coyote.
08:50And Darren decided to call him.
08:53The, the school had, like, a little roster of, like, numbers.
08:57And, uh, I must have been maybe seven years old.
09:02And using the phone was, like, a whole thing.
09:04Like, phone etiquette.
09:05And, you know, I, I, you know, I didn't have my own phone.
09:08Using the phone is, is a big deal.
09:10It's like a supervised, uh, interaction when you're a kid.
09:12And I remember taking, and it was a cordless phone, so I, like, could hide it away.
09:16And I went into, to a closet so nobody would see me.
09:19Like, I was doing something naughty.
09:21Even though it wasn't.
09:21It was just something that I was nervous about.
09:22I needed, like, some privacy for.
09:24And I looked up the Coyote family.
09:27I looked up Peter Coyote.
09:28And I called, like, several times.
09:31Probably more times than it's appropriate.
09:33And when I heard Peter's voice, I said, hello, Mr. Coyote.
09:36Uh, this is Darren Criss.
09:37And I said, um, I would like to be an actor.
09:39And I kind of remember, and who knows if I'm painting this picture now, I kind of remember hearing this
09:45sort of, um, just taken aback, charmed sound of, oh, um, I'm talking to a child.
09:55Uh, how do I, how do I deal with this?
09:58And, uh, saying, okay, well, you know, there's some things we can do.
10:01And I think he was just saying how, well, you have to study it.
10:04And I was like, done, done.
10:06If he said do 20 jumping jacks, I'd be like, great, I'll do that.
10:09And we're off to the races.
10:10That must be how this is accomplished.
10:12I bet when he hung up, he said, this kid's going to make it.
10:14Who knows?
10:15Who knows?
10:17That call would change Darren's life.
10:20At Peter Coyote's suggestion, he applied to, and was accepted into, the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
10:31The theater would give him some of his first professional roles.
10:35But more importantly, it opened his mind.
10:40I would go to start taking classes there when I was, like, nine or ten.
10:44And I would go to school, and then I would go to, you know, instead of going to, like, basketball
10:48practice would be studying theater.
10:50And, you know, from an early age, I was learning about the musical theater lexicon.
10:54I was learning about Shakespeare and acting technique and all these wonderful things that I really think were an integral
11:02part of my life as not only an actor, but just as a human on the planet Earth.
11:08Darren would quickly put his education to good use.
11:12In 2010, he landed a role on the hit series, Glee, and became a star.
11:19He's never looked back.
11:22Moving between television, theater, and the recording studio, he's won an Emmy, a Tony, and a legion of fans.
11:32But Darren's proudest moment is a private one.
11:36In 2023, he took his mother to Washington, D.C., and realized just how far they'd both come.
11:47I've been very lucky to perform for, you know, American world leaders for President Obama, President Biden.
11:55And I took my mom to the Christmas party they throw, the White House.
12:00And I had never been to D.C. with my mom.
12:03And when you're there, you're reminded of a lot of American history, and particularly of the iconography of the American
12:15dream.
12:16The mall.
12:17Yeah.
12:17The symbols of the American experience, especially from afar.
12:21We, obviously, they're landmarks of our nation, but we were born here.
12:24Mm-hmm.
12:25My mom, growing up, looking at this like fantasy land.
12:30Yeah.
12:30The great beyond where magic happens.
12:34Mm-hmm.
12:34And getting to take her to the White House was pretty...
12:37That's cool.
12:38Yeah, it's a pretty emotional experience.
12:41Darren and America both grew up in tight-knit families,
12:46deeply bonded to the small circles of people who raised them.
12:50But both came to me with fundamental questions about family members who were outside of those circles,
12:58either by choice or by chance.
13:02It was time to provide some answers.
13:06I started with America.
13:08Many of her questions were focused on her father, Carlos.
13:13When she was just eight years old, Carlos moved back to his native Honduras.
13:20And never returned.
13:22He was there and then he was gone.
13:25Mm-hmm.
13:25And, um, and then, and we just didn't talk about it.
13:30And, um, I mean, I knew, like, growing up that there was issues and tension and periods of silence and
13:38periods of, you know, um, of just, like, conflict.
13:44But, but there was no, like, sit-down talk of, like, we've made this choice or your dad is, you
13:50know.
13:51It was just, like, one day to the next he was gone.
13:53And, and I think as a child it was confusing because there was the confusion and grief of losing a
14:03parent.
14:03But in, in all the practical ways, like, our life got better in that, like, um, my, like, my aunt
14:15stepped in and helped us live in our first house outside of an apartment.
14:19Uh-huh.
14:20And we lived in a better neighborhood.
14:22And we went to better schools.
14:24And so, like, on, in a, on a, in a logistical sense, like, things got better.
14:30But, but there was this massive event that just kind of was like, we don't talk about it.
14:39Carlos passed away in Honduras in 2010.
14:44And though America has visited his grave, she knows little about his life.
14:52As we set out to change that, our researchers immediately noticed something striking.
15:00Carlos himself was the child of a fractured family.
15:05The story begins in 1955, when Carlos was six years old.
15:11And his mother, a woman named Georgina Paz Mendieta, traveled from Honduras to Mexico with a passport listing her as
15:21single, indicating that she was divorced from Carlos's father.
15:27What do you think it was like for your grandmother to be a divorced woman in a Roman Catholic country
15:32in the 1950s?
15:33You know, it was hard to get divorced in America.
15:36Yeah.
15:37No matter what you are.
15:38And in the Catholic Church, it was extremely difficult.
15:44Yeah, I have no idea.
15:46I mean, I think my questions are like, why?
15:50Yeah.
15:52And then also, why did she go to Mexico?
15:55Did she go to Mexico for good?
15:58Did she go and come back?
16:00Well, let's see.
16:01Mm-hmm.
16:01Please turn the page.
16:02Yeah.
16:03Well, this is not what I was expecting to learn.
16:06It's awesome.
16:07Man, we getting down the nitty-gritty.
16:08Yes, I like it.
16:10America, this is a love letter.
16:12Oh, my God!
16:13A love letter?
16:14Written by your grandmother.
16:15Stop it!
16:16I'm dying.
16:17It's dated three years before June 20, 1952, so likely around the time she got divorced.
16:23Would you please read what we translated from?
16:25Oh, my God.
16:26I'm dying right now.
16:26Are you kidding me?
16:27A love letter?
16:28It's the real stuff.
16:29I wonder if she ever thought that one day I would be reading this on television.
16:35Maybe she's been waiting for this moment.
16:37Maybe this is what she's been waiting for.
16:40Oh, my goodness.
16:41June 20, 1952, Arturo.
16:44Okay.
16:46Whew.
16:47Wow.
16:47I suffered a disillusion that caused me to close my heart to all affection, thinking
16:53that I could not love again.
16:55But you appeared on my lonely path to break this law.
16:59Despite the disappointment I suffered, I listened to your words.
17:03Despite my dashed hopes, I forged new ones and new dreams.
17:08I honestly cannot get over that you guys found a love letter.
17:12I can't get over it.
17:14This letter was written to a man named Nicholas Arturo Nuila Castillo, who went by his middle
17:22name, Arturo.
17:24He was an architect from Georgina's hometown in Honduras.
17:28By 1955, he was working in Mexico, and we think that's why Georgina made her trip.
17:36We don't know how the couple first met, but their relationship would progress quickly.
17:42And in 1956, they moved to the United States and took a very big step.
17:50Would you please read the transcribed section?
17:53Wow.
17:54Certificate of Marriage, Commonwealth of Virginia, County of Arlington.
18:00Groom, Nicolás Arturo Nuila Castillo, 36.
18:05Single, occupation architect.
18:08Bride, Musia Georgina Paz Meneta, 36.
18:13Divorce, number of times previously married one occupation teacher.
18:19In Virginia?
18:21In Virginia.
18:22What?
18:23Wow.
18:25That's crazy.
18:27I had no idea.
18:29And zero.
18:30Nothing.
18:31I've known none of this.
18:34After their wedding, Georgina and Arturo would have a child together in Washington,
18:41and then return to Honduras, where they settled in the nation's capital.
18:47Georgina and her new family were now just about 100 miles from where America's father Carlos was living.
18:55And the two likely resumed contact.
18:59But tragedy was about to strike.
19:03Georgina passed away suddenly in March of 1961.
19:09Wow.
19:10She was only 41 years old.
19:12How do you think losing his mom at such a young age impacted your father?
19:16I mean, I think, sadly, he lost her two times.
19:19You know?
19:20Yeah.
19:20To like...
19:23Obviously, I can relate to losing a parent.
19:28Well, he was seven and I was about eight when he left me.
19:31Right.
19:32So I know that.
19:33I'm curious about the like...
19:35What that was then like for her to come back into his life in obviously a complicated way.
19:41And then to lose her again, you know, that way, I think probably really damaging and really devastating.
19:57Heartbreaking.
20:00There is a silver lining to this story.
20:04Although he'd lost his mother, Carlos maintained a relationship with his half-brother.
20:11And this relationship endured.
20:15Have you seen that photograph before?
20:17No, never.
20:18There's your father.
20:19Standing next to him is his half-brother, Nicolas.
20:22That photo was taken on October 31st, 1992, when you were eight years old.
20:27So right after like the year he must have left.
20:31How does it feel to see that?
20:32It just feels like salvaging like just a lost memory.
20:38Like I have no...
20:40I have no context for his life after he left.
20:47Nothing.
20:47Just he left and that was it.
20:50And I never knew where he was or what he was doing or how he was or any of it.
20:56So, you know, when he died, I really felt like that was it.
21:00That was really with him what any hope of ever knowing.
21:06And it feels like magic to get to witness even just a still image of his life.
21:22And also like he has a smile on his face.
21:24And he looks...
21:26He's alive and he looks well.
21:32Hmm.
21:33Yeah.
21:34Amazing.
21:36We now turn to Carlos's roots and discovered a remarkable coincidence.
21:43His paternal grandfather, a man named Gregorio Ferreira, is a significant figure in Honduran history.
21:52A general who fought on the side of revolutionaries in a series of civil wars that sought to establish a
22:00liberal government in Honduras.
22:04And Gregorio is not the only hero in Carlos's family.
22:09His maternal grandfather, a man named Jacobo Paz Baraona, fought on the same side in some of the same wars
22:18at the same time.
22:22That's crazy.
22:25Whoa.
22:26You have DNA from these people.
22:27Wow.
22:27Also, I mean, these are both of my father's grandfathers.
22:32Like, this is...
22:33My father was full with this blood.
22:40Yes, that's right.
22:41Both sides.
22:42Yes.
22:42His mother's side and his father's side, he had this fight.
22:46And I know so little about my dad.
22:49I know so little about who he was, what he loved, what he cared about.
22:57And I'm curious about what this meant to him, or if it meant anything to him, or if it was
23:04overwhelming to him, if it was too much to live up to, too much to hold.
23:11I don't know.
23:12I don't know.
23:12It's interesting to me, because I know so little about who he was.
23:19But what I do know is that there was a bit of a retreat that he kind of stepped out
23:26of his life.
23:27He kind of chose to retreat, chose to exit.
23:33And that feels so, like, contrary to this legacy.
23:41As it turns out, Gregorio and Jacabo were not Carlos's only distinguished relatives.
23:49His family tree is filled with accomplished people, including a great uncle who served as the president of Honduras, and
23:58a line of military leaders that stretched back to the 1790s.
24:04Taking it all in, America found herself reconsidering her father once more.
24:12It really, really, really does kind of color in his past and his lineage in the most surprising way.
24:27It's, like, not what I ever thought he came from.
24:31And because the narrative that I grew up with was such a different one, and was sadly that he lived
24:37a life that seemed disempowered.
24:41But again, that's the story I inherited.
24:44You know, I don't even know how much that is his own story.
24:46So it definitely, like, my mind is still reeling and blown from, like, trying to take in all this new
24:58information and what it means.
24:59But it feels so magical, in a way, to be able to fill those empty pages.
25:13Much like America, Darren Criss was raised far from his roots, with little knowledge of his ancestors.
25:23Even his grandparents were largely a mystery to him.
25:28My family was my immediate family.
25:31My mother, my father, and my brother.
25:33And yes, we had family in the Philippines, but that was far away.
25:36Yeah.
25:36And my father signed.
25:37I knew my grandfather very briefly before he passed away.
25:40But I more or less grew up without grandparents.
25:42Mm-hmm.
25:42So I never really had any...
25:44This will be the most connected, I think, I'll ever...
25:48I'll have ever been in my life to grandparents and beyond.
25:52That makes you a perfect guest.
25:53Well, let's boogie.
25:56We started with Darren's maternal grandmother, a woman named Juanita Bru Manibai.
26:03Juanita came to America in 1974, when she was roughly 62 years old.
26:11Her journey is chronicled in her immigration file, which provided Darren with a series of surprises,
26:20starting on the very first page.
26:22Wow.
26:24I have seen all but one photograph of my grandmother until now.
26:32Really?
26:32Yeah.
26:34I've never seen...
26:34I don't know what she looked like.
26:36No.
26:36Yeah.
26:37Huh.
26:38Yeah.
26:39Yeah, that's it.
26:40That's number two.
26:40I can think of one photo, and even that is different because she's very, very young.
26:44Hmm.
26:44I'm sure my mom would say, you know, I showed you this, but like around the house, I don't
26:47have any recollection.
26:48Hmm.
26:48It's a very blurry thing.
26:50Mm-hmm.
26:50So seeing this photo and seeing the striking resemblance of my mother...
26:55Yeah.
26:55...is blowing my mind.
26:57That is, wow, there she is.
27:02According to this record, Juanita flew to Honolulu with plans to meet her daughter, Victoria,
27:09who was already living in California and who intended to pay for her mother's ticket.
27:16Victoria is Darren's aunt, the first of his close relatives to come to America.
27:22But her journey was very different from her mother's.
27:27Victoria arrived in Detroit, from Alberta, Canada, on a bus.
27:33Would you please read that transcribed section?
27:36This is so cool.
27:37Mm-hmm.
27:39Name Victoria B. Money Bay.
27:41Date of entry, July 1st, 1967.
27:43Means of entry, Greyhound bus.
27:45Naturalization date was November 17th, 1972.
27:48By the way, Alberta and Detroit, 2,340 miles.
27:53Yeah, those aren't close.
27:5438 hours by car.
27:56In a bus.
27:57A Greyhound bus.
27:58A Greyhound bus.
27:59Darren, you have the distinction, we believe, to be the first guest in the history of this
28:03show who had a relative immigrate to the United States on a Greyhound bus.
28:09That you know about.
28:11That you know about.
28:12We would know.
28:13You would know.
28:13You would know.
28:14Yeah, the ticket stub and everything.
28:15The bag of peanuts they ate on the bus.
28:18You guys are very thorough.
28:19To quote Don King, only in America.
28:21Only in America.
28:22Yeah.
28:22That's pretty cool.
28:24I love how there's something very rock and roll about coming to America on a bus.
28:30Victoria was just 25 years old when she crossed the border.
28:35And she was taking a huge chance.
28:39Traveling all on her own with no safety net.
28:44But the gamble paid off.
28:47In 1974, Victoria wrote a letter for her mother's immigration file,
28:55detailing all seat accomplished in America in just a few short years.
29:00I'm the sole owner of a three-bedroom townhouse with a total equity of $10,000 plus all furnishings.
29:06I'm financially able to support and defray all expenses for the coming and stay of my mother
29:11and can guarantee that my mother will not be a public charge to this country.
29:16What a badass.
29:17Isn't that amazing?
29:18It is amazing.
29:19Yeah, she put in her work.
29:20When this record was filed, your aunt had only been in the country for about seven years
29:24and already owned a three-bedroom home.
29:27She don't mess around.
29:27A car, was working as a nurse in a major hospital, had become a naturalized citizen,
29:33and had money in the bank.
29:35Yeah, pretty cool.
29:36That's incredible.
29:36And also, if you're doing the math here of how old she would have been
29:41and being the first of her family to come to this new country
29:44Mm-hmm.
29:44And to accomplish that that quickly.
29:48Mm-hmm.
29:48No, it's pretty badass.
29:49It's pretty badass.
29:50Quite remarkable.
29:50Yeah, it's pretty rad.
29:53We now wanted to see what Darren's family had left behind in the Philippines.
29:59What we uncovered was almost unrelentingly grim.
30:05His grandmother and aunt were both born on Leyte, an island that was devastated during World War II,
30:15leaving tens of thousands dead and disease and starvation running rampant.
30:23Fleeing the chaos, the family moved south, from Leyte to Sabu City, where Darren's mother would be born in 1952.
30:35But stability proved elusive.
30:39In the 1960s, the Philippines was riven by civil strife and economic turmoil,
30:47culminating with a declaration of martial law in 1972,
30:53just two years before Darren's grandmother decided to immigrate.
31:00So, Darren, think about this.
31:01By the time your grandmother arrived in the States,
31:04she'd experienced a tremendous amount of trauma, a lot of loss, suffering, dislocation.
31:10Do you think that trauma was passed down to your mom?
31:12No, because I am guessing here.
31:20But if you're leaving the rubble and wreckage of war to go somewhere new, you're pressing reset.
31:30Yeah.
31:30And my mom being the youngest, the baby of the family, like I am myself,
31:34I think there is a desire to make sure that those children are free in whatever degree possible or reasonable
31:45of that trauma.
31:47So, I think there was, it seems there was a very concerted effort to filter and sift as much of
31:59that sorrow out as possible.
32:02Darren is correct.
32:04Darren is correct.
32:05His family made a concerted effort to block out their past and leave the Philippines behind.
32:13Even so, they did preserve a few stories along the way.
32:18The most intriguing concerned Darren's grandmother's own mother, a woman named Concepcion Hosen.
32:27Concepcion was said to be of Chinese descent.
32:30Yeah.
32:30You've heard that?
32:30Yes.
32:31Well, unfortunately, there were simply no records to tell us, but then we took a look at your DNA.
32:36Because if she was Chinese, we would be able to find out.
32:39And we saw something we found quite fascinating.
32:43Please turn the page.
32:44This is great.
32:46Would you please read your percentage of Chinese ancestry?
32:51I am a 11% Southern Chinese.
32:54That is roughly equivalent to one great grandparent.
32:58Yeah, that makes sense.
32:58Yeah.
32:59That makes sense.
32:59And since we know that your father has no Chinese ancestry, we could be even more specific.
33:04Your DNA is telling us that you have the equivalent of a great grandmother or great grandfather on your mother's
33:11side who was fully Chinese.
33:12Yeah.
33:13So, you have recent Chinese ancestry.
33:15Yeah, that's right.
33:16Which matches your family story.
33:17That's wild to see.
33:18That's really beautiful.
33:20We believe that Darren's Chinese ancestors settled in the Philippines in the late 1800s.
33:27But it's possible that they came much earlier.
33:33Merchants from Southern China were trading with Filipinos as early as the 10th century.
33:41So, all we can say for certain is that, at some point, Darren's ancestors traveled to the Philippines and chose
33:50to stay.
33:52Let's think about the journey of your mother's family from China to Leyte to Cebu City to Los Angeles and
33:59then to you.
34:00Yeah.
34:01Yeah.
34:01That's incredible.
34:02What do you make of that story?
34:03It's a nice reminder that, you know, by the time anybody is, quote unquote, insert nationality, that that can be
34:11any mix of genealogical and ethnic ancestry.
34:15Absolutely.
34:16Which is a cool reminder.
34:17Recent and less recent.
34:19Yeah.
34:19Yeah.
34:20It's just good to know.
34:21It's good to know what the roots are, man.
34:22It just makes things a lot more interesting and enduring.
34:27We'd already traced America Ferrara's father's roots.
34:31A journey that America had never imagined possible.
34:35Now, turning to her mother's family tree, America expected to find herself on more familiar terrain.
34:44Growing up, she'd spent time with her maternal grandmother.
34:49And she thought she knew her story.
34:51But America was in for a surprise.
34:55Moving back one generation, we came to her grandmother's father, a man named Abel Lopez Osario.
35:04Abel was born in Honduras in 1885, the son of a shoemaker.
35:11As a young man, he studied law, became a civil prosecutor, and then launched his own newspaper.
35:22He started a newspaper?
35:24Your great-grandfather founded his own independent newspaper.
35:28Oh, my goodness.
35:30I just, like, why don't I know this?
35:32This is so shocking.
35:34He founded a newspaper?
35:35He founded a newspaper.
35:36And look at how it's described.
35:38El democrata.
35:39The democrat.
35:41Yes.
35:42He who is for democracy.
35:43How about that?
35:45He was an idealistic person.
35:47Wow.
35:48That's, I'm so shocked about why I knew my grandma.
35:52Like, I knew her.
35:53Like, I'm so curious about why.
35:56She didn't talk about this.
35:57Yeah.
35:58And, and that my mother and her sister, like, why that wasn't then a part of the conversation that they
36:08passed on to us.
36:09That's amazing.
36:12This story was about to get even more amazing.
36:16Roughly a year after founding his paper, Abel was elected the mayor of San Pedro Sula, a city in northwestern
36:25Honduras, where he settled down with America's great-grandmother, a woman named Magdalena Ricarte.
36:34But the family's good fortune did not last.
36:39When Civil War broke out in 1919, Abel opposed the rebel cause.
36:45And his house was set on fire.
36:49Wow.
36:50They were likely left with nothing.
36:54That must have been really scary.
36:56Um, where do you go?
37:01Where do you go?
37:02Let's see.
37:03Please turn the page.
37:06Yeah.
37:06America, this record is dated October 20th, 1920, a little over a year after your ancestors' home was burned down.
37:14Would you please read the transcribed section?
37:17Date and place of birth, 16th October 1920, Dean Street, Belize.
37:24There's your grandmother being born to your great-grandparents, Abel and Magdalena.
37:29Um, and what is this Belize?
37:31Belize.
37:32They're in Belize.
37:33They were refugees.
37:34They picked the wrong side in the Civil War, so they had to run.
37:38Wow.
37:38What's it like to see that?
37:40That's crazy.
37:40That's crazy.
37:43America's family didn't stay in Belize for long.
37:47They moved to Guatemala sometime in 1921 and remained there in exile for at least six more years before finally
38:00returning to Honduras.
38:04Oh, my gosh.
38:05Did you know your grandmother spent some of her childhood in Guatemala?
38:09No.
38:10And I didn't know that she was born in Belize.
38:13And I didn't know that her father was a mayor and that he, his house was burned down and they
38:20fled.
38:21Like, none of this.
38:22I didn't know any of this.
38:24What's it been like for you to learn this?
38:26Grandmothers are not so far away, you know?
38:29It's crazy.
38:31I mean, I, I, I, this is a completely erased part of my, for me, my history.
38:40I have never heard any peace whisper, nothing.
38:45I, I, I, I wonder how much anyone knew about this.
38:49Like, I, I don't know if it was kept from us or if just no one knew.
38:54Following another branch of America's mother's family tree, we encountered another piece of her family's history that had been completely
39:03erased.
39:04America's fourth great grandmother was a woman named Isabel Ayez.
39:10She was likely born in Honduras around 1790, but her roots lay elsewhere.
39:18In the parish church of Hitikalpa, solemnly baptized a boy, natural child of Isabel Ayez, free mulata.
39:28That's your fourth great grandmother.
39:30Can you read again how she's described?
39:33Isabel Ayez, free mulata.
39:36That means that she is of recent African descent.
39:41She's black and white.
39:43Wow.
39:44She's a sister.
39:45So this wouldn't have been mixed race, like, like indigenous and white.
39:50They would be mestizo.
39:51Or Mesti.
39:52That would be mestizo.
39:52So she was of African descent.
39:55Yes, that's right.
39:56Wow.
39:56You ever wonder if you had black ancestry?
40:00I'd hoped.
40:04But never, ever, ever.
40:08No.
40:09I mean, it's just not, it's just not, has never made a mark on any storytelling in the family.
40:19That's amazing.
40:21According to this record, Isabel was set free by 1819, five years before the abolition of
40:30slavery in Honduras.
40:32We don't know how she gained her freedom, but the word mulata is tangible evidence that
40:39this line of America's family originates in Africa.
40:44Wow.
40:47So did you ever imagine that one of your ancestors came to Honduras in chains, in bondage?
40:53No.
40:54Well, they did.
40:55Wow.
40:57What's it like to learn this?
41:00That's the name of your black ancestor.
41:08I'm just so grateful that she's visible.
41:17Mm-hmm.
41:19That I can know that she existed.
41:24We had now traced America's roots back six generations on both sides of her family tree, identifying
41:34dozens of ancestors who lived in Honduras in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
41:43To America, the sheer scope of it all was awe-inspiring.
41:48I haven't obviously had any time to digest this and really feel it and explore it.
41:55But seeing these names, these dates, these places, people that I actually come from is mind-blowing.
42:10And I'm so glad I get to give this to my children.
42:13Oh, yeah.
42:14I'm so happy.
42:15You know, that makes me emotional to know that they'll get to grow up.
42:22And my nieces and nephews and my siblings and that this history is recovered.
42:26That it's, um, been rescued, um, from what felt like a black hole.
42:36Turning back to Darren Criss, we shifted from his mother's roots in the Philippines to his father's roots in Pennsylvania.
42:46Darren's grandmother, a woman named Charlotte Bartlett, was born in the small city of Newcastle in 1913.
42:56And Darren told me that he was especially eager to learn about her.
43:04I'm so excited.
43:06I've always felt connected to this woman, even though I never met her or knew her.
43:09So I, I, this is gonna be, it's gonna be cool.
43:11Okay.
43:12This article was published.
43:13Yes!
43:14All I saw was in senior play in a picture of Charlotte.
43:18That a girl.
43:20That's rad.
43:21This was published in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, January 10th, 1931.
43:26Would you please read the transcribed section?
43:27In senior play, uh, Miss Charlotte Bartlett will interpret the role of Martha Winslow or Muff in senior class play.
43:36Uh, uh, the, the youngest quote unquote, Miss Bartlett is particularly well chosen to present the lively, warm hearted impish
43:44Muff.
43:46As was doubtless true of Muff when in high school, Charlotte is very popular with the younger set.
43:51I just love the sort of older fashioned rhetoric of this, of this article.
43:58Were you aware that you weren't the first actor on your family tree?
44:01I guess I never really thought about it.
44:03You know, I'm sure my mom after this will be like, you knew that.
44:06And I'll be like, I guess I somehow compartmentalized it in a place that wasn't in my frontal lobe.
44:11But, um, as of right now, as seen by my reaction, all I saw was in senior play in a
44:16picture of Charlotte Bartlett.
44:17But that excitement was a genuine reaction to, oh my God, of course she was doing something along those lines.
44:23Your grandmother was 17 years old at the time.
44:25That's amazing.
44:26And according to this and other articles we found, this is not the only one, Charlotte was a gifted performer
44:31who also played the piano.
44:33Awesome.
44:33How about that?
44:34That's amazing.
44:36She even directed several plays.
44:41Charlotte!
44:42You son of a gun.
44:46Charlotte's theatrical ambitions may well have been inspired by her roots.
44:51She descends from a long line of dramatic characters.
44:56None more so than her fourth great-grandfather, a man named Israel Manning.
45:04Israel was born in colonial Massachusetts in 1756.
45:11And when he was 19 years old, shots were fired in the town of Lexington, barely 30 miles from his
45:20home.
45:22So he had a choice.
45:23He could join the raggedy-ass patriots, or he could remain loyal to King George.
45:29Was he a red coat?
45:29What did he do?
45:30I don't know.
45:31You've got to guess.
45:33You're setting me up, because you said raggedy-ass, and so I'm like, oh no, was he a red coat?
45:38Was he a loyalist?
45:39He lived in a place that was a hotbed of rebel activity.
45:43Did he side with the crown, or did he side with the rebels?
45:47I'm only guessing, but I can't judge.
45:51You know, different times, different circumstances.
45:53I'm going to guess that he was a loyalist.
45:54Okay.
45:55To the crown.
45:55Please turn the page.
45:56Oh, boy.
45:57You reversed psychology'd me, didn't you?
46:00This is from the Massachusetts State Archives.
46:03Would you please read the transcribed section?
46:04Israel Manning, private muster role of Captain Ephraim, Richardson's company.
46:09Time of enlistment would have been April 26th, 1775.
46:11So he was enlisting?
46:13In the Patriot Army.
46:14In the Patriot side.
46:15Okay, great.
46:16Cool.
46:16Isn't that cool of storytelling that I went with the thing that was a little more scary,
46:19and then it ends up being a cool one?
46:20Yeah.
46:20Yeah.
46:22Israel enlisted just days after the start of the war.
46:27At the time, the Patriot armies were mainly composed of volunteers.
46:32And they struggled to retain troops.
46:36Some soldiers signed up for just a few months.
46:39But Israel's pension file shows that he had a very different experience.
46:47I, Israel Manning, do on oath testify and declare that in the War of Revolution, on the first day of
46:54April in the year 1777, I entered and was engaged in the land service of the United States on the
47:01Continental Establishment and served accordingly from that time to the first day of April in the year 1780 as a
47:09private against the common enemy without any interruption or absence.
47:14Those are your ancestors' own words.
47:17What's it like to read them?
47:19I just read my sixth-great-grandfather just, like, flexing.
47:23That's right.
47:24He said, listen, I did this really cool thing and I had no problems doing it.
47:28I'm going to write that down.
47:30My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson's going to read that one day.
47:36Israel not only served for three full years, his regiment was also involved in several notable battles, including the Battle
47:48of Saratoga, a crucial patriot victory.
47:52And Israel did something else as well.
47:56He spent the winter of 1778 serving under General George Washington at Valley Forge, one of the most iconic events
48:08in American history.
48:11Could you ever have imagined that you had an ancestor who spent time with George Washington?
48:16No.
48:16They might even have known each other.
48:17No.
48:18Wow.
48:18What's it like to know this?
48:20I can't believe it.
48:21I can't believe it.
48:22That's wild.
48:23What would your father have said?
48:25Would it have been meaningful to him?
48:27Yeah.
48:29Of course.
48:30Of course it would.
48:30I wish he could have heard this, you know.
48:32But the great thing is that, you know, my kids will hear this and their kids will hear this.
48:36This will be an amazing sort of goalposts from which to refer for many generations to come.
48:45We had one more story for Darren.
48:47Following a different branch of his father's family tree, we found ourselves traveling from Massachusetts to what was once the
48:57Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.
49:00Darren's tenth great grandfather, a man named Tonus Tomas, received a land grant here in the year 1645.
49:13A lot for a house and garden located on the northeast side of Fort Amsterdam.
49:17And you know where New Amsterdam was?
49:19Are we talking about where we are at right now?
49:21Manhattan.
49:21Manhattan, baby, I know.
49:22New Dorp.
49:24That's right.
49:24Your family's owned property in Manhattan since 1645.
49:29What?
49:33That is crazy.
49:34That is crazy.
49:35Can I just live there?
49:36Do I still have to pay the rent that I'm paying in Manhattan?
49:39I think the present owner might want to argue with that.
49:41The present land owner, yeah, might have a gripe with it and be like, no, but I was on Finding
49:44Roots and they said.
49:47That's crazy.
49:48We don't know exactly when Tonus arrived in New Amsterdam, but we think we know why he came.
49:55He was a brick worker in the Netherlands and records show that he was hired to build and repair chimneys
50:03in the New World, meaning that Darren's ancestor helped build the city where he now lives.
50:13That is rad.
50:15Isn't that cool?
50:16That's really cool.
50:17And that's a lot.
50:19The D that you are looking at, the lot was located at the corner of Broadway and Stone Streets on
50:25the southern tip of Manhattan.
50:27What you're telling me is my earliest ancestor on this land was on Broadway.
50:34Yep.
50:34Wow.
50:35That's insane.
50:37It's amazing.
50:38That is really amazing.
50:40The paper trail had now run out for each of my guests.
50:44It was time to show them their full family intrigues and see what DNA could tell us about their deeper
50:52roots.
50:53Yes, I'm so grateful.
50:56For America, this would yield quite a surprise.
51:01When we compared her genetic profile to that of others who've been in the series, we found a match.
51:10Evidence of a distant cousin she never knew she had.
51:14Okay.
51:15Can I?
51:15Turn the page.
51:19Ava!
51:20Ava DuVernay.
51:21Oh my God.
51:23Oh, I love that.
51:25Do you know her?
51:26Have you met her?
51:27Yes, we've met.
51:27We've worked together.
51:29We did a little music video together and we've been in many rooms.
51:34That makes me so happy.
51:38America shares a long identical segment of DNA on her X chromosome with Emmy Award winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
51:49That means that you share a distant common ancestor somewhere in your family tree.
51:54My God, I love that.
51:56That's amazing.
51:57So you're free to call her and tell her.
51:58I can't thank you enough.
52:00This is amazing.
52:02Thank you so much.
52:05That's the end of our journey with America Ferreira and Darren Criss.
52:11Join me next time when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode of Finding
52:20Your Roots.
52:21How deep words are our spirits.
52:21My life is.
52:22And in many ways,
52:22From what the the depths become so same.
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