- 5/18/2025
Discover the most compelling moments from this fascinating genealogy series! From shocking family revelations to touching ancestral connections, we're exploring the most memorable episodes where celebrities uncover their family histories, leading to both tears and triumph.
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00:00:00Hey everyone, I'm Rebecca and welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:00:04How much do you know about your family tree?
00:00:06How much do you want to know?
00:00:08I know I've always wanted to be on one of those genealogy shows so I can find out more
00:00:12about my ancestors.
00:00:14You never know what you might learn.
00:00:15I bet these celebrities were surprised.
00:00:18Actually let's start off by looking at 10 celebrity actions to who do you think you
00:00:21are.
00:00:22And I just thought I shared the same last name as Dr. King.
00:00:28Welcome to Ms. Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most animated or noteworthy
00:00:34responses from stars digging into their lineage on who do you think you are.
00:00:39We'll only be covering episodes from the American version of the series.
00:00:50Number 10.
00:00:51Bradley Whitford Actor and activist Bradley Whitford traced
00:00:55his ancestry to German immigrants who made the journey from Prussia to America in 1846.
00:01:07He discovered that his great great grandfather, Frederick New, served under Ulysses S. Grant
00:01:13at 1863's Siege of Vicksburg along with his two brothers.
00:01:17Thankfully, all three siblings survived.
00:01:20Frederick went on to have a significant legacy as an upstanding citizen and reading his
00:01:25glowing obituary moved Whitford to tears.
00:01:40Given Whitford's own political activism, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that he
00:01:45descends from courageous, hard-working immigrants who fought in the American Civil War.
00:01:51Number 9.
00:02:02Jim Parsons Jim Parsons, known for his starring role
00:02:06as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, decided to honor his late father by exploring
00:02:11his paternal family tree.
00:02:20In doing so, he discovered that he descends from important figures in the arts and sciences.
00:02:26In Louisiana, he learned of his third great grandfather, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Hacker.
00:02:31The 55th graduate of the Medical College of Louisiana, he documented the Yellow Fever
00:02:37epidemic in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal.
00:02:49Then, all the way over in France, Parsons researches his sixth great grandfather, Louis-Francois
00:02:55Trouard.
00:02:56A celebrated architect who worked for royalty, Parsons realizes Trouard had a similarly supportive
00:03:03father, making his accomplishments all the more impressive and meaningful.
00:03:13Number 8.
00:03:14Sean Hayes In an effort to find out more about his estranged
00:03:18father, Ronald, Sean Hayes goes digging in Chicago and Ireland.
00:03:34But what he discovers is more than he anticipated.
00:03:37Ronald and his siblings were sent to an orphanage, and that their father, William, was someone
00:03:42who faced various hardships and ultimately died of illness.
00:03:47Going back further, we learn that the actor's great-great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes Sr.,
00:03:51had similarly difficult experiences and got into legal trouble.
00:03:55He even went to court against his sons.
00:04:05Hayes' great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes Jr., also had a criminal record before moving to
00:04:11the United States.
00:04:12Despite unearthing his family's less-than-savory past, Hayes was simply thrilled and amazed
00:04:18with the whole research process.
00:04:27Number 7.
00:04:28Zooey Deschanel Growing up, Zooey Deschanel knew that she
00:04:32descended from a line of remarkable women and activists.
00:04:48Following the lineage of her late paternal grandmother, Anne Orr, who passed away not
00:04:53long before the episode, Deschanel traveled to Pennsylvania to delve in her Quaker origins.
00:04:59Her four-time great-grandmother, Sarah Pownall, an abolitionist whose father enslaved someone,
00:05:04had a farm that aided in the Underground Railroad.
00:05:17It was also the site of the Christiana Renaissance of 1851, a historical event that fueled the
00:05:24anger of John Wilkes Booth.
00:05:26While she knew about her courageous ancestors' involvement in the anti-slavery movement,
00:05:31Deschanel did not expect them to be such an important part of history.
00:05:43Number 6.
00:05:44Christina Applegate For actress Christina Applegate, uncovering
00:05:59details from her genealogy was a way to provide some much-needed answers for her father, Robert,
00:06:06who never really knew his mother.
00:06:08She found that her grandparents, Levina Shaw and Paul Applegate, had a marriage that ended
00:06:12in divorce and led to a difficult custody battle.
00:06:16Applegate struggled to read the details of Paul's alleged mistreatment of Levina, and
00:06:21was visibly saddened by a document saying her father was malnourished at one point.
00:06:33While the research didn't produce the happiest of results, the experience at least provided
00:06:38some closure for the Applegates.
00:06:40The beauty of this is that you can be incredibly proud that you broke the pattern.
00:06:46Number 5.
00:06:47J.K.
00:06:48Rowling Controversial author of the Harry Potter series,
00:06:51J.K.
00:06:52Rowling knows about epic stories and extensive family trees, so it's no surprise she has
00:06:57an interesting French genealogy.
00:06:59One ancestor she'd heard a lot about was her great-grandfather Louis Volant, a recipient
00:07:04of the Legion of Honor in the First World War.
00:07:15Decades later, Rowling was honored with the same award for literature.
00:07:19However, the story she heard about her relative isn't true.
00:07:30However, Volant was still very much a hero and was bestowed the Croix de Guerre Medal
00:07:36for bravery.
00:07:37Rowling makes another illuminating discovery that she comes from generations of single
00:07:42moms, echoing her own motherhood experience.
00:07:52These include her great-grandmother Lizzie Smith, twice great-grandmother Salome Schuch,
00:07:57and three-time great-grandmother Christine.
00:08:01Number 4.
00:08:02Regina King Regina King set out to find more information
00:08:05about her maternal genealogy and came across great-great-grandfather Moses Crosby, aka
00:08:11Moses Hughes.
00:08:22After discovering many hardships and injustices he faced, it doesn't take long for the actress
00:08:27to become emotional.
00:08:29King is shocked to see that Crosby had a prison record, but learning the whole story
00:08:34is heartbreaking.
00:08:47After getting out, Crosby became a pastor and co-founded Morningstar Association, an
00:08:52organization instrumental in paving the way for Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
00:08:58The latter is famously where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor.
00:09:02Not only was Crosby an activist in his own right, he also aided the civil rights movement
00:09:08decades after.
00:09:09You can tell how much that means to King.
00:09:21Number 3.
00:09:22Rita Wilson A few years after her father passed away,
00:09:26multi-talented artist Rita Wilson decided to trace his roots.
00:09:38Though he went by Alan in the States, he was born Assan Alil Ibrahimov in Greece sometime
00:09:45in the 1920s and later moved to Bulgaria.
00:09:48Wilson travels to both countries to uncover secrets of his past, from serving in the military
00:09:54to escaping a labor camp.
00:10:06She's most shocked to hear that Assan was previously married to a woman named Alice
00:10:12and had a son, Emil.
00:10:14Unfortunately, both of them passed.
00:10:16This heartbreaking reveal understandably leaves Wilson devastated, but thankfully, she has
00:10:22the incredible opportunity to meet her uncle and reminisce about Assan.
00:10:37Number 2.
00:10:38Lisa Kudrow Who do you think you are, executive producer
00:10:41Lisa Kudrow has one of the most harrowing episodes of the series.
00:10:45Looking into her father's Eastern European Jewish lineage, she heads to Belarus, where
00:10:51she reads horrific accounts of the Holocaust and notably visits the village of Ilya.
00:11:08Unfortunately, her great-grandmother was amongst the Jewish residents who were killed there
00:11:13during the Second World War.
00:11:15Naturally, she's visibly shaken by the loaded history.
00:11:28But at least Kudrow's journey ends on a high note in Poland, where she tracks down Yuri
00:11:33Berudin, a relative previously believed to be deceased.
00:11:37She's able to meet Yuri and his family, a touching moment in an otherwise heavy episode.
00:11:44Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
00:11:54Lionel Richie, the musician learns his great-grandfather was instrumental in the fight for civil rights.
00:12:12Number 1.
00:12:13Sarah Jessica Parker In Who Do You Think You Are's first episode,
00:12:18Sarah Jessica Parker discovers she has connections to not one, but two significant historical
00:12:24events.
00:12:25Beginning in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, Parker learns about her great-great-great-great-grandfather,
00:12:31John S.
00:12:32The minor traveled from Ohio to California during the Gold Rush, arriving in 1850 and
00:12:50sadly passing away that same year.
00:12:53Over in New England, Parker finds that her 10th great-grandmother, Esther Dutch Elwell,
00:12:58was accused in the Salem Witch Trials, but thankfully survived.
00:13:11Coincidentally, one of the actress' most famous roles was Sarah Sanderson in the witchy
00:13:16Hocus Pocus.
00:13:18Given everything she learns about her family, SJP has some of the most expressive reactions
00:13:24in the series.
00:13:33And she was worried about not being interesting.
00:13:35Do you have any shocking revelations in your family tree?
00:13:49Who Do You Think You Are has featured funny reactions, dramatic reactions, and everything
00:13:54in between.
00:13:55But sadly, the stories of some celebrity ancestors are pretty dark.
00:13:58Here are 10 of the darkest family reveals on Who Do You Think You Are.
00:14:11Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most disturbing discoveries
00:14:15uncovered in celebs' ancestry.
00:14:25Friends star Courteney Cox set out to trace her mother's English lineage.
00:14:29She doesn't expect any spectacular revelations, so she's surprised to find royal roots, including
00:14:35her 26-times great-grandfather, William the Conqueror.
00:14:46Another one of Cox's ancestors is her 18-times great-grandfather, Thomas de Berkeley.
00:14:52The English Baron's Gloucestershire home of Berkeley Castle served as a prison for
00:14:57the abdicated King Edward II in 1327.
00:15:07This is also where he died, and while some accounts credit natural causes, others believed
00:15:12he was killed.
00:15:21The historian shared the rumours detailing Edward's gruesome death, though it's believed
00:15:25that he was ultimately murdered via suffocation.
00:15:34Berkeley and Cox's 19-times great-grandfather, Roger Mortimer, were put on trial.
00:15:40The former was acquitted, while the latter was executed.
00:15:48Like others on this list, actor-filmmaker Steve Buscemi's reason for digging into his
00:15:53genealogy is his mother.
00:15:58The Brooklyn native never met his grandmother, Amanda Van Dyne, because she took her life
00:16:02when his mother was very young.
00:16:09In his search, he found that his great-great-grandfather, Ralph Montgomery, had a rough go of it.
00:16:20By 1860, he switched professions from a dentist to a grocer.
00:16:25Based on a discarded letter, this was also around the time he contemplated ending his
00:16:29own life.
00:16:35In 1861, he became a Union soldier in the Civil War, left his family, and later started
00:16:40a new one.
00:16:41Though Montgomery ultimately died of tuberculosis in 1878, Buscemi theorises that generations
00:16:47of his family have suffered from depression.
00:17:04SNL alum Jason Sudeikis set out to find the mysterious circumstances of his paternal grandfather
00:17:13Stanley's death in 1948.
00:17:24He learned that Stanley married his wife Edna on September 25th, 1945, abandoning her the
00:17:29same day, leaving behind his daughter and unborn son, Daniel, Jason's father.
00:17:35He never supported them financially, and by 1947, they legally separated.
00:17:46Reading the fatal sidewalk accident report, Jason discovered that Stanley was unhoused
00:17:51at the time of his death.
00:17:52His ex-wife and uncle's refusal to be involved suggested that he may have burned too many
00:17:57bridges with his substance use.
00:18:09Going back further, Stanley Sr. also abandoned his family.
00:18:13But the tragic irony is that Stanley Sr.'s father Joseph died while working to provide
00:18:18for his family.
00:18:24For Marisa Tomei, this foray into genealogical research was intended to uncover the truth
00:18:32about her great-grandfather Francesco Leopoldo Bianchi's death in 1910.
00:18:41The family's story was that he was killed because of a misdeed, possibly for having
00:18:45an affair or getting into financial trouble.
00:18:48But as Tomei travels around Tuscany, she finds pieces that make up a different story.
00:18:53In 1911, a man named Terzillo Lazaretsky claimed he was attacked by Bianchi and shot him in
00:19:00self-defence.
00:19:07However it was reported that the bullet entered the back of Bianchi's head.
00:19:11Despite evidence suggesting murder, Lazaretsky was acquitted of voluntary homicide.
00:19:22The animosity between the men stemmed from a business deal gone wrong, not to any philandering
00:19:26on Bianchi's part as his family believed.
00:19:44Like fellow actress Marisa Tomei, Megan Mullally grew up hearing stories about her relatives.
00:19:55Her grandfather was violent towards his sons, behaviour that her father would later exhibit
00:20:00himself.
00:20:01Because of his emotional and verbal mistreatment throughout her childhood, Megan prepared to
00:20:04uncover some dark truths about her paternal ancestors.
00:20:16Through newspapers and court records, she finds that her great-great-grandfather, Richard
00:20:21Ira Mullally, was charged and convicted of physically abusing his pregnant wife Elizabeth
00:20:26in 1859.
00:20:28After his death, Elizabeth married her second husband, James Venable, with whom she endured
00:20:33similar mistreatment.
00:20:35Even though Megan anticipated the outcome, she's still saddened to learn about the troubling
00:20:39history of substance use disorders and violence involving the men on her father's side.
00:20:50Comedienne-author Chelsea Handler was raised Jewish, although her mother Rita was Mormon.
00:21:02Rita was born in Germany and lived there until her father, Karl Stoker, a German soldier
00:21:07in World War II, brought the family to the United States.
00:21:10The big mystery was where Grandpa Karl's loyalties lay, and Handler dreaded he might have had
00:21:15ties to the Nazis.
00:21:25In Germany, she tried to gauge his enthusiasm through his military records, which showed
00:21:30that he was drafted and seemingly lacked ambition to advance rank.
00:21:34But one of the saddest parts of the episodes sees Handler reading her grandmother Elizabeth's
00:21:39tragic account of life in post-World War I Germany.
00:21:43She details the grim conditions, unemployment, extreme poverty, and scarcity of food.
00:22:02Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson comes from a line of Jesses, including his paternal
00:22:07grandmother, whom he was named after.
00:22:15She was named after her father, Jesse Wheat Uppercue, a lawyer who was also seemingly
00:22:20a career criminal.
00:22:22The first piece of information Ferguson finds on his great-grandfather is an article about
00:22:26the 1872 death of Baltimore resident Amelia Wheat, Uppercue's elderly aunt.
00:22:34He was arrested as a murder suspect but made it through two trials without a guilty verdict.
00:22:39Throughout his life, J.W. moved around the country, getting into more trouble, including
00:22:44two arrests, four embezzlement, all while going through three marriages that all ended
00:22:49in divorce.
00:22:50However, Ferguson's happy to hear that the otherwise disappointing relative cared for
00:22:57his five children.
00:23:06Growing up, Christina Applegate didn't know much, if anything, about her paternal grandparents.
00:23:12Sadly, her father Robert didn't either.
00:23:22He was raised by his grandparents and only knew of rumours about how and when his mother
00:23:26died.
00:23:27On her genealogical journey, she finds that Lavina Shaw and Paul Applegate, her grandparents,
00:23:33went through a tumultuous divorce and custody battle in the 1940s.
00:23:41During the legal proceedings, a doctor reported that young Robert appeared to be malnourished,
00:23:46a discovery that visibly upsets Applegate.
00:23:53More shocking revelations are Paul's alleged mistreatment of Lavina, as well as her struggles
00:23:58with chronic substance use, which likely contributed to her early death.
00:24:02Though Robert is shocked to learn the details of his mother's life, he finally has some
00:24:06closure.
00:24:19Looking into her maternal ancestry, Regina King digs deeper into the life of her two-times-great-grandfather,
00:24:25Moses Crosby, aka Moses Hughes, an educator and civil rights activist.
00:24:39While living in Alabama in 1868, an altercation with a white man got Moses' name added to
00:24:46Ku Klux Klan's blacklist, making him a target in the white community.
00:24:59One night, a group of KKK members broke into Moses' home, and though he escaped, his wife
00:25:04Mary Meadow was shot and killed.
00:25:09Within days, he was charged with assault and attempted murder of the white man, and received
00:25:14a two-year sentence.
00:25:27Moses endured many hardships, but King admires his perseverance in the face of racism and
00:25:33injustices.
00:25:39Since she was young, actress Lisa Kudrow, executive producer of Who Do You Think You
00:25:48Are?, heard a tale of Belarusian Jewish family members devastating lives during the Holocaust.
00:26:01In season one of the series, she travels to the site of the 1942 Iliya massacre, where
00:26:06750-900 Jewish villagers were killed, including her paternal great-grandmother, Mira Mordechiewicz.
00:26:22Kudrow knew about this horrific time in history, and the tragic deaths of her ancestors and
00:26:26countless others.
00:26:36But being in Iliya, and reading about the detailed atrocities that were committed decades
00:26:40before, she couldn't help but get emotional.
00:26:55What reveal did you think was the darkest?
00:26:57Have you uncovered anything shocking in your family's history?
00:27:04It feels like everyone who's ever been on the show learns something completely unexpected
00:27:09that fills in the blanks on some family legend.
00:27:12Oftentimes, it's actually quite touching.
00:27:14In fact, the subjects of the show have even met with long-lost relatives more than once.
00:27:20Let's look at some of the most heartwarming moments on Who Do You Think You Are?
00:27:33Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the most touching and uplifting
00:27:38moments on the American version of Who Do You Think You Are?
00:27:49It's not often you get the opportunity to research your roots and be in the place that
00:27:53your ancestors were, and I think that's a really incredible opportunity, and so I am
00:27:58excited.
00:27:59Zooey Deschanel comes from a famous family of artists and entertainers.
00:28:03She also descends from human rights activists, including her paternal grandmother, Anna Ward
00:28:08Orr.
00:28:09Tracing her Quaker roots, the actor-singer learns about ancestors from Pennsylvania who
00:28:13heavily contributed to the fight for racial equality.
00:28:16That's wonderful.
00:28:17So she has been appointed to a committee that is rallying to inspire a more impassioned
00:28:24approach to ending slavery.
00:28:26That's exactly what she's doing.
00:28:28Deschanel discovers that her four-time great-grandmother Sarah Pownall, the daughter of a slave owner,
00:28:33was a vocal abolitionist and later owned property that aided the Underground Railroad.
00:28:38She had the opportunity to read a document from 1848 detailing Sarah's vital role as
00:28:43a member of an anti-slavery committee.
00:28:45What an impassioned letter.
00:28:47Isn't it?
00:28:48Yeah, it's truly moving.
00:28:50I feel honored to be related to one of these people.
00:28:53They were very brave.
00:28:55Supporting my mother's theory that I come from a long line of strong women.
00:28:58Deschanel was moved by her bravery and compassion, especially when speaking out about having
00:29:03such beliefs was dangerous.
00:29:06Number 9.
00:29:07Spike Lee Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee appeared on Who
00:29:11Do You Think You Are?
00:29:12to learn more about his maternal ancestry, something he wished he did sooner.
00:29:16During his research, he found that his grandmother, Zimmy Retha, had a grandfather named Mars
00:29:21Jackson.
00:29:22His father's name was Mars.
00:29:25That's familiar.
00:29:27In his first feature film, 1986's She's Gotta Have It, Lee played a character called Mars,
00:29:33a name suggested by his grandmother.
00:29:35And it fit because Mars in the film is crazy.
00:29:39Crazy.
00:29:40That's insane.
00:29:41He was pleasantly surprised by the connection and wanted to know more about the life of
00:29:45his great-great-grandfather.
00:29:47Mars was a farmer born into slavery who went on to own more than 80 acres of land after
00:29:52emancipation.
00:29:54Inspired by his story, Spike Lee visited Mars' former land, honoring his ancestor along with
00:29:59his fictional namesake.
00:30:01At one time, my great-great-grandfather, Mars Jackson, owned this land.
00:30:13Number 8.
00:30:14Marissa Tomei
00:30:15I received word you are in Italy looking into your family history and wanted to get in touch
00:30:20to tell you what I know of your ancestors.
00:30:23Marissa Tomei turned to genealogical research to find the truth about the murder of her
00:30:27maternal great-grandfather, Francesco Leopoldo Bianchi.
00:30:31Growing up, she heard that he was killed due to his philandering ways, leaving his
00:30:34widow Adelaida to raise two children on her own.
00:30:37She confirmed he met a tragic end, shot by a man named Tersilio Lazzareschi.
00:30:42However, Leopoldo's murder was over a business deal gone wrong, not because of any misdeeds.
00:30:49Researchers also found a living relative named Rosetta Vannucci, daughter of Leo's sister
00:30:54Bruna Bianchi, making her Tomei's first cousin twice removed.
00:31:12In a letter, Rosetta explained how Adelaida married a good man who provided for the family,
00:31:16painting a much happier picture than what Tomei's family believed for decades.
00:31:20The story really isn't a story of a broken family.
00:31:24She went on to marry a great, great guy, and my grandpa had a really great life.
00:31:34Number 7.
00:31:35Molly Shannon
00:31:36This picture is incredible.
00:31:37This picture was taken in this house, and this was the house your grandfather left to
00:31:44go to America from.
00:31:45At a very young age, SNL alum Molly Shannon lost her mother, youngest sister, and cousin
00:31:50in a car accident.
00:31:52Growing up, she never knew her maternal grandparents, Owen Keating, formerly Cadigan, and Mary Madden.
00:31:58On her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Shannon travels to Ireland to trace her mother's
00:32:02side of the family, and visits her grandfather's hometown of Clochmore on the island of Achill.
00:32:06I wanted to show you this particular piece of land because it is surrounded by enormous
00:32:11stone, handmade stone walls, and those walls were built by your ancestors, your great-grandfather,
00:32:19Owen, Owen Cadigan Sr.
00:32:21There she meets two cousins who share their fond memories of Owen, including how proudly
00:32:26he spoke about his daughter.
00:32:28Shannon tears up hearing about the love her grandfather had for her mother, two people
00:32:32she tragically lost too early in life.
00:32:34He died when I was born, and my mom died when I was four.
00:32:41It was just so sweet.
00:32:43Number 6.
00:32:44Julie Chen Moonves
00:32:45I have so many more questions about this man's life.
00:32:49Julie Chen Moonves knew her maternal grandfather, Liu Guotong, had a rags-to-riches story with
00:32:54the impression that he was a wealthy playboy type.
00:32:57However, in her ancestry research, she discovered that he made a great impact in China, providing
00:33:02relief to refugees during the War of Resistance.
00:33:05He was also a philanthropist.
00:33:07In 1937, Liu Guotong and his brother Lun Jinzi co-founded the Anshan Primary School in their
00:33:13village of Penglai, China.
00:33:15Moonves felt proud of her grandfather's humanitarianism and heroism, especially after visiting the
00:33:20school, where she saw firsthand how he empowered youth through education.
00:33:25It says the funeral takes place on Sunday.
00:33:31It's so strange because I never met him, but it's sad.
00:33:39Number 5.
00:33:40Christina Applegate
00:33:41I have asked my father to come here to Trenton so I can sit down with him and share with
00:33:47him the information.
00:33:49I know some of the story is going to be really difficult for him to hear.
00:33:53Throughout her life, Christina Applegate's paternal grandparents were a mystery.
00:33:57Her father, Robert, was raised by his grandparents and grew up knowing hardly anything about
00:34:01them.
00:34:02Diving into the complicated family tree, Christina learned the ugly truth about the troubled
00:34:06lives of her grandparents, Lavinia Shaw and Paul Applegate.
00:34:10In the 1940s, the two divorced and fought over custody of their son.
00:34:15Between Paul's alleged abuse of his wife and Lavinia's substance use, it's a heartbreaking
00:34:19story.
00:34:20My God, this is just nuts.
00:34:22Christina shares the unpleasant details with her father, and he's able to finally have
00:34:26closure.
00:34:27But it reminds him that he didn't continue the cycle of pain.
00:34:30Instead, he gave his kids a great childhood full of love and care, despite not having
00:34:34one himself.
00:34:35Want me to tell you what the good is?
00:34:36I'd like to have a moment of happiness, yeah.
00:34:37Here's the good, dad.
00:34:41The beauty of this is that you can be incredibly proud that you broke the pattern and that
00:34:48you raised all of us.
00:34:51Number 4.
00:34:52Jason Sudeikis
00:34:54Similar to Christina Applegate, SNL alum Jason Sudeikis went on a genealogical journey to
00:34:59find answers for his father, Dan, who never knew his father.
00:35:03Stanley and Edna Sudeikis married on September 25, 1945, in Chicago.
00:35:08On the same day, he abandoned his pregnant wife and their daughter, never providing financial
00:35:13support.
00:35:14The defendant willfully deserted and absented himself from the plaintiff without any reasonable
00:35:20cause.
00:35:21In 1948, Stanley, unhoused and often under influence of substances, died on a sidewalk.
00:35:27When he was young, his father, Stanley Sr., left to start another family.
00:35:31I'm certainly proud and very fortunate to have had my father.
00:35:37Jason relays these harrowing discoveries to his parents and siblings.
00:35:41And in a touching moment, he praises his dad for being present and giving their family
00:35:45a fortunate life.
00:35:46You know, you've taken a lot of time over these last 10 years to sort of like apologizing
00:35:50to me, thinking you didn't do enough or we're too hard here.
00:35:54Yeah.
00:35:55And I just, you know, I don't think you need to do that ever again.
00:36:00Number three, Regina King.
00:36:02On her genealogical journey, Regina King learned about her maternal great-great-grandfather
00:36:07Moses Crosby, a.k.a. Moses Hughes, and the racial injustices he faced.
00:36:11It is also the political center of the black community.
00:36:16You gotta remember that black folk could not gather anywhere else other than the church.
00:36:21Everything was off-limits.
00:36:22Yeah.
00:36:23In 1868, he was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama after an altercation with a white
00:36:28man, and a group of them broke into his home and killed his wife.
00:36:32Moses was later charged with assault and attempted murder of the white man and sentenced to two
00:36:36years in prison.
00:36:38Soon after his release, the educator and activist became a pastor, co-founding Morning Star
00:36:43Association.
00:36:44Wow, this man.
00:36:53He was a pastor.
00:36:56The organization paved the way for Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther
00:37:00King Jr. was a pastor.
00:37:02Regina was overjoyed and inspired to discover that Moses continued working to create a better
00:37:07world.
00:37:08Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, of course, gave rise to the modern-day civil rights movement.
00:37:15Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
00:37:18Number 2.
00:37:19Lisa Kudrow One of the first episodes of the U.S. version
00:37:23of Who Do You Think You Are featured executive producer and actor Lisa Kudrow tracing the
00:37:27Eastern European roots of her father.
00:37:29He recalled being young when a Polish relative named Yuri Borodin visited the family in New
00:37:34York to deliver terrible news.
00:37:36Mary Mordechowicz, Lee's grandmother, was among the 750 to 900 Jewish villagers who
00:37:42were killed in the 1942 Iliya massacre.
00:37:44As soon as the Nazis arrived in Iliya, they showed extreme cruelty toward the Jewish population.
00:37:50They soon started going from home to home, searching for every man, woman, and child.
00:37:55Lee never saw him again, and Yuri was presumed dead.
00:37:58Kudrow traveled to Belarus to get the full story and learned the tragic, horrifying details.
00:38:04But to her surprise, Yuri was still alive.
00:38:11Having the chance to meet Yuri and his family was a positive end to a bleak episode.
00:38:19Number 1.
00:38:20Rita Wilson Rita Wilson's father Alan never liked to
00:38:23discuss his past, so two years after he passed away, the actor set out to learn more about
00:38:29My dad was born in northern Greece in 1920, and so I'm starting my search on Ancestry.com
00:38:39and see if we can find if there's any documents related to the village.
00:38:43Wilson travels to Greece, where Alan was born Hasan Halilov Ibrahimov, and then to Bulgaria,
00:38:49where his family later moved.
00:38:51She unearths painful secrets, including that his previous wife and child died within months
00:38:56of each other.
00:38:57Wilson meets with Hasan's 96-year-old half-brother Ferhat, still living in Bulgaria.
00:39:02Both are moved to tears as they share a heartfelt hug.
00:39:14Ferhat talks about the emotional reunion with his brother at a labor camp, before Hasan
00:39:18escaped and he had to stay behind.
00:39:20The tears keep flowing when he later gives her a letter her father wrote from America.
00:39:25I came to America on May 4th, 1949.
00:39:33Which of these moments warmed your heart?
00:39:35And I hope, I really, really hope with all my heart that at the end of the process, he
00:39:41really sees what a miracle he is.
00:39:47If you've ever seen a genealogy show before, you know that every so often, a celebrity
00:39:52learns something about their family that is not so great.
00:39:55Of course, no one can be held accountable for things their ancestors did decades or
00:39:58even centuries before they were born.
00:40:01But even so, finding out about it on TV can be a bit uncomfortable.
00:40:05Here are some of the most awkward moments on Who Do You Think You Are.
00:40:09How disposed of.
00:40:12Which pains me, I have to say.
00:40:14Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most awkward and uncomfortable
00:40:20reveals on Who Do You Think You Are.
00:40:22We're looking at moments that are both awkward for the celebrities, and perhaps also awkward
00:40:27for the viewers at home, being presented with some uncomfortable truths about British history.
00:40:32Didn't expect this at all.
00:40:35Number 10. Squatting complaint.
00:40:37Apparently, that her father remembered that she was squatting.
00:40:42And they all have to be quiet, and they have to blow out the candle and make sure they
00:40:46stay in the dark.
00:40:47EastEnders star Rose Eyling Ellis found out that her family history is closer to the fictional
00:40:52soap than first assumed.
00:40:54She found out that her family were pub landlords in days gone by, and that one of her ancestors
00:40:59was once fined for assault after drunkenly slapping a customer.
00:41:03The vent were very drunk, and he came up to him and slapped him in the face.
00:41:07Later though, she investigated an old family story that they'd once been squatting, and
00:41:12found out that it wasn't true.
00:41:14But they're not squatting because they rent it.
00:41:17Right, they were paying rent.
00:41:19They were, in fact, paying tenants.
00:41:21But somebody made a complaint against them, which led to them trying to be as quiet and
00:41:25non-disruptive as possible.
00:41:27The source of the complaint?
00:41:29Kids accidentally throwing a ball over the neighbouring workhouse's wall while playing.
00:41:34They were actually evicted because of this.
00:41:36Requirements along the neighbourhood have failed to prove any evidence of disturbance.
00:41:41Indeed, the evidence available goes to show that the Wellesley family are in bed at ten
00:41:47Number 9.
00:41:48Con artist.
00:41:49I was at Westminster Police Court.
00:41:50W. Morris Crouch, otherwise Morris Beethoven, late of Ebrey Street, Pimlico, was brought
00:41:56up in custody.
00:41:57Oh my god.
00:41:59Fiona Bruce had a photographer in her family history, but he seemed to lose an awful lot
00:42:03of money, and she wanted to find out where it was going.
00:42:06So she started investigating William Crouch, her great-great-grandfather, by going through
00:42:12photography journals.
00:42:13But it turned out he was a criminal and had been arrested for defrauding people.
00:42:18He'd been asking potential photography apprentices to pay him large deposits, keeping the money
00:42:22for himself.
00:42:23The prisoner entered into agreements undertaken to make repayment of the deposits, but at
00:42:27the time his affairs were at the lowest pecuniary ebb.
00:42:30He was caught and ordered to pay, but the money was already gone.
00:42:34The evidence stacked up, and he ultimately pled guilty back in 1904, getting a five-month
00:42:39sentence and causing a scandal.
00:42:41Obligation.
00:42:42So that is why I took on so many pupils and assistants.
00:42:45To fleece them.
00:42:46The pupils had little or nothing to do.
00:42:48For some time, the defendant had not a camera on his establishment.
00:42:53Number 8.
00:42:54Family Farms.
00:42:55They were tenants.
00:42:56What we call tenants at will.
00:42:57So they didn't have a lease.
00:42:59Throughout the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, Ireland was in the
00:43:04grips of the Irish Land War, in which the Irish people demanded reform from the country's
00:43:09rich landowning families.
00:43:11At the time, the English crown was seizing land from Irish Catholics and giving it to
00:43:17loyal English Protestant families, like the Palmers.
00:43:20Julie Walters found out that some of her family, generations ago, were tenants under this system,
00:43:26living in a house owned by an English landlord, Roger Palmer.
00:43:30It's one of many dark chapters in British history, and is a very striking moment when
00:43:34the historian shows the enormous manor house Palmer lived in, paid for by the unwilling
00:43:39tenants across Ireland.
00:43:41The owners of the land were that privileged, wealthy minority.
00:43:45Living off the backs of these poor people.
00:43:47Her family, the Clarks, were also affected by failing crops and potato blights, and ended
00:43:52up unable to pay their rent.
00:43:55Just the thought of having four small children, and also the land not being brilliant land.
00:44:01Number 7.
00:44:02Gardening Drama.
00:44:03Sir Bruce Forsyth went all the way to America after being contacted by a long-lost relative
00:44:09in the States.
00:44:10He finds out that his great-grandfather, Joseph Forsyth Johnson, worked on Prospect Park
00:44:15in Brooklyn, New York, in the 19th century.
00:44:18Eight trees were cut, twelve were marked for cutting, and it was made to seem as though
00:44:22again he was clear-cutting the park.
00:44:24But he was ousted when the public decided that his attempts to cut down a few trees
00:44:28to rejuvenate the park were actually an attempt to raze it, and cut down all the trees.
00:44:34The park broiled.
00:44:35Broiled.
00:44:36And you see here the next sub-headline, Joseph Forsyth Johnson gone.
00:44:41Gone.
00:44:42Gone.
00:44:43He was forcibly removed by the park commissioner, trading barbs in newspapers with the park
00:44:48department while trying to demand that they give him a fair hearing.
00:44:52More shocking, Forsyth later finds out that Joseph may have been a bigamist.
00:44:56He says that Commissioner Summers is only a mechanic, and that some people cannot tell
00:45:02sticks from trees.
00:45:04Number 6.
00:45:06And here in, I think, 1862 is another reference to him dealing, or brokering, gold mining
00:45:15in Wales.
00:45:16Some of Rupert Everett's relatives are shrouded in mystery, among them his great-great-grandfather
00:45:21Frederick.
00:45:22While searching archives in the British Library, Everett found that he'd been working as a
00:45:26stockbroker for various mining companies.
00:45:30Investors were encouraged to direct their money into speculative schemes with little
00:45:33official oversight.
00:45:35But perhaps those mining companies weren't as lucrative as people thought, because he
00:45:39was ultimately arrested for attempting to defraud people by selling them shares, and
00:45:44then just pocketing the money.
00:45:45A scam as old as time.
00:45:48Charge of fraud against a stockbroker.
00:45:50Ah!
00:45:51Yesterday, Mr. Frederick Everett, a stockbroker, again appeared before the Lord Mayor.
00:45:56It's always unpleasant to find out that one of your ancestors may have been a criminal,
00:46:00though the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.
00:46:03Frederick ultimately went bankrupt, and died of TB.
00:46:06Number 5.
00:46:07The Lodger Secret.
00:46:08Oh, yes, there he is.
00:46:10James Arthur Edwards, and he's there with Mabel.
00:46:15And who's Frederick Ernest Nash, who's living there as well?
00:46:18Leslie Manville traced her grandparents back to 1918, and found out that her grandfather
00:46:23had been living with a woman named Mabel, and another man, Frederick Nash, who was their
00:46:29lodger.
00:46:30She found out that Mabel and Frederick had an affair, and a child, and her grandfather
00:46:34James moved out of the house, leaving them to it.
00:46:37Father's name and surname is Frederick Ernest Nash, and the mother is Mabel Edwards.
00:46:43Oh my goodness.
00:46:44James moved on from the marriage to Mabel with a woman named Harriet, Leslie's grandmother.
00:46:49It was all very dramatic, and difficult to unravel, but seemed to boil down to how it
00:46:54was almost impossible for working class people to afford to get divorced at the time, so
00:46:59her grandparents weren't legally married.
00:47:01So these couples who are cohabiting, without getting divorced, without being able to marry
00:47:06each other, whilst it's not a norm, it's certainly not that unusual.
00:47:12Number 4.
00:47:13Abandoned.
00:47:14Your mother was with this family only for one month, for a very, very short period of
00:47:19time.
00:47:20Like Leslie Manville, Lulu had an old family mystery she wanted to solve.
00:47:25Why was her mother, one of seven children, given up to another family, and why was it
00:47:30only her?
00:47:31I have to say I'm feeling very angry with my grandparents, willy nilly having babies
00:47:37all over the place.
00:47:38It certainly is awkward to learn information that makes you angry at your grandparents
00:47:42though, and that's what happened.
00:47:44Elizabeth was the fourth born child, and when only a few months old, she was given away
00:47:48willingly by her parents.
00:47:50Lulu found out that it was because they didn't have any money, and her grandfather was in
00:47:55and out of prison.
00:47:57Child went to school yesterday for the first time, and is very pleased with herself.
00:48:08Elizabeth's birth parents initially failed to pay the first family to take her, and she
00:48:12found another permanent home, that thankfully took good care of her.
00:48:16In a lot of respects, your mother has been a very, very fortunate child.
00:48:20Yes, and that's what my uncle James said.
00:48:25He was lucky.
00:48:26Number 3.
00:48:27Strike-breaking ancestor.
00:48:28He's in the turret, chucking stones at them.
00:48:32Something like that.
00:48:33Pretty much.
00:48:34Yes.
00:48:35Jack Whitehall and his father Michael wanted to learn about their ancestor, Thomas Jones
00:48:38Phillips, who was a solicitor involved in monitoring industrial disputes in Wales in
00:48:42the 1830s.
00:48:44Phillips was tailing the Chartists, who, among other things, wanted universal male suffrage,
00:48:50that is, the right for all men, regardless of class, to vote.
00:48:53No, no, it is our ancestor Thomas Jones Phillips.
00:48:59He's the dodgy emissary that's come to the meeting in like a bad disguise.
00:49:03It's not that surprising to find out that someone as posh as Jack Whitehall had dodgy
00:49:07ancestors, but discovering that Phillips disguised himself to spy on the Chartists and report
00:49:12back about their activities was deeply reprehensible.
00:49:15They're forming mobs, and they're heading down towards Newport, and our ancestor is
00:49:20trailing them in his first-class coach, monitoring them at every point.
00:49:26He was also involved in trying to convict many Chartists after a lethal riot, all in
00:49:31exchange for a cash reward he claimed not to know about.
00:49:34Number two, the Orange Order.
00:49:37My father was, um, he was an Orange man.
00:49:41Oh, he was?
00:49:42He was, aye.
00:49:43David Tennant has always had strong connections to the Church, with his father being a minister
00:49:48in the Church of Scotland.
00:49:49But he was completely unprepared to go to Northern Ireland and meet some distant Protestant
00:49:53relatives, discovering that one of them was in the Orange Order.
00:49:57Was William in a lodge as well?
00:50:00I don't know.
00:50:01Right.
00:50:02You could probably follow that through, maybe from the Memorial Hall.
00:50:04They told him this as he sat down for a cuppa, and brought out an orange sash to show him,
00:50:09giving it to him to take to a nearby Memorial Hall, and ask more questions about the relatives
00:50:14he didn't even know he had until recently.
00:50:17He talked to the camera crew about how disturbed he was to be given this information, and handed
00:50:22the sash itself.
00:50:23How did you feel when you were handed that sash?
00:50:26Not great.
00:50:27I didn't, I don't, even now I'm not that comfortable holding it.
00:50:31Number one, Slave Owning History.
00:50:33This is shocking.
00:50:34This episode made for very upsetting viewing, as TV chef Ainsley Harriot went to Jamaica
00:50:40to learn about his ancestor, James Gordon Harriot.
00:50:43Nobody was prepared to learn that his family actually owned slaves in Jamaica at one point,
00:50:48and that his surname, Harriot, came from distant, white ancestors.
00:50:53So this was something that was passed down through the family, learning the skill and
00:50:57art.
00:50:58Of purchasing your slaves.
00:51:00Harriot and his family had previously assumed that they were descended from black slaves
00:51:04on Jamaica, so discovering this shook him to his core.
00:51:07It's very difficult information to come to terms with, as the historian pointed out how
00:51:11many slaves his family had once owned.
00:51:14He owned one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight slaves.
00:51:21I can see that.
00:51:25One thing you can bet on when it comes to genealogy shows like Who Do You Think You
00:51:29Are?
00:51:30Is that someone is going to be shook by what they learn.
00:51:32How would you feel if you found out you were descended from royalty?
00:51:36Or that you had family that died during the Holocaust?
00:51:38Or that maybe you came by your chosen profession, honestly?
00:51:42Check out these shocking reveals on Who Do You Think You Are? to see how the celebs dealt
00:51:45with it.
00:51:46It's John Frost, who stands charged with the crime of high treason by order of the
00:51:51magistrates.
00:51:52Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down 20 of the most shocking and surprising
00:51:57revelations on Who Do You Think You Are?
00:52:00It's practically a lie from Hamlet.
00:52:05Number 20.
00:52:06Leslie Garrett and the possible poisoning.
00:52:09Death from poisoning?
00:52:11By carbolic acid?
00:52:13Accidentally administered?
00:52:14Oh my goodness sake!
00:52:16Wow!
00:52:17By whom?
00:52:19Perhaps more shocking than the story itself was singer Leslie Garrett's overjoyed reaction
00:52:23to the fact that her great-great-grandmother died after ingesting carbolic acid.
00:52:29Contemporary news reports, and the death certificate, said that the carbolic acid, which was a commonly
00:52:34used disinfectant, was administered accidentally to Mary Ann Garrett.
00:52:39The medicine bottle was also on the mantel shelf, and it too was labelled and similar
00:52:44in shape to the one containing the poison.
00:52:47Though she only had a tablespoon of it, and a doctor was sent for immediately, she died
00:52:51in a matter of minutes.
00:52:53Garrett talks to a pathologist who says that a tablespoon was more than enough, and that
00:52:57many people actually died the same way back when the substance was regularly kept in houses.
00:53:03People were very concerned about this, there were about 200 deaths a year due to carbolic
00:53:08acid swallowed.
00:53:10Garrett still suspected that her great-grandad Charlie might have done it on purpose.
00:53:14My great-grandfather just said sorry, gave her the wrong bottle, and he was believed.
00:53:18Number 19.
00:53:19Kate Winslet's imprisoned relative.
00:53:21So Anders stole.
00:53:22Yeah, and why did he steal?
00:53:24Because he was starving, and so were his children.
00:53:26His child, the youngest child had died, and so he needed food for his family.
00:53:31She headed to Sweden to learn about her ancestry on her mother's side, and her great-great-great-grandfather
00:53:37Anders Johnson.
00:53:38But she soon found out, not only that one of his children died young, but that in 1832,
00:53:44he was arrested, along with another man, for stealing barrels of potatoes.
00:53:48Good on you Anders, I would have stolen the potatoes as well.
00:53:52She then finds out that he was sent to prison for this, and that he sadly died in prison,
00:53:57in a nearby castle.
00:53:58It's stated that he is 42 years old, and has never been suspected of any crime.
00:54:03My God, so he was only a year younger than me.
00:54:05She goes to the castle to talk to another historian about what happened, finding out
00:54:09that he'd stolen other things too, including some beehives full of honey.
00:54:14He was sentenced to be whipped, but died when he contracted typhus, before the sentence
00:54:19was carried out.
00:54:20Buried April the 3rd, arrested man Anders Johnson, 43 years old, died of nerve fever.
00:54:27Number 18.
00:54:28Nigella Lawson's vanished family.
00:54:30It's very different from all those big lion's houses and everything, isn't it?
00:54:33So obviously a very small house, a lot of children, no money, no food, and no sanitary
00:54:40conditions.
00:54:41It's no secret that Nigella Lawson, whose father was a peer in the House of Lords, and
00:54:46whose mother was a restaurant heiress, came from money.
00:54:49But that isn't the entire story, as she learned when she investigated her roots.
00:54:53I mean, in itself, it doesn't tell me that much.
00:54:56Two children have apparently vanished.
00:54:58She found that she had Dutch ancestry, and a lot of Jewish ancestry, but also that her
00:55:03great-great-grandfather, Barnet Salmon, grew up in poverty.
00:55:07Barnet was determined to break away from the poverty of his background.
00:55:13He escaped the East End slums in his early twenties, and began to build a reputation
00:55:18as a tobacco dealer.
00:55:19In the 1840s, Salmon and his siblings lived in a tiny house in Spitalfields, London, where
00:55:24multiple children died of diseases related to malnutrition and unsanitary living.
00:55:29She found this out after two of the children disappeared from records, and she went searching
00:55:34for their death certificates to put the pieces together.
00:55:37Asher died in March 42, and Harriet in November 42, so that's pretty near one another.
00:55:49Graham Norton's Shotgun Wedding.
00:55:51Norton grew up in the Republic of Ireland, but his mother was Northern Irish, and had
00:55:55roots in Belfast.
00:55:56So, he headed across the border to learn about that side of the family, recalling childhood
00:56:01visits to Belfast during the Troubles as he went.
00:56:04I loved going to Belfast, I loved my grandparents and stuff, but it was so scary.
00:56:09He ran into trouble during the research though, because his great-grandmother had recorded
00:56:13two different maiden names on different documents.
00:56:17He wanted to know why, coming to suspect that she was illegitimate, and that's why she had
00:56:21no father listed on her marriage certificate.
00:56:24That does really shock me, because even now, you'd get a bit of a move on down the aisle.
00:56:31But most shocking was learning that she was already eight months pregnant when she walked
00:56:35down the aisle.
00:56:36My grandmother would have been mortified if she'd known this, that her mother had been
00:56:44eight months pregnant going down the aisle.
00:56:47Number 16, Clare Balding's great-grandfather.
00:56:50He's a very public figure, he's an MP, and he's clearly living a lifestyle that suggests
00:56:56he might be engaged in illegal acts.
00:56:58Even more aristocratic than Nigella is Clare Balding.
00:57:02It's true that her lineage was even more well-known before appearing on the show, and can eventually
00:57:07be traced back to Henry VII, disturbingly through more than one close relative.
00:57:12These are all your Stanley family ancestors, a bit overwhelming.
00:57:16But the show focused largely on investigating her great-grandfather, Sir Malcolm Bullock,
00:57:20to determine whether or not he was gay.
00:57:22And I think there he provides an opportunity for probably a group of gay men to basically
00:57:28socialise with each other.
00:57:30Gosh, you just say that as if it's accepted fact.
00:57:32Group of gay MPs, Malcolm Bullock was one of them.
00:57:34Bullock was an MP between the 1920s and 1950s, and there were always rumours that he was,
00:57:41But as Balding points out, at the time, it would have been a crime had he been discovered,
00:57:46and his career certainly would have ended, so it had to stay secret.
00:57:49In my mind, there's no doubt that he was gay.
00:57:54Number 15, Greg Davies' illegitimate ancestor.
00:57:58So, William Owen is the name of my great-grandfather?
00:58:03It would seem so, yes.
00:58:04Though he grew up in Shropshire, Greg Davies' parents were both Welsh, and drove him across
00:58:09the border so that he wouldn't be born in England.
00:58:12He found out that his great-grandmother hadn't been married to his great-grandfather, and
00:58:16their kids had been born out of wedlock.
00:58:19That would have been a local scandal, do you think?
00:58:22Um, yes, probably.
00:58:24They weren't married?
00:58:26No, they weren't, no, and they've had two children together.
00:58:29She eventually took him to court to try and get the child support payments he owed her,
00:58:33but he didn't have any money.
00:58:36The reason he was never mentioned by our family is because no one apart from Elizabeth, my
00:58:41great-grandmother, I don't think knew who he was.
00:58:45He kept investigating William Owen, who turned out to have trouble with drink.
00:58:49He was even arrested at one point for being drunk and in charge of a horse and cart, as
00:58:53well as once attempting to climb Mount Snowdon in the middle of the night.
00:58:57Mrs Carroll said she could not say he was drunk, neither could she say he was sober,
00:59:03but he was more drunk than sober.
00:59:05Number 14, Sarah Millican and the Pegasus disaster.
00:59:09It says, it was our painful duty to announce the melancholy catastrophe, the loss of the
00:59:14Pegasus steamer.
00:59:15None of Millican's relatives died in the Pegasus disaster in 1843, but one ancestor,
00:59:21James, did work for a shipping company that employed him and others to retrieve things
00:59:26from shipwrecks.
00:59:27This included the grisly work of bringing bodies to the surface, which families of the
00:59:32deceased would give rewards for.
00:59:34The surface of the water was covered in the dead and the dying.
00:59:38The screeching was fearful.
00:59:40Wow.
00:59:42That's horrific, isn't it?
00:59:44The details of the disaster were harrowing, but more shocking is that an event like this
00:59:49could be so widely forgotten.
00:59:51Buried in 19th century newspapers.
00:59:53The divers have 40% on the value of all they bring up.
00:59:56It's described as melancholy work, wrenching open boxes and tearing out their saturated
01:00:01contents.
01:00:02She read through advertisements placed offering cash rewards for the recovery of loved ones
01:00:07remains in these disturbing scenes.
01:00:10Number 13.
01:00:11David Tennant's Orange Order relatives.
01:00:14Though he believed nearly his entire family came from Scotland, Tennant went off to Northern
01:00:19Ireland to meet the relatives of his maternal great-grandfather after losing the trail for
01:00:23the Scottish side of the family.
01:00:25My father was, he was an Orange man.
01:00:30Oh, he was?
01:00:31He was.
01:00:32He was surprised to find out that his Northern Irish family weren't only Protestants, but
01:00:35that at least one of them had been an Orange man, a member of the notorious Orange Order.
01:00:40His relatives actually gave him one of the orange sashes they had, which shocked and
01:00:45disturbed him.
01:00:46Was William in a lodge as well?
01:00:48I don't know.
01:00:49Right.
01:00:50You could probably follow that through, maybe for the memorial hall.
01:00:53He found it hard to reconcile that his family could have belonged to the Orange Order, particularly
01:00:57during the Troubles.
01:00:59How did you feel when you were handed that sash?
01:01:01Not great.
01:01:02I didn't, I don't, even now I'm not that comfortable holding it.
01:01:06Number 12.
01:01:07Sheridan Smith and the alleged arsonist.
01:01:10This one was full of twists and turns as Sheridan Smith went to Sheffield to unearth her family
01:01:15history.
01:01:16Shortly before four o'clock this morning, a fire broke out on the premises of Mr. Doubleday
01:01:21Woodman in Sheffield Moor.
01:01:23She was looking for information about her great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Doubleday,
01:01:28who tried to make it as a musician playing the banjo, but she found out that he had a
01:01:33number of suspicious arsons in his history.
01:01:36It is and he taught himself to bring up his kids and everything he's done for his family
01:01:41that this now just seems like a different person.
01:01:43A pub he owned actually burned down when the building was totally empty, leading investigators
01:01:48to suspect it was done for the insurance, charging him for it.
01:01:52There's scarcely any furniture in any of the rooms.
01:01:55Doubleday was the only person on the premises.
01:01:58He was leaving the house this week having removed most of his belongings.
01:02:02But she kept digging and eventually learned that he was found not guilty, so hopefully
01:02:07that verdict was correct and he didn't start the fire.
01:02:10Number 11.
01:02:11Stephen Fry's wartime history.
01:02:13Place of death, Auschwitz camp.
01:02:18So that's my grandfather's sister, my mother's aunt.
01:02:24An immense tragedy was uncovered when Stephen Fry traced his roots, wanting to learn more
01:02:29about his Jewish heritage.
01:02:31It was difficult to watch him find out that some of his closest relatives, including his
01:02:35great aunt, perished in Auschwitz during the war after being sent there by the Nazis.
01:02:41So that's the other girl.
01:02:44That's Elisa.
01:02:48Date of death, 1944, Auschwitz camp.
01:02:52His family didn't initially know exactly what had happened to them, only that they
01:02:56had been taken to Auschwitz and never heard from again, but presumably had died.
01:03:01It's so stupid because I knew this.
01:03:05We all knew they'd died, at least believed it.
01:03:10He had an old family photograph, and it was deeply heartbreaking putting faces to the
01:03:15names as he goes through the list of his cousins, most of whom died within the walls of the
01:03:20Nazis' most notorious camps.
01:03:23Number 10, Boris Johnson is related to King George II.
01:03:28As an old Etonian and Oxbridge graduate, it shouldn't really come as a surprise that
01:03:33Boris Johnson is posh enough to be related to royalty.
01:03:37So she is, of course, you know, Augusta Caroline, Princess of Brunswick.
01:03:41Oh yeah, she rings a bell, doesn't she?
01:03:43And the wonderful thing is her mother is...
01:03:47Her mother is...
01:03:49Oh, look at this, Augusta Hanover.
01:03:51But back in 2008, he was notable as one of the first celebs to find a King of England
01:03:57in his family tree.
01:03:58Turns out that Johnson is directly descended from King George II.
01:04:03For those who don't know their horrible history songs, he was the bad one.
01:04:08King George was a Hanoverian, so an ancestor of our current royal family.
01:04:13This means that Boris is distantly related to the Queen, the Swedish and Dutch royals,
01:04:17and even the Romanovs.
01:04:20I guess I always thought of myself and always thought of our family as being basically a
01:04:25bunch of Turkish-Jewish mixed with this weird granny butter, Baron de Pfeffel stuff.
01:04:31So I always felt a bit of a, you know...
01:04:36As I say, the product of incomers, product of newcomers to Britain.
01:04:41Number 9. Mark Wright didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
01:04:46TOWIE star Mark Wright has always believed that his blood was Italian.
01:04:51Turns out that was a myth.
01:04:53The family was Spanish, hailing from Jaén in Andalusia.
01:04:57Mark discovered that their roots were also Jewish.
01:05:00The family had fled Spain to escape the Inquisition after one ancestor was burnt at the stake
01:05:06and another subjected to torture.
01:05:08The tortured man was named David Antonio.
01:05:11He managed to hold out long enough to convince his tormentors that he was not a practicing Jew
01:05:16and concocted a plan to escape the country with his family.
01:05:20On a lighter note, he was also a master swordsman, so Mark got to do some swashbuckling.
01:05:26Number 8. Josh Whiddicombe is descended from Henry VIII, possibly.
01:05:32Josh Whiddicombe's family history journey took him back to Mary Boleyn.
01:05:36She was his 14 times great-grandmother, sister to Anne Boleyn and mistress of Henry VIII.
01:05:43My great-great-great-great-whatever aunt is Anne Boleyn.
01:05:49She's also the main character in The Other Boleyn Girl.
01:05:52Many historians believe that Catherine Nolley's, Mary's daughter, was also Henry's illegitimate child.
01:05:59Catherine is also Josh's ancestor.
01:06:02As the comedian was very excited to discover, this means he could be a direct descendant of Henry VIII.
01:06:18However, even if this is fake news, Josh still has some royal blood.
01:06:23On the Boleyn side, he can trace his ancestry back to King Henry I.
01:06:28So there's a consolation prize.
01:06:33Ha-ha-ha-ho! King Edward I.
01:06:36Number 7. Jack Whitehall's unlikable ancestor.
01:06:41So what happened then?
01:06:43Well, hopefully they beat him up.
01:06:45Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall has made a career out of being posh.
01:06:50That is to say, a lot of his comedy involves poking fun at himself and his background.
01:06:55Taking part in Who Do You Think You Are? with his dad Michael,
01:06:59Jack hoped to find some ancestors who were a bit more relatable.
01:07:02What he got was Thomas Jones Phillips, a lawyer and, as Jack puts it, a perennial snitch.
01:07:17Jones Phillips played a part in opposing the Chartists,
01:07:20a political group who fought for working men to have the vote.
01:07:24During the Newport Uprising, Jack's ancestor tracked down their inspirational leader,
01:07:29John Frost, and turned him in for the reward.
01:07:32His four-times-great-grandson was not impressed.
01:07:46Number 6. Patrick Stewart's father suffered from shell shock.
01:07:55When Patrick Stewart agreed to take part in Who Do You Think You Are?,
01:07:59he planned to find out about his father's military service.
01:08:02Stewart's childhood home had been marred by domestic violence,
01:08:06but his memories of his father were mixed.
01:08:09He remembered the violent man, but also the exciting war stories his father used to tell.
01:08:15In this deeply personal episode, Stewart wanted to explore
01:08:19and understand the conflicting sides of his father's character.
01:08:24An aerial attack, a nearby bomb explosion gave him shell shock,
01:08:29from which he still suffers.
01:08:32Over the course of the programme,
01:08:34the actor discovered that his father suffered from shell shock.
01:08:37We would now call it PTSD.
01:08:40We know now that it builds up a level of stress and anger.
01:08:48And of course, what I experienced from 1945 onwards,
01:08:52was an angry man, who maybe hadn't been angry before.
01:08:58This discovery gave the actor some new insight
01:09:01into a man who may have been different had he never gone to war.
01:09:05Number 5. Judi Dench's Shakespeare connection.
01:09:09Judi Dench is now a familiar face on the big screen,
01:09:12thanks to film roles in projects such as Shakespeare in Love and Philomena.
01:09:16But primarily, she's a Shakespearean actress.
01:09:19Her first role at the Old Vic Theatre was playing Ophelia in Hamlet.
01:09:24You might know the English name better, Elsinore.
01:09:28It's Elsinore.
01:09:30The play is set in Denmark, in the royal castle of Elsinore,
01:09:34where Ophelia lives with her father.
01:09:37While investigating her family history, Dame Judi was shocked to discover
01:09:41that she actually had an ancestor who lived in the real Danish castle.
01:09:46Even better, she turned out to be related to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
01:09:51who were actual characters in the play.
01:09:54So those were part of his family?
01:09:56Those were part of his family.
01:09:58Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
01:10:00Exactly.
01:10:01Who's Shakespeare?
01:10:03It was an emotional discovery for the actress,
01:10:06and a fascinating coincidence for the viewer.
01:10:08Well, maybe the stories that Wilkemp brought back
01:10:12could have been some kind of inspiration to Shakespeare to write about.
01:10:19Number four, Alan Cummings' grandfather's real cause of death.
01:10:24Actor Alan Cummings investigated a family story that was a bit closer to home.
01:10:30His mother's father, Tom, was killed while serving as a police officer in Malaysia.
01:10:35Supposedly, a gun that he was cleaning backfired.
01:10:39You don't clean a gun like this, and you don't kill yourself like this.
01:10:44But when Alan spoke to an old service comrade, he uncovered a different story.
01:10:49His grandfather died from a gun wound to the back of the head.
01:10:53And that was that he was playing Russian roulette.
01:10:59The story was he had been playing Russian roulette.
01:11:03Apparently, he was a habitual player.
01:11:05It is suspected that his luck ran out, or he got careless.
01:11:09Does this mean he accidentally shot himself?
01:11:12Or did somebody find out he was cheating and have him killed?
01:11:16Either way, it wasn't the story that his grandson expected to find.
01:11:20I feel really sad for him.
01:11:23Number three, Matthew Pinsent.
01:11:25Related to God?
01:11:28There have been a few instances of royal ancestors cropping up on
01:11:31Who Do You Think You Are?
01:11:33But the reveal during Matthew Pinsent's episode is one of the most bizarre.
01:11:38So, your direct ancestor is Edward I.
01:11:43The Olympic medalist traced his lineage back to the Plantagenet kings.
01:11:48He discovered that he was a direct descendant of Edward I.
01:11:52He was then shown an archaic scroll that follows the line of succession back even further.
01:11:58As the medieval royals were keen to justify their claim to the divine right of kings,
01:12:03the scroll takes some unexpected turns.
01:12:08There's Jesus.
01:12:10Stop it.
01:12:12Why do they put Jesus on there?
01:12:14According to this particular document, Matthew is related to Jesus,
01:12:18King David, Adam and Eve, and, right at the very top, God.
01:12:23As he says, that's pretty much as far as you can go.
01:12:27Matthew is, with certainty, directly descended from kings.
01:12:32Number two, Ainsley Harriot's slave-owning ancestors.
01:12:37So the Harriot was originally a white name then?
01:12:42Ainsley Harriot's search took him to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where his father grew up.
01:12:48Although he assumed that his ancestors had been brought to Jamaica as slaves,
01:12:52the TV chef was still in for an unpleasant shock.
01:12:56He discovered that his family name originally came from a white slave-owner,
01:13:00his two-times great-grandfather, James Gordon Harriot.
01:13:05I need to sit down.
01:13:08Ainsley visited the estate where slaves and slave-owners, both his distant relatives, once lived.
01:13:15Good or bad, it's part of my makeup, he concluded.
01:13:18The history of the Harriot family really encapsulates the history of the West Indies.
01:13:24That shows owning slaves went back generations in the Harriot family.
01:13:29Number one, Danny Dyer's royal pedigree.
01:13:33Will there ever be an episode like this one?
01:13:36Professional cockney geezer Danny Dyer didn't expect to find any money in his family tree.
01:13:41At the beginning of his journey, we didn't either.
01:13:44Tragic tales of poverty and the workhouse began the story, but then something remarkable happened.
01:13:50He hit an aristocratic line.
01:13:53After the first breakthrough, they just keep coming.
01:13:56And I think, actually, there is more than a passing resemblance.
01:14:00He learned about Thomas Cromwell, advisor to Henry VIII and his 15-times great-grandfather.
01:14:05He then followed the Seymour line, Cromwell married his son into nobility,
01:14:10and discovered he was directly descended from the Plantagenet kings.
01:14:15So you are directly descended from King Edward III of England?
01:14:21I can't be. I can't be.
01:14:25Among his other direct ancestors, he can count Eleanor of Aquitaine, William the Conqueror,
01:14:31and King Louis IX, who was even canonized as a saint.
01:14:36That is my 22-times great-grandfather, Edward III.
01:14:42The king.
01:14:43The king.
01:14:44King.
01:14:46So, do you have any family stories that you'd like to dig deeper on?
01:14:50Have you ever had the chance to visit distant relatives in another country?
01:14:53What's the most exciting thing you know about your family tree?
01:14:56I'm so interested!
01:14:58As always, thank you for joining me on this illuminating journey through the Ms. Mojo archives.
01:15:03See ya!
01:15:04Do you agree with our picks?
01:15:05Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
01:15:08And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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