From unexpected family connections to hidden ancestral secrets, join us as we explore the most surprising and uncomfortable revelations celebrities discovered about their lineage. These DNA discoveries and genealogical findings left stars questioning everything they thought they knew about their family history.
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00:00I did not know that. So my poor mother was alone with her father.
00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most surprising
00:09familial discoveries celebrities made on Finding Your Roots
00:12that left them feeling a little uncomfortable.
00:15I'm sorry. I have to laugh or I'll cry.
00:19Number 30, Anthony Ramos' enslaved ancestor.
00:24Emmy-nominated actor Anthony Ramos is best known for his role
00:29in the historical musical Hamilton.
00:31In 2024, he took a deep dive into his own history on Finding Your Roots,
00:35where he uncovered the turbulent story of his 15th great-grandfather Andres.
00:40Andres is described as a guanche, the Spanish word for a native islander.
00:46And it seems that he suffered a great deal for that very reason.
00:50An indigenous inhabitant of Tenerife Island, Andres was enslaved by a Spanish conquistador
00:56for at least 10 years.
00:57To regain his freedom, he convinced his enslaver to let him find someone to take his place.
01:02That someone was likely one of the recently-arrived enslaved Africans in the Canary Islands.
01:07He had to find a substitute slave to take his place.
01:11How do you convince somebody to do that?
01:14Yo, my man, can you just take my place with this family? I'm just trying to get this freedom real quick.
01:19What Andres did next had Ramos scratching his head.
01:22After securing his freedom, Andres joined the Spanish military,
01:26the very folks who had colonized his homeland,
01:29and joined the conquest of North Africa, where he likely died.
01:32I can only imagine that he was probably like,
01:34yo, this is probably the easiest way for me to have a better life.
01:37Yeah. So, you know, F it. I'm out.
01:4229. Lea Salonga's father misses his ship
01:46We often view our parents through the lens of who they are now,
01:49forgetting that they were once young and occasionally reckless.
01:52In the Season 11 premiere, Tony-winning performer Lea Salonga
01:56uncovered a bit of her dad's mischievous side.
01:58She's heard that he was mischievous and playful out in the world,
02:02but at home, he was often emotionally distant.
02:06Although she remembers her father, Feliciano Salonga, as emotionally distant,
02:11she learned that at 19, he was preparing to leave the Philippines
02:14to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
02:17However, after slipping away from the ship to visit his cousin,
02:20Feliciano lost track of time and missed his departure.
02:23Your father missed the boat to the Merchant Marine Academy.
02:27Okay. He never told you this story?
02:29No. I can only guess what he might have been up to.
02:32His family eventually raised the money to send him by plane instead.
02:35While the discovery amused Salonga, it also confirmed her suspicion
02:39that he must have been up to some shenanigans.
02:42I wasn't wrong. No, you weren't wrong.
02:44And he never told you this story? Nobody ever told you this story?
02:47Nobody told me this story.
02:49All I know is about the days at the Academy.
02:5228. The Close Relationship Between Paul Rudd's Parents
02:56You know how they say married couples tend to look alike over time?
02:59Well, in the case of actor Paul Rudd's parents,
03:02the reason might be a little more awkward than sweet.
03:04In this season 4 episode, Rudd set out to explore his ancestry,
03:08only to uncover an unexpected family revelation.
03:11Ethel was Paul's great-grandmother.
03:14We had seen that name before.
03:16Because back in London, we'd encountered it while researching Paul's mother's family.
03:21Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed him that his parents, Michael and Gloria Rudd,
03:26weren't just married, they were actually second cousins.
03:30This means that in addition to sharing children together,
03:32they also shared the same great-grandparents.
03:35Uh, second cousins. That's... Is that... It's illegal now, right?
03:39It's legal. But it's unusual.
03:43As you can imagine, this discovery caught Rudd off guard
03:46and left him feeling a little weirded out.
03:49Still, he managed to lighten the moment with a perfectly timed joke.
03:52As you will probably tell me, they were related.
03:56They were indeed.
03:57Which of course explains why I have six nipples.
04:0027. Michael Imperioli's Ancestors' Illegal Activities
04:05On the HBO series The Sopranos, Michael Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti,
04:10a hot-headed mafia henchman who rises to the rank of capo.
04:14But when he went on Finding Your Roots in 2025,
04:17Imperioli discovered that his ties to crime extended beyond fiction.
04:21They would actually put the cop would put the gun down and fight the kid.
04:25Like that was like how they would kind of resolve like a beef in the neighborhood.
04:29It turns out his great-grandfather, Raphael Rea,
04:32owned a bar in New York in the early 20th century.
04:35And he continued selling alcohol even after Prohibition made that practice illegal.
04:40Apparently Rea would store the liquor in the cellar of his apartment,
04:43a decision that led to a fire in 1923.
04:46Thinking about it now, it's like it's such an obvious thing.
04:50Like if you owned a bar and then Prohibition comes,
04:52it's like either you're going to close it and do something completely different
04:56or you're going to, you know, do it illegally.
04:58Right.
04:59But that wasn't the only time one of Imperioli's ancestors was caught with alcohol.
05:03In 1922, Rea's sister-in-law was also busted for serving whiskey
05:08and ended up facing federal charges.
05:11What I'm really curious about is how much like my mother knows about this stuff.
05:14Like did she know any of this? I'm really curious.
05:16Right.
05:17Because I never heard these stories.
05:18Number 26, Sharon Stone's royal ancestry.
05:21Given his title as the father of Europe,
05:24there must be thousands who descend from Charlemagne,
05:26the first crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
05:29But only few can trace their ancestry back to him with documented proof,
05:33and one of those is Sharon Stone.
05:36Charlemagne is your 38th great-grandfather.
05:40The first Holy Roman emperor. He was a mean dude.
05:45Through genealogical research, Stone discovered that her lineage is packed with royal blood,
05:50including not just Charlemagne, but two French kings as well.
05:54Naturally, this was a mind-blowing revelation.
05:57He's one of the most important people in history, of course,
06:00and he basically created modern Europe with an iron will.
06:04Well, if you want to see someone who's not just a man,
06:07Well, if you want to see someone whose mind is completely blown, here it is.
06:11With so much royalty in her family tree,
06:13one would expect her ancestors lived a life of privilege.
06:16However, the reality was much different.
06:18Stone's mother, Dorothy Larson, actually grew up in extreme poverty in rural Pennsylvania,
06:24which she shared a cramped two-room house with her parents and four siblings.
06:29Feels good, you know.
06:32It's a proud moment for me to look at this.
06:3525. Espionage in Kristen Bell's Ancestry
06:38As I entered my 40s and became an adult, I was like,
06:42What is my history? Collectively or individually? I want to learn more.
06:47On her father's side, actress Kristen Bell has Scottish roots,
06:51tracing back to her seventh great-grandfather, William Bell, who emigrated from Scotland.
06:56When the American Revolutionary War broke out, William joined the fight,
07:00not as a patriot but as a loyalist, much to Bell's disappointment.
07:04Wrong side of history, friend.
07:06However, William's allegiance wasn't that transparent at the time,
07:09because he actually worked as a spy for the British.
07:13An affidavit written four years after the war
07:16revealed that he had been secretly gathering intel in the U.S. and sending it to Canada.
07:20See, he was a spy.
07:22He was a loyalist and a spy.
07:25William, you tricky duck.
07:27His spy work eventually caught up with him and he was arrested.
07:30Although William was spared from execution, he was imprisoned and later exiled,
07:35along with his family, from their home.
07:3724. Ty Burrell's African American Ancestors
07:41For years, actor Ty Burrell had heard a family rumor
07:44that his great-grandfather, George Weeks Jr., was African American.
07:48Tell me what happened.
07:50Well, it wasn't a somber thing.
07:53My mom was like, we just found out some pretty cool stuff.
07:57This seemed a bit far-fetched, considering that by mere looks,
08:00Burrell doesn't appear to have African American roots.
08:03At first, it seemed the rumor was nothing more than family lore,
08:06as research showed that Weeks was identified as white in certain records.
08:10However, when researchers dug deeper, it became clear
08:13that Weeks may have changed the way he identified over time,
08:16as he was actually biracial.
08:18Which means that between 1900 and 1930,
08:22George's identity underwent a transformation
08:26from black to mulatto to white.
08:31His mother, Susanna Weeks, was a black woman from Tennessee
08:34who moved to Oregon, where she purchased land and established her family.
08:38She did that. That's insane.
08:40Susanna became the legal owner of that land.
08:44That is badass.
08:47Burrell himself was born and raised in Oregon
08:50and attended the University of Oregon.
08:53Although her full name is Carol Creighton Burnett,
08:59this legendary performer spent years unsure who her real grandfather was,
09:04William Creighton or Herman Melton.
09:07Nanny was married to Mr. Creighton first,
09:10and he had your mother, and then my mama later.
09:14And my cousin said,
09:16No, your mama was Mr. Melton's daughter.
09:21Oh my goodness.
09:22Both men had, at different times, been married to Burnett's grandmother, Mabel,
09:26who was apparently quite the romantic, having tied the knot six times.
09:31Woo!
09:33She was a trip.
09:36Considering her middle name is Creighton,
09:38Burnett always assumed William was her grandfather.
09:41But about 30 years ago, her cousin suggested
09:43that she might actually be descended from Herman.
09:46Hoping to uncover the truth, Burnett turned to the show for answers,
09:50and she eventually got them.
09:52DNA tests confirmed her initial hunch.
09:54She was indeed a Creighton.
09:56Are you ready to meet your grandfather?
09:57Yeah.
09:58Could you please turn the page?
10:00William Henry Creighton.
10:02William Henry Creighton is in fact your biological grandfather.
10:06Still, Burnett was stunned by just how friendly her grandmother was with the gents.
10:1122. Joy Behar's Family's Hometown Connection
10:15Joy Behar was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rose and Louis Occhiotto,
10:21who had both immigrated to the United States from Italy.
10:24On Finding Your Roots, Behar came to learn more about the relationship between Rose and Louis.
10:29Joy's mother spent much of her childhood here,
10:32but Joy had no idea that the town had also played a role in her father's family.
10:39She discovered that not only did they originate from the same country,
10:42but they also came from the same region, the same village, and even the same street.
10:46Everybody who probably came to my neighborhood in Williamsburg,
10:49a lot of them must have been from that.
10:51They, you know, they, come on, I'll get you an apartment.
10:53You know, a lot of that must have gone on. They helped each other.
10:55Their childhood homes were practically staring at each other from across the road.
10:59As it turns out, Behar's grandparents from both her maternal and paternal sides
11:02lived just a stone's throw apart,
11:04making it almost inevitable that her parents would meet.
11:07For Behar, this connection was a little too close for comfort.
11:10I mean, just across the street.
11:12I mean, it's almost incestuous what we're talking about here.
11:14You look out the window and there's an object of your desire right there.
11:17Wow.
11:18Number 21, Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick
11:21Wow, what a thing to choose to do with your life.
11:25Yeah, I know.
11:26I mean, what commitment.
11:27Yeah.
11:28After first meeting on the set of the 1988 film Lemon Sky,
11:31actors Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick got married and have been going strong ever since.
11:37With such a lengthy marriage, you'd think there wouldn't be any surprises left.
11:41But in 2012, the couple decided to dig into their family trees on Finding Your Roots,
11:45and what they unearthed was more than a little bizarre.
11:48We decided to play our own game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with Kevin Bacon.
11:54So let's take a look at that. This is an actual paper trail.
11:58It turns out the couple is actually related by blood,
12:02although it's a very distant relationship as they are ninth cousins, once removed.
12:06While Bacon was clearly floored by the news, Sedgwick took it in stride,
12:10even admitting that she'd had a hunch.
12:12Oy, Gavalta, smalta. I knew it. I'm telling you, I knew this was going to happen.
12:16Oy, I'm having a hot flash.
12:19Luckily, the family ties are remote enough not to cause any serious drama.
12:2520. Nora O'Donnell's Grandmother's Citizenship Revoked
12:28It says Mary Theresa Monaghan, and then it says cancelled.
12:32Cancelled? Do you know what that means?
12:35Does that mean she was denied?
12:37The grandparents of CBS News anchor Nora O'Donnell immigrated from Ireland to the US,
12:42where they met and got married.
12:44O'Donnell's grandmother, Mary Monaghan, came to America at 23,
12:48and managed to build a life for herself, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen.
12:52However, Monaghan's citizenship was unexpectedly revoked,
12:55not because she committed any violent crime or act of treason,
12:58but because she told a little lie.
13:01Claiming that she was single when she was actually already married.
13:06Why did she lie?
13:08Since her husband, O'Donnell's grandfather, was still an undocumented immigrant,
13:12Monaghan lied about her marital status to protect him from being deported.
13:16Call it a white lie or a loving fib, but for O'Donnell, it was a surprising revelation
13:21that made her re-evaluate how she viewed her grandmother.
13:24It's a reminder that we all come from somewhere,
13:28and sometimes we forget where we came from.
13:3319. Sammy Hagar or Sammy Belcher
13:36Sammy, genetically, you are not a Hagar.
13:39Get out of here.
13:41You want to find out what your real biological surname is?
13:44Yes, this is nutty as anything I've ever imagined.
13:47When Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar appeared on Finding Your Roots,
13:51he made some shocking discoveries, but none left him quite as bewildered as this one.
13:55The show's researchers unearthed a 1850 census document,
13:59which revealed that Hagar's great-great-grandmother Elizabeth was raising her kids alone.
14:04Oddly enough, her husband was alive and well, living in a neighboring county with his own mother.
14:09And as far as we could tell, they never reunited.
14:11They separated and never reunited.
14:14Wow, did she raise kids by herself?
14:15She raised kids by herself, yep.
14:17Wow.
14:18So this is where the story gets wild.
14:20To untangle this mystery, they tested Hagar's DNA
14:22and found that he shared no biological connection to the Hagar family.
14:26Instead, he was genetically linked to 27 men with the surname Belcher.
14:31Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. speculated that Elizabeth may have had an affair,
14:35which prompted her husband to leave her and move in with his mother.
14:39This gives me so much mind-chewing ability.
14:43I mean, man, I can...
14:44Yeah.
14:45My mind's gonna work on this like a mouse on a wheel of cheese, man.
14:49Number 18, a legal dispute in John Waters' family.
14:52This is like a Dickens novel, and you never heard anything about it.
14:55No.
14:56Well, that's how the money was passed out.
14:57Bitter family disputes are nothing new.
14:59They have occurred for centuries, plaguing both royal elites and regular folks alike.
15:04In the season seven premiere, filmmaker John Waters learned about a conflict within his own family.
15:09It's twisted history.
15:10It is.
15:11Yeah.
15:12It's the only time you treat drips with drama.
15:13Yeah.
15:14Yeah.
15:15After the death of her husband, Waters' great-grandmother, Bertha Whittaker,
15:18was dragged to court by her mother-in-law, Mary.
15:21This fight was over custody of Bertha's young son, Clifford,
15:24and, as is the case with many other families, money matters.
15:28Mary argued that Bertha had an ungovernable temper and lacked the resources to raise the child.
15:34However, the court disagreed, granting Bertha custody of Clifford
15:38and even giving her a chunk of the family fortune.
15:41That's the kind of riveting twist you'd find in a John Waters film.
15:44And thinking up drama.
15:45You know, I'm always thinking up insane things that happen to people.
15:48Yeah.
15:49That's how I make my living.
15:50Number 17, LeVar Burton learns of his white ancestor.
15:54Did you have any idea you had a white, direct ancestor?
16:01No!
16:03No, I had no idea.
16:06When you go digging into your family tree, you might not be entirely thrilled with what you find.
16:10No one knows this better than actor and TV host LeVar Burton.
16:13Burton, who rose to prominence for playing enslaved protagonist Kunta Kinte
16:18in the 1977 miniseries Roots,
16:20discovered his own roots traced back to a white farmer named James Henry Dixon.
16:25To make things even more awkward,
16:26Burton learned that Dixon had served with the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
16:31Are you kidding me?
16:33That's true.
16:35Oh my God.
16:37Oh my God.
16:39I did not see this coming.
16:41To say that he was shocked by these revelations would be an understatement.
16:44However, he did manage to find a silver lining,
16:46acknowledging that it could help ease his conversations with white people in America.
16:50Especially in this current time frame, in this now moment,
16:54I believe that as Americans, we need to have this conversation
16:59about who we are and how we got here.
17:02Number 16, Neil Patrick Harris reacts to his ancestor's tragic fate.
17:06Do you have any idea what they are accusing your ancestor Gertrude of?
17:10Um, making some delicious meal?
17:14Long before the Salem Witch Trials in the late 17th century,
17:17individuals across Europe, especially women, faced accusations of witchcraft.
17:21One of such women was Neil Patrick Harris's 12th great-grandmother, Gertrude Stuhl.
17:26In 16th century Germany, Stuhl was accused of enchanting her neighbor's livestock to kill them,
17:32and she was placed on trial for her life.
17:34She is supposed to have bewitched the pigs and cows of her neighbors so that they died.
17:40The cattle had foam on their necks, one cow lost her hooves,
17:44and the pigs had breathed like a bellows.
17:48Sadly, the proceedings ended with Stuhl being found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sentenced to death.
17:53You'd think this tragic family history would provoke a somber reaction,
17:56but instead Harris seemed oddly thrilled by the idea of his ancestor being burned at the stake.
18:01Even more unsettling, he drew a connection between Stuhl's accusation of black magic to his own love of magic.
18:07But I would like to think that she really was a witch, and she had magical powers.
18:13We lost one for the cause, but the witchcraft lives on.
18:18Number 15. Larry David's secretive mother
18:21It can be astounding how little one knows about their own family history.
18:24For comedian Larry David, this truth hit hard when he went onto the show,
18:28hoping to learn more about his mother, Rose, who he admits was notoriously secretive.
18:32You know, she was older than my father.
18:34Right.
18:35I never knew that until she died.
18:36Oh, okay. So there you go.
18:38It's always puzzled me how little I knew.
18:41As researchers sifted through historical records,
18:43they unearthed a document showing that his grandmother had a daughter named Regina.
18:48But David was puzzled. He never had an Aunt Regina.
18:52Did she die, change her name, or simply vanish?
18:55Wow, so you think we made a mistake?
18:57No, I don't think you made a mistake. I think she must have left somebody there, or maybe she died.
19:02Well, no. Turns out David's mother, Rose, was actually born Regina,
19:07a fact that he was completely unaware of.
19:09Whatever reason she had for the name change, Rose took it to her grave,
19:13leaving her son utterly confused.
19:15Did you know your mother was born in Europe?
19:17No, I did not.
19:19You see, this is why they...
19:21She had secrets.
19:22Yeah. Secrets.
19:24Yeah.
19:25Number 14. A hidden relationship in Sierra's ancestry.
19:28Nathan, no, no, no, don't go there.
19:30Uh-uh. Nathan said, I'm going there.
19:32Yeah. He went there, and his wife went somewhere else.
19:35In the Season 10 premiere, Sierra stumbled upon a family secret
19:39involving her great-great-grandmother, Emily Redding.
19:42The singer's DNA test showed a biological connection to Redding and her son,
19:46Willie Head, but not to Willie's supposed father, Nathan.
19:49To add to the surprise, the results also linked Sierra to several other people,
19:53all of whom were white.
19:54I think about, like, my grandfather's hair.
19:56Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah?
19:57You know.
19:58He had good hair?
19:59Pretty. As he got older, he got a little more, you know, a little more coarse.
20:02But I look at some of his, you know, the photos that I did get to see
20:07when he was younger with my grandma, and it was fine.
20:10Further investigation revealed Willie's actual father,
20:13a white man named Walker Lafayette Head.
20:16Apparently, Walker and Nathan lived near each other
20:18around the time Willie was conceived.
20:20Walker and Nathan grew up in the same house together.
20:23Wow.
20:24And at some point, when both men were about 40, Walker slept with Nathan's wife.
20:30Whether Walker and Redding's relationship was consensual is unknown,
20:34but Sierra seemed to believe that it was.
20:36However, considering the societal dynamics back then,
20:39that might not have been very likely.
20:41I definitely like to believe there was some connectivity that happened.
20:44People fall in love, you can't control it.
20:47Desire is colorblind.
20:49Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, love is love.
20:5213. Sonny Hostin's Spanish roots
20:55I'm still sort of shocked about the depth of the ties, I guess.
21:00What do you think? All these white people just came up out of the ground?
21:03They had to come from somewhere.
21:05TV host Sonny Hostin was born in 1968 to a Puerto Rican mother
21:09and an African-American father,
21:11so she always believed that her heritage was half Puerto Rican.
21:14However, when she appeared on Finding Your Roots in February 2024,
21:18she got an unexpected surprise.
21:20Hostin learned that she was only 7% indigenous Puerto Rican
21:24and that she descended from a Spanish merchant who, it turns out,
21:28most likely participated in the slave trade.
21:31Wow. I'm a little bit in shock.
21:35I just always thought of myself as Puerto Rican, you know, half Puerto Rican.
21:39I didn't think I was...
21:42My family was originally from Spain and slaveholders.
21:45This revelation contrasted with her political beliefs,
21:48leaving her feeling a mix of shock and disappointment.
21:51Despite this, she admitted that the discovery enriched
21:54her understanding of her family's history,
21:56even though it didn't necessarily change her perspective.
21:59I guess it's a fact of life that this is how some people made their living,
22:04on the backs of others.
22:0512. LL Cool J's biological grandparents
22:08Getting told by your parents that you're adopted can be earth-shattering for everyone.
22:12Now imagine making such a discovery years after they've passed away,
22:16on a TV show no less.
22:17That's exactly what happened to rapper LL Cool J and his mother,
22:21Andrea Griffith, on Finding Your Roots.
22:23But they had their reasons for not telling me.
22:26Finding out when I'm my age now, I can understand it.
22:31I can put everything in perspective.
22:33After his parents split up in his childhood,
22:35LL was raised by his maternal grandparents,
22:37who supported his musical ambitions.
22:39But one secret they hid was that his mother was not their biological child.
22:44There's something odd about this birth certificate.
22:46Notice that there are no parents listed.
22:48Notice also that it was made out in 1947,
22:52which is over a year after your mother was born.
22:57Wow.
22:58Even Griffith didn't know this, only learning about it through the show.
23:02The news was so sensitive that host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
23:05had to call LL privately, away from the cameras, to break it to him.
23:10Some people would have wanted to keep this information private,
23:12but you and your mom wanted to learn more.
23:15Yeah.
23:16Why?
23:17I need to know this. I mean, my mother deserves it.
23:1911. Ben Affleck controversy
23:21It's always been kind of a blank canvas to me.
23:24And so I'm very excited to sort of fill in the blanks.
23:28Discovering that one's ancestors owned slaves can be embarrassing for some people.
23:32It was this sense of shame that pushed actor Ben Affleck to a drastic point.
23:36It makes it feel less academic and more personal.
23:41I'm very surprised by this.
23:43Affleck appeared on the show in 2014,
23:45when he learned that his maternal ancestor, Benjamin Cole,
23:48was a slave owner in Georgia.
23:50The revelation unsettled him so much that he went to great lengths to keep it hidden.
23:55Affleck successfully lobbied Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the show's producers
23:59to omit this information from the aired episode.
24:02However, the infamous Sony Pictures hack that year unearthed emails
24:05that revealed Affleck's efforts to suppress the truth.
24:08The ensuing controversy led to the show being temporarily suspended,
24:11although it returned after Affleck apologized for his actions.
24:15We tend to separate ourselves from these things by going like,
24:18you know, oh well, it's just dry history and it's all over now.
24:21And this shows us that there's still a living aspect to the history,
24:23like a personal connection.
24:2510. Laura Linney's felonious ancestors
24:28Guess what?
24:29What did he do?
24:30What did he do? What did he do?
24:32You might be familiar with the British practice of sending convicts to Australia
24:35during the 18th and 19th centuries.
24:38But did you know that before Australia,
24:40the primary destination for British prisoners was actually America?
24:43Transportation of convicts to the American colonies in the 18th century
24:46was a way for England to rid the country of criminals without killing them.
24:50If this fact didn't come as a surprise to you,
24:52it definitely did for award-winning actress Laura Linney.
24:56When she appeared on the show in 2019,
24:58Linney discovered that her fifth great-grandfather, William Linney,
25:01had been convicted in England of receiving stolen goods
25:04and was transported to Virginia in 1768.
25:07Well knowing them to have been stolen,
25:09the justice said, Mr. Linney, you hear what the lad has said,
25:13have you anything to say?
25:15Linney said, no, I own, I had the goods.
25:18Probably not the most flattering information to learn about one's ancestor,
25:21but Linney took it in stride with a hearty laugh.
25:24That is a passenger list from the ship on which your ancestors sailed from 1768.
25:30Mackerel, felons transported from London to Virginia by the Neptune.
25:35Number nine, Soledad O'Brien's ancestor falls on hard times.
25:39Laura Linney was not the only celebrity
25:41to uncover their ancestor's criminal background.
25:43I didn't realize on the white men's side,
25:45which by the way nobody talks about,
25:47and now I know why, because they also ran things like scams.
25:51In another episode, veteran broadcaster journalist Soledad O'Brien
25:55was also hit with a mortifying revelation
25:57about her third great-grandmother, Lilius Whiteman.
26:01Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented O'Brien
26:04with a prison register from 19th century Scotland,
26:07revealing that a 41-year-old white man had been arrested for robbery
26:11alongside a group of teenage boys.
26:13And in receipt of said theft.
26:15So she was handling stolen goods.
26:17It soon became clear that Whiteman might have been leading
26:19a gang of young thieves in Edinburgh, Scotland.
26:22This theory seemed to embarrass O'Brien initially,
26:24but when they dug deeper into the actual reason
26:27why white men resorted to crime, her perspective changed.
26:30So her husband died at age 39?
26:32Yeah, the death of her husband, the breadwinner,
26:34was probably what pushed Lilius and William
26:37into the life of petty larceny.
26:40That's really sad.
26:42They were stealing to survive.
26:44Number 8. Not Julia Roberts
26:46The name Julia Roberts is instantly recognizable
26:48to millions around the world.
26:50But what if we told you it's actually not her biological name?
26:53Is my head on straight still?
26:55Am I facing you?
26:57The Oscar-winning actress derived her surname
26:59from Willis Roberts, her supposed great-great-grandfather.
27:02However, genealogical research uncovered a discrepancy.
27:05Julia's great-grandfather, John,
27:07was born more than a decade after Willis passed away.
27:10This meant that the actress couldn't be biologically related
27:12to Willis Roberts.
27:14We scoured Douglas County looking for any record
27:16that named John's father.
27:18And we found absolutely nothing.
27:21Through DNA analysis, the show eventually traced
27:23her ancestry to a man named Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr.,
27:27a married man who lived only a few miles away
27:30from Willis' wife, Rhoda.
27:32A few short miles it would seem.
27:35And get this, according to the same census,
27:38Henry's widowed mother, Elizabeth Mitchell,
27:41lived just four households from Rhoda.
27:46Wow.
27:47Despite the biological inaccuracy,
27:49we still think Julia Roberts has a much better ring to it
27:51than Julia Mitchell.
27:537. Issa Rae's Free Ancestors
27:56If they were named, would they be free?
27:58The Charbonnays were free.
28:01How did they get away with that?
28:03During the era of slavery, people who were enslaved
28:06were typically omitted from census records.
28:08However, during her appearance on Finding Your Roots in 2021,
28:11actress and producer Issa Rae discovered documents
28:14that identified her third great-grandfather,
28:16Dawson Charbonnet, by name.
28:18This was due to the fact that Charbonnet's mother,
28:20Melite, had been granted freedom by her owner,
28:23who also happened to be a black man.
28:25So you just blew my mind even more.
28:27Mm-hmm.
28:28So they were owned by a black man.
28:32Another black person.
28:34Slavery was a very complicated institution.
28:37Yes, it was.
28:38Additionally, Rae learned that Charbonnet's father
28:41was a white man who had his own family,
28:43but engaged in a clandestine relationship with Melite.
28:47If this all felt like a convoluted television B-plot,
28:50then you're not alone.
28:51Even Rae shared the same sentiment.
28:53This is so...
28:55It's like he just took me through a soap opera,
28:58like a slave soap opera.
29:01Whew, wow.
29:03That is some twisted family history.
29:06Number six, Gayle King's European ancestry.
29:09I knew her father was white, that her mother was black,
29:12but we were not to talk about it,
29:14and she never wanted to talk about it.
29:16Gayle King's family harbored a long-held secret
29:18concerning her maternal grandmother, Emma Brown.
29:21It was revealed that Brown was the product
29:23of a white father and a black mother,
29:25a fact seemingly concealed out of shame,
29:27at least according to King.
29:28What was his ethnicity?
29:30White man.
29:31Just white man?
29:34White man.
29:35Not from Germany, England, Ireland?
29:37No, white man.
29:38White man, okay.
29:39White man, and do not ask her about her father.
29:41The genealogists at Finding Your Roots
29:43were able to trace King's ancestry
29:45back to Robert Elliot Copes,
29:47a white man from South Carolina,
29:49and Emma Brown's grandfather.
29:51This discovery unveiled King's European ancestry,
29:54which comprises of over 30% of her genetic makeup.
29:57However, when the results of this DNA analysis
30:00were revealed to her at the end of the episode,
30:02King didn't seem to be very pleased with them.
30:04You are one turn white.
30:06Take that back.
30:08Number five, Angela Davis descended from white settlers.
30:11You'd be shocked to learn what some of your ancestors were up to.
30:14That probably should be the tagline for Finding Your Roots.
30:17In 2023, the show delivered yet another jaw-dropping revelation,
30:21this time to political activist Angela Davis.
30:23Any idea what you're looking at?
30:25That is a list of the passengers on the Mayflower.
30:29No, I can't believe this.
30:31No.
30:33My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.
30:36Throughout her lengthy career,
30:37Davis gained a fierce reputation
30:39from her unwavering advocacy for civil rights,
30:42as well as her relentless fight against structural racism.
30:45Hence, she was taken aback to learn
30:47that her ancestors were the complete opposite.
30:50Oof.
30:52That's a little bit too much
30:55to deal with right now.
30:56Davis was revealed to be a direct descendant of William Brewster,
31:00one of the 102 settlers
31:02who journeyed to the colonies on the Mayflower.
31:04Just goes to show that despite showing bloodlines,
31:07people can still differ greatly from their ancestors.
31:09Did you ever in your wildest dreams
31:12think that you may have descended from people who laid
31:15Never.
31:16the foundation for this country?
31:18Never.
31:19Never.
31:204. George R.R. Martin's Grandmother's Affair
31:23When George R.R. Martin appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019,
31:27he uncovered a surprising family tale
31:30reminiscent of the Sordid Ones in his epic fantasy books.
31:33Author George R.R. Martin
31:36spent much of his childhood in the home of his beloved grandmother,
31:40Grace Martin.
31:42But George knew almost nothing about his grandfather,
31:46Grace's husband,
31:48Louis Martin.
31:49Martin had always believed that his Italian paternal grandfather,
31:52Louis, had abandoned his grandmother, Grace, for a younger woman.
31:55However, that notion was shattered
31:57when the show's team revealed the results of Martin's DNA test.
32:00What's missing from that chart?
32:02The Italians.
32:03The Italians.
32:04There's no Italian.
32:06Okay, that's shocking.
32:08Martin's DNA showed a call to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry,
32:11suggesting his true grandfather was Jewish.
32:14It was quickly surmised that it was Grace
32:16who likely cheated on Louis,
32:18which eventually pushed him away.
32:20I've often thought of writing a book about,
32:23you know, that house.
32:25I haven't even told half the stories yet
32:27of some of the people who lived there at various points.
32:29That book just got more complicated.
32:31Oh, we fully expect the next book.
32:33We expect the next book to be chaotic.
32:353. The Identity of Viola Davis' Great Grandfather
32:39Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis came on Finding Your Roots,
32:42expecting to learn more about her ancestry.
32:44But she probably wasn't ready for the messy familial secrets
32:48that she would uncover.
32:49Did your mom ever talk about this?
32:51Never.
32:52Isn't that interesting? That silence?
32:54Silence is always interesting to me.
32:57Davis learned that her grandfather, Henry Logan,
32:59had a mysterious lineage.
33:01In official documents,
33:02two different men had been listed as his father,
33:05Gable Logan on his social security application
33:08and John Young on his obituary.
33:16Although Henry's mother Corinne was married to Gable,
33:18historical records showed that after he came back from World War I,
33:22Gable never returned to live with Corinne.
33:24Through DNA analysis and census data,
33:27the researchers inferred that Corinne likely had an affair
33:30with her neighbor John Young,
33:31resulting in the birth of Davis' grandfather.
33:34It's the mess of relationships,
33:36and the mess of, you know, love, sex.
33:41It's truth.
33:432. Catherine Hahn's Ancestors Moved From Germany To America
33:47Our forefathers often relocated to different countries
33:50for various reasons.
33:51Economic prospects, fleeing conflict,
33:53or in the case of Catherine Hahn's ancestor,
33:56eloping with their lover at the expense of family ties.
33:59That is so complicated.
34:01Well, one thing you should know,
34:02that you don't have to worry about in the guilt chart.
34:05No guilt, just like, what?
34:07In 1853, Hahn's third great-grandfather,
34:10Wilhelm Lunenschloss,
34:12was living in Germany with his wife and six children.
34:15However, by 1860,
34:17Wilhelm had moved to Wisconsin,
34:19now married to a different woman named Eliza.
34:22The Finding Your Roots team dug deeper into this significant change.
34:25On the right,
34:26you can see the name of the man who lived at Ehrenstrasse 48.
34:30Just a few doors down, could you read his surname?
34:33Anton Ternes.
34:36And whose surname was Ternes?
34:37Hers.
34:38Through a German city directory from 1854,
34:41they found that Eliza was the daughter of Wilhelm's neighbor.
34:44This suggests that Wilhelm met Eliza there in Germany,
34:47then abandoned his family to start a new one with her in America.
34:50The fact that that had to happen for this to happen is...
34:54You are the product of the scandal.
34:56I know.
34:57You are the end result.
34:58Isn't that nuts?
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35:141. Niecy Nash learns who her grandfather is
35:18Hollywood actress Niecy Nash was in for a rude shock
35:21when she appeared on the ninth season of Finding Your Roots.
35:24Turns out the man that Nash had always believed to be her paternal grandfather
35:27actually wasn't.
35:28I was in a state of shock.
35:30I think I said,
35:33I said, what now?
35:35What exactly does that mean?
35:39And then I realized what you were saying.
35:43Naturally, this was an incredibly surprising revelation for the actress,
35:46who now faced the challenging task of breaking the news to her father.
35:50Researchers on the show used Nash's DNA along with that of a second cousin
35:54to uncover the identity of her biological grandfather,
35:57a man named Frank Jackson.
35:59What's it like to see this?
36:01So many things are going on in my mind right now.
36:04I'm like, I wonder if my father ever met him
36:08or if he ever knew him in his life.
36:12So how did this discrepancy occur?
36:14Well, that's the complicated part.
36:17Jackson actually lived very close to Nash's grandfather in St. Louis,
36:21so it's believed the two had an affair,
36:23which ultimately produced Nash's father.
36:26That's where Mr. Jackson lived.
36:27So Mr. Jackson came round to the house a time or two
36:31while she was already married to Arthur.
36:33Well, we don't know if he came to the house or she came to his house.
36:36But they met on up.
36:38Have you ever gone digging into your ancestry?
36:40What uncomfortable secrets did you uncover?
36:42Share them with us in the comments below.
36:44Having a good time with the family.
36:46As I said, shenanigans.