From shocking discoveries about slavery and the Holocaust to hidden adoptions and criminal ancestors, join us as we explore the most haunting revelations uncovered on PBS's genealogy show. These celebrity guests faced uncomfortable truths about their family histories that changed their perspectives forever.
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00:00Yeah, that's, that's, I've never seen that before.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:05And today we're counting down our picks
00:08for the most unsettling moments on Finding Your Roots,
00:11where participants made disturbing revelations
00:14about their ancestry.
00:15It had to be horrible for your father.
00:17It was definitely a major loss to my family.
00:23Number 30, Joyce Willis.
00:25While Finding Your Roots typically focuses on celebrities,
00:28the season 10 finale dived into the ancestry
00:31of three everyday Americans.
00:34One of them, Joyce Willis, hoped to discover
00:37if Robert G. Willis, the man believed
00:39to be her great-grandfather, actually was.
00:42We don't know if Beatrice was born into a peaceful home.
00:47There are no further records even to suggest
00:51why Robert might've said that she wasn't his daughter.
00:55The investigation revealed surprising details
00:58about Robert and his wife, Elnora.
01:00Researchers uncovered that while Elnora
01:03was still nursing their baby, Robert had hit her,
01:06an offense that would have landed him in jail
01:08if Elnora hadn't begged the judge.
01:11The one that he hurt was the one that saved him.
01:14Mm-hmm.
01:15Well, she clearly saved him
01:17because he was gonna go in the can.
01:20Wow.
01:21Their turmoil didn't end there.
01:24Just months later, their baby, Robert Jr.,
01:27died at just seven months old.
01:29Aware of the state of her great-grandparents' marriage,
01:32Willis reflected that such a loss
01:34likely deepened the cracks
01:35in their already fragile relationship.
01:37You know, so I imagine since there was already
01:40some marital discord,
01:41that it may have pushed them further apart from each other.
01:44Number 29, Terry Morrow.
01:47The Viewers Like You episode also featured Terry Morrow,
01:50a school bus driver who set out to uncover
01:53why Elnora Chambers, her great-grandfather's mother,
01:56had abandoned him as a child.
01:58Morrow's great-grandfather, Walter Tagger,
02:01was only five when Elnora left him with another family.
02:04He would have longed to see her again,
02:09longed for the possibility of seeing her again,
02:11because what child doesn't want to see their mother?
02:13You're always your mother's child.
02:14Through the show,
02:15she learned that Walter was the product
02:17of a relationship between Elnora, who was white,
02:20and Hal Moore, a black man.
02:22At the time, interracial relationships were illegal,
02:26making it impossible for the couple to stay together.
02:29Elnora later married a white man
02:30and had two more children,
02:32one of whom died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
02:35What's it like to know that Elnora's other family
02:37had such tough going?
02:39It was hard for everybody.
02:41I mean, it was hard.
02:42It was hard for her, for choices that she made,
02:45but it was hard for everybody.
02:46Though Morrow struggled with Elnora's decision,
02:49she ultimately came to see it as an act
02:51that ensured Walter's survival,
02:53and eventually her own existence.
02:56She made a choice that saved her life,
03:00saved his life, and brought me into the world, you know.
03:04That's a lovely way to put it.
03:05Number 28, Ed O'Neill.
03:07He's best known for portraying the patriarch
03:10of beloved fictional families.
03:12But in 2024, Ed O'Neill sought to know more
03:15about his real family.
03:17What he discovered about his third great-grandmother,
03:19Bridget Tyrell, left him both shocked and deeply moved.
03:23Oh, that's just incredible.
03:25It is.
03:26Boy, I'm glad I came here today.
03:28An Irish immigrant living in Ohio
03:30when the Civil War broke out,
03:32Bridget watched two of her sons join the Union Army.
03:35She then decided to serve in her own way.
03:38But as it turns out, Bridget wasn't at home at all.
03:42Bridget was serving in the Union Army herself as a nurse.
03:47Despite likely having no formal medical training,
03:50Bridget made several trips to the battlefields
03:52to care for wounded soldiers.
03:54In this role, she witnessed unspeakable horrors,
03:57and often stayed with the dying soldiers in their final moments.
04:01When she passed away, her obituary was published in the newspaper,
04:05honoring her compassion and selfless service.
04:08Many a dying soldier blessed her for her kindness and care
04:12with their last breath.
04:13So that was sort of what I thought.
04:17Number 27.
04:19Christopher Maloney
04:20For actor Christopher Maloney to be born in America,
04:23his paternal great-grandfather, Enrico Maloney,
04:26first had to overcome incredible odds to migrate from Italy.
04:30In this Season 7 episode, Maloney learned that Enrico never knew his parents,
04:35as he had been abandoned at a church when he was a baby.
04:38The person leaving the baby would rotate the wheel and its contents into the building
04:44and then ring a bell to alert the attendant.
04:48He managed to survive his childhood thanks to a nurse who cared for him.
04:52But that support ended when he was just 12 years old, forcing him to fend for himself.
04:57They detailed the small amounts of money she spent on his care.
05:00Although such experiences were common for orphans in Italy at the time,
05:15that didn't make the revelation any less harrowing for Maloney.
05:18As he processed the hardships Enrico had to endure,
05:22Maloney grew emotional and was ultimately brought to tears.
05:25Yeah, I think that's what the feelings are.
05:28Number 26, Ted Danson.
05:31Actor Ted Danson's 10th great-grandmother was Anne Hutchinson,
05:35a Puritan who emigrated from England to colonial Massachusetts
05:39and soon challenged the strict norms of her community.
05:43As Anne's prayer meetings grew in popularity,
05:46she began to criticize the sermons of Puritan ministers,
05:50throwing herself into direct conflict with the colony's religious establishment.
05:55Hutchinson held gatherings in her home,
05:57where she encouraged women to think critically and interpret sermons on their own.
06:02That would be celebrated today, but back in the 17th century, it was a radical step.
06:07Doesn't look good for your grandma.
06:09Don't look good for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
06:14Shame, shame on them.
06:15After claiming she could communicate directly with God,
06:18Hutchinson was eventually brought to trial for heresy.
06:21At her hearing, she gave a defiant speech,
06:25asserting that her fate rested with God and not the court.
06:28I love the first part, you have no power over my body,
06:31neither can you do many harm.
06:32Isn't that beautiful?
06:33For I am in the hands of the eternal Jehovah, my savior.
06:35It's extraordinary.
06:36Yeah, it almost felt like Joan of Arc.
06:38Though she was convicted and banished from the colony,
06:41Hutchinson is now remembered as a feminist icon
06:44and a trailblazer for religious freedom.
06:47Number 25, Eric Stonestreet.
06:49Yeah, I've never, I personally have never heard this.
06:53We're getting close to my grandma being born here in 1918.
06:56As a child, Eric Stonestreet shared a close bond with his grandmother, Helen Heath.
07:02So when he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019,
07:05he took the opportunity to explore her ancestry.
07:08Helen's grandfather, Wilhelm Kiechert,
07:11had emigrated from Germany to America in his early 20s.
07:15He settled in Kansas, where he bought land and started a farm with his family.
07:19This is him creating a new life for himself
07:23and literally cultivating the ground for me.
07:28However, after the U.S. entered World War I,
07:31the government grew suspicious of German immigrants
07:33and required them to register or face arrest.
07:37As a result, Wilhelm and his wife, Anna,
07:40were forced to register as alien enemies of the state
07:43and were treated like criminals.
07:45As you can see, he was fingerprinted like a criminal.
07:48Oh my gosh.
07:51He did this because he had to?
07:53Because he had to.
07:54He had to either show up or risk.
07:57He would go to jail.
07:58Got it.
07:58They endured this discrimination until the war ended,
08:01after which Wilhelm became a naturalized American citizen.
08:06Number 24.
08:07Lupita Nyong'o
08:08Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o
08:11came on Finding Your Roots to learn more about her father,
08:14Anyang Nyong'o.
08:15A political science professor,
08:17Anyang was a key figure in the fight for democracy
08:20during the autocratic rule of President Daniel Moy in Kenya.
08:24My father is so passionate about the country
08:27and he so deeply believes that there is a better future possible.
08:34In 1980, his family was informed that his younger brother Charles had died,
08:39but they later suspected he had been deliberately killed as a warning.
08:42Despite this, Anyang continued to hold secret political meetings in his house.
08:48When the government discovered these gatherings,
08:50he was abducted and held in a torture facility for several weeks.
08:54I didn't understand what was going on and he was gone for a while.
08:5826 days he was tortured in Nyong'o house.
09:01Your mother must have thought your father was never going to come back.
09:04She must have.
09:05Nevertheless, he remained committed to advancing democracy in Kenya.
09:09Anyang's resilience eventually led to his election to the Kenyan Senate,
09:12and later, his appointment as governor of Kisumu County.
09:17That's beautiful.
09:18Your father's story is a miracle.
09:20He's my hero.
09:21Number 23, Brendan Fraser.
09:24Imagine thinking this through.
09:26This is what we're going to do.
09:27Yeah.
09:27We're going to get a gun.
09:28We're going to ambush him.
09:30Yeah.
09:31They had a plan.
09:32That's criminal.
09:34For Oscar-winning actor Brendan Fraser,
09:36the dark revelation in his ancestry was far more than a family dispute or a hidden secret.
09:42It involved an attempted murder.
09:44In season 10, Fraser learned about his great-great-grandfather, Patrick Devine,
09:49who emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. as a child and worked as a coal miner.
09:53By the time that census had been recorded,
09:55Patrick, your ancestor, had likely been a coal miner for more than 30 years.
10:00Right.
10:01As you can see, he and Margaret now had eight children.
10:04When their wages were reduced, Patrick and his fellow miners went on strike,
10:08only to be replaced by new workers.
10:10In response, Patrick and another engineer tried to kill their replacements by shooting them,
10:16but they fortunately survived.
10:18It seems to you, great-great-grandfather Patrick was fired from his job for striking.
10:23And along with a former colleague, he shot at the man who had replaced him.
10:30Despite this being a crime, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. found no records of Patrick being charged.
10:37In fact, he later returned to the same job and managed to purchase his own home.
10:42Number 22.
10:43Don Lemon.
10:44It's heartbreaking to fathom a human being being treated as the property of another.
10:49And it's even more disturbing to think of a monetary value being placed on such lives.
10:54TV anchor Don Lemon confronted this painful reality when he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2021.
11:00M. Shannon departed this life leaving an estate composed of land,
11:05slaves, and movables situated in this parish.
11:10Lemon was shown a document listing the names of some of his ancestors
11:13who were held as slaves at a plantation.
11:16The records, compiled after the death of the plantation's mistress,
11:20included not only their names and ages, but also their appraised worth in dollars.
11:25Eliza, two, and an infant at $1,800.
11:33That was their worth?
11:35Right.
11:35As Lemon read this figure aloud, he was overcome with emotion
11:39and couldn't stop himself from shedding tears.
11:42That's where I came from.
11:47Number 21.
11:48Michael Imperioli.
11:50The infrastructure we enjoy today was built through tireless hard work
11:53and, at times, painful human sacrifice.
11:57Actor Michael Imperioli's family suffered one such tragedy
12:00during the development of the New York City subway system.
12:04It was difficult and dangerous work.
12:06And it led to a terrible tragedy.
12:10Back in the early 20th century, his great-grandfather, Giovanni Luzzi,
12:14worked as a car cleaner for the trains.
12:17However, his life came to a shocking end in 1919
12:20when he was struck by a train while working on the tracks in the Bronx.
12:24Oh, a horrible way to die.
12:26I mean, yeah, and he was so young.
12:29Giovanni was struck by a train in the Bronx
12:32while working on a stretch of elevated track.
12:35This sudden loss meant that his young wife was left to raise their children all on her own.
12:40The absence of a father had a lasting impact on the young family,
12:43and it reportedly led to Imperioli's grandfather, Alberto Luzzi, acting out as a child.
12:49His life as a kid reminded me of, like, the Little Rascals or, like, the Bowery Boys,
12:53like this, you know, gang of little kids, like, wandering around Manhattan,
12:57getting into trouble and, you know, stealing, like, you know, pastries.
13:00Number 20.
13:01Alanis Morissette
13:02Canadian rock artist Alanis Morissette
13:05didn't learn about her Jewish ancestry until she was in her late 20s.
13:10Why do you think that no one told you?
13:12I think there was a terror that is in their bones,
13:15and they were being protective of us and just not wanting anti-Semitism,
13:20and so they were doing it to protect us.
13:22On Finding Your Roots,
13:24she uncovered even more details about that side of her family,
13:28particularly the fate of her great uncles, Georgie and Sandor Feirstein.
13:33Both men disappeared during the Holocaust,
13:35leaving their family with no answers.
13:38Can you imagine what that was like for your grandfather, carrying that burden?
13:40Not knowing where your sibling is, if they're alive or dead.
13:43Yeah, having no closure, no finality.
13:46No.
13:47God.
13:48However, using records at Yad Vashem,
13:51the World Holocaust Remembrance Center,
13:53the show's team dug up those answers.
13:56They discovered that the brothers had been sent to work camps in Russia,
14:00where they tragically lost their lives.
14:02Morissette found this especially heartbreaking,
14:05as her grandfather, who escaped the same fate as his brothers and moved to Canada,
14:10passed away without ever knowing what happened to them.
14:12I mean, it's one thing to have a family rumor that they disappeared.
14:16Yeah.
14:17But now we know why they disappeared.
14:18Yeah, no, my mother and my grandmother, we didn't get into this.
14:21Number 19, Jordan Peele.
14:24I mean, you gotta think that, you know, knowing that this could happen,
14:27you go your entire life, or your child's entire life, fearing this day.
14:33One often overlooked consequence of the slave trade was the separation of families.
14:37Fathers never seeing their kids again, young children forced to grow up on their own.
14:43That unfortunate fate befell filmmaker Jordan Peele's great-great-grandmother, Alvania.
14:49In 1860, when she was just 12 years old,
14:52Alvania was taken away from her parents and brother,
14:55and sold into slavery for $1,250.
15:00It's crazy, and you wonder what that does to a, the psychology of a family.
15:10While reflecting on what effect such an experience could have on the psyche of Alvania and her family,
15:16Peele felt a mix of pain and pride.
15:18He recognized the psychological trauma they must have endured as a result,
15:23and how that may have been passed down through generations.
15:26And, you know, I wonder if there's some kind of deep-seated connection,
15:32and the idea of, you can be a family, even if you're apart.
15:39Number 18, Lisa Ling.
15:41We found a very different kind of story.
15:43A story not of family secrets, but rather of a family in terrible danger.
15:50In December 1941, during World War II, Japan invaded Hong Kong,
15:56beginning a nearly four-year military occupation that led to widespread starvation and countless deaths.
16:03To escape the famine and brutality of Japanese rule, many residents fled on foot to China.
16:09One of them was journalist Lisa Ling's grandmother,
16:12who wrote a book about her harrowing experience making that journey.
16:16We had already marched three days, putting in about 15 miles each day.
16:21My shoes were in terrible condition, with the soles worn through.
16:25Broken blisters on my feet caused much pain and discomfort.
16:29After each rest, I had to clench my teeth in order to hoist myself up from the bench to start walking again.
16:35Ling had actually read the book years earlier,
16:38but seeing it again on the show, she was able to re-examine it with a more mature perspective.
16:43She was clearly struck by the immense resilience and strength her grandmother showed
16:47in embarking on that journey while carrying her family on her back, literally.
16:52They had no idea that they went into China.
16:55I had no idea.
16:57I can't even imagine how she was able to do it.
17:00Number 17, Justina Machado.
17:02Justina, this is a court record we located in the General Archives in Puerto Rico.
17:06It concerns a prison sentence handed down on May 9th, 1939.
17:10The freedoms enjoyed by queer people in some parts of the world today
17:14are the result of long, hard-fought battles.
17:18Few things highlight the significance of these struggles as clearly as cases like this.
17:23On season six of Finding Your Roots,
17:25actress Justina Machado discovered a surprising part of her grandfather's past.
17:30The people of Puerto Rico versus Ismael Figueroa Machado and Francisco Pérez Luciano.
17:37Crime against nature.
17:39In his youth, he was sent to the Rio Piedra State Penitentiary,
17:43one of the most notorious Caribbean prisons,
17:46for having sexual relations with another man.
17:49At the time, this was considered a crime in the eyes of the law,
17:52one that attracted even more prison time for her grandfather while he was already incarcerated.
17:57I mean, he didn't have bendito.
18:00Didn't have a chance.
18:01No, it's so sad.
18:02I mean, you know, yeah.
18:05Number 16.
18:06Wes Studi
18:07Between 1830 and 1850,
18:10the U.S. government forcibly displaced around 60,000 indigenous Americans
18:15from their ancestral homelands
18:17in what became known as the Trail of Tears.
18:19And I know it's got to be painful.
18:23Well, we've lived with that pain for a long time.
18:27This ethnic cleansing left scars that have impacted generations of Native Americans,
18:32including actor Wes Studi.
18:34When he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2024,
18:37Studi learned of his maternal third great-grandmother, Big Nancy,
18:41who was among those forced to leave their home in Georgia
18:43and suffer a grueling journey to Oklahoma.
18:46I've been to some of the places that she passed through.
18:55I've been to many of these places, seen them.
18:59Years after the harrowing ordeal,
19:01Nancy filed a claim for compensation,
19:04seeking $187 for the properties white settlers had taken from her.
19:09Studi reflected on the deep pain this history carries,
19:13acknowledging the lasting effects it has had on his people.
19:16Well, it pisses me off.
19:18It always has.
19:19But it's more succinct.
19:24Now I know where it was.
19:26And I wonder if the people are still there who took over her place.
19:30Number 15.
19:32Jeff Daniels
19:33During the Salem Witch Trials of 1692,
19:36one of the few men convicted of witchcraft and executed was Samuel Wardwell.
19:40Samuel Wardwell saith that at that time when the devil appeared and told him he was a prince of the air,
19:50that then he signed his book by making a mark like a square with a black pen.
19:55Wardwell was a self-professed fortune teller,
19:58whose practices apparently drew suspicions of the occult among the locals,
20:02and led to his conviction.
20:04One of the people who testified against him was Captain Thomas Chandler,
20:08the eighth great-grandfather of actor Jeff Daniels.
20:12Now according to scholars with whom we spoke,
20:14your ancestors' testimony in this trial is fairly mild.
20:18But this was not his only involvement in the affair.
20:22Daniels learned this unsettling fact on Finding Your Roots,
20:27where he also discovered that Chandler testified against another accused witch,
20:32Mary Parker.
20:33Unlike Wardwell, Parker was Chandler's neighbor and peer,
20:37yet he believed she was using sorcery on his daughter and granddaughter,
20:41which prompted his testimony.
20:43I would like to think that it wasn't just something he did to enjoy,
20:47that it was something that he actually believed in,
20:49but that doesn't make it a bit better.
20:51Number 14.
20:53Eliza Schlesinger
20:54When you look at pictures from history
20:57of atrocities committed against your people in particular,
21:02there's always that pull.
21:04But I never thought I had any actual connection,
21:08because I didn't know any of the history.
21:10It was abstract.
21:11Yes.
21:11Although she had always been aware of her Jewish heritage,
21:14comedian Eliza Schlesinger never knew she had a direct link to the Holocaust,
21:19until she appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2024.
21:23In the episode, Schlesinger learned that while her great-grandmother
21:26immigrated to the U.S. from Poland before the Holocaust,
21:30she left behind at least two brothers.
21:32One of them, Lipa, was a textile dealer who was forced into a ghetto in Mwawa
21:37after the Nazis invaded.
21:39I know that feeling when your sibling's in danger and you feel helpless,
21:43especially from like an ocean away.
21:46So I can't begin to imagine this.
21:50I don't think I want to.
21:52He was later sent to Auschwitz, where he tragically lost his life.
21:56The revolution brought Schlesinger to tears,
21:59as she confronted both the atrocities that her ancestor endured,
22:02as well as her newfound connection to the Holocaust.
22:06It was already so real.
22:10And so now it's palpable.
22:16Number 13. Sigourney Weaver
22:18Award-winning actress Sigourney Weaver came to Finding Your Roots,
22:22hoping to uncover a juicy scandal in her ancestral line.
22:26What she found, however, was far darker than she expected.
22:30I see.
22:31But where's Barbara? Where's Josiah's wife?
22:33Your great-great-grandmother?
22:35I don't know. Did she die?
22:37Well, remember, it said that he's married.
22:39So if she had died, he would be a widower.
22:41But she's just not there.
22:42Using census records from 1871,
22:45the show's researchers discovered that Weaver's great-great-grandparents,
22:49Josiah and Barbara Hunt, were living apart,
22:52despite having a child together.
22:54Barbara had moved in with another man,
22:56whom Josiah accused her of having an affair with.
22:59After the separation, Mrs. Hunt went to reside at Reading with the correspondent,
23:04ostensibly as his housekeeper.
23:07But from the general tenor of her behavior,
23:10there was but little doubt that their intimacy was of a more familiar nature.
23:14She became pregnant by this man, but suffered a miscarriage,
23:18after which she was institutionalized in a psychiatric facility,
23:22where she remained for the rest of her life.
23:24Perhaps inspired by this ordeal, Barbara's son, Weaver's great-grandfather,
23:29later became a doctor in another psychiatric facility,
23:33where patients were treated much more humanely.
23:35And get an inkling of what it was based on emotionally is so moving.
23:39You know, even though what happened to her was tragic,
23:43he, you know, he somehow made good come out of it.
23:50Number 12. Scarlett Johansson
23:52I cannot imagine what you must be feeling.
23:55Just hell. It must have been hell.
23:58It's one thing to hear about your ancestors suffering a tragic fate,
24:02but it's an entirely different experience to see the details of their deaths written down.
24:07That can bring tears to even the driest eyes.
24:10Such was the case for actress Scarlett Johansson,
24:13who, in this 2017 episode,
24:16discovered the fate of her great-uncle Moischa and his family,
24:19who lived in Groyecz, Poland, when World War II began.
24:23And I promised myself I wouldn't grow out of it.
24:25But it's hard not to.
24:27It's hard not to.
24:28Moischa and his family were rounded up and taken to the infamous Warsaw ghetto.
24:33There, he and at least two of his ten children were killed.
24:37Johansson couldn't help but fight back tears,
24:40though she was grateful to learn more about her family history,
24:43as it deepened her connection to her roots.
24:45The fate of one brother versus the other.
24:48Yep.
24:49It makes me feel more deeply connected to that side of myself,
24:52that side of my family.
24:53Um, I didn't expect that.
24:56Number 11.
24:57LL Cool J.
24:59Some genetic discoveries are so sensitive,
25:01that they need to be shared privately first,
25:03before being revealed on camera.
25:06This was the case with LL Cool J.
25:08It's a little devastating,
25:09to know that,
25:12you know,
25:13the guy that raised me,
25:14that was so kind to me,
25:15wasn't my blood.
25:16For most of his childhood,
25:18the rapper was raised by the people he believed to be his maternal grandparents.
25:21Even his mother,
25:23Andrea Griffith,
25:24thought they were her biological parents.
25:27However,
25:27a DNA test on finding your roots revealed otherwise.
25:31We compared Andrea's DNA to that of her Griffith cousin.
25:34If they truly are first cousins,
25:36they should share about 12.5% of their DNA,
25:38which we would see in red here.
25:41But we see nothing.
25:42Right,
25:42we don't see any red.
25:43In reality,
25:44Griffith was adopted as an infant,
25:46and her adoptive parents,
25:48Eugene Griffith and Ellen Hightower,
25:50never made that information known to her throughout their lives.
25:54Regardless,
25:55the revelation didn't change LL Cool J's perception of his adoptive grandparents.
26:00If anything,
26:01it deepened his love and respect for them.
26:03They did so well for us.
26:06I have
26:07more love and respect for them than I ever did.
26:12Number 10.
26:13Roseanne Cash
26:14In 2021,
26:15Roseanne Cash,
26:16the daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash,
26:19appeared on Finding Your Roots,
26:21where she made a particularly interesting discovery.
26:24Would you like to meet your DNA cousin?
26:25Yes.
26:26Okay,
26:26please turn the page.
26:27Back in 1965,
26:29Cash's mother Vivian was targeted by the KKK
26:32in a racist campaign.
26:34The white supremacist group believed Vivian was black,
26:38thus alleging her marriage to Johnny was illegal.
26:41She filed for divorce as kind of an ultimatum
26:44and wishful thinking and thinking that
26:46maybe if he sees I'm serious,
26:50he'll come back.
26:50The controversy only died down
26:52after the country singer issued a public statement
26:55insisting his wife was white.
26:57However,
26:58on Finding Your Roots,
26:59Cash discovered that her mother indeed
27:01had African-American heritage.
27:03Really?
27:04Yep.
27:04Vivian's maternal great-great-grandmother
27:06was a mixed-race woman named Sarah Shields,
27:09who was born into slavery in Alabama.
27:12Shields later married a white man
27:14and recorded all her children as white
27:16in official documents.
27:18Number 9.
27:19Joe Manganiello
27:20Actor Joe Manganiello
27:22owes his existence today
27:24to the remarkable tenacity
27:25of his maternal great-grandmother,
27:27Terviz Rose Durakhjan.
27:29Joe's grandmother, Sandra,
27:32was born in the Ottoman Empire
27:33during World War I.
27:35Her mother,
27:37a woman named Rose Durakhjan,
27:39was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.
27:42Durakhjan was an Armenian woman
27:44who was married with eight children.
27:46In 1915,
27:47during the Armenian Genocide,
27:49her husband and seven of her children
27:51were murdered before her eyes.
27:53Durakhjan managed to escape
27:55and swam across the Euphrates River
27:58with her last surviving child
28:00strapped to her back.
28:01But tragically,
28:03the infant died during the journey.
28:05You ready to see what we found?
28:06Oh, man.
28:07She was then thrown into an internment camp
28:10where she encountered a German soldier
28:12named Carl Wilhelm Butinger,
28:15who impregnated her.
28:16On his paternal side,
28:18Manganiello also discovered
28:19that the man he believed
28:20to be his grandfather,
28:22Emilio Manganiello,
28:23was not biologically related to him.
28:26Close the door,
28:26and I open the door,
28:28and I'm here in Germany
28:30at this time looking at my ancestor
28:32that I never knew.
28:33Number eight,
28:34Tig Notaro.
28:35Even before Finding Your Roots,
28:37comedian Tig Notaro
28:38always knew she was the descendant
28:40of a politician.
28:41Comedian Tig Notaro
28:43grew up knowing
28:44that she had a celebrated ancestor.
28:46Her great-great-grandfather
28:47was John Fitzpatrick,
28:49who served as the mayor of New Orleans
28:51from 1892 to 1896.
28:54But it was on the show
28:55that Notaro first learned
28:56about her ancestor's upbringing.
28:58Register of boys received
29:00into the asylum.
29:02Name of the boy,
29:03John Fitzpatrick.
29:04Age when received,
29:0510 years.
29:06At the age of seven,
29:08Fitzpatrick lost his father
29:09and was placed in an orphan asylum
29:11alongside two of his brothers.
29:14Surprisingly,
29:15this wasn't due to their mother's demise,
29:17but rather the limited
29:18public welfare system,
29:19which apparently left her
29:20with no choice
29:21between trust some of her children
29:23to an orphanage.
29:24Can you imagine being
29:25in Catherine's position
29:26and being forced to do that?
29:29That's something
29:29I don't think I could get through.
29:31Fitzpatrick was later
29:32reunited with his mother
29:33and worked his way up
29:35from a newspaper boy
29:36to the mayor's office.
29:38The only thing
29:38that I know about him
29:40is just this man
29:41in a picture.
29:42It's like,
29:43hey, he was the mayor.
29:44I really,
29:45I don't know any of this.
29:47Number seven,
29:48Edward Norton.
29:49While Edward Norton
29:50is widely recognized
29:51for his roles
29:52in several popular
29:53Hollywood films,
29:55it turns out
29:55he may not be
29:56the most famous individual
29:57in his family tree.
29:58O'Kahannes is indeed
29:59your 12th great-grandma.
30:01Oh my God.
30:01In the season nine premiere
30:04of Finding Your Roots,
30:05the actor learned
30:06that Pocahontas
30:07was his 12th great-grandmother,
30:09confirming a long-held
30:11family lore.
30:12Makes you realize
30:13what a,
30:13what a,
30:14what a small,
30:16you know,
30:17piece of the whole
30:18human story you are.
30:19But perhaps
30:20the most uncomfortable
30:21detail uncovered
30:22during the episode
30:23was the revelation
30:24that Norton's
30:25third great-grandfather,
30:27John Winstead,
30:28was a slave owner
30:29in North Carolina.
30:30While he wouldn't be
30:31the first celebrity
30:32to make such a discovery,
30:34Norton reflected
30:34on its disturbing nature,
30:36describing it as a,
30:38quote,
30:38uncomfortable truth
30:39that, quote,
30:40needs to be acknowledged
30:41and, quote,
30:42contended with.
30:43You know,
30:43it is no,
30:45it's not a judgment
30:45on you and your own life,
30:47but it's a judgment
30:48on the,
30:50it's a judgment
30:50on the history
30:51of this country.
30:52Number six,
30:53Fred Armisen.
30:54For most of his life,
30:56Saturday Night Live
30:57alum Fred Armisen
30:58believed he was
30:59one-quarter Japanese,
31:00attributing this
31:01to his grandfather,
31:02the late Masami Kuni,
31:04who hailed from Japan.
31:05He would later discover
31:06this was all false.
31:08So am I Korean?
31:12No.
31:12Kuni was actually
31:13South Korean,
31:14originally named
31:15Park Young-in,
31:17and only assumed
31:18a Japanese identity
31:19after the 1923
31:20massacre of Koreans
31:22in Japan.
31:23It definitely,
31:23it changes the way
31:24I think about myself.
31:25But that was just
31:26the tip of the iceberg.
31:27Armisen also learned
31:29that while Kuni
31:30lived in Germany
31:31in the 1930s and 40s,
31:33he engaged in
31:34propaganda efforts
31:35for the Nazis
31:36by entertaining
31:37German troops.
31:38Additionally,
31:39during this period,
31:40Kuni apparently
31:41also worked
31:42as a spy for Japan,
31:43gathering intelligence
31:44on Southern European
31:45and Turkish affairs.
31:47He is one of the
31:48most clever agents
31:49they have.
31:50Number five,
31:51Lena Dunham.
31:52The 2024 film
31:53Treasure stars
31:54Lena Dunham
31:55as a young woman
31:56who visits Poland
31:57with her aging father
31:58and is forced
31:59to confront
31:59her family's
32:00Holocaust past.
32:02When Dunham appeared
32:02on Finding Your Roots,
32:04she discovered
32:04unexpected parallels
32:05between her own ancestry
32:07and that of her character
32:08in the movie.
32:09Can you imagine
32:09when you were 14
32:10your parents would
32:11put you on a boat?
32:12No, I can't.
32:13It turns out
32:13that Dunham's
32:14great-great-grandmother
32:15Regina migrated
32:16to America
32:17as a teenager,
32:18leaving behind
32:19nearly a dozen siblings
32:20in Europe.
32:21Tragically,
32:22during World War II,
32:23one of Regina's nieces,
32:25Ilana,
32:26was separated
32:26from the rest
32:27of her family
32:28and sent to the
32:29Nazi-occupied city
32:30of Kamenyets-Porolitsky
32:32in Ukraine.
32:33Ilana is believed
32:34to be one of
32:35roughly 24,000 Jews
32:37who lost their lives there.
32:39To see a personal
32:40connection to it
32:41literalizes it
32:43in a way
32:43that is,
32:44um,
32:45that's very,
32:45very powerful.
32:47Number four,
32:48Joe Madison.
32:49Celebrities who appear
32:50on Finding Your Roots
32:51step into the unknown,
32:53unsure of what
32:53family secrets
32:54might be revealed.
32:55While many learn
32:56unsettling details
32:57about distant ancestors,
32:59veteran radio host
33:00Joe Madison
33:01was confronted
33:02with a startling truth
33:03about his own father.
33:04It was such a
33:05shocking discovery
33:06that I felt compelled
33:08to call Joe at home
33:09before our interview
33:10to let him know
33:12in private,
33:13away from any
33:14TV cameras.
33:15In the Season 5 episode,
33:17Madison found out
33:18that Felix Madison,
33:19whom he had always
33:20believed to be his
33:21biological father,
33:22actually wasn't.
33:23I appreciated the,
33:26uh,
33:27your sincerity
33:28and concern.
33:30Sensing the sensitivity
33:31of the information,
33:32host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
33:34first called Madison
33:35privately to share it
33:37with him,
33:37away from all the cameras.
33:39And then the real
33:40question is,
33:41then who was?
33:42Mm-hmm.
33:43Madison's appearance
33:44on the show
33:44also led him
33:45to the discovery
33:46that his biological
33:47grandfather
33:48was one of the subjects
33:49of the controversial
33:50Tuskegee Institute
33:52syphilis study.
33:53Number 3.
33:55Pharrell Williams
33:56For many African Americans,
33:58having the chance
33:59to read first-hand stories
34:00of their ancestors' lives,
34:02especially those
34:03who were enslaved,
34:04is rare.
34:05Acclaimed music producer
34:06Pharrell Williams
34:07got this opportunity
34:08when he appeared
34:09on Finding Your Roots
34:10in 2021.
34:11I was born on
34:12the 18th of December,
34:131852.
34:15I was born on
34:16the plantation
34:16near Tar River.
34:18During the show,
34:19Williams was presented
34:20with an interview
34:21given by his
34:21great-great-great-aunt
34:23Jane Arrington,
34:24who participated
34:25in the Slave Narrative
34:26Project in the 1930s.
34:28In the interview,
34:29Arrington shared
34:30detailed accounts
34:31of her harrowing experience
34:33as an enslaved person.
34:34As he read the notes
34:35on the program,
34:36Williams was deeply moved
34:38by the hardships
34:39his ancestor
34:39was forced to endure.
34:41Those words
34:42also forced him
34:44to confront
34:45the cruel reality
34:46of what those
34:48ancestors actually
34:49experienced.
34:50He also uncovered
34:51the unsettling fact
34:52that his great-great-great-grandfather,
34:55Fenner Williams,
34:56spent the first decade
34:57of his life
34:58enslaved.
34:59There's a lot, man.
35:00Oh.
35:01I have to say
35:01I am forever changed.
35:03Number 2.
35:04Michael Douglas
35:04Throughout his career,
35:06actor Michael Douglas
35:07has starred in
35:08multiple crime thrillers.
35:09Yet few of those
35:10fictional narratives
35:11can match the gripping
35:12real-life tales
35:13of his own ancestors.
35:15Last permanent residence,
35:17Chelsea, Russia.
35:19Chelsea, Russia.
35:20You know who that is?
35:22That's your father's uncle.
35:23In a 2024 episode
35:24of the show,
35:25Douglas learned
35:26about his grandfather,
35:28Harry Danielevich,
35:29and his great-uncle,
35:30Moshe,
35:31both of whom
35:32migrated to the U.S.
35:33from Chelsea
35:34in present-day Belarus.
35:36Before they left
35:37for America,
35:38both Harry and Moshe
35:39were caught up
35:40in a life of crime.
35:41Anyone who knows
35:42the whereabouts
35:42of Danielevich
35:43is obliged
35:44to inform the court
35:45where he is.
35:46Harry had been arrested
35:47and sent to prison
35:48for robbery,
35:49while Moshe was implicated
35:51in an armed robbery case
35:52in 1906
35:53and declared
35:54a wanted man
35:55in Chelsea.
35:56However,
35:57it is unclear
35:58if he was ever apprehended
35:59before he left the country.
36:01This is blowing my mind a little.
36:03This is really blowing my mind.
36:05Before we continue,
36:06be sure to subscribe
36:07to our channel
36:08and ring the bell
36:09to get notified
36:09about our latest videos.
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36:15If you're on your phone,
36:16make sure you go
36:17into your settings
36:17and switch on notifications.
36:21Number 1.
36:22Maya Rudolph
36:23Like many other celebrities
36:24who have appeared
36:25on Finding Your Roots,
36:27Maya Rudolph aimed
36:28to uncover her identity.
36:301860 slave census
36:32for a man named
36:33John Warren Grigsby.
36:34The SNL alum
36:41was curious
36:41about her maternal
36:42African-American heritage
36:44and was given a glimpse
36:45into her ancestry.
36:47Through the show,
36:48Rudolph discovered
36:48her maternal
36:49great-great-great-grandfather,
36:51James Grigsby,
36:52who was born into slavery
36:54in Lincoln County, Kentucky.
36:55That breaks my heart.
37:00Well.
37:01A census document
37:02from 1860 showed Grigsby
37:05listed without a name,
37:06but solely by his sex
37:08and age, 5.
37:10This discovery
37:10was deeply unsettling
37:12to Rudolph,
37:13causing her to break down
37:14in tears.
37:15Wow.
37:16I just can't believe
37:17what I'm looking at.
37:18She also learned
37:19of another maternal ancestor
37:21whose owner's grandson
37:22denied him
37:23the financial compensation
37:24and freedom
37:25promised in his owner's will.
37:27Fortunately,
37:28he took the grandson
37:29to court and won.
37:30It just makes you feel
37:32like you're part
37:32of something so much bigger.
37:34What dark discoveries
37:35do you think
37:35are buried
37:36in your family tree?
37:38Share your thoughts
37:38in the comments below.
37:40It makes me think,
37:41I don't know,
37:41did it really solve anything?
37:43Did it help?
37:44Did he feel like he succeeded?
37:47I don't know.
37:48Shit.
37:49Shit.
37:50I don't know.
37:51Shit.