"Funny Girl"'s Lea Michele confused about her family's true origins...

Lea Michele's episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" is a touching exploration of her family history. She learns about her great-grandmother's life in Italy and her Jewish ancestors who perished in the Holocaust. Through her journey, Michele gains a deeper understanding of herself and the importance of knowing where we come from.
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[@Kentrellceaser]

The resemblance between Lea & her grandmother is so amazing. Their mouths are identical

[@md61211]

I think that's her greatgrandmother

[@loricrane5315]

First thing that caught my attention

[@sahej6939]

Agree! She looks just like the grandmother and he looks like the grandad

[@Just_An_Idea_For_Consideration]

ANSWER: It was still the OTTOMAN EMPIRE when they immigrated, which is why it says Turkey

[@javierdenardo2607]

Yes. Onassis also travelled with a Turkish passport when he emigrated to Argentina

[@LordGertz]

In my former Synagogue, we had a lovely old man who joke how he was from 4 different countries before coming to America. His home town/village literally was in 4 different countries during his childhood through young adulthood as the borders kept changing from Empires and countries. I do think it's interesting that her father's last name is Hebrew for French.

[@ionaf9]

my gran was born in lviv. She loves to pick and choose her nationality depending on world circumstances.

[@janetf23]

Israel would not appear anywhere before May 14, 1948.

[@MeMeDaVinci]

The bride looks like Lea. Without a doubt.

[@tommymorano7254]

She looks like her great grandmother.

[@md61211]

Yes she does

[@PtolemyJones]

The borders between Turkey and Greece have varied, the place they were from could have been in and out of either of them. Especially if you consider Cyprus.

[@patriciaredmond3996]

Neither seem to know much about history

[@papagarth]

@@patriciaredmond3996 Well, that's more or less what I said ( actually "There's this thing called the Ottoman empire" ) - but I thought it was too abrupt, and thus rude. But, I mean, how can you NOT know ?

[@mmedefarge]

I used to know a woman born in what was called "Turkish Greece". Her primary language was Greek, but she also spoke Spanish as her ancestors were Spanish Jews who'd once lived in Spain. She also spoke Hebrew and lastly English. They'd escaped Turkish Greece during WWII and fled to the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the U.S. after the war.

[@justbe12345]

It's really exciting seeing Lea getting to know more details about her family line 💕

[@bmeetze]

I almost had a heart attack when I saw that wedding pic. She looks so much like my great grandmother.

[@Stabbs1313]

I wish I had help like this to find out about my family’s history. Everyone has passed and we are Cajun and indigenous but we have no idea which tribe we come from. All I wish for it to be able to learn about my tribe and hopefully have community with them. I’ve gone to many libraries and nothing not even books on my last names like other ppl have.

[@sherricopeland6393]

Yes, celebrities get everything free and normal folks get nada

[@CraigGrant-sh3in]

Start with what you have and go from there. You would have found that older family members wouldn't have talked about things like ,someone being married before , unplanned birth without marriage ect.Older generations didn't like talking about family history . The native American part may be hard to trace . Your best bet is to start with a DNA test and see what you really are . A DNA test will clarify information you find . You never know what surprise you'll find in your DNA .Look up where the Cajun people came from so it will help you know where you'll need to look for information (hint, Canada and back to France ) . Join one of the genealogy sites . I think basic membership is something like $65. If you are still in Louisiana try to find what towns your family lived in and begin checking records in those towns for weddings ,funerals, births ..Those will also give you that persons parents name then follow that name back. You can get census records dating back to 1790 (1st census) Records before that would be at churches . The genealogy sites will help with a lot of what you need. The Cajuns were self exiled from Canada so you may find ship records there from when they came over from France . It took my sister over ten years to get the main descendants . We did a lot of road work going to towns where they lived to get records and go through cemeteries . She started with pretty much just our grandparents names and went from there . If you do trace your ancestry ,be careful you don't go in the wrong direction. Names get confusing and you can head the wrong way with the wrong family.

[@CraigGrant-sh3in]

I just looked. If you have some names,locations of Native ancestors ,you'll probably want to contact the Bureau of Indian. Affairs

[@kaymonk1767]

+@Moo

[@Guazabara9]

Hey there! I'm actually conducting research into Cajun/ Acadian and Indigenous ancestry, as it turns out that I have some myself. I'd gladly help you out. More than likely, your family originated in France, moved to Canada (St. Lawrence area and Nova Scotia?), then onto either Louisiana, Alabama, and/ or Mississippi? You should look into the Mi'kmaq people. All the best.

[@elisamiller1837]

She looks just like Bessie

[@heideleskun1163]

My dad was born before he was. Borders back in that time were interchangeable.

[@jlongino51823]

Could you please stop passing judgment and saying nasty things about the people and just enjoy the program?

[@khanhkhanh1060]

1:52 Lea is so much look like her great grandma!

[@ninakeehner607]

WOW 👌, those two, look like their grandparents 😳

[@marilynvallance]

In the 20’s both Greece and Turkey were part of the Ottoman Empire.

[@klausrostock4163]

4:16 it clearly shows the parents spoke Spanish 😂 , why did the show ignore this ?!!!

[@emilys4679]

Thank you, that bothered me too, hahaha.

[@snteag]

The "spanish" appeared to be for the couple below her great grandparents.

[@CitizenTurtleIsland]

Yes... Spanish. Probably Ladino!

[@klausrostock4163]

@@snteag take a screenshot and see for yourself , I played it over like 4 times before posting my comment

[@NathanLGrossman]

It was probably Ladino, a dialect of Spanish spoken by Jews whose families lived in Spain before they were expelled in 1492. My wife, who is a native Spanish speaker, says that Ladino just sounds like a quaint, old-fashioned version of Spanish to her.

[@Guazabara9]

I wonder if they could have connections to Salonica?

[@theresacoy9881]

The pic of her I think Grandparents, she looks like her Grandmother.

[@lynndenault8198]

Lea looks like her great grandmother.

[@MrBenicia94510]

Lots of conflict turks v greek. You might have turkish ethnicity from a greek held territory.

[@plutoplutoan4734]

???? You know history? Or you a Turkish troll

[@sakisgr1396]

They did not come from “Turkey”. The American census takers at the time couldn’t claim it as “Greece “since Greece was occupied by Ottoman Turks for 400 years!!! Yet inhabitants were Greeks, Sephardic Jews etc in Thessaloniki. That is one thing American schools never teach in the US due to their close relations with Turkey. So they incorrectly labeled it as Turkey. She should learn about the Sephardic Jews who were Greek citizens in Thessaloniki and sadly their awful extermination by the German Nazis in WWII! She should also learn about the Greek genocides at the hands of Ottoman Turks who also were persecuting Greek Sephardic Jews…

[@Deniz-gz4sr]

Happy anniversary of conquest 1453 May 29😂😂😂

[@najmikrisnawan189]

greece was turkey under ottoman empire

[@tangoangel2782]

The world wars cut parts of the different Balkan countries and gave them to their neighbours. A territory that might of been Greek could easily have become Turkey etc.

[@sakisgr1396]

Ottoman Turks ruled Greece for 400 years. Greeks had 260 revolts against genocidal Ottoman Turks during those times until finally slowly gaining their independence from the Turks little by little in 1821. Greeks shed a lot of blood for that independence and lord tremendous amounts of their indigenous lands to the Turks who also commited genocides (against Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians).

[@tangoangel2782]

@@sakisgr1396 they did the same with Bulgaria for 500 years, and I am from there. Does not change the fact, that the Balkans were re-shaped border wise multiple times after the Balkan wars, the WWI and WWII.

[@sakisgr1396]

Nothing was “given” though… It was won through revolts and battles. Sadly Greeks lost so much land to the Turks. What is nowadays western Turkey was Greek land for thousands of years…

[@Pituqat]

Does she not know what a Sephardic Jews is? Or that they speak Ladino?

[@marinaguerracerrato812]

Exactly!!!!!

[@betty1631]

Why didn't they do a DNA?

[@rodneyscales2648]

Bessie looks like you!

[@helenangus1675]

Need to know your history of the middle east, the boarders changed often. Israel did not exist as a country.

[@kjw79]

The show is letting them discover their history one step at a time and in turn they will learn that history of the world

[@HairyBottom]

And also Turkey and Greece are not in the Middle East.

[@Furienna]

​@@HairyBottom Most of Turkey is.

[@Guazabara9]

Possibly Jews from Salonica?

[@MrThedoors28]

He’s a copy of morris

[@samanthaodegard4511]

She fails to know her history that israel was born in 1948

[@ninaradio]

Or that Greece was under Turkish (Ottoman) control for a long time, so there was an era when people from Greece would have said they were from the region of Greece within the nation of Turkey.

[@carokat1111]

@@ninaradio In fairness, most people probably don't know that.

[@rachelraimi19]

Reborn, after long exile. There, I fixed it for you.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

​@@carokat1111 my experience is that most people DO know that (unless they are mouthbreathers)

[@suz2590]

Well, her dad said Israel because they actually had family who ended up in Israel.

[@crose7412]

3:05 Does she not realise that there was no Israel at the time of the 1940 census?

[@hassancell4406]

Autman imperial was exist tell 1923 after that was splet to different country's

[@EMVelez]

Ottoman Empire

[@HUTZELMUTZEL]

and again I didn't learn anything about history at school - Greece was part of the Ottoman dominion, Greeks had lived in the Arabic part for centuries and Turks in today's Greece, then there were several wars, then there was Greece and Turkey again, the people gave in Senzus identified themselves as Greeks of Turkish nationality or as Turks by origin, but were Greeks, back then one should have asked about their mother tongue, and there were also Turks of Greek nationality, some still exist today

[@IDGem100]

Someone failed to learn history, i.e. the Ottoman Empire.

[@hassyg4083]

so shes turkish or greek anyone?

[@honesty_-no9he]

When the Ottoman Empire fell at the end of WWI other countries and empires seized the opportunity to grab lands that Ottoman Turkey had ruled. For example the British Empire took Palestine. Greece and Turkey were like devious teenage siblings always stealing each other's stuff...borders change and people migrate.

[@roseannparker5800]

Put too much makeup on her father and they would be identical twins.

[@thatamerican3187]

DNA testing will not help you with Native Ancestry.

[@Storageauctionsresellers]

At that time there was no Israel. Palestine this is was it was all away until 1948. Please get your history facts right.

[@newmanle1]

Theselonika. Turkish before WWI, Greek after WWI, Sephardic. More difficult for the Jews under Greece.

[@Deniz-gz4sr]

Why

[@Nehmi]

And the Lea threw a phone at a PA in disgust for not getting enough attention.

[@HVS-gk7oo]

Just a phone? 🤔

[@DianeWilliamsCurvyGoddess]

I’m not a fan of hers. I don’t care how talented she is. You can’t be a disgusting person.

[@Sara-vn2kz]

???

[@carokat1111]

@@Sara-vn2kz They're trolling because of her previous reputation on Glee. Time to let it go.

[@suz2590]

@@carokat1111 so weird how they search her out to bash her or make up a lie about her, as if that is what nice people do. The hypocrisy.

[@poolhall9632]

Turns out Lea is actually that character she played on glee IRL - insufferable.

[@nicholasmorgan8881]

Yeah, except it turns out no-one has ever left a show because Lea was supposedly insufferable... so actually pretty sufferable, then haha... this anti- Lea thing is so hysterical & deranged it would be funny if it wasn't so offensive and poisonous.

[@poolhall9632]

@@nicholasmorgan8881 do you quit your job anytime your co-workers are toxic? No, prob not. That’s the line now? Lol. It’s almost like repeated stories about her show a pattern of behavior… def should ignore that.

[@topherjoe1]

@@poolhall9632 Give it a rest.

[@justineharper3346]

I mean, they built the character around her, so yes, she’s a lot like Rachel. I don’t find her insufferable though. She does have a strong personality, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think you can deny that she’s insanely talented though. Girls got some pipes!

[@natasaradakovic5954]

Isn't anyone going to comment on her dirty nails?

[@oscarp4328]

More like rude girl. Next.

[@mattyd3079]

This is a common misunderstanding of people who have her particular kind of personality. I think perhaps it’s cultural. Maybe it’s a genetic trait on the way she thinks and her tone of voice. She wouldn’t intend to be rude, and for people who know her and love her and understand her personality, she isn’t ‘rude’. If you notice the language she uses, she is constantly saying thank you. She wants to be appreciative. That’s her true intention.

[@lacyrussell6688]

No wonder this girl wears a ton of make up. She doesn’t exactly come from a line of beauty

[@lacyrussell6688]

There’s nothing unique about her she’s just a plain Jane

[@jackiethompson8384]

I love her bone structure, I don't get the plain jane reference.

[@lacyrussell6688]

@@jackiethompson8384 you don’t have to that’s why beauty is in the eye of the beholder