Top 10 Darkest Family Reveals on Finding Your Roots

[@MsMojo]

Have YOU ever made a startling discovery in your family’s history? Let us know below, and check out our video of the Top 10 Shocking Reveals on Finding Your Roots - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfToKmXrdl2iNk

[@LadyBloodyGiven]

Finding out my mom wasn't the oldest child. She has an older sister whose children think your mother never married and she never had kids. And will not let there mother give you your grandmother's ring that should have gone to your mother when she was still alive.

[@KAGOME675able]

I’m a descendant of the man who composed the music for Silent Night

[@sstaners1234]

Standing onboard the USS Missouri and realizing my grandfather was there during the battle of Iwo Jima. He had told me about how a kamikaze plane had hit the aft end of the ship. The pilot survived only to pull a pistol out from his pocket and end his life.

[@MrLefrog1]

My Great-Grandfather(x11 I think) who emigrated to Canada from France in 1625 was murdered. He's murderer was caught but did not get sent to jail. Instead he was ordered to pay restitution of an unknown amount to my Great-Grandmother(11).

[@KatieParish-r6s]

I found a connection to the Salem Massachusetts witch hunt. Her name was Paris also parish. One ancestors found to have been born in Africa

[@cmtippens9209]

If anyone doesn't know, Maya Rudolph is also the daughter of the late Minnie Riperton, who lost her life to breast cancer at age 31 when Maya was about 7. Minnie Riperton was a singer, with a five octave range, best known for the song "Lovin' You" from 1975.

[@awillis244]

Thx, but I know

[@Kit.E.Katz45]

We all know.😑

[@somisomi62]

Everyone knows

[@kay-oc2zm]

I didn't know 🤷

[@Alexardelean89]

Minnie had an amazing voice.

[@CarlyBoothheartsmovies]

In college, I learned from my dad that my paternal grandfather was supposed to fight in the Battle of Okinawa (one of the bloodiest battles of WWII) but broke his foot before getting deployed, so instead he was an army mechanic in Berlin who helped to rebuild a village that was decimated by the Nazis. It’s insane to think I owe my entire existence to a guy breaking his foot in the 1940s.

[@cruisepaige]

My grandfather was sent to Alaska during WW2 instead of the Pacific by some distant relative who recognized our very unique last name. He never would have made it in the pacific. He was over 30 and a short fat salesman. I found this out one day when I was a teenager complaining about nepotism.

[@RogerKomula-kl9lb]

​@@cruisepaigenice corruption story.

[@Alvin-1138]

​@@cruisepaigeWow, that's an amazing positive way, to learn about being judgemental..

[@LogicalNiko]

Both my grandparents ended up escaping the Nazi by faking/inducing injuries. My maternal grandfather caused open sores which temporarily got him transferred from a labor camp to a clinic where he was held checking for infections disease. He escaped custody and made his way to a merchant ship in port and escaped the territory. My paternal grandfather was assigned to do accounting work for the German army. Over about two months he worked to convince the office manager to let him go get a faked tooth pain pulled in the nearest city with a 3 day pass. He used that to get as far west as possible and hid for a few days while Patton pushed through the occupied Netherlands. He then ended up getting assigned as a civilian medic assisting the population following Patton’s unit’s eventually earning the opportunity to go to the U.S. after the war was over and a reference to get a job with the U.S. government. If either of those circumstances changed in the slightest I would not be here.

[@jimzipko6019]

He would have lived regardless, your proof he didn’t “drive faster than his guardian angel can fly!” Family blessing.

[@AJR-zg2py]

7:10 That is SUCH a classy move on the part of Dr. Gates giving Madison a briefing on what was discovered about his dad before the camera rolls.

[@mandymagnolia1966]

I mean that’s HUGE bombshell. I can’t imagine having to find that and then having to break that news

[@mstephens44]

He did the same with Kerry Washington

[@marlonharrison5511]

He did the same thing to LL Cool J

[@damonroberts7372]

I wouldn't call it "classy" so much as "decency".

[@minbari73]

Did he do it for anyone with white skin?

[@nellywilliams2776]

My maternal great grandfather was Scottish and my maternal great grandmother was black. My maternal great grandfather had to pretend to be biracial in order to marry my great grandmother. He changed all his legal documents from white to “mulatto”. Race switching was pretty common for interracial couples to circumvent the laws against mixed marriages.

[@DreamGyrl360]

Because laws never stop love. When people love each other, laws aren't going to stop the relationship. So blessings to your family line.

[@KamalasNotLikeUs]

Same. Exact same. Were they from Virginia?

[@doyadirty3804]

Scottish is a nationality. Black is a colour of an object… why do u people think black is a nationality.. u make more sense saying one is white one is black or one is scottish and one is of ethnic decent

[@DreamGyrl360]

@@doyadirty3804 Scottish implies white unless otherwise stated. You know that. Let's not be disingenuous.

[@supachaloopa3611]

@@doyadirty3804 "u people"....?

[@ChristoAbrie]

One time in high school, we were doing a project on WW2 and some of the students decided to bring momentos relating to the war and their families. One student revealed that her grandfather was a Nazi officer, at this point I had to reveal that my grandfather fought for the Allies, but i also surprised them by revealing that he was still alive, 90yrs old at the time (2009). And i actually got to tell him that story and his face lit up with joy.

[@irmazamora4679]

Grandparents love when you acknowledge their history.

[@kellzkardashian1132]

Crazy he thought it was a good idea

[@nyxskids]

​@@kellzkardashian1132 denying reality is the same as lying

[@JaneAustenAteMyCat]

@@kellzkardashian1132 Why would it be a bad idea to reveal that your grandfather fought for the allies? Both my grandfathers did, too.

[@kellzkardashian1132]

@@JaneAustenAteMyCat the nazi gramps, not yours lol

[@timalice-2833]

Edward Norton’s ancestor being Pocahontas is also pretty awful. Her life was harsh, short, and tragic. It is nothing like the Disney film. She didn’t fall for John smith and she was only 12 years old when she was kidnapped and taken to England to be in a forced marriage. He birth name was Mataoka and she was dead by 21.

[@andrewft31]

She got married when she was 17 not 12, she lived a life of wealth and privilege… she was to visit her family in Virginia but she died before the voyage.

[@timalice-2833]

@@andrewft31 I said she was kidnapped at 12 and forced into marriage later. Just because it was a “life of privilege” doesn’t mean a good and happy life. I forgot to mention that the first time she met John smith she was only 10, not a grown woman as Disney portrays. Also many publications that came about after her death portrayed her as submissive and falling for John smith, in addition to Disney’s portrayal serve to dehumanize indigenous women to this day. To where many are referred to Pocahontas in a sexual or demeaning way. Her legacy and the tragedy she lived through is largely forgotten and/or ignored.

[@DemonEyes02]

​@@andrewft31we don't have a lot of definitive proof about much of her life, but there are a lot of details that paint a horrifying story. Her "marriage" ( she was already married and even a mother at the time of her kidnapping) was likely a forced marriage because she was pregnant. The whole point of kidnapping her was to force her father to stand down and come to "make peace". I say it in quotes because the war had been started partially in part due to colonial men sexually abusing the native women. The fact that she had become pregnant in captivity, likely due to rape, would have destroyed that "peace". So they had her marry some rando that going by historical records she had never met before. Or at least not in any official way, which would be really odd considering she was a constantly monitored prisoner. Said Rando, John Rolf also seems to have come into some money around this time. Maybe he had been paid to do this? Even after the marriage and she was "no longer" a prisoner she was never allowed to see or contact her family. She was paraded around England like an animal though she carried herself well enough and charmed the English nobility when that she became a celebrity. Then after being suddenly sent back to England despite the aristocracy wanting more is also weird. Like maybe her handlers didn't want to risk her talking too much to anyone with authority that could be sympathetic. Then she got "sick" and died in the middle of the ocean. Not weird in itself, but she was the ONLY one recorded as having got this "mysterious illness". That is crazy weird. It's been long speculated that she had actually been poisoned. They can say she was going to finally see her family after this voyage but the fact is from the time she had been take till her "sudden and unexpected" death she had never even been allowed to have a correspondence with them let alone see them despite them not being all that far away. After landfall her "husband" wanted literally nothing to do with their "son". He literally abandoned the boy. Rolf's brother heard about him abandoning his son and was publicly disgusted by him. He, the brother ended up taking the boy in and raising him. Yes there is no proof she was raped, forced into marriage and eventually poisoned, but the stuff we do have definitive records of do indicate that as FAR more likely than the "official" story written by her captors, much of it long after her death and any chance of her talking to someone who mattered about her actual circumstances.

[@Ashbrash1998]

​​@@DemonEyes02Except your timing is off, Pocahontas married Rolfe in April 1614, she was kidnapped in 1609-10 which was planned out by colonists and other natives, where she was held for ransom for her father to release prisoners and items. And her son was born in January 1615. Which the time between is longer than 9 months so there isn't any way she could have been pregnant before that. There's more that happened sure, but that's common history because all we have to rely on are documents that survived and biases. The most with Pocahontas are the surviving records and some oral traditions.

[@timalice-2833]

@@DemonEyes02 well said 👏 In many indigenous communities she is counted among the first of the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women who continue to vanish to this day.

[@easttexasnomad5981]

I was adopted at birth and never knew my birth parents. Back in 2021 (at age 63) I took the Ancestry test and discovered my birth parents. My mother died 13 days following my birth and my father died several years ago. I had a full blood sister who also died just before I received the results. My only recommendation is to do it sooner instead of later. HOWEVER, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER.

[@JaneAustenAteMyCat]

So sorry for your loss! My very dear friend recently found out her father, whom she never knew nor met, was murdered. However, she has found a half brother after having been a singleton all her life, so that's a blessing, at least. Poor woman, she had a horrible childhood 😞

[@fluttergirl75]

That's really heartbreaking, yet you go on to give others advice because of your loss. I have a feeling your Mom, Dad, and Sister are very proud of you.

[@chordsofgratitude2073]

Sad to hear about your whole family. To die 13 days after you were born sounds like an infection or or other medical condition following childbirth. I've seen it happen. I hope your adoptive family helped fill a void in your life and treated you decently.

[@SisyphusOfSodom]

How do you take an ancestry test? I keep being told I need documents like mariage certificate. So what does an "ancestry test" do on its own?

[@chordsofgratitude2073]

@@SisyphusOfSodom , go online to 23+Me and order a kit ... They mail it to your home... Open it, read the instructions and then do it ... Send it back, track the return shipment by USPS or UPS or FedEx

[@pamalojo]

Last year I found two half-siblings through a genealogy website - a brother and a sister. We all have the same father and different mothers. None of us knew about each other. I'm the youngest of the three of us and was raised by my parents. Both of my siblings were raised in foster care. My brother was left on the doorstep of a convent and my sister was removed from her mother because of neglect. We're all in our seventies and I will be travelling internationally to meet them in a few weeks. In the meantime I set up a video chat group and our families have all met online.

[@ceebee8255]

What an amazing story

[@hoesmad8445]

​​@@ceebee8255 how? The fathers a piece of shit

[@BabyColinRobinson]

Wow! ❤

[@ellakersey1214]

I wish you all a wonderful unification! Make it happen soon! 🎉🎉🎉 My mother recently found out she had a deceased set of identical twin half-sisters through DNA. They never knew who their father was. One set of their children made the connection to our mother through DNA in 2020, just before lock down. We planned a reunion, but they have just had the opportunity to meet my mother only weeks ago. Two of my sisters and a brother traveled with my mother to the twins' hometown. She and they were all very moved by the experience. I am glad they made it happen. One of my cousins is battling breast cancer and my mother is 86 years old.

[@pamalojo]

@@ellakersey1214 Thank you for your well wishes. We will all be meeting next month and My Heritage wants to promote our story. I’m so sorry your mum and her sisters didn’t get to meet, and I’m also happy you discovered their existence. My best wishes to your cousin. In my case, we’re all in our 70’s and my two siblings each have some health issues and I’m slowing down a bit, so time is precious.

[@HappilyFureverAfterFarm]

To hear that a little boy who should’ve been in kindergarten with other children; playing and enjoying life was listed under a slave registry as a 5 year old male got me. That made me break down. I can’t imagine what that would be like and to see Maya, who I think is a National Treasure, react like that I hit the “ugly cry” hard!

[@ian_ford]

It's an ugly part of world history, not just American history. The sad part is that America was supposed to be founded on greater ideals, education, and civility. And they did what every other knuckle-dragging nation does when they need labor; find someone to exploit.

[@bonniecarruth8429]

On a 1910 census my father and his nephew are listed along with my Dad’s two step brothers. Two are 7 years old and two are 10. My Dad and his nephew are listed as farm workers while the two stepbrothers are in school. Apparently my Grandma’s second marriage supplied her spouse with sex, housekeeping and a nanny.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

amen to that. and for every 5 year old "documented" to have faced a life like that, you could reasonably guess there were like a thousand who didn't. maybe, eventually some of their stories might be known.

[@CaptHowdy1155]

Christina Applegate learning that her grandmother (or great however many times over) was charged with adultery for leaving an abusive relationship into another man's arms also broke my heart.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep it's no wonder that blithe political posturing at the expense of civil rights, gets such a strong reaction from people who see their hard-fought rights, being trampled. the proponents of such regressive "traditional values" are lucky that CRITICISM is all they get for it.

[@ruthegan8524]

Life is like a supermarket where you take off the shelves the things you want. When you go out you pay. We all must reap what we sow.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

@@ruthegan8524 WRT "...We all must reap what we sow..." without a doubt. long before such phrases appeared in the KJV, the concept was known as KARMA in buddhism and probably hindu as well.

[@ElizzzaB]

She saved herself.

[@tuffcookie718]

I'm surprised, y'all didn't include LL COOL J. His mom found out she was adopted from the show

[@traceythompson1092]

Also DMC from RunDMC

[@PigeonsPie1]

For reals??? OMG!

[@Dr.forbes]

Wow

[@Jamietheroadrunner]

Watchmojo does multiple videos with the same theme. That’s what makes them Watchmojo. They probably have LL in a different video.

[@bklynqtie]

And his grandfather was so darn handsome

[@tianagrant8927]

What breaks my heart is that most black people can only go as far back as slavery. What I would give to know more than that.

[@MistbornPrincess]

Y DNA ought to be able to go back further, as long as the paternal line was all black.

[@velmamays5776]

Occasionally Finding Your Roots does have a black, usually part Caribbean, celebrity who's ancestry goes further back but judging by the fact that I have only heard about it on this show, it's probably expensive

[@wendeboyd503]

Would it blow your mind that many people of all colors can't go back more than 1 or 2 generations?

[@themanifestorsmind]

I was able to match with distant cousins in Nigeria. I messaged them and found out they were all Igbo, so i know most of my dna is Igbo. However we were not able to figure out who came to America or when. One told me "we don't even really talk about the slave trade here. They didn't pass down those stories of who was taken. We didn't even think of Americans as being our actual blood family."

[@awillis244]

True

[@mandymagnolia1966]

Man, that’s the thing about genealogy. You find out some out some incredible things, both good and bad. I know most people might think of genealogy as an old person’s hobby, but I really recommend getting into it. It’s fascinating seeing who you come from and piecing together their lives.

[@kathyastrom1315]

It is definitely the people you meet when researching that make genealogy so fascinating! The successes, the tragedies, the “wow, how did THAT happen?” are all so cool. Stumbling across connections to the famous and infamous is just a bonus.

[@lookingup82]

Will humble you too!

[@twinbulls1980]

I agree. I’m 43 and have been interested in genealogy research since I was 28.

[@marinazagrai1623]

I have done my search with Ancestry (not getting anything for naming the company) awhile back, and my sister sent for info in our native country. We came to the US in the early 80s, so we don’t have any relatives here. We came from Eastern Europe, so we thought we knew where we’re from…we had quite a shock finding out a lot of our ancestry is from the Balkans and Greece. I mean we are Europeans but we don’t look like the people in our native country. We were in our 40s when we started this and funny enough it was my son who started the searches.

[@moralityisnotsubjective5]

It has a way of showing us that we are all really just humans.

[@kathyastrom1315]

My great-great-grandmother lost custody of her kids and tried to run with them to Canada before she was arrested for kidnapping (she got them eventually after bribing her ex, first cash for the girls then land for the boys). Thirty years later, she was arrested for illegal fortune telling for her work as a trance medium. Her appeal was unsuccessful, but did get reported by newspapers across the country because her intent was to get the appellate court to rule Spiritualism as a religion. The librarian who found about the fortune telling arrest was reluctant to tell me because she wasn’t sure how I would handle it-I thought it was an amazing detail in an incredible life.

[@relaunchinglife]

I think that's really cool - how bad ass!

[@LovewithallPower]

you should start meditating and connect with her

[@graciemaye6381]

because people believing in pregnant virgins, people who come back from the dead, scapegoating of responsibility for ones actions, is so logical and moral -_-

[@jessicaandthorstenrichards3584]

This should be a movie 🎬

[@kathyastrom1315]

​@@jessicaandthorstenrichards3584 Oh, I’ve already plotted out a four-part miniseries! Part 1: the divorce/custody battle in Michigan. Part 2: her life with husband #2 in Chicago, where she was a “lady barber” in the Stockyards district (according to her business card, which I’ve inherited) and apparently became a Spiritualist before that marriage fell apart. Part 3: her life as a single woman running her own farm in Montana’s gold mining country, then marrying her 15-years-younger farmhand and opening a restaurant in the new town being built across the street from her farmland. Part 4: her life in Oklahoma as a full-time Spiritualist alongside husband #3, who was a “divine healer” and called himself “Doctor.” I know that a year before she died, she came back to Chicago to attend her granddaughter’s wedding. There, the groom’s aunt who had raised him apparently snubbed her and the rest of the bride’s family. I like to think the snub was because the aunt knew about the grandmother’s life, both the history of two divorces and possibly the current career as a medium. In my imagined script, the show ends with her telling everyone to get over it and she returns to her life in Oklahoma as a woman content with her life choices.

[@trinaq]

Maya Rudolph's reaction to her ancestor being a slave was so heartbreaking, that I wanted to reach through the screen and comfort her.

[@DonKeecock]

All of our ancestors were enslaved at some point though. I'm half Irish. My ancestors were enslaved too.

[@mlynettepinky595]

They had to stop taping because of Pharell. I don't know why he was shocked that his ancestors were slaves. Black people already knew this. Roots, the mini series helped us to see a little bit what our ancestors went through.

[@DonKeecock]

@@mlynettepinky595 Plus all of us have slaves in our family history. My own ancestors were taken as slaves by the Ottomans. In fact more whites were taken into slavery than were blacks.

[@letsdothis-i5z]

@@DonKeecock Does that make slavery okay? Does that mean People of color in America are not free to mourn for their ancestors?

[@Beth_Alice_Kaplan]

I’ve noticed the crew usually makes tissues available when they’re filming these segments of the interview.

[@MethodiousMind]

I knew Roseanne Cash’s mother was part black. Looking at her, I have an inkling it was more than a great great grandmother, but this is an imperfect history. Historians did the best they could with what they had.

[@daniellegoodwin5988]

this video cuts out the part where she finds out Johnny had Black ancestors too!

[@themamabunny]

The great great grandmother was listed as mulatto, so her mother was less than 10%. She herself was like only 3%, so her mother may have been like 6 actually. You lose about 50% with each generation, since you get 50 from each parent. I think Rosanna had maybe 3.5 and that was from both parents. Correct me if I am wrong on those numbers.

[@Bearnut2]

@@themamabunny You're not wrong on the numbers but there is no way that she looked as she did and only had 3% African ancestry.

[@kaydrenth]

@@Bearnut2 genes are crazy things. My parents are an inter-racial couple. (Dad-black, Mom-white) My husband is 1/8 German and the rest Dutch. People have often been shocked by the act that our son looks like a typical white kid with blue/grey eyes just like my husbands. Heck when he was little people at the park didn't believe I was his biological mother! To this day I still see the confused looks on people's faces and some are brave enough to ask if he is biologically mine. Other wrongly assume that I am a step parent who insists that I am his mom or something. I have cousins on my fathers side who run the range of white with blond hair and blue eyes to deep caramel with jet black hair. All 6 have the same parents black/white couple. I'm tellin' ya, genetics are crazy!

[@neconeconeco]

@@Bearnut2 given that her Italian half was Sicilian, i think that contributed to her looking more "mixed" than her 3% heritage would suggest. they're a little more swarthy and similar to balkans than their northern brothers, so I wonder if the combination of her being a darker Italian woman and having some black ancestry meant that in the 1950's people just assumed she was black. if people aren't used to seeing different ethnicities they often just group anyone different into one category.

[@jenniferrobbinsmullin3417]

My 3x great grandfather was a witness to his best friend's stabbing death on a bridge in Pittsburgh in 1854. The newspaper articles recounting the crime and subsequent trail are sensational, to say the least. My 2x great grandfather was named for the murdered friend, which became a legacy name in the family, but we never knew the origin until the old newspaper reports were discovered.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep, the real stories appear to be sort of a mixed lesson. you take from them what you find available.

[@mandyland739]

The very first day I got my DNA results on Ancestry, I uncovered a family secret. I shared the most dna with this woman whom I never heard of. With some sleuthing, I found out she was the daughter of my grandparents' best friends. So basically, my grandfather got his best friend's wife pregnant. My gramma was also pregnant with my uncle at that time.

[@karami8844]

Something similar happened in my family, but it wasn’t my grandpa who did it. It was one my maternal grandpa’s daughter-in-laws who hooked up with her friends’ husband and had a daughter. The husband was a distant cousin in my dad’s family. This all happened before my parents even met. I’m still confused by it all.

[@mandyland739]

@Ah_Be While i loved my Grampa, he was a drinker, partier, and not a good husband to my gramma, who was my idol. I was shocked, but not surprised.

[@mandyland739]

@@karami8844 confusing for sure! My head hurts reading this lol!

[@sherrigrant573]

​@@karami8844confusing

[@colie2020]

Did they know even? 😮

[@stephanieyee9784]

Regardless of who you are, where you live, your colour, race, religion, socio-economic status, Your culture, and/or any pretentions you have we are all descendants of Survivors. So many people, including whole families, have been wiped from history. Disease like the plague, influenza, typhoid and cholera, have killed millions of people over centuries. Natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires, famine. Humans have also been the cause of killing off whole bloodlines from Romans, viking, Mongols, Crusades, Huns right through to Hitler. Our ancestors Survived and they live on in our genes. Be proud of that.

[@pwieland3934]

Truth. Everyone alive today is descended from members of a historical group that survived a mass die-off hundreds of thousands of years ago, with

[@gordonbergslien30]

You are right on target! I'm of Nordic and Eastern European ancestory. My ancestors pulled through conditions that boggle my mind. I've been a history buff since childhood. I wonder what they were like and wish l could talk to them.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

agreed. at least our ancestors survived long enough to procreate. we do not necessarily know what happened after that. maybe some further details are eventually available, maybe not.

[@naimah_vs_naomi_]

💯

[@lekibb2905]

I made so many "startling discoveries" about my family's history that I made the choice to stop looking into it. Too disturbing.

[@colie2020]

Be careful what you dig for cause you'll find something 😐

[@l.w.paradis2108]

I was glad to be reminded of how bizarre mine is. I wouldn't tell, but in any case no one would believe me.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

maybe so, but if you have progeny, those disturbing details are also rightful property of them who inherit. You have a duty to tell them the truth, even if for some reason or other you don't like how it looks. Remember also that these are REAL HUMAN STORIES and further details might mitigate an initially unseemly story. Mine (that of my 3rd and 2nd great grands for example) bears that out. My comments are not just idle speech. I and all my generation, own that reality.

[@shelby_lane_]

Genealogy is so fascinating! It’s incredible how many stories we carry within us.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

i might somewhat re-word that statement: it is absolutely CREDIBILE that within us and our inheritance, we carry these stories. They are our own slice of the Human Condition.

[@shelby_lane_]

@@tracyavent-costanza346 No, I meant what I said.

[@OxfordStreetWinnipeg]

Roseanne Cash's mother, Vivian, was stunningly beautiful!

[@ObiShawnKenobi1]

Johnny just couldn't resist, and I see why.

[@catty8901]

​@@ObiShawnKenobi1didn't he leave her for a white woman?

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep she was definitely a looker. I gather she was just not enthralled with the "star" thing, and really wanted to keep her family out of the media "limelight". Johnny's second wife however, was from an already famous folk/gospel music family. So the equation in that relationship was drastically different. I have to guess that Johnny had feet in both words, and Roseanne knows pretty much the entire story by now.

[@ObiShawnKenobi1]

@catty8901 I'm not sure. I believe he did, though

[@MichaelLabriola-f8s]

I found out i was 9% African! I'm mostly southern italian. We knew due to wars and proximity there's lots of African blood in sicily.

[@jaidamann8365]

I have heard that many times that a lot of Sicilians may have African bloodlines.

[@Dehasho]

@@jaidamann8365 Yeah the Moors were a big deal in Europe for a while.

[@shells500tutubo]

@@Dehasho A while? From 711 to 1492, 781 years. They went up into the British Isles and France too.

[@jpd.007]

Why does it matter?

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep, the sicilians definitely got around, and so did some north africans. since europe is just across the narrow strait of gibraltar from morocco.

[@robertpyrosthenes1092]

We discovered that my Grandfather was married three times and divorced zero. ;)

[@seagullsg784]

Haha grandad 🤣

[@Jmal1090]

My great grandpa went to jail for bigamy 😂

[@ellakersey1214]

Oops!

[@cybiltipton7979]

Wow 😮

[@jessicaandthorstenrichards3584]

Whoa

[@ArchimedesPie]

I'm beginning to think that trauma, difficultly, injustice, and violence was simply the norm for centuries. I feel that now, in our relatively comfortable lives we glorify the "horrible" conditions of the past as if it was unusual. The "shock" of discovering this really comes across as disingenuous or just painfully naive to me now.

[@margaretsomerville2510]

We may have moved forward with laws, care and compassion yet this is fragile as we watch what people will do to others who are different, possibley smarter, often ambitious and neglected by society, for that we have regressed

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

agreed. in view of which, the persistent claim of some, who "know how wonderful god is", seem to conveniently ignore how many people suffered for their entire lives. Often with no realistic hope of anything better, while this superhuman god, did nothing.

[@erinmalone2669]

Finding your Roots is a great show.

[@girrl88]

I freakin LOVE Daria!

[@erinmalone2669]

@@girrl88 my avatar says “…whatever.” 😃

[@girrl88]

@@erinmalone2669 la la la la la

[@JoelKyayonka]

Yeah. It is

[@Beth_Alice_Kaplan]

Fred Armison’s history was mind-blowing.

[@Freddie-c9w]

Now that would be a interesting movie.

[@maggienbob1304]

​@@Freddie-c9w Definitely!

[@maggienbob1304]

Yes. I think out of all the episodes of Finding Your Roots I've seen, Fred Armisen's was one of the most interesting.

[@CathleenRandolph-ye5km]

The Negro ancestry is visible in Miss Cash's mother. Miss Cash, your mother was a beautiful woman. Don't let ignorant people try to make you feel some type of way.

[@ebunnyzappa]

You got the right idea, but we call em Blacks now, Cathleen!

[@GOW-fq6lk]

​@@ebunnyzappai remembered Madea as soon as i read this😂😂😂

[@KamalasNotLikeUs]

Pretty sure we don't use the term "Negro" any more.

[@tandt7694]

​@@ebunnyzappaMy birth certificate tells me I'm a Negro. Had to show my grandchildren so they understand it's not a slur.

[@ColtraneAndRain]

Same! My younger brother, born 2 years later, was listed as Black. Lol.​@@tandt7694

[@theoriginalracer72]

I found a sister that was born 2 months after I was born. My father wasn't the only person in the family to screw around, his older brother did the same. I found and met some cousins, we have become very close. My older half brother never knew who his father was, my mother got drunk with a couple GI's from a nearby Army base one night and ended up pregnant. About 3 years ago he found his father and 3 siblings, they live in South Carolina. He finally met them last year, he looks more like his father that his 2 brothers.

[@aoielf]

My great grandfather died from a "shotgun blast to the face" after showing up at his estranged third wife's house at 2am. No one in my family bothered to volunteer that information.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

offhand I'm gonna guess that he and a bottle of some alcohol derivative, had previously spent the earlier evening together. And that someone disapproved of his un-invited appearance, probably someone protective of the "estranged third wife". Maybe even herself, possibly a recovering victim of some form of abuse.

[@aoielf]

@@tracyavent-costanza346 I am proud to say she did it herself after he was threatening to kidnap her older boy from a different man.

[@Zennofobic]

I learned before he passed that my father faked being deaf for the last 3 years of his life so my mother would stop talking to him.

[@aaabbb8812]

How cruel and hateful.

[@Zennofobic]

@@aaabbb8812 she definitely doesn't win Best Mom award but I wouldn't go that far

[@DianeOfori]

Wow! Did she nag him?

[@marileeodendahl1257]

That makes a lot of sense to me. I'd rather live in peaceful silence than be chattered at, nagged & distracted. Big-talkers have No Idea how annoying they are.

[@Verenike4ever]

@@aaabbb8812…so how did your mother speak to him and treat him?

[@hollisshore2211]

Whoa. Joe Manganiello looks just like BOTH his Armenian and German relatives pictured 😲

[@michaelmalone7231]

He also found out he is a quarter African American. No Italian.

[@terrys4351]

What happened to his maternal ancestor during the Armenian Genocide is heartbreaking.

[@HenrikKarapetyan]

@@terrys4351it is, and it’s just a “normal” story. My best friends grandfather was a 6-7 year old child when the Turks started a carefully planned annihilation of the Armenian and Assyrian people. He survived because the the bodies of his raped and massacred family members fell on him. He then crawled out and walked several days until, I believe, some Armenians or Kurds found him. I never met him but my father had a cassette tape recording of this man telling the story. As for the woman jumping in the river - most Armenian girls did, to avoid rape. What’s shameful is that neither Germany nor Turkey recognize this crime. While it’s normal for Turkey to not recognize it - after all, it’s only one if the many genocides they masterminded, and they are technically an autocracy, it’s doubly embarrassing for Germans for obvious reasons

[@barbarossarotbart]

@@HenrikKarapetyan Wrong. Germany recognizes Armenian genocide.

[@krismore13]

⁠​⁠@@barbarossarotbartYes, Germany recognized the Armenian genocide in 2016. Turkey has never recognized it.

[@AshUSC7578]

My mother and her siblings had to attend school with the people whose ancestors owned our ancestors. To make it worse we are related to that family by blood

[@Beth_Alice_Kaplan]

🙁 Sadly, that doesn’t surprise me.

[@lookingup82]

wow

[@MariaBM1]

So they are your family? Isn't it better to embrace them then if you can? Otherwise it's like ripping out half of your ancestors?

[@sarahudson108]

You and they can't change the past, however you can make the future better.

[@MariaBM1]

@@sarahudson108, yeah, that's what I think. Both sides of the family are really in it together and can aim to make things better in the future. The past can't be undone and certainly not by people who were not there, but you can try to make things better from now on.

[@zehlua]

I took a DNA test and found out my father is ALIVE, and I am 1/4 Native! I have now moved in with my tribe. I hadn't even heard of this tribe before... growing up, I was always told I was Cherokee! I am thousands of miles from where I grew up!

[@zehlua]

@nyla27855 lmao who cares what people on the internet think? My family loves me and I'm an enrolled Tribal member! The internet doesn't know jack. I'm happy to be myself!

[@milenafiore5706]

Wow, how wonderful to find out about your father. Best to you both as you get to know one another.

[@graciemaye6381]

What is the tribe/nation?????

[@zehlua]

@@graciemaye6381 Muckleshoot

[@Roksee]

​@Ronsquaremy actually depends on the tribe, I think.

[@K_patts8370]

People finding out they have African ancestry is NOT disturbing 😑

[@totonow6955]

Thank you.

[@stephanieyee9784]

I agree with you. Who cares what your genetic admix is? If anyone does have a problem with it it is Their problem.

[@faithBlondon]

It's probably casual thoughtlessness

[@TG-zu2ih]

They said it was “disturbing” simply because at the time the husband insisted there was no African ancestry and all records agreed with that claim, it turned out to be untrue. They claimed much more often how disturbing it was to find out about slavery owners, spies and Nazi affiliates.

[@warrenthomas7140]

Thank you

[@Andrew_Warden]

These celebrities are so fortunate to have genealogists look into their family history. That's an amazing thing despite what may come up. I'm also assuming for free.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

or even if not "free" maybe a deal where they get a price break in exchange for effectively doing a commercial for the service. Let us note that not all "commercials" are without substance and not without impact to a larger presumptive audience, even if they are not direct family of the person being researched.

[@rinavarughese]

This is one of the best shows on TV. Such a dream to have your history read!

[@mlynettepinky595]

Rosanne Cash mother looks Black. Johnny Cash would tell people she looked like that because she was Italian. He was wrong😂 The show also revealed Johnny Cash also had sub Sahara DNA. If his fans knew the truth, they would have had a fit. They were already sending him hate mail because his wife.

[@andrewft31]

He said that to protect her mother…

[@lillyess385]

Shows you how white Italians were considered by the population back then.

[@DavidJohnson-dc8lu]

@@lillyess385 Southern Italians were once very dark, they have been white washed over the years. By fudge me Cash's wife was Beyonce Black.

[@dlwickham]

I have friends who are Italian. They're afraid to take the DNA tests because they know they'll find some black blood in their ancestry and it will set some people off. The grandparents and great-grandparents emigrated to the US within the past 75 years or so.

[@rumblefish9]

She was forced to pass for white

[@dragonweyr44]

I wany to see a video about celebrities who were unknowingly related to each other. Like Carol Burnett and Bill Haier

[@hectorsmommy1717]

Bernie Sanders and Larry David were the funniest but I also loved that RuPaul and Senator Corey Booker are related. The least unexpected one was Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon. Both came from old Connecticut families so it was kind of inevitable. Not related but it turned out that Jeff Daniels' ancestor was a Salem Witch prosecutor and one person he arrested for witchcraft was Claire Danes' ancestor.

[@mlynettepinky595]

You have to watch the whole episode People who found out they were cousins 1. Larry David and Bernie Sanders 2. Julie Roberts and Ed Norton 3. Angela Bassett and Rosanne Cash

[@parakeet8157]

I'm glad he told Joe Madison about his Father before they went on air😢 Maya Rudolph & Pharrell Williams finding out about their ancestors in slavery😢

[@michaelaguilar7771]

I loved finding out both my great grandfathers on my mom's side were outlaws... my grandfather's dad rode with Pancho Villa's gang.😅

[@rottengal]

since the video is about uncomfortable discoveries, your grandfather’s dad rode with a rapist and murderer 🫣 just look up the murder of Carlota Bastida, the massacre of chinese, spanish and arab immigrants in northern Mexico and the mass killing of men and boys from San Pedro de la Cueva in 1915

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

pancho villa is widely portrayed as an outlaw by "US History" perspective. He was however a legit GENERAL of the Mexican Army and obviously not an idiot. Somewhere I have an old photo reprint of him trying out a brand new motorbike, in front of a small crowd of admirers. Clearly he was a CHARACTER.

[@kevinengland8626]

I found out some ancestors' siblings were Irish gangsters up to no good. Fortunately, I didn't spring from that branch.

[@Asiabreesofine]

Amazing

[@wordfairy1]

Through a DNA site I found a half-sister that my father didn't know existed - from when he was stationed in Germany in 1952. Also learned that my maternal side had a feud as well as moonshiners.

[@Bailark]

Just last week, I discovered that I have relatives going back in Virginia for a couple of centuries. I had never heard discussion of this Virginia line, which produced my paternal grandmother. The early end of that line, revealed to me last week, includes a woman (my great great great great grandmother) named Sally, who died in Virginia 1835. That ended one night of reading. The next morning I decided to investigate Sally Hemings state and date of death. As it turns out, Sally Hemings died in Virginia...in 1835. This is not conclusive, but it is interesting.

[@elsajones1218]

If that is true then you are my distant cousin on the Jefferson side

[@JessicaVanderhoff]

I found a story similar to Tig's-- one of my ancestors sold her toddler right before Christmas. I cried reading it.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

Some of my family were very early, like 1600's, colonists. Because they all settled in New England and New York I assumed we escaped the slaveholder part of US history. Nope. Recently I found out that some who were among the first settlers on Long Island were slaveowners. I even read a copy of one's will where he left each of his slave women to one of his daughters. He had one more daughter than he had slave so he willed the first born daughter of one of the slaves to his last daughter, to be given to her household upon weaning. The males slaves were unnamed and lumped in with the livestock left to his son.

[@vic5015]

Slaveholding used to be almost as common aming rich people in the North as it later was among rich people in the South. Just an uncomfortable part of American history.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

@@vic5015 Yes it is, just like French monasteries in Canada buying captives from Indigenous tribes and holding them as slaves. It wasn't chattel slavery like white people held black people, but it was still slavery. If the slave had family with some money, they would be able to buy back their family member. One ancestor who lived in western Massachusetts was captured and enslaved for 3 years before buying himself back. 15 years later, his wife, son, and DIL were captured. The wife died en route to Montreal and the DIL gave birth to 2 children before he was able to buy them all back. It was a very lucrative business for the monks.

[@vic5015]

​​at the time of independence in 1776, slsvery was legal in *all* 13 colonies. That's just a fact. My understanding is that there's a little-known plaque in NYC that marks the spot where newly arrived slaves were auctioned off. It was one of, if not *the* largest, slave market in the colonies.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

​@@vic5015 More important than Independence was when the Constitution was enacted in 1789 and by that time 5 states made slavery illegal: Pennsylvania (1780), New Hampshire and Massachusetts (1783), Connecticut and Rhode Island (1784). Vermont also did in 1777 but they were still an independent country, not one of the 13 colonies.

[@kathyastrom1315]

Yeah, I had that same thought when I found out my family was from those same regions at similar times. I think of it as geographical smugness, thinking that, since we weren’t from the South, I didn’t have to worry about that. But, not only did I have slaveholders on the tree, I also discovered that one 8th great grandfather, a New England sea captain, had helmed a slave ship at least once in his career. (He had filed a report about being boarded by pirates on July 4, 1717, coming back to Boston from Barbados. They took “forty hogsheads of rum, several barrels of sugar, and a Negro man,” who was obviously part of his cargo, not his crew.)

[@Sarah-on4df]

Unfortunately, a lot of our ancestors were slave owners or slaves, it’s a big part of history no matter which country you’re from. But their actions don’t define us and we should work each day so that slavery will not happen ever again

[@Lily_of_the_Forest]

Yes, we can’t change the past but we can choose to not repeat it.

[@Sarah-on4df]

@@Lily_of_the_Forest exactly!

[@simoneskeens6983]

My 7th great grandfather fought in the revolutionary war . His whole family moved to Indiana from Pennsylvania because they didn't believe in slavery. It really makes me proud of them . The reason being they were Irish and prosecuted for their religion so they knew . Wish more people were like that .

[@chericollier7332]

No. The rich were the slave owners. Others were overseers and enablers. The others rented us from the slave owner or were paid to hunt us down.

[@yvonnesmeltzer4011]

A lot might happen but I guarantee Black people will not ever become slaves again. There could be a bloody Slaughter or genocide, however, Black Americans will never submit to become slaves again.

[@myrnahuichapan7624]

People sometimes think that their ancestors were good people. Depends on what was considered a good person.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

agreed. moreover, those who came from humble or poor (or constantly marginalized) backgrounds, might have been arguably justified in bending some of the "rules" (especially rules that were obviously put in place to keep them from improving their lot). For example in the case of the 'sicilian mafia' in the USA, they emigrated from depressed areas where the roman-system prevailed: might makes right. Not too shocking that they just approached life in the terms they knew. And all the while some of them were practicing catholics. In WWII that entire system sort of repeated itself, since at MILITARY LEVELS, it was quite permissible to just wipe out your rivals. As some vets have commented, "we did stuff that would have made us criminals in civilian society, but THERE they gave us medals for doing it".

[@TheKyPerson]

One of my favorite moments was when Angela Davis the Marxist, feminist political activist found out she was descended from one of the colonists who came over on the Mayflower. She was pissed off. Then there's Sunny Hostin who found out her ancestors were slave owners. We can't choose our ancestors but we can try to be good and decent persons in the time we are alive.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

the term "marxist" tends to be lately used as a derogatory description. Marx himself was never a communist. He was a socio-economic THEORIST and never an "organizer" of any such movement. He just theorized (in his manfesto which was published in about 1830's Europe) that the existing monarchies and remanants of feudalism, would eventually crumble as labor factors began to accumulate economic and political power. That THEORY proved ultimately PROPHETIC even if the circumstances of it, were not precisely according to his supposed predictions. my POINT is simply this: Marx himself could not be legitimately claimed to be "marxist" by supposed right wing media standards of today. Marx himself had NOTHING TO DO DIRECTLY with the 1917 revolution. Historically he had a ring-side seat to roughly similar civil wars in both britain and france. And he himself was kicked out of his native austria by the hapsburg/ottoman emperor for openly publishing critical statements. Obviously he had no great adoration for monarchies. Neither do I. Perhaps you do? as for Angela Davis, she was a full professor at UCLA and an emerita at UC Santa Cruz. Her detractors seem rather fond of just ignoring details such as that. And if you had come up in the environment she did, you would probably have some harsh words for the existing power structure as she saw it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis

[@vitorialima8399]

I know their pain. My maternal grandma's side of the family was originally indigenous peoples who were enslaved by Portuguese colonizers and were forced to take Portuguese names, but their tribe still exists to this day, we live 10 minutes away from there and we still share the same surname as then, Lima, and my maternal grandpa's side of the family are African, we don't know exactly where, but we suppose that was a Portuguese colony because of the surname Barros, Italian and Austrian Jews who immigrated to Brazil in 1910. My family just uncovered many of their backgrounds recently, and it was shocking to know that your family just are they way they are because of slavery, r@pe and religious prosecution. Now my father's side of the family, I have no clue what their backgrounds, because my father was adopted, he was also an absent father I just saw him 5 times in my life before he passed away when I was 11 in 2010.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

WRT "...absent father..." while I can understand your feelings about relative abandonment, it does not always mean that was entirely intentional. I am a descendant of at least 4 generations of family units driven apart mostly for economic reasons: 1) my dad was a traveling construction worker and later sold equipment on the road, he was arguably expert about 2) his dad was on the shasta dam project during the depression, while his family mostly lived in the midwest. 3) my great grandfather was a cattle man who left texas and lived the rest of his life in wyoming 4) and HIS FATHER was the son of a slave owner, who objected to that practice and moved two states away I presume that all of them "left family" but sent money back as they were able. That does appear to be the general story. Other families saw similar stories because of early death due to disease or war or accidents.

[@leslies.5541]

I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to explore my dad's heritage before he passed. Unfortunately we weren't able to find the whole story together. My father is the descendant of Hungarian Jews. He never knew this. The paternal side of my dad's family were wiped out in the Holocaust. I'm so proud of my heritage and hope to visit Hungary to discover more

[@carolreingold6431]

I'm half Hungarian jew and I found some third cousins doing genealogy. The Jews that were in Hungary were decimated. Luckily half of my great aunts and uncles came her but I lost a GG and a GA and cousins. My family never wanted to talk about it.

[@leslies.5541]

@@carolreingold6431 I'm so sorry about your family. My GF never discussed his youth with us. He was born in Canada but his 4 older sisters born outside Budapest along with their parents. They kept to themselves here - not wanting to bring attention to themselves. We need to stop all this hatred ❤️

[@staceyallin7878]

I learned that both sides of my family Canadian/German fought against each other in the Second World War. My Canadian great Uncle did not make it back home 😢

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

I'm pretty sure that I had forbears on both sides of the US Civil war. Who knows if they might have faced one another in some battle or other. I had relatives in both mississippi and massachusetts during the war period. And no reason to think they didn't serve. massachusetts regiments were among the union's heaviest losses at gettysburg.

[@lookingup82]

On my mother's side we had Thomas Mayhew on Martha's Vineyard. He knew sign language bc large deaf population a sign language was developed( different from ASL, but close bc kids often went to Hartford,CT school for the Deaf--I'm an ASL interpreter. I thought I was the first Signer, but I was a few hundred years later. Thomas came over on the "June flower" Family joke, not the Mayflower, but the next one.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

if the june-flower went to the same jamestown settlement, your forbears probably knew mine. my family is traceable to john alden, of the may-flower.

[@supachaloopa3611]

Absolutely fascinating episodes each week. What I would give to be on that show. As a child my parents used to say- "We'll never really know who our family is, since nobody in America is actually from America". That has stayed with me for decades. One can only go so far with tracing their roots on their own, but this show has access to materials we'll never get our hands on.

[@missywing3332]

Since I have a "public tree" I am occasionally contacted by distant relatives. We share photos, stories and helpful details.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

once you have a reliable idea of where your non-american roots are/were, you can go there (or even do research online) to form a more complete "story". my general impression is that people from the original towns and villages, tend to be enthusiastic about finding their emigrated relations, but those can also be somewhat clouded by less-than-ideal circumstances.

[@nellywilliams2776]

I was able through DNA trace my paternal family back to Maryland. The state of Maryland was the main hub for slave ships. Usually you get off in Maryland and from there you go to wherever the family you’re sold to lives. My Dad’s family was sold to a family in Mississippi as soon as we got to Maryland from Nigeria. We’ve been in Natchez, Mississippi ever since with only a handful of us living in other states.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

my 3rd great grandfather owned a fairly large cotton plantation near oxford MS (about 275 miles NE of natchez). I do not condone his "lifestyle" and do not know if his DNA "mixed with" any of his slaves. It is possible that we are distantly related.

[@andrewhammel8218]

That show almost always ...gobsmacks me....or brings me almost to tears.

[@tommunyon2874]

I learned that an ancestor had fought in the American Revolution. My father was vehemently critical of the D.A.R. I joked with my sisters about how they could now apply for membership, that way we could verify whether someone could actually spin in their grave.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

I gather that the DAR dragged its feet for years or decades over the sally hemmings story. evidently some of her descendants and some of thomas jefferson's had their DNA workups done. And at that point the debate was over.

[@bl7240]

Can they make a version of finding your roots for us poors? 23 and me isn't the same as a team of investigators finding out these minute details. And normal people deserve to know them too.

[@lwajid8021]

Our Government should cover the cost! America owes they have stripped Blacks in America!

[@Verenike4ever]

@@lwajid8021Sorry bub, Native Americans should be at the top of the list.

[@shells500tutubo]

Check out the Mormon Church.They have religious reasons for researching their ancestors, but the information is available to everyone. I'm sure it is all online now. I went there, the temple in Los Angeles, in the 80s, and they had classes in researching the different peoples, like European Jews, Native Americans, and so on.

[@Verenike4ever]

@@shells500tutubo I don’t know where you’re at, but yes - the Mormon church is amazing at this. In Omaha, Nebraska and in Council Bluffs, Iowa, there is extensive information available. Thousands passed through in the Mormon Trail, a major trek for virtually anyone traveling west and a vast store of information.

[@davidavard8461]

@@shells500tutubo As long as you don't have the wrong last name. My father was into genealogy long before the internet and wrote to the Mormon Church for help. They told him "We don't provide information for excommunicated members." I had to look up Samson Avard (no relation, at least not in the last 900+ years) to find out why they were so pissed.

[@kansasgoldilocks]

I think one important thing this shows is you can't just look at someone who is "white" or "Black" and think you know who their ancestors were. Many people literally have ancestors who were oppressors and other ancestors who were the oppressed.

[@rudeartichoke2567]

We are all mixed up. All of us are brothers and sisters.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep and if you have UK/celtic blood, you already had that situation before your forebears ever came to the americas.

[@susanhernandez]

I learned that some of my ancestors were Mennonites (spiritual cousins to the Amish) and came over because of William Penn.

[@poppykok5]

As a Senior citizen, the older I get the more I long to know the history of my own family...It would mean the 'world' to me as I grew up with a certain youthful sense of not 'belonging' from as far back as being a very young child...I hope these celebrities appreciate & realize what a privilege they've been handed ...

[@judymills6288]

Familysearch is a free on-line site for ancestry information

[@gd8597]

It's not too hard to get going in genealogy - your local library may have classes and people who can help.

[@floramondecar9884]

Family Search is free. You just need to know your birth dates, hopefully your mother's to get get you started.

[@poppykok5]

@@gd8597 Thank you kindly for your thoughtful suggestion...I very much appreciate it!☀

[@poppykok5]

@@floramondecar9884 Thanks so much for your encouragement!

[@daikeshawalker394]

Fel Williams and I have something in common other then that music is our soul....My 3rd great-grandmother was interviewed for the Slave Narrations as well! Her name Eugenia Ceaser Woodberry but the interviewer named Annie Ruth Davis called her Mom Genia Woodberry. The interview took place on June 1937 in Britton's Neck, South Carolina. At the time of the interview my 3rd great-grandmother was 89 years old. At first it was hard to read because of the way my 3rd great-grandmother spoke, but once I got use to the slang it was very emotional reading my 3rd great-grandmother story in her own words🥺 I'm so grateful to have a piece of my family history!! I have a lot more to uncover about my family, I scared and excited at the same time!

[@wendyhamm9722]

I always thought that I was just French-Canadian and Native American, but recently found out that I am part French Basque and part Scandinavian. Both are are like 1% or so, but it still changed things in the way I thought.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

I was given to assume that I had norsk DNA plus scottish-irish. The DNA workup said that not only was I MORE NORSK than I thought, but mostly ENGLISH rather than irish or scottish. The surprise was that my mom is also part norsk, where I thought it was only my dad's side. And my wife, who assumed that she was sicililan-german, ALSO has some norsk DNA. go figure. the vikings obviously got around. or to put it in norsk idiom, "uff da".

[@judythompson8227]

I was 40 when I discovered I was adopted, and my "aunt" was actually my mother and who my father was, was a total shock. Since the shock was on both sides, I have been asked to keep it to myself. Which I do. But the knowledge of who he was explains so many things...

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

I had a friend whose 7 or so siblings were treated to a similar bombshell once her folks decided that the kids were old enough to know. One of the older sisters was actually the birth mother of one of the younger sons.

[@michelekraenkel821]

In 1996 I started doing genealogy because I wanted to open a business and get a small business loan with the benefit of being part Indian, 1/8. I had always been told that my parents from Kentucky and Tennessee, had some Cherokee Indian. In my research I found out that my seventh great grandmother Patience Spencer was a relative of George Washington. Throughout my life I had also been told that there was Welsh royalty in my family. A huge fan of Princess Diana, in 1997 when she was killed I read everything I could about her and found out that she too was related to George Washington. I put her family tree, my family tree and George Washington‘s family tree together and found out that she was my 17th cousin three times removed! The funny thing was that all this research was to find my Cherokee heritage which never showed up in DNA nor any records.

[@graciemaye6381]

Its very common for people in the US to think they have native American ancestry when they do not. Usually Cherokee is what they've been told and believe. Henry Louis Gates jr goes over that on one of his shows.

[@colie2020]

Yep. My friends Mom told him they had it in them and they are mostly English and Scottish and no Cherokee to be found🤣

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

according to the "buffalo soldier" history, there is good reason to think that some members of cherokee tribes were sort of inducted and might not have had much in the way of NA tribal DNA at all. But evidently they did have some sympathy for the plight of minorities at a time where that kind of thinking was not popular, especially among white society.

[@steveoconnor7069]

@@colie2020 We gave ancestry DNA tests to my parents for Christmas one year and my Mom still refuses to believe we have 0% Cherokee in our bloodline.

[@alphapuprok2472]

My maternal grandmother was brought to the United States with her family after WWI with silverware sewn into her clothing. In order to afford shelter, food, and transportation, they sold pieces of the silver over time. I was left with the remaining set and use it every year for Passover to celebrate the lives of my resilient family.

[@JessCausey]

I found out my 3x-great-grandfather was accused in a triple murder and hung by a lynch mob.

[@albertp-w4d]

Where was he killed❓

[@JessCausey]

​@@albertp-w4d ray County Missouri

[@JessCausey]

@@albertp-w4d Ray County Missouri

[@revsharkie]

I probably would have put Pharrell Williams' appearance at the top of the list. I watched that episode, and he was so overcome with emotion that they paused filming and came back to it later. IIRC Dr. Gates said that was the first time that had happened.

[@Lisa-hk6qj]

I was kinda disappointed when that happened. I understand it’s personal but when else are u gonna deal with that reality? U just gonna put it on the shelf for later????

[@revsharkie]

@@Lisa-hk6qj Well, not forever. He did come back and finish a short while later.

[@Yamislittleangel55]

I think the most shocking thing I discovered in my tree was a DNA mystery: My maternal 4th Great-Grandfather had two wives. His first was my biological 4th Great-Grandmother who sadly died young, and his second wife had the last name Fish. However, when I was double checking this information on Ancestry (as I did a DNA test too), I saw I had DNA matches with the second wive's ancestors. This freaked me out for a while, and I couldn't understand why. I did more digging, and I believe I know why: My maternal 3rd Great-Grandmother (in a different line) had an affair with someone, and the father was never known. I believe one of Fish's ancestors is the father. I tested it, and it seems legit. That blew my mind too XD

[@floramondecar9884]

Wow!

[@Airbear211]

If there’s one thing you can count on for Ms Mojo videos, it is that they will narrate over most of the video instead of playing the actual audio

[@joefazio4995]

Interesting that you don't mention this part: "In February 2021, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the show Finding Your Roots, featured Rosanne Cash as a guest. His researchers had studied both sides of her parents' families. They confirmed her mother Vivian Liberto's paternal Sicilian ancestry, documented for 300 years in Cefalù, Sicily. Vivian’s grandfather Rosario Liberto arrived in New Orleans in 1895 and migrated to San Antonio, Texas. There he married an Italian woman from his hometown, and founded what became a chain of successful Italian grocery stores".

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

"sicilian" does not remotely preclude "african". and new orleans was a center for mixed cultures including french and caribbean, the latter of which was partly influenced by spanish slaves from africa. Her DNA workup would expose that influence.

[@vivianidelacerda9708]

Loved the Korean-Japanese grandpa story...

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

I gather a lot of jews found it advisable to do that in europe or even in the americas. Among which was Karl Marx, but AFAIK he never visited the USA. He new that anti-semitism was rife in his corner(s) of europe. And he had SOME ambition, so found it necessary to downplay his jewish-ness so as to not be conveniently marginalized (if not completely excluded) from publishing and speaking opportunities. Apparently (I heard this third-hand), marx had to formally deny his jewishness in order to apply for certain positions at universities.

[@jeannehall6546]

All of this makes me want to learn more about my family roots!😮

[@Pou1gie1]

@1:00 There are many historical figures who ppl think are completely white, but are actually part black/Sub-Saharan African. Alexandre Pushkin and Alexander Dumas are just two that I find a lot of ppl are unaware of.

[@whyaskwhybuddry]

@MsMojo, In the 25 yrs of doing my own research, I discovered that my Paternal 5th Great Grandparents and my Maternal 5th Grandmother were killed by Natives during the French and Indian War. I detail my Paternal Line in my recent book "The Cobler Family Story From Palatinate Germany to 20th Century America".

[@alanmassimo2698]

Love this show , most of the reveals are insightful to the guests. Most uplifting and joyous , but some are truly heavy and it's wild to see someone learn these truths on camera. I'm not sure how I would react to such news , I don't think any of us know how hard it would be. However the host does it respectfully and gives the guests time to wrap their heads around these facts...

[@PaulaCollins-pz5rd]

forget race for a minute, if someone were to see a distant family membe noted as just an age and with no name in a census record. I am sure they would feel the same, it would be heartbreaking to think that their family member was not seen as a person, just as a thing...

[@TheTrueTLC]

The sadder part is that you would have to suggest that others forget race in order to have empathy and compassion regarding that reality.

[@juliealexis7438]

​@@TheTrueTLC Profoundly layered

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

yep, but that is apparently the way slaves were "documented" in records kept for owners. probably likewise for "indians" and "colored" people and other multi-race individuals or even family units.

[@giggle_snort]

I love Finding Your Roots. It's so fascinating, and I think it is so vital to bring these people's stories to light. Not the celebrities necessarily, though they have some fun stories too, but the ancestors. The everyday workers of years gone by. The persecuted and the enslaved, the obscure and seemingly obsolete. These people are just as important as any movie star or politician or historical giant. They had stories, and they deserve to be told.

[@gaelsweeney1903]

Using Ancestry i found out that my 24th great grandparents were Henry Ii and Eleanor of Aquitaine, so that the movie The Lion in Winter is home movies!

[@simoneskeens6983]

I love that movie .

[@JuliaTrisler]

Yes. My DNA testing in 2021 showed me that I have both Native American and Jewish ancestors as well as Northern European and Scottish Highlander!

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

i just want to share that my direct experience with the "scottish highlands" is that it includes sandy beach waterfronts. Before I saw those for myself, it never occurred to me that "highlands" could be at sea level.

[@buyungferdiansyah5309]

The ancestors of Joe Manganiello was really heartbreaking...

[@nialcc]

I'm a African American and learned my great great grandfather was a white man who served in the NC Confederate Army in the Civil War.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

which means that you have white relatives. I have black cousins for similar historical reasons. I do not know if we have common DNA. so far none of the black cousins have shown much interest in finding out, and I can understand that. we are more or less in touch on facebook. most of them are on the east coast so as yet I have not met them F2F .

[@nialcc]

@@tracyavent-costanza346 - Well, I've always known I have white relatives, somewhere. My great grand parents actually got married (he changed his race, must have been an amazing love story). What's new is discovering his father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and that man is a part of me.

[@helbaker1509]

Our family lore was that we were descended from Betsy Ross; my aunt is a genealogy sleuth and she found it to be true!

[@simplyme8593]

Man, it's incredible how they can track down so many details about ancestors' lives 🤯 I wish I knew more about my ancestors too..

[@samuelcollantes1175]

Of course i agree. Happy thursday morning, Phoebe. Take care and God bless you. Greetings from Colombia to you as well.

[@kevinengland8626]

My cousin and I researched for years--trying to discover our grandfather's father. He said only his aunt knew, and he never asked. She'd passed away. So we did multiple DNA tests (including Y-DNA, which mostly traces the direct male line--as well as some females' fathers along the way.) Within 90 seconds of getting the FTDNA results, the actual name popped up multiple times as cousins. I quickly connected with them, and eventually traveled 2000 miles to meet an elder cousin who had worked as an engineer at NASA on some early space explorations. The irony is he lived on a street that bore the name--30 minutes from my birthplace. I went on to find thousands of cousins on Ancestry that came from this line--tracing back to passengers on the Mayflower. But that's just the beginning...

[@MichaelLabriola-f8s]

My cousin joe was in the italian army in ww1 and got shot in the ankle by a German at 15 years old. He lived to be 100 years old and his ankle never healed!

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

wounds in weight-bearing joints can be very problematic since you cannot exactly "stop using them" in order to let them heal. recent laparascopic technology can improve that picture somewhat. I had such surgery done on one ankle, but I was not SHOT THERE five decades ago.

[@countthecost7201]

I am a descendant of Charles Young, the 3rd Black man to graduate from West Point Military Academy. I would love received help from you in making my family connections.

[@joryharris8002]

My great great grandfather impregnated his daughter and then fled from the state to Oregon where they did not care what he did in another state. His daughter was raised like it was her fault and abused her whole life until she met my great grandfather. She had 4 children before killing herself.

[@typical_snowflake]

Heavy but thanks for sharing

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

REAL LIFE includes some sad stories. IMHO those should not be skipped. somewhere in my family lineage, there was apparently a hunter who lived alone and shot himself. my theory is that he had some kind of really painful and maybe sudden-onset medical condition, and no means to get help so he just offed himself to end the pain. having faced a few things like that (and childbirth could be among them for women), I do recall thinking "just kill me". instead I was in a hospital ER getting diagnosed, which still took about 9 hours without any pain killers. Imagine being in a cabin, fifty miles from nowhere in 1850.

[@trenae77]

I’m a member of the DAR and joined under my father’s mother’s line over 10 years ago. I never had much luck securing a line on my mother’s side until 2023 when we finally made the connection. Through her, I learned that my ancestor had been part of a Scottish Regiment who lost a battle to Oliver Cromwell in 1651. He and the other survivors were sold as indentured servants and sent to the colonies. Our ancestor not only survived his indenture, he bought land and started a family here. If that wasn’t startling enough I now have a handful of books referencing him in history - Robert Junkins.

[@shawnhogue4797]

I'm doing mine now and so far I've found out that I had ancestors that were sisters who own a bar and land for atleast 30 prior to 1867. That was unheard of for free black women back in those days

[@floramondecar9884]

What state were they in? That could have been why they had a better opportunity?

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

FWIW I gather that around new orleans that wasn't so rare since there were a lot of "colored" and mulatto people due to the influence of caribbean trade and quebecois immigration.

[@davidknight3249]

I started watching Finding Your Roots about a year or 2 ago. It is one of the best shows on TV. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Ph.D. has done a phenomenal job. I have not seen the episodes in your video but it is still fascinating and impactful.

[@joanholg15]

Love Henry Louis Gates, Jr!

[@partyonwayne4]

I discovered through my family tree in 2020 that I’m Jewish on my mother’s side. In 2020 with covid on the rise I wanted to know about my maternal family’s history because I was never told about anything about them. When I contacted my cousin who was the keeper of articles and family tree I did a deep dive and found some parts to be faded or not included. When I confronted my cousin about this, she told me that it was time I knew about our family’s dark past. My great great grandfather was a staunch antisemite who lived in NY. My great great grandmother adored him but to be sure she married and was taken care of, my third great grandfather asked my second great grandmother to keep it a secret. For a long time it was a kept secret that was never uncovered. One day it was discovered in the nineties that my second great grandmother kept a diary of all of her personal thoughts and in one entry it stated, “it pains me to conceal my identity from the man I love but abba says that this is a hard time for us to exist and he wants me to be happy.”

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

and now that you know, you can celebrate your jewish-ness, as my brother-in law saw fit to do when he made the same discovery. judaic tradition is matrilineal, so if your "mother is jewish, you are jewish". if only your father is jewish, apparently you are NOT jewish. which applies to my cousin on my mom's side. she refers to "his people" when indicating her dad's lineage. Her mom's side was arguably christian. their relationship was strained for other reasons so I can kind of grasp why she still doesn't really relate to half of her inheritance. i recall seeing tatoos from the nazi camps, on her dad's arm. he was a kid during the holocaust.

[@kiciaharleyofalabama6105]

Just wish I could afford to have my genealogy done. Always been interested in finding out who my ancestors were

[@LilRoseMadder]

You can start very easily online through one of the genealogy sites with the knowledge you have about your parents and grandparents.

[@kiciaharleyofalabama6105]

@@LilRoseMadder unfortunately the knowledge I have is practically nil

[@LilRoseMadder]

That makes it very rough. I hope you can someday have some measure of success.

[@tandt7694]

​@@kiciaharleyofalabama6105If you are in the 🇺🇸 and able to trace back to 1950, you can start searching. Those census records are now available.

[@simoneskeens6983]

​@@kiciaharleyofalabama6105if you know your parents names it shouldn't be to hard . Go to family search and look pretty sure it's free . Ancestry and family search are my go to .

[@bizzyslivovitz7306]

When I read "Gone With the Wind" as a child, I thought, "Boy, the author really hated that character, making him die of measles." Charles Hamilton died of measles before he saw any combat. If you re-read the book as an adult, it actually says, "died of pneumonia, following an attack of measles," and that's what happened in the Covid pandemic. That's probably what happened in the 1919-20 Spanish Flu pandemic, that a secondary bacterial pneumonia grew so fast that people were saying, "My neighbor was fine yesterday and died today." The bacteria have a geometric population growth and it's like drowning -- fast suffocation. Anyway, that's what happened to my great-something-uncle. Took the train from Chicago to Philadelphia and died of measles before he saw any combat. Actually 125,000 of the 625,000 boys who died in the Civil War died of measles, only it was probably always pneumonia, because pneumonia is still the most common nosocomial infection that is fatal. (The most common nosocomial, or hospital-acquired, infection is a staph infection.)

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

my wife had an uncle or grand-uncle who had been a medical corpsman in WWII european theater. His unit was pretty good at their jobs and treated a lot of war wounds back to relative health. But there was at least one GI whom they were treating back to health, who came down with the flu. (maybe it was WWI, where the flu pandemic raged...). anyhow the tragic loss of that one GI apparently haunted him all of his days. I also read in more than one article that in the US civil war, more union soldiers died in CSA pow camps than by bullets. And more CSA soldiers died of malaria, dysentery or flu, than died from "Blue" bullets.

[@bizzyslivovitz7306]

@@tracyavent-costanza346 That's what it said in the introduction to one of my books on epidemics, that instead of a military leader on a horse, wearing a cockaded hat, waving a sword, there should be a statue of something that looks like the black obelisk in the beginning of "2001," and a plaque that said, "The people of St. ______ would like to thank the cholera bacterium, that killed approximately _____ enemy troops...." It's always a disease, but that's not the story we like. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." The Expeditionary Force was 500,000 and only 25,000 Frenchmen crossed the Berezina, which is why if you say, "crossing a Berezina" to a Frenchman, he will know what it means, like saying, "crossing the Rubicon" to us. They mostly died of cholera and typhus, but people didn't know about the germ theory of disease, and reported it as starvation and freezing to death.

[@donnarb60]

Skip Gates is a national treasure❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

i agree, what he and his team do, and what alex haley did prior to it, are great services to history. They are endorsements of PRACTICAL freedom: having access to the truth.

[@CBeard849]

As a young Optician in Ventura in the early 80's I got to meet and make glasses for Vivian Distin(Cash). She was a sweet lady.

[@elenarodriguez7809]

Michael Douglas was like wow my ancestors were criminals...not too bad. Kinda cool lol

[@randilevson9547]

Well, Kirk Douglas was implicated in the rape of Natalie Wood when she was a young girl. Kirk was also a "person of interest" in the brutal murder of a Hollywood starlet. No definite connection was made to him, however. But maybe "the apple did not fall too far from the tree" in Kirk's case with his criminal relatives from Eastern Europe. So far, Michael Douglas has not been connected with any crimes. But his son Cameron has had some legal troubles. Maybe stuff like this skips a generation.

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

or maybe more succinctly put, "desperate people with no other obvious alternatives"

[@tracyavent-costanza346]

@@randilevson9547 I'm not necessarily disproving any of what you said, but it was kind of evident by the way she died, that she also tended to booze it up. guys taking advantage of girls in that situation (especially ones with legendary looks), are kind of a proverb. I'm not saying I approve of it, but obviously it was not that uncommon. I hope not now.

[@peggyevans2691]

I really wish you could do these for average persons. My husband and I have each lost our only child and there is no FUTURE to our tree but would so very much lo e to know our roots. We are up in years with poor health and if we could do this for ourselves and other family members it would be a blessing. I would never be upset by being related to any group of people , maybe certain people in those groups but NOT the group itself. Please consider us before its too late. God bless