10 Finding Your Roots Reveals That Are Almost Unbelievable

10 Finding Your Roots Reveals That Are Almost Unbelievable

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most stupefying revelations celebrities discovered on “Finding Your Roots” that left them doing a double take.

#10: Anthony Ramos

On the 10th season of “Finding Your Roots,” Emmy-nominated actor Anthony Ramos learned that his 15th great-grandfather, Andrés, wasn’t originally from Spain, as he had always believed. Instead, Andrés was an indigenous inhabitant of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands colonized by Spain in the 15th century. He was then enslaved by a Spanish conquistador. Andrés managed to regain his freedom by persuading his enslaver to accept a substitute, likely one of the enslaved Africans recently brought to the Islands. But then, after securing his freedom, Andrés chose to align himself with the very people who destroyed his homeland. He joined the Spanish military and took part in the conquest of North Africa, where he is believed to have lost his life.

#9: Keenen Ivory Wayans

Comedy legend Keenen Ivory Wayans received an agonizing surprise when he went on “Finding Your Roots” in 2016. Wayans learned about his great-great-grandfather, Ben Pleasant, who was the personal servant of South Carolina Governor John L. Manning. In the 1840s, Manning took Pleasant on a trip to Canada, where he was kidnapped by a group of abolitionists who intended to grant him freedom. However, Pleasant chose to return to slavery. While such a decision might seem befuddling, it is believed that his family remained enslaved under Manning, and rather than live freely apart from them, he chose to go back. Wayans also learned that his ancestry traces back mostly to Asia, from people who later migrated to Madagascar.

#8: Sigourney Weaver

It’s remarkable to think about the ordeals people once endured for what is considered normal today. For actor Sigourney Weaver’s great-great-grandmother, Barbara Hunt, that ordeal meant being institutionalized after suffering a miscarriage. Barbara had left her husband, Josiah, for a younger man, with whom she became pregnant. Unfortunately, any hopes of a fulfilling life with her new lover were dashed when she lost the baby and was committed to a psychiatric facility, where she remained until her death. It’s unclear why exactly she was institutionalized, but it might have had something to do with a scathing letter Josiah wrote to a British court. Perhaps inspired by his mother’s experience, Barbara’s son, Weaver’s great-grandfather, went on to become a doctor in a psychiatric hospital.

#7: Wanda Sykes

When comedian Wanda Sykes appeared on the show’s very first season, she probably didn’t expect to learn that she had the longest documented family tree of any African-American they’d encountered. And that’s largely because of her paternal ninth great-grandmother, Elizabeth Banks. Banks was a free white woman who had a child with an enslaved man, which meant all of her descendants inherited her status, making them free people of color. But perhaps the most shocking moment of the entire episode came when Sykes learned that some of her free ancestors of color had owned slaves themselves. This revelation deeply unsettled her, but in true Wanda Sykes fashion, she managed to find some humor in the uncomfortable truth.

#6: Paul Rudd

Everyone probably expects their parents to have a close relationship, but not so close that they actually share blood. That was precisely the unexpected revelation waiting for actor Paul Rudd when he appeared in the fourth season of “Finding Your Roots.” Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed Rudd that his parents, Michael and Gloria, are actually second cousins. This means that they share the same set of great-grandparents. It’s a connection that’s undeniably a little too close for comfort. Naturally, the news left Rudd feeling a little weirded out. However, that didn’t stop him from throwing in a perfectly timed joke to lighten the mood.

#5: Terry Crews

Actor Terry Crews had a difficult childhood, mostly stemming from his troubled relationship with his father, Terry Crews Sr. According to the actor, his father’s domineering and sometimes violent behavior created an atmosphere of constant fear, leaving Crews so anxious that he wet the bed well into his teenage years. On “Finding Your Roots,” Crews learned more about his father’s background and began to understand the cause of his behavior. He discovered that his grandfather, Edward Crews, spent time in and out of jail and had abandoned his kids when they were still very young. Realizing the pain that this must have caused his father, Crews admitted that this new knowledge helped him see his father in a more compassionate light.

#4: Mario Lopez

Immigration remains a sensitive issue in America today, but it has been that way for a very long time. TV host and actor Mario Lopez got a glimpse into that rocky history through the story of his paternal grandfather, Luciano. Lopez learned that Luciano migrated illegally from Mexico to the U.S. in 1952, only to be deported just one month later. Five years after that setback, he tried to return legally. By that point, however, anti-Mexican sentiment in the U.S. had grown so intense that it nearly discouraged him. However, he persevered and managed to cross into the U.S. on foot legally in 1957, and he remained there for the rest of his life.

#3: Fred Armisen

Knowing the life and career of “Saturday Night Live” alum Fred Armisen, it’s hard to imagine the level of espionage in his family history. Armisen grew up believing his grandfather, Masami Kuni, was a Japanese dancer who had lived in Germany before moving to America. It was only on “Finding Your Roots” that he learned the truth. Kuni was actually South Korean, born Park Yeong-in, and only assumed a Japanese identity after the 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan. But the revelations only got more shocking as Armisen discovered that Kuni was actually a spy. He aided Nazi propaganda efforts by entertaining German troops, while secretly gathering intelligence which he relayed to Japan. To say Armisen was stunned would be an understatement.

#2: Edward Norton

Almost every family has a rumor about a famous ancestor somewhere in its history. For actor Edward Norton’s family, the rumor was that they were somehow related to Native American heroine Pocahontas. Norton always took the lore with a grain of salt, until he appeared on the ninth season of “Finding Your Roots.” The show’s researchers managed to find a direct trail linking Norton to Pocahontas, confirming that she and her husband, John Rolfe, are indeed his 12th great-grandparents. The revelation caught the actor off guard and he noted that it only serves as a reminder of just how vast the world is, and how deeply interconnected we all are.

#1: Lupita Nyong'o

In the fourth season of “Finding Your Roots,” Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o made a discovery unlike any other in the show’s history. Through DNA analysis, researchers traced her lineage all the way to the oldest maternal haplogroup. This means she is a close and direct descendant of Mitochondrial Eve, the woman scientists consider the common ancestor of all humankind. While most people’s mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited exclusively from the mother, tends to mutate significantly across generations, Nyong’o’s apparently showed little change and remains nearly identical to that of Mitochondrial Eve. Nyong’o was equally surprised and proud to receive the news. The revelation seemed to be confirmation of many scientific theories that humankind originated from Africa.

What unbelievable discoveries have you made in your own ancestry? Let us know in the comments below.