Top 10 Darkest Family Reveals on Finding Your Roots
#10: Rosanne Cash
In 2021, Rosanne Cash, the daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash, appeared on “Finding Your Roots,” where she made a particularly interesting discovery. Back in 1965, Cash’s mother, Vivian, was targeted by the KKK in a racist campaign. The white supremacist group believed Vivian was black, thus alleging her marriage to Johnny was illegal. The controversy only died down after the country singer issued a public statement insisting his wife was white. However, on “Finding Your Roots,” Cash discovered that her mother indeed had African American heritage. Vivian’s maternal great-great-grandmother was a mixed-race woman named Sarah Shields, who was born into slavery in Alabama. Shields later married a white man and recorded all her children as white in official documents.
#9: Joe Manganiello
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Actor Joe Manganiello owes his existence today to the remarkable tenacity of his maternal great-grandmother, Terviz “Rose” Darakjian. Darakjian was an Armenian woman who was married with eight children. In 1915, during the Armenian genocide, her husband and seven of her children were murdered before her eyes. Darakjian managed to escape and swam across the Euphrates River with her last surviving child strapped to her back, but tragically, the infant died during the journey. She was then thrown into an internment camp, where she encountered a German soldier named Karl Wilhelm Beutinger, who impregnated her. On his paternal side, Manganiello also discovered that the man he believed to be his grandfather, Emilio Manganiello, was not biologically related to him.
#8: Tig Notaro
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Even before “Finding Your Roots,” comedian Tig Notaro always knew she was the descendant of a politician. Her great-great-grandfather was John Fitzpatrick, who served as the mayor of New Orleans from 1892 to 1896. But it was on the show that Notaro first learned about her ancestor’s upbringing. At the age of seven, Fitzpatrick lost his father and was placed in an orphan asylum alongside two of his brothers. Surprisingly, this wasn’t due to their mother’s demise, but rather the limited public welfare system, which apparently left her with no choice but to entrust some of her children to an orphanage. Fitzpatrick was later reunited with his mother and worked his way up from a newspaper boy to the mayor’s office.
#7: Edward Norton
While Edward Norton is widely recognized for his roles in several popular Hollywood films, it turns out he may not be the most famous individual in his family tree. In the season 9 premiere of “Finding Your Roots,” the actor learned that Pocahontas was his 12th great-grandmother, confirming a long-held family lore. But perhaps the most uncomfortable detail uncovered during the episode was the revelation that Norton’s third great-grandfather, John Winstead, was a slave owner in North Carolina. While he wouldn’t be the first celebrity to make such a discovery, Norton reflected on its disturbing nature, describing it as an “uncomfortable” truth that “needs to be acknowledged” and “contended with.”
#6: Fred Armisen
For most of his life, “Saturday Night Live” alum Fred Armisen believed he was one-quarter Japanese, attributing this to his grandfather, the late Masami Kuni, who hailed from Japan. He would later discover this was all false. Kuni was actually South Korean, originally named Park Yeong-in, and only assumed a Japanese identity after the 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Armisen also learned that while Kuni lived in Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s, he engaged in propaganda efforts for the Nazis, by entertaining German troops. Additionally, during this period, Kuni apparently also worked as a spy for Japan, gathering intelligence on Southern European and Turkish affairs.
#5: Lena Dunham
The 2024 film “Treasure” stars Lena Dunham as a young woman who visits Poland with her aging father, and is forced to confront her family’s Holocaust past. When Dunham appeared on “Finding Your Roots,” she discovered unexpected parallels between her own ancestry and that of her character in the movie. It turns out that Dunham’s great-great-grandmother Regina migrated to America as a teenager, leaving behind nearly a dozen siblings in Europe. Tragically, during World War II, one of Regina’s nieces, Ilona, was separated from the rest of her family and sent to the Nazi-occupied city of Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine. Ilona is believed to be one of roughly 24,000 Jews who lost their lives there.
#4: Joe Madison
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Celebrities who appear on “Finding Your Roots” step into the unknown, unsure of what family secrets might be revealed. While many learn unsettling details about distant ancestors, veteran radio host Joe Madison was confronted with a startling truth about his own father. In the season 5 episode, Madison found out that Felix Madison, whom he had always believed to be his biological father, actually wasn’t. Sensing the sensitivity of the information, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. first called Madison privately to share it with him, away from all the cameras. Madison’s appearance on the show also led him to the discovery that his biological grandfather was one of the subjects of the controversial Tuskegee Institute Syphilis Study.
#3: Pharrell Williams
For many African-Americans, having the chance to read first-hand stories of their ancestors’ lives, especially those who were enslaved, is rare. Acclaimed music producer Pharrell Williams got this opportunity when he appeared on “Finding Your Roots” in 2021. During the show, Williams was presented with an interview given by his great-great-great-aunt Jane Arrington, who participated in the Slave Narrative Project in the 1930s. In her interview, Arrington shared detailed accounts of her harrowing experience as an enslaved person. As he read the notes on the program, Williams was deeply moved by the hardships his ancestor was forced to endure. He also uncovered the unsettling fact that his great-great-great-grandfather, Fenner Williams, spent the first decade of his life enslaved.
#2: Michael Douglas
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Throughout his career, actor Michael Douglas has starred in multiple crime thrillers, yet few of those fictional narratives can match the gripping real-life tales of his own ancestors. In a 2024 episode of the show, Douglas learned about his grandfather Harry Danielovitch, and his great-uncle, Moshe, both of whom migrated to the U.S. from Chausy, in present-day Belarus. Before they left for America, both Harry and Moshe were caught up in a life of crime. Harry had been arrested and sent to prison for robbery, while Moshe was implicated in an armed robbery case in 1906, and declared a wanted man in Chausy. However, it is unclear if he was ever apprehended before he left the country.
#1: Maya Rudolph
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Like many other celebrities who have appeared on “Finding Your Roots,” Maya Rudolph aimed to uncover her identity. The “SNL” alum was curious about her maternal African-American heritage and was given a glimpse into her ancestry. Through the show, Rudolph discovered her maternal great-great-great-grandfather, James Grigsby, who was born into slavery in Lincoln County, Kentucky. A census document from 1860 showed Grigsby listed without a name, but solely by his sex and age–5. This discovery was deeply unsettling to Rudolph, causing her to break down in tears. She also learned of another maternal ancestor whose owner’s grandson denied him the financial compensation and freedom promised in his owner’s will. Fortunately, he took the grandson to court and won. Have you ever made a startling discovery in your family’s history? Let us know in the comments below.
