Finding your roots can get awkward. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most embarrassing and uncomfortable discoveries on the genealogy series, “Finding Your Roots,” that left celebrity guests a little uneasy.
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00:00God, there's so much to unpack right there.
00:03Eliza, Elizabeth.
00:06Welcome to MsMojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:10for the most embarrassing and uncomfortable discoveries
00:14on the genealogy series, Finding Your Roots,
00:17that left celebrity guests a little uneasy.
00:20We're not so good with messy truth.
00:23No.
00:24And this is a messy truth.
00:28No.
00:2920, Nora O'Donnell's grandmother's citizenship revoked.
00:33It says Mary Theresa Monaghan, and then it says cancelled.
00:37Cancelled?
00:38Do you know what that means?
00:40Does that mean she was denied?
00:42The grandparents of CBS News anchor Nora O'Donnell
00:45immigrated from Ireland to the U.S.,
00:47where they met and got married.
00:49O'Donnell's grandmother, Mary Monaghan, came to America at 23
00:53and managed to build a life for herself,
00:55eventually becoming a naturalized citizen.
00:58However, Monaghan's citizenship was unexpectedly revoked,
01:02not because she committed any violent crime or act of treason,
01:05but because she told a little lie.
01:08Claiming that she was single when she was actually already married.
01:13Why did she lie?
01:15Since her husband, O'Donnell's grandfather,
01:17was still an undocumented immigrant,
01:19Monaghan lied about her marital status to protect him
01:22from being deported.
01:24Call it a white lie or a loving fib,
01:26but for O'Donnell, it was a surprising revelation
01:29that made her reevaluate how she viewed her grandmother.
01:32It's a reminder that, you know, that we all come from somewhere.
01:37And, um, sometimes we forget where we came from.
01:41Number 19, Sammy Hagar or Sammy Belcher.
01:45Sammy, genetically, you are not a Hagar.
01:48Get out of here.
01:50You want to find out what your real biological surname is?
01:53Yes, this is, this is nutty as anything I've ever imagined.
01:56When Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar
01:58appeared on Finding Your Roots,
02:00he made some shocking discoveries,
02:02but none left him quite as bewildered as this one.
02:05The show's researchers unearthed an 1850 census document
02:09which revealed that Hagar's great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth,
02:12was raising her kids alone.
02:14Oddly enough, her husband was alive and well,
02:16living in a neighboring county with his own mother.
02:19And as far as we could tell, they never reunited.
02:22They separated and never reunited.
02:24Wow, did she raise kids by herself?
02:25She raised kids by herself, yep.
02:27Wow.
02:28So, this is where the story gets wild.
02:30To untangle this mystery, they tested Hagar's DNA
02:33and found that he shared no biological connection
02:35to the Hagar family.
02:37Instead, he was genetically linked to 27 men
02:40with the surname Belcher.
02:42Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. speculated
02:44that Elizabeth may have had an affair,
02:47which prompted her husband to leave her
02:49and move in with his mother.
02:51This gives me so much mind-chewing ability.
02:55I mean, man, my mind's gonna work on this
02:58like a mouse on a wheel of cheese, man.
03:01Number 18, a legal dispute in John Waters' family.
03:05This is like a Dickens novel and you never heard anything about it.
03:07No.
03:08Well, that's how the money was passed out.
03:10Bitter family disputes are nothing new.
03:12They have occurred for centuries,
03:14plaguing both royal elites and regular folks alike.
03:17In the season 7 premiere, filmmaker John Waters
03:19learned about a conflict within his own family.
03:22It's twisted history.
03:23It is.
03:24Yeah.
03:25Your family treats drips with drama.
03:26Yeah.
03:27Yeah.
03:28After the death of her husband,
03:29Waters' great-grandmother, Bertha Whittaker,
03:31was dragged to court by her mother-in-law, Mary.
03:34This fight was over custody of Bertha's young son, Clifford,
03:37and, as is the case with many other families, money matters.
03:41Mary argued that Bertha had an ungovernable temper
03:44and lacked the resources to raise the child.
03:47However, the court disagreed, granting Bertha custody of Clifford
03:50and even giving her a chunk of the family fortune.
03:53It's the kind of riveting twist you'd find in a John Waters film.
03:57And thinking up drama.
03:58You know, I'm always thinking up insane things that happen to people.
04:01Yeah.
04:02That's how I make my living.
04:03No. 17, LeVar Burton learns of his white ancestor.
04:07Did you have any idea you had a white, direct ancestor?
04:11No!
04:14No, I had no idea.
04:17When you go digging into your family tree,
04:19you might not be entirely thrilled with what you find.
04:22No one knows this better than actor and TV host LeVar Burton.
04:26Burton, who rose to prominence for playing enslaved protagonist Kunta Kinte
04:30in the 1977 miniseries Roots,
04:33discovered his own roots traced back to a white farmer
04:36named James Henry Dixon.
04:38To make things even more awkward,
04:40Burton learned that Dixon had served with the Confederate Army
04:43during the American Civil War.
04:45Are you kidding me?
04:47That's true.
04:49Oh, my God.
04:51Oh, my God.
04:53I did not see this coming.
04:55To say that he was shocked by these revelations would be an understatement.
04:59However, he did manage to find a silver lining,
05:02acknowledging that it could help ease his conversations
05:04with white people in America.
05:07Especially in this current time frame, in this now moment,
05:10I believe that, as Americans, we need to have this conversation
05:15about who we are and how we got here.
05:18Number 16, Neil Patrick Harris reacts to his ancestor's tragic fate.
05:23Do you have any idea what they are accusing your ancestor Gertrude of?
05:27Um, making some delicious meal?
05:31Long before the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century,
05:35individuals across Europe, especially women,
05:38faced accusations of witchcraft.
05:40One of such women was Neil Patrick Harris'
05:4212th great-grandmother, Gertrude Stuhl.
05:45Stuhl was accused of enchanting her neighbor's livestock to kill them,
05:49and she was placed on trial for her life.
05:52She is supposed to have bewitched the pigs and cows of her neighbors
05:56so that they died.
05:58The cattle had foam on their necks.
06:00One cow lost her hooves,
06:03and the pigs had breathed like a bellows.
06:07Sadly, the proceedings ended with Stuhl being found guilty
06:10of practicing witchcraft and sentenced to death.
06:13You'd think this tragic family history would provoke a somber reaction,
06:17but instead Harris seemed oddly thrilled by the idea
06:20of his ancestor being burned at the stake.
06:23Even more unsettling, he drew a connection between
06:26Stuhl's accusation of black magic to his own love of magic.
06:30But I would like to think that she really was a witch,
06:33and she had magical powers.
06:35We lost one for the cause, but the witchcraft lives on.
06:41Number 15. Larry David's secretive mother
06:44It can be astounding how little one knows about their own family history.
06:48For comedian Larry David, this truth hit hard when he went on the show
06:52hoping to learn more about his mother, Rose,
06:54who he admits was notoriously secretive.
06:57You know, she was older than my father.
06:59Right.
07:00I never knew that until she died.
07:02Oh, okay. So there you go.
07:04It's always puzzled me how little I knew.
07:06As the researchers sifted through historical records,
07:09they unearthed a document showing that his grandmother
07:11had a daughter named Regina.
07:13But David was puzzled. He had never had an Aunt Regina.
07:16Did she die, change her name, or simply vanish?
07:19Wow, so you think we made a mistake?
07:21No, I don't think you made a mistake.
07:23I think she must have left somebody there, or maybe she died.
07:26Well, no. Turns out David's mother, Rose, was actually born Regina,
07:31a fact he was completely unaware of.
07:33Whatever reason she had for the name change,
07:35Rose took it to her grave, leaving her son utterly confused.
07:39Did you know your mother was born in Europe?
07:41No, I did not.
07:43You see, this is why they...
07:45She had secrets.
07:46Yeah. Secrets.
07:48Yeah.
07:49Number 14. A hidden relationship in Sierra's ancestry
07:53Nathan, no, no, no, don't go there.
07:55Uh-uh. Nathan said, I'm going there.
07:57Yeah. He went there, and his wife went somewhere else.
08:01In the Season 10 premiere, Sierra stumbled upon a family secret
08:04involving her great-great-grandmother, Emily Redding.
08:07The singer's DNA test showed a biological connection to Redding
08:11and her son, Willie Head, but not to Willie's supposed father, Nathan.
08:16To add to the surprise, the results also linked Sierra
08:19to several other people, all of whom were white.
08:22I think about, like, my grandfather's hair.
08:24Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah?
08:25You know.
08:26He had good hair?
08:27Pretty. As he got older, he got a little more, you know,
08:29a little more coarse, but I look at some of his, you know,
08:33the photos that I did get to see when he was younger
08:36with my grandma, and it was fine.
08:38Further investigation revealed Willie's actual father,
08:41a white man named Walker Lafayette Head.
08:44Apparently, Walker and Nathan lived near each other
08:47around the time Willie was conceived.
08:49Walker and Nathan grew up in the same house together.
08:51Wow.
08:52And at some point, when both men were about 40,
08:55Walker slept with Nathan's wife.
08:58Mm.
08:59Whether Walker and Redding's relationship was consensual is unknown,
09:02but Sierra seemed to believe it was.
09:04However, considering the societal dynamics back then,
09:08that might not have been very likely.
09:10I'd definitely like to believe there was some connectivity that happened.
09:13People fall in love, you can't control it.
09:16Desire is colourblind.
09:19Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah, love is love.
09:21Number 13, Sunny Hostin's Spanish roots.
09:24I'm still sort of shocked about the depth of the ties, I guess.
09:30What do you think?
09:31All these white people just came up out of the ground?
09:33They had to come from somewhere.
09:35TV host Sunny Hostin was born in 1968 to a Puerto Rican mother
09:39and an African-American father,
09:41so she always believed her heritage was half Puerto Rican.
09:44However, when she appeared on Finding Your Roots in February 2024,
09:48she got an unexpected surprise.
09:50Hostin learned she was only 7% indigenous Puerto Rican
09:54and that she descended from a Spanish merchant who, it turns out,
09:58most likely participated in the slave trade.
10:01Wow.
10:03I'm a little bit in shock.
10:05I just always thought of myself as Puerto Rican.
10:08You know, half Puerto Rican.
10:10I didn't think I was...
10:12My family was originally from Spain and slaveholders.
10:16This revelation contrasted with her political beliefs,
10:19leaving her feeling a mix of shock and disappointment.
10:22Despite this, she admitted that the discovery
10:24enriched her understanding of her family's history,
10:27even though it didn't necessarily change her perspective.
10:31I guess it's a fact of life
10:33that this is how some people made their living,
10:36on the backs of others.
10:38Number 12, LL Cool J's biological grandparents.
10:42Getting told by your parents that you're adopted
10:44can be earth-shattering for anyone.
10:46Now imagine making such a discovery years after they've passed away,
10:50on a TV show, no less.
10:52That's exactly what happened to rapper LL Cool J
10:55and his mother, Andrea Griffith, on Finding Your Roots.
10:59But they had their reasons for not telling me.
11:02Finding out when I'm my age now, I can understand it.
11:06I can put everything in perspective.
11:08After his parents split up in his childhood,
11:10LL was raised by his maternal grandparents,
11:13who supported his musical ambitions.
11:15But one secret they hid was that his mother
11:17was not their biological child.
11:19There's something odd about this birth certificate.
11:22Notice that there are no parents listed.
11:24Notice also that it was made out in 1947,
11:27which is over a year after your mother was born.
11:33Wow.
11:35Eve and Griffith didn't know this,
11:37only learning about it through the show.
11:39The news was so sensitive that host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
11:42had to first call LL privately, away from the cameras,
11:46to break it to him.
11:48Some people would have wanted to keep this information private,
11:50but you and your mom wanted to learn more.
11:53Yeah. Why?
11:54I need to know this. I mean, my mother deserves it.
11:57Number 11, Ben Affleck controversy.
11:59It's always been a kind of a blank canvas to me.
12:02And so I'm very excited to sort of fill in the blanks.
12:05Discovering that one's ancestors owned slaves
12:08can be embarrassing for some people.
12:10It was this sense of shame that pushed actor Ben Affleck
12:13to a drastic point.
12:15It makes it feel less academic and more personal,
12:19and I'm very surprised by this.
12:22Affleck appeared on the show in 2014,
12:24where he learned that his maternal ancestor,
12:26Benjamin Cole, was a slave owner in Georgia.
12:29The revelation unsettled him so much
12:31that he went to great lengths to keep it hidden.
12:34Affleck successfully lobbied Henry Louis Gates Jr.
12:37and the show's producers to omit this information
12:40from the aired episode.
12:41However, the infamous Sony Pictures hack that year
12:44unearthed emails that revealed Affleck's efforts
12:47to suppress the truth.
12:48The ensuing controversy led to the show being
12:51temporarily suspended,
12:52although it returned after Affleck apologized
12:55for his actions.
12:56We tend to separate ourselves from these things
12:59by going like, you know, oh well, it's just dry history
13:02and it's all over now.
13:03And this shows us that there's still a living aspect
13:05to history, like a personal connection.
13:07Number 10.
13:08Laura Linney's felonious ancestors.
13:10I mean, guess what?
13:11I wouldn't know.
13:12What did he do?
13:13What did he do?
13:14What did he do?
13:15You might be familiar with the British practice
13:17of sending convicts to Australia
13:19during the 18th and 19th centuries.
13:22But did you know that before Australia,
13:24the primary destination for British prisoners
13:27was actually America?
13:29Transportation of convicts to the American colonies
13:31in the 18th century was a way for England
13:33to rid the country of criminals without killing them.
13:36If this fact didn't come as a surprise to you,
13:39it definitely did for award-winning actress
13:42Laura Linney.
13:43When she appeared on the show in 2019,
13:46Linney discovered that her fifth great-grandfather,
13:49William Linney, had been convicted in England
13:52of receiving stolen goods
13:54transported to Virginia in 1768.
13:57Well knowing them to have been stolen,
13:59the justice said,
14:00Mr. Linney, you hear what the lad has said.
14:03Have you anything to say?
14:05Linney said, no, I own, I had the goods.
14:08Probably not the most flattering information
14:11to learn about one's ancestors,
14:13but Linney took it in stride with a hearty laugh.
14:16That is the passenger list from the ship
14:19on which your ancestors sailed from 1768.
14:22Holy mackerel.
14:23Felons transported from London to Virginia
14:26by the Neptune.
14:27Number nine,
14:28Soledad O'Brien's ancestor falls on hard times.
14:32Laura Linney was not the only celebrity
14:34to uncover their ancestor's criminal background.
14:37I didn't realize on the Whiteman side,
14:39which by the way, nobody talks about,
14:41and now I know why,
14:43because they also ran things like scams.
14:46In another episode,
14:47veteran broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien
14:50was also hit with a mortifying revelation
14:53about her third great-grandmother,
14:55Lilius Whiteman.
14:57Host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
14:59presented O'Brien with a prisoner register
15:02from 19th century Scotland,
15:04revealing that a 41-year-old Whiteman
15:06had been arrested for robbery
15:08alongside a group of teenage boys.
15:10And in receipt of said theft.
15:13So she was handling stolen goods.
15:14It soon became clear that Whiteman
15:16might have been leading a gang of young thieves
15:19in Edinburgh, Scotland.
15:20This theory seemed to embarrass O'Brien initially,
15:24but when they dug deeper
15:25into the actual reason why Whiteman resorted to crime,
15:28her perspective changed.
15:30So her husband died at age 39.
15:32Yeah, the death of her husband,
15:34the breadwinner,
15:35was probably what pushed Lilius and William
15:37into the life of petty larceny.
15:40That's really sad.
15:42They were stealing to survive.
15:44Number eight,
15:45Not Julia Roberts.
15:47The name Julia Roberts is instantly recognisable
15:50to millions around the world.
15:52But what if we told you
15:53it's actually not her biological name?
15:56Is my head on straight still?
15:58Am I facing you?
16:00The Oscar-winning actress
16:01derived her surname from Willis Roberts,
16:04her supposed great-great-grandfather.
16:06However, genealogical research
16:09uncovered a discrepancy.
16:11Julia's great-grandfather, John,
16:13was born more than a decade
16:15after Willis passed away.
16:17This meant that the actress
16:18couldn't be biologically related
16:20to Willis Roberts.
16:21We scoured Douglas County
16:23looking for any record
16:24that named John's father,
16:26and we found absolutely nothing.
16:29Through DNA analysis,
16:30the show eventually traced her ancestry
16:32to a man named Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr.,
16:36a married man who lived
16:37only a few miles away
16:39from Willis' wife, Rhoda.
16:41A few short miles, it would seem.
16:44And get this.
16:45According to the same census,
16:47Henry's widowed mother,
16:49Elizabeth Mitchell,
16:50lived just four households from Rhoda.
16:55Wow.
16:56Despite the biological inaccuracy,
16:59we still think Julia Roberts
17:00has a much better ring to it
17:02than Julia Mitchell.
17:04Number seven,
17:05Issa Rae's free ancestors.
17:07If they were named,
17:08would they be free?
17:10The Charbonnays were free.
17:13How did they get away with that?
17:15During the era of slavery,
17:17people who were enslaved
17:18were typically omitted
17:20from census records.
17:21However, during her appearance
17:23on Finding Your Roots in 2021,
17:25actress and producer Issa Rae
17:28discovered documents
17:29that identified her third great-grandfather,
17:32Dawson Charbonnet, by name.
17:34This was due to the fact
17:35that Charbonnet's mother,
17:37Milit, had been granted freedom
17:39by her owner,
17:40who also happened to be a black man.
17:42So you just blew my mind even more.
17:45Mm-hmm.
17:46So they were owned by...
17:49Another black person.
17:52Slavery was a very complicated institution.
17:54Yes, it was.
17:55Additionally, Rae learned
17:57that Charbonnet's father
17:58was a white man who had his own family,
18:01but engaged in a clandestine relationship
18:04with Milit.
18:05If this all felt like
18:06a convoluted television B-plot,
18:09then you're not alone.
18:10Even Rae shared the same sentiments.
18:13This is so...
18:15It's like he just took me through
18:17a soap opera,
18:18like a slave soap opera.
18:21Whew, wow.
18:22That is some twisted family history.
18:26Number six,
18:27Gayle King's European ancestry.
18:29I knew her father was white
18:31and that her mother was black,
18:32but we were not to talk about it
18:34and she never wanted to talk about it.
18:37Gayle King's family
18:38harbored a long-held secret
18:40concerning her maternal grandmother,
18:42Emma Brown.
18:43It was revealed that Brown
18:44was the product of a white father
18:46and a black mother,
18:47a fact seemingly concealed out of shame,
18:50at least according to King.
18:52What was his ethnicity?
18:54White man.
18:55Just white man?
18:56Yeah.
18:57White man.
18:58Not from Germany, England, Ireland?
19:00Nothing.
19:01White man.
19:02White man, okay.
19:03White man, and do not ask her about her father.
19:05The genealogists at Finding Your Roots
19:07were able to trace King's ancestry
19:09back to Robert Elliot Copes,
19:11a white man from South Carolina,
19:13and Emma Brown's grandfather.
19:15This discovery unveiled King's European ancestry,
19:19which comprises over 30% of her genetic makeup.
19:23However, when the results of this DNA analysis
19:25were revealed to her at the end of the episode,
19:28King didn't seem to be very pleased with them.
19:31You are one third white.
19:33Take that back.
19:35Number five,
19:36Angela Davis descended from white settlers.
19:40You'd be shocked to learn
19:41what some of your ancestors were up to.
19:44That probably should be the tagline
19:46for Finding Your Roots.
19:48In 2023, the show delivered
19:50yet another jaw-dropping revelation,
19:53this time to political activist Angela Davis.
19:56Any idea what you're looking at?
19:58That is a list of the passengers on the Mayflower.
20:02No, I can't believe this.
20:05My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.
20:08Throughout her lengthy career,
20:10Davis gained a fierce reputation
20:12for her unwavering advocacy for civil rights,
20:15as well as her relentless fight
20:17against structural racism.
20:19Hence, she was taken aback to learn
20:21that her ancestors were the complete opposite.
20:27That's a little bit too much
20:30to deal with right now.
20:32Davis was revealed to be
20:33a direct descendant of William Brewster,
20:36one of the 102 settlers
20:38who journeyed to the colonies on the Mayflower.
20:41Just goes to show that,
20:43despite sharing bloodlines,
20:45people can still differ greatly
20:47from their ancestors.
20:49Did you ever, in your wildest dreams,
20:51think that you may have descended
20:53from people who laid...
20:54Never.
20:55...the foundation...
20:56Never.
20:57...for this country?
20:58Never, never.
20:59Number four,
21:00George R. R. Martin's grandmother's affair.
21:03When George R. R. Martin
21:05appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019,
21:08he uncovered a surprising family tale
21:11reminiscent of the Sordid Ones
21:13in his epic fantasy books.
21:15Spent much of his childhood
21:16in the home of his beloved grandmother,
21:18Grace Martin.
21:20But George knew almost nothing
21:23about his grandfather,
21:25Grace's husband,
21:26Lewis Martin.
21:28Martin had always believed
21:29that his Italian paternal grandfather, Lewis,
21:32had abandoned his grandmother, Grace,
21:34for a younger woman.
21:36However, that notion was shattered
21:38when the show's team revealed
21:39the results of Martin's DNA test.
21:42What's missing from that chart?
21:44The Italians.
21:45The Italians.
21:46There's no Italian.
21:48Okay, that's shocking.
21:50Martin's DNA showed
21:51a quarter Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry,
21:54suggesting his true grandfather
21:56was Jewish.
21:58It was quickly surmised
21:59that it was Grace
22:00who likely cheated on Lewis,
22:02which eventually pushed him away.
22:16Oh, we fully expect
22:18the next book to be chaotic.
22:21Number three,
22:22The Identity of Viola Davis' Great Grandfather.
22:25Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis
22:27came on Finding Your Roots
22:29expecting to learn more
22:30about her ancestry.
22:32But she probably wasn't ready
22:33for the messy familial secrets
22:35she would uncover.
22:37Did your mom ever talk about this?
22:39Never.
22:40Isn't that interesting,
22:41that silence?
22:42Silence is always interesting to me.
22:44Davis learned that her grandfather,
22:46Henry Logan,
22:47had a mysterious lineage.
22:49In official documents,
22:51two different men
22:52had been listed as his father,
22:54Gable Logan
22:55on his social security application
22:58and John Young
22:59on his obituary.
23:06Although Henry's mother,
23:07Corinne, was married to Gable,
23:08historical records showed
23:10that after he came back
23:11from World War I,
23:12Gable never returned
23:14to live with Corinne.
23:15Through DNA analysis
23:17and census data,
23:18researchers inferred
23:20that Corinne likely had an affair
23:22with her neighbor, John Young,
23:24resulted in the birth
23:25of Davis' grandfather.
23:27It's the mess of relationships
23:29and the mess of, you know,
23:32love, sex.
23:34It's truth.
23:36Number two,
23:37Katherine Hahn's ancestors
23:39moved from Germany to America.
23:41Our forefathers often relocated
23:44to different countries
23:45for various reasons.
23:47Economic prospects,
23:48fleeing conflict,
23:49or in the case of
23:50Katherine Hahn's ancestor,
23:52eloping with their lover
23:54at the expense of family ties.
23:56That is so complicated.
23:58Well, one thing you should know
24:00that you don't have to worry about
24:01in the guilt chart.
24:03No guilt!
24:04Just like, what?
24:05In 1853,
24:06Hahn's third great-grandfather,
24:08Wilhelm Lunenschloss,
24:10was living in Germany
24:11with his wife and six children.
24:13However, by 1860,
24:16Wilhelm had moved to Wisconsin,
24:18now married to a different woman
24:20named Eliza.
24:21The Finding Your Roots team
24:23dug deeper into this significant change.
24:26On the right,
24:27you can see the name of the man
24:29who lived at Ehrenstrasse 48.
24:32Just a few doors down,
24:33could you read his surname?
24:35Anton Ternes.
24:37And whose surname was Ternes?
24:39Hers.
24:40Through a German city directory
24:41from 1854,
24:42they found that Eliza
24:44was the daughter
24:45of Wilhelm's neighbor.
24:47This suggests that
24:48Wilhelm met Eliza there in Germany,
24:50then abandoned his family
24:52to start a new one with her
24:54in America.
24:55The fact that that had to happen
24:57for this to happen is...
24:59You are the product of the scandal.
25:01I know.
25:02You are the end result.
25:03Isn't that nuts?
25:04Before we continue,
25:05be sure to subscribe to our channel
25:07and ring the bell
25:08to get notified
25:09about our latest videos.
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25:11to be notified
25:12for occasional videos
25:13or all of them.
25:14If you're on your phone,
25:15make sure you go
25:16into your settings
25:17and switch on notifications.
25:20Number 1.
25:21Niecy Nash learns
25:22who her grandfather is.
25:24Hollywood actress Niecy Nash
25:26was in for a rude shock
25:28when she appeared
25:29on the ninth season
25:30of Finding Your Roots.
25:32Turns out that the man
25:33Nash had always believed
25:34to be her paternal grandfather
25:36actually wasn't.
25:38I was in a state of shock.
25:40I...
25:41I think I said...
25:42I said,
25:43what now?
25:44Um...
25:45What exactly does that mean?
25:48Um...
25:49And then I realized
25:51what you were saying.
25:53Naturally,
25:54this was an incredibly
25:55surprising revelation
25:56for the actress,
25:57who now faced
25:58the challenging task
25:59of breaking this news
26:00to her father.
26:02Researchers on the show
26:03used Nash's DNA,
26:04along with that
26:05of a second cousin,
26:06to uncover the identity
26:08of her biological grandfather,
26:10a man named Frank Jackson.
26:12What's it like to see this?
26:14So many things are going on
26:15in my mind right now.
26:16I'm like...
26:18I wonder if my father
26:19ever met him,
26:20or if he ever knew him
26:23in his life.
26:24So how did this
26:25discrepancy occur?
26:26Well,
26:27that's the complicated part.
26:29Jackson actually lived
26:30very close to Nash's grandmother
26:32in St. Louis,
26:33so it's believed
26:34the two had an affair,
26:36which ultimately produced
26:37Nash's father.
26:39That's where Mr. Jackson lived.
26:40So Mr. Jackson
26:42came round to the house
26:43a time or two,
26:45while she was already
26:46married to Arthur.
26:47Well, we don't know
26:48if he came to the house
26:49or she came to his house.
26:50But they met on up.
26:51Would you ever want
26:52to dig into your ancestry?
26:54What would you hope to find?
26:55Let us know
26:56in the comments below.
26:57Well,
26:58that door just opened.
26:59Here it is.
27:00Yeah.
27:01Do you agree with our picks?
27:02Check out this other recent clip
27:03from Ms. Mojo.
27:04And be sure to subscribe
27:05and ring the bell
27:06to be notified
27:07about our latest videos.
27:13♪