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Some family tree surprises are interesting, and then there are the ones that completely rewrite everything people thought they knew about themselves. On “Finding Your Roots,” these celebrities uncovered jaw-dropping truths about names, ancestry, and hidden family histories that left them stunned. From mistaken surnames to erased identities, each reveal changed the way they saw their own story.
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00:00Well, this is just amazing.
00:02That's why nobody could find him, because we had to find your family's original name.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:08And today, we're diving into the most shocking discoveries on Finding Your Roots
00:12that erased entire assumptions celebrities had built their sense of self around.
00:17Boy, I'm glad I came here today.
00:21Sammy Hagar.
00:23You'd hardly see a person more rattled than when they learned their last name isn't actually theirs.
00:28Sammy Hagar came to Finding Your Roots expecting a deep dive into the Hagar paternal line,
00:34but walked out questioning whether that line had anything to do with him at all.
00:38Sammy, this chart shows the total number of men found with the surname Hagar
00:42who match your Y-DNA signature.
00:45Could you please read that number?
00:46Zero.
00:48I don't need glasses for that, brother.
00:51How can that be?
00:53After carrying out Y-DNA testing,
00:55the results showed that the Red Rocker's paternal line did not genetically match the Hagar family,
01:01meaning the surname he had carried all his life was not his biological surname.
01:06Henry Louis Gates Jr. and genetic genealogist C.C. Moore
01:10then used DNA matches to investigate the mystery,
01:13ultimately identifying Hagar's biological paternal line as Belcher.
01:18Your Y-DNA matches 27 men with the surname Belcher.
01:23There is no doubt.
01:24This is a slam dunk identification.
01:27Wow.
01:28You are Sammy Belcher.
01:30The discovery forced him to rethink the family story attached to the name he had carried all his life.
01:36I don't even know what it matters or what it really means at my age.
01:39But if I was a young man, if I was a seven, eight-year-old teenager,
01:44you might think, hey, I want to meet some of these people and get down to the bottom of it
01:49and find out who loves me and who don't and who I care about and who I need to help
01:52and who don't.
01:52I don't know.
01:54Sashir Zameda.
01:55But did you ever hear any stories about what brought your family to Arkansas?
01:58No.
01:59Well, you didn't know there was a before Arkansas.
02:02I just assumed it started in Arkansas.
02:03Yeah.
02:04Sashir Zameda thought her family tree began in Arkansas until Finding Your Roots uncovered the full story.
02:10Her great-grandfather, who she knew as Leroy Washington Mahon,
02:14had actually been born Leroy Washington Stenhouse, a surname Zameda had never heard.
02:20And according to your mom, he adopted the name Mahon later in life.
02:25Wow.
02:26So you've never heard the name Stenhouse?
02:28No, never.
02:30Well, that was your original family name.
02:32Very cool.
02:33That name led researchers to South Carolina,
02:36where they discovered that Leroy and his parents had lived near two white Stenhouse brothers
02:40who likely enslaved members of their family.
02:43Seeing the house where her ancestors may have been enslaved left Zameda stunned.
02:48It's weird because, like, it's a house, but it's also the house that enslaved my family.
02:56Prison house.
02:57Yeah.
02:58Boy.
02:59But the story eventually turned empowering.
03:01Leroy fled South Carolina, changed his surname, and bought land which he used to establish Fargo, Arkansas,
03:09a town for black homeowners.
03:11Recovering Leroy's surname unlocked an entirely different chapter of Zameda's ancestry.
03:16That's crazy.
03:18He started a town.
03:20I'm gonna cry.
03:22That's so weird to know.
03:25He was an amazing man.
03:27And you descend from him.
03:30Yeah.
03:31Yeah, that's very cool.
03:34Taya Leone.
03:35Actress Taya Leone knew her mother had been adopted,
03:38but that knowledge left a lifelong question hanging over their family.
03:42Who was her mother's biological mother?
03:44I remember feeling, like, untethered all of a sudden.
03:48Like, literally, like, like my knees were gonna go.
03:51Mm-hmm.
03:51Because I guess it, the only first thing I could think of was,
03:57then who are grandmom and granddad?
03:59Finding Your Roots used DNA to identify that woman as Abilene Gindrit,
04:04solving a mystery Leone had carried for decades.
04:07Gates then showed her a photograph of Abilene,
04:10and Leone immediately noticed a resemblance to her mother.
04:13She looks like my mom a lot.
04:19Boy.
04:20That is...
04:26I mean, even just the way she holds her head.
04:30Abilene had been a teacher in Louisiana,
04:32and lived a life Leone had never known existed.
04:35The discovery gave Leone a tangible connection
04:38to a previously missing branch of her family,
04:40and, as she put it,
04:42finally answered a question she had been asking for 43 years.
04:46I was ready to have that question answered.
04:49Oh, I believe you were.
04:55She looks like she has a good heart.
04:58Sierra.
04:59Paper trails can be wrong,
05:00but DNA just doesn't negotiate,
05:03as was the case for singer Sierra.
05:05Records had identified Nathan Head
05:07as the father of her grandfather, Willie,
05:09but when researchers compared Sierra's DNA
05:11with descendants of Nathan,
05:13there were zero genetic matches.
05:15Willie, unbeknownst probably to Willie,
05:19had a different father.
05:20Oh, wow.
05:21Have you ever heard any family stories about that?
05:24Mm-mm.
05:25No.
05:26CeCe Moore instead found matches
05:28pointing to another man,
05:30Walker Lafayette Head,
05:31a white man who had grown up alongside Nathan.
05:34Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed
05:36that Walker was Sierra's biological
05:38great-great-grandfather,
05:39and that he had fathered Willie
05:41with Nathan's wife, Emily.
05:43Amazing.
05:43That's crazy.
05:44So we can only speculate,
05:45but what do you imagine
05:48the nature of the relationship?
05:49Do you think it was consensual?
05:51Yeah, I do.
05:53I'd definitely like to believe
05:54there was some connectivity that happened.
05:56Sierra was stunned,
05:57especially after realizing
05:59the discovery explained physical traits
06:01she remembered in her grandfather.
06:03In this case,
06:03the familiar family name was right,
06:05but the actual source of it was wrong.
06:07I feel more clear.
06:08I feel like I know myself even more.
06:11I know my roots even more.
06:12And isn't it incredible
06:13to see what we can do now
06:15with science, DNA?
06:17It's powerful.
06:17Want more celebrity revelations?
06:19Scan the QR code on your screen
06:21and join the Ms. Mojo 24-7 livestream
06:24for stories that go deeper than you'd expect.
06:26This makes you realize
06:27what a small, you know,
06:32piece of the whole human story you are.
06:34Rebecca Hall.
06:35Actor and filmmaker Rebecca Hall
06:37grew up with a remarkable story
06:39about her maternal grandfather,
06:40Norman Ewing.
06:41He was said to be
06:42a Native American Sioux chief.
06:44Your ancestors fought
06:46in the Battle of the Little Bighorn,
06:48also known as Custer's Last Stand.
06:50Had you ever heard about
06:52this experience for your grandfather?
06:54No.
06:54No.
06:55What do you think of that?
06:57It's very surprising.
06:59However,
07:00the Finding Your Roots researchers
07:02uncovered records
07:03that complicated that story.
07:04including documents
07:06in which Norman identified himself
07:07as white
07:08and gave a Virginia birthplace.
07:10DNA provided the decisive clue.
07:13Hall had zero Native American ancestry.
07:15He was actually the son
07:17of mixed-race African-American parents.
07:20But it's sort of confirmed
07:21what I always suspected.
07:23And I just couldn't shake the feeling
07:26that there was something being hidden
07:29in my growing up.
07:32Gates concluded that Norman
07:33had fabricated his indigenous origins,
07:36apparently in an attempt to pass
07:37as something else
07:38during the Jim Crow era.
07:40Hall was shaken,
07:41but also tried to understand
07:42why he might have done it.
07:43The revelation completely transformed
07:45her understanding,
07:46not just of her grandfather,
07:47but also herself.
07:49But I do think of my success in the world,
07:55my existence in the world,
07:57on some level,
07:59being dependent on this choice.
08:00Barbara Walters.
08:02He had years of being important
08:04and famous and rich and so on.
08:07And then he had this very, very sad number of years,
08:13my father and mother.
08:14The name Walters sounds solid,
08:16established,
08:17almost institutional,
08:18which makes this discovery
08:19all the more interesting.
08:21Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed
08:23that Barbara Walters' father
08:24wasn't born Louis Walters at all.
08:26He entered the world
08:27as Louis Wormwater,
08:29itself an English translation
08:31of the family's original Polish surname,
08:34Wormwasa.
08:35Have you ever heard of this name,
08:36Wormwasa?
08:37Never.
08:37Well, that is your family's original name.
08:40How interesting.
08:42I'm just amazed.
08:44That discovery explained
08:46why researchers had struggled
08:47to find the family
08:48and reopened a trail
08:50leading back to London.
08:51For Walters,
08:52a journalist who built her career
08:53extracting truth from others,
08:55discovering that her own family name
08:57had been reconstructed layer by layer
08:59carried a particular kind of irony.
09:01So I'm Barbara Wormwasa.
09:03Between.
09:04Barbara Wormwater.
09:05I like Barbara Wormwater.
09:07There you go.
09:07I sound like an Indian, don't I?
09:09Maybe you and I are related.
09:11Who knows?
09:11Yeah, we could be.
09:11West India.
09:12The research also revealed
09:14that her relatives
09:15did not initially settle in New York,
09:17as she had believed,
09:18but first traveled to San Francisco.
09:20This is a list of immigrants
09:22going to San Francisco.
09:24From?
09:24England.
09:25I never heard this.
09:26Why on earth
09:27would they have gone to San Francisco?
09:30LL Cool J.
09:31You know, my mother put it
09:32in a really succinct way,
09:35or she said it was
09:37the end of one chapter of my life
09:39as I know it
09:39in the beginning of a new one.
09:41All his life,
09:42LL Cool J had believed
09:43that his maternal grandparents,
09:45Eugene Griffith and Ellen Hightower,
09:47were his biological family.
09:49He wasn't expecting
09:50to receive a rude shock
09:52when he appeared
09:52on Finding Your Roots
09:53in 2016.
09:54Genetic genealogy revealed
09:56that his mother,
09:57Andrea,
09:58had been adopted,
09:59something she herself
10:00had never known.
10:01That's heavy.
10:04I mean,
10:05you know,
10:07you couldn't have told me
10:08in a thousand years
10:09and a million years
10:10that this was the case
10:11in my life.
10:12Cece Moore identified
10:13her biological parents
10:15as Ethel May Jolly
10:16and Nathaniel Christy Lewis.
10:18And LL eventually met members
10:20of this newly discovered family,
10:22including his biological grandmother.
10:24But LL was careful
10:25about what it meant emotionally.
10:27He said discovering the truth
10:28did not lessen his love
10:30for the grandparents
10:30who raised him.
10:31If anything,
10:32he expressed feeling
10:33even more respect for them.
10:35I mean,
10:35it's sad,
10:36you know,
10:36but at the same time,
10:38it's...
10:39She was my grandma.
10:40Mm-hmm.
10:41Absolutely.
10:42Biologically,
10:43she wasn't,
10:43but spiritually,
10:45she absolutely will always be.
10:47Julia Roberts.
10:49You ever hear that name?
10:50No.
10:50Well,
10:51I want to tell you about it.
10:52Would you please turn the page?
10:55Subtle is not anything
10:56anyone's ever called
10:57anyone in my family,
10:58by the way.
10:59Hollywood icon
11:00Julia Roberts
11:01expected Finding Your Roots
11:03to illuminate her family tree,
11:04but DNA research
11:06instead challenged
11:07the surname
11:07at the heart of it.
11:08Researchers discovered
11:10that the man listed
11:11as her paternal
11:11great-great-grandfather,
11:13Willis Roberts,
11:14was not her biological ancestor.
11:16Willis Roberts
11:17could not possibly
11:19be your great-great-grandfather.
11:20He was dead.
11:22But, oh,
11:23wait,
11:24but am I not a Roberts?
11:26Well,
11:26let's see what we found.
11:27Her actual biological ancestor
11:29was Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr.,
11:32which means her paternal line
11:33at that point in history
11:35did not carry
11:36the Roberts surname
11:37at all.
11:38Roberts reacted
11:38with disbelief.
11:40I bet nobody knew.
11:41Well,
11:42everybody near that farm
11:43knew
11:43because her husband
11:44wasn't there
11:45and she was still
11:45having babies.
11:46Wow.
11:49Is my head
11:50on straight still?
11:51Am I facing you?
11:53The legendary actress
11:55had built her entire
11:56professional identity
11:57around that name,
11:58so her shock
11:59was understandable.
12:00Still,
12:00she emphasized
12:01that her family
12:02was her family
12:03and with a smile
12:04that she preferred
12:05the name Roberts.
12:06I do prefer
12:07the name Roberts.
12:08That is your name.
12:11Um,
12:13yeah,
12:14that's,
12:15this was
12:16a very unexpected turn,
12:18doctor.
12:20Lawrence Fishburne.
12:21Up until the time
12:22I was about 49 years old,
12:24I was led to believe
12:25that a man named
12:26Lawrence John Fishburne Jr.
12:27was my biological father
12:29and he was my dad.
12:31He showed up,
12:32gave me his name,
12:34um,
12:35but that's not true.
12:36Lawrence Fishburne
12:37received one of the most
12:38literal identity shakeups
12:40in Finding Your Roots history.
12:42The actor,
12:42who has gone by that name
12:43all his life,
12:44learned that Y-DNA
12:46from his direct paternal line
12:47did not match
12:48the Fishburne surname.
12:50Instead,
12:51his strongest surname matches
12:52pointed to Bohannon.
12:54Biologically,
12:55that is your surname.
12:57So all this time,
12:59you have been
13:00Lawrence Bohannon
13:02pretending to be,
13:03people take stage names.
13:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:05I'm Bohannon's boy,
13:07whoever Bohannon was.
13:08Fishburne had never
13:09heard the name,
13:10but further DNA research
13:11identified his
13:12biological father
13:13as William Siegel Bohannon
13:15and his paternal grandparents
13:17as Mervyn Hilliard Bohannon
13:18and Loretta Constance Sandridge.
13:21That's my dad.
13:22That's your father.
13:25That's cool.
13:26Thank you, Skip.
13:28What's it like finally
13:29to see his face?
13:30It's so nice to see his face
13:32and to see him smiling.
13:34Fishburne took the revelation
13:35in stride,
13:36joking that he was
13:37Bohannon's boy,
13:38yet underneath the humor
13:39was something profound.
13:40He had suddenly gained
13:41a biological history
13:43he had never known
13:44he possessed.
13:44You know,
13:45there's a certain amount
13:46of joy that I feel now.
13:47Mm-hmm.
13:48Yeah.
13:49Because I know
13:50I come from somewhere.
13:51Yeah.
13:52You know?
13:55Are you a musician,
13:56singer, producer,
13:57or band?
13:58Sound Mojo
13:59is committing $50,000
14:00to turn our demos
14:01into real recordings.
14:05Earned $1,000 per song
14:07or $500
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14:10Think you can bring
14:11our music to life
14:12and make it even better?
14:13Apply to the Sound Mojo
14:15label fund today.
14:21Fred Armisen.
14:22Prior to his appearance
14:23on Finding Your Roots,
14:25Fred Armisen always believed
14:26he was a quarter Japanese
14:27through his paternal grandfather,
14:29Masami Kuni.
14:30I really enjoyed meeting him.
14:32He was really, really intense.
14:34I know that he was a choreographer,
14:36that he traveled.
14:37Mm-hmm.
14:38I think he had a school
14:39in California, maybe?
14:41That's as far as I know.
14:43However,
14:43the show's researchers
14:44uncovered something
14:45that changed everything.
14:46His grandfather's original name
14:49was Pakkyung-ing,
14:50and he was Korean.
14:51He had adopted
14:52a Japanese identity
14:53after the massacre
14:54of Koreans in 1923.
14:56So am I Korean?
15:00No.
15:01You're Korean,
15:02not Japanese.
15:03Well,
15:04that changes
15:04many, many things.
15:06Armisen was visibly stunned
15:08because he had spent years
15:09incorporating what he believed
15:11were Japanese traits
15:12into his identity.
15:13He admitted that he loved
15:14Japanese food
15:15and had associated
15:16that preference
15:17with being part Japanese.
15:18Now, he had to reconsider
15:19those assumptions.
15:21You understand that I tell people
15:22that I have interviews
15:24where I say,
15:26I am a quarter Japanese.
15:27Because you thought
15:27you were a quarter Japanese,
15:29but genetically,
15:29you're a quarter Korean.
15:32I'm not Japanese at all.
15:33The discovery did more
15:35than correct
15:35a family tree detail.
15:37Armisen later described it
15:38as a complete redefinition
15:40of who he was.
15:41Just because I think
15:42we all assign qualities
15:45to nationalities.
15:47So the fact that
15:48I love Japanese food,
15:49I just assume it's like,
15:51well, it's because
15:51I'm part Japanese.
15:52You like kimchi?
15:54I guess I'll have to now.
15:56Have you ever had
15:57a family discovery
15:58that changed everything?
15:59Let us know
16:00in the comments.
16:05We'll see you next time.
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