Celebs with the most interesting ancestry

Jackie Onassis had a black ancestor who was the first black doctor in the civil war or something. Her father was very dark hence the 'Black Jack' nickname.

Boring.

r2 do you often read things you find boring?

I'm bewildered that people don't know about their ancestors or the history of their families and where they came from. Ty Burrell's grandmothers' ethnicity must have been kept a secret within the family out of shame/racism for him not to know.

Whoppi Golberg has an interesting story. Though I wish I could recall more details, I'm going to try my best not to leave anything out.

Though she has been quite outspoken on "The White Man" holding her people down, and had always assumed some slave narrative as her own ancestors', what she discovered was quite shocking. Her family were not only one of the earliest of African free people to settle, they were quite well off to begin with. Through shrewd dealing, eventually amassed enough land that the family owned nearly an entire county.

Not only did her family own slaves, but they ate almost considered royalty, as their records are the oldest to be traced for African Americans according to Dr. Gates. Whoppi's ancestors went on to owning a school at one point, which I suppose was the bright point in her ancestors story. They however did not educate slaves, only free people of colour.

To my great surprise, Whoppi did not seem overwhelmed with guilt, or other strong emotion.

^ are almost considered

I did not know that about Whoopi.

Actress, Q'Orianka Kilcher, who is of Quechua origins, is the first cousin of Alaskan singer, Jewell - no lie.

R7 Had very philosophical things to say about how so many, not just African Americans have this tendency to believe some popular "narrative" about our ancestors, even though many haven't a clue, or never made the attempt at researching their histories. He was awfully gracious to Whoppi, yet it seemed he was sort of telling her at the same time, "See, this never happened...!".

Along the same lines of logic and surprise as R4's remarks, I'm quite bewildered by how anyone could simply assume they were the descendants of slaves without first checking. Ava DuVernay has a fascinating history in a very similar regard. It's at least on one side of her parents' family tree. They were wealthy slave owners as well. Originally free people who left France for Haiti, then it gets complicated. To her credit, Ava is shocked and dismayed, and quite emotional about the whole business. She's another celebrity worth watching on [italic] Finding Your Roots [/italic].

The most fascinating is Dr. Gates' own genetic tests He tests to have more Celtic and Irish ancestry than African. In an early episode, he gets to meet his Irish relatives.

^ Dr. Gates had...

I think of indentured servants as slaves. I thought a lot of Chinese people were slaves in Hawaii and probably other countries. It can effect a family for generations.

Fred Arminston has a very interesting Grandfather...you would never guess by looking at him.

Catherine Oxenberg owns this thread. Royal Royal and more Royal. Her maternal grandparents RIUKED Yugoslavia as prince and princess regent, one of them was a first cousin of price Phillip. Her mother, HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia is second cousin to Prince Charles. I think she’s got Romanov blood in her and a few drops of just about every Royal House there ever was. Yet, Jewish on her fathers side.

R5 I did not know that about Whoppy. Why did they eat royalty? Better taste or ritual?

This will be so confusing, you know. Does this mean that Ty Burrell will be excused from paying reparations, or be eligible to receive them?

They werent slaves, they were VOLUNTEERS.

I grew up in a van down by the side of the river.

My mother's a humble black yoga teacher, my father and step siblings are white trailer trash but I married up and my husbands' family have exquisite pedigree.

[quote] Ty Burrell's grandmothers' ethnicity must have been kept a secret within the family out of shame/racism for him not to know.

Perhaps racism and not shame, they are not the same. Out of necessity. Most states had laws limiting rights of blacks -- property ownership, owning firearms -- and enforcing segregation. Anyone with any black ancestry was regarded as "black" by law as this was intended to prevent blacks from escaping slavery. Those laws remain on the books and were enforced for a century after slavery to disposess "blacks" of property and livelihood. Even during Burrell's lifetime that knowledge could have been used against his family.

This is an old story, btw.

Jackie, Lee, there's no damn negro in your fathers' family! They were Jewish and your father's tan is caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

[quote] To my great surprise, Whoppi did not seem overwhelmed with guilt, or other strong emotion.

Why would she feel guilty? Because her family didn't educate slaves? There would have been no way to provide education to slaves unless you were their owner.

'Ty Burrell's grandmothers' ethnicity must have been kept a secret within the family out of shame/racism for him not to know.'

'Perhaps racism and not shame, they are not the same'

As far as I know / means ' and or', not 'equates to the same' but you know everything.

[quote]Jackie Onassis had a black ancestor

I guess that explains why she was On Assistance.

Jackie O = Welfare Queen!

BILL TAYLOR'S mother is Ruth Taylor!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Courteney Cox has royal ancestry. My dad was excited to see this episode because our family line was traced back to the same ancestor.

Both of Jaden Smith's parents are gay.

Scarlett Johansson’s episode of Finding Your Roots was kind of weird to me. When I Googled it, several Jewish websites came up with stories like these about how she cried when she learned about her family being swept up in the Holocaust.

But my recollection from watching the segment was that she seemed a lot more interested in her Scandinavian roots than her Jewish ones. She told the host that her father always called her a “Viking princess” and so she was excited to find out about her Viking heritage. If I remember correctly, she thought she was Norwegian and it turned out that no, she wasn’t, she had very poor, migrant roots in Norway, but they were Swedish refugees...or something. Anyway, I remember that as the part of the story the show focused on and the only part she really seemed invested in, but I can’t find anything about that part online. She definitely seemed a lot more emotionally invested in her father’s “Viking” background though than her mother’s Jewish background.

R13 I had corrected my typo @ R6... Perhaps you missed that. R20, I haven't had two winks of sleep, so a thousand apologies if my writing is vague, or there's a dangling modifier, etc... I wasn't referring to guilt about her ancestors not educating slaves or indentured servants, but the mere fact her family had owned slaves for a very long history. Many who come on this show, who happen to learn this, have been taken to task so to speak, for not feeling or behaving remorseful enough. (Reba MacIntyre, for one)

I suppose it could be perceived as even worse, if you happen to descend from Africans, and you simply assumed some victimhood all your life that your ancestors had been enslaved as Whoppi had. She told Dr. Gates, there was no oral family history either. She just ran with that narrative.

To be proved wrong, and also realise one's family had owned slaves is sort of a kicker, don't you think? The victimhood reversed, as her ancestors were the oppressors. I should think if I were her, I would have been mortified, and offered some serious regrets, if not showed some emotion. Whoopie remains quite cold throughout. It's quite odd to watch; perhaps she was in shock, but I would think she would have been briefed.

I just don't know how these supposed intelligent celebrities have no idea about their interesting forebears. I guess they're too self involved to care about anyone but themselves, especially anyone that came before them.

Oprah thinks she's related to Elvis. Lisa Maree kind of verified it but it looked like she was just agreeing with Oprah. Lisa Maree is too stupid and drugged out to look into it herself. Oprah's grandmother's surname was Presley.

R12 She could very well be descended from King David on her father's side as well. There are genetic tests which clame to prove the Davidic lineage.

R20 You seem to miss the most important part of my posts on Whoopi... They were slave owners. So, surely they could have chosen to educate them, if they were so inclined, considering they owned a renowned school for people of colour.

R13 Quick, catch my other autocorrect typo @ R31... Clame! Can you believe that!

Lupita Nyong’o probably has a Chinese ancestry. Her father talked about it at some point in this interview (but I'm too lazy to pinpoint).

Sorry, not that Colbert interview. This is the interview where her father talked about it.

Slavery was a well-established institution in the British Isles for hundreds of years before British people got involved in the African slave trade--British people were themselves occupied by the slave-owning Romans and then abducted as slaves by Viking raiders. So owning slaves was seen as a normal, sensible way to obtain necessary labor at an affordable cost by British settlers in the New World, and not just in the South. Remember Tituba, the enslaved African that got caught up in the Salem witch trials? Abolition was a truly radical idea and only really started to get traction after the Industrial Revolution started producing machines that were more practical for some agricultural applications than slave labor.

Our father was a man now he's still a man with no penis or testicles with silicon pumped into his chest.

Oh shit I know my ancestry from other family members to when I had my genes sequenced. It turns out my Italian side is about 1/3 from Italy itself, another 1/3 from Sardinia with little bits of Ashkenazi Jewish and Native American thrown in. Even know my Native American tribe - Mohawk.

It's fascinating - my family were essentially rolling stones. Fucked any and everything. :Explains a lot.

R36 ^ Tituba... the African WHO was caught up with...

You're wrong about British peoples' views on slavery at the time as well. It wasn't a small minority opposed to the practise. The abolitionists were quite popular in Britain, and of formidable numbers way before British colonists caught on. There are highly collected historic Jasperware and Basalt Wedgwood commemorative plaques which celebrate the movement, and its luminaries. Not everyone approved. Is that what they teach in American History curriculum?

Tituba was from Barbados, people.

Cheers R40. Appreciate the correction. I was merely cleaning up R36's "English".

We all have different fathers and different lineages because our mom is a liberated woman!

I always thought that Anderson Cooper had an "interesting" life as a child.

Carol Channing's father was the son of an African-American mother and his father German immigrants.

Another guest of Dr. Gates I found rather interesting is Margaret Cho. It turns out she's not really Korean at all, but Chinese. Her family descends from one of the emperors. At the end, she's presented with a fascinating scroll of family history that went back the longest in time of any of his guests.

I love this show. It's leagues above [italic] Who Do You Think You Are [/italic].

R22 must me related to David Duke. He's got klan robe in his blood.

Penn Badgley

Ethnicity: Irish, English, smaller amounts of French-Canadian, German, Scottish, likely around 1/16th or 1/32 African-Jamaican, and remote Dutch, Welsh, and French Huguenot

One of Penn’s paternal great-grandfathers was a Jamaican immigrant, and was almost certainly of at least part African-Jamaican descent. The rest of Penn’s roots are Irish, English, smaller amounts of French-Canadian, German, and Scottish, and remote Dutch, Welsh, and French Huguenot.

R47 At least within another few generations, that will be a pretty typical heritage of most white Americans, likely with some Mesoamerican mixed in.

it was illegal to teach slaves. so if they did, there would certainly be no record of it.

R30, wouldn't be that hard to believe considering they're both from MS and Elvis has the coloring and talent of someone who clearly isn't "Lawrence Welk" white.

French model, Willy Cartier, is the son of Artist, Jack Servoz, who is ethnically Breton. Willy's mother, Lea Cartier, is part Vietnamese, Senegalese and French.

Willy's African/ Asian relatives.

[quote]I never really thought of white people having slave ancestors and wonder how common it is. Sad no matter who it happened to.

Is OP suggesting that having black ancestry is "sad" and some sort of tragedy that "happened to" unsuspecting and unfortunate "whites"?

If so, that's a rather racist view and statement.

If he's just a sloppy writer and the "it" referred to slavery and not slave ancestry, then no criticism intended

If you're a purebred, it means you're inbred. Ask Conan O' Brien.

Re: Whoopi, the show traced one ancestor's lineage to slave owners, but what about the other ancestors? And Margaret Cho, one branch may have lead to Chinese emperors, but what about all the other branches? These shows are edited to focus on just a few of the more interesting family histories. But there are many more stories in our family trees that aren't as interesting as being royalty or pioneers.

R53, with DL, I understand the confusion considering the sicko white supremacist/Neo-Nazi faction of DL, but I'm pretty sure he meant relations via (slave) rape.

Uninteresting ancestors would make for great TV! Dumbass, r55 ...

Willy's mother

I was responding to comments about Whoopi not being descended from slaves and Margaret Cho not really being Korean. Just because one branch reveals differently, doesn't mean other branches do not prove otherwise.

Liv Tyler. One of her ancestors was black and was a drummer in the northern army.

Almost everybody is black then. haha.

You think R61 knows how truly dumb he is?

R62 Oh look. It's the resident ANGRY BLACK MAN on DL. Here we go again. haha. Go listen to Beyonce and calm down.

well, R62, all of y'all did come from Africa

Margaret Cho and Chinese emperors? That makes a lot of sense. She's very commanding in her stand up.

[quote][R62] Oh look. It's the resident ANGRY BLACK MAN on DL. Here we go again. haha. Go listen to Beyonce and calm down.

"Beyonce" "Angry Black Man"

So I guess we can throw in "not a psychic" and really lame with your shitty knowledge of history. You're just a ball of stupid, eh?

Shouldn't you be on whatever loser site replaced gab and picking out like some Avatar featuring a character from 300 or a Crusader with a giant St. George's flag because you have zero going except sitting around being a dumb racist?

Does this mean that Ty Burrell will be eligible for reparations?

R66 YUP. haha. Thats you alright. Accusing everyone of being racist is your go to. Talk about lame. Get a new schtick.

Why can no one in this thread spell

W H O O P I

correctly?

Not Whoppi, nor Whoppy.

[quote] Margaret Cho, one branch may have lead to Chinese emperors, but what about all the other branches? These shows are edited to focus on just a few of the more interesting family histories.

True, they are edited to maximize drama and/or interesting stories.

Understandably so, because once you go back more than 4-5 generations, trees can get quite dense with ancestors. It would be hard to show on TV at the level where you have 64 great great great grandparents in that particular generation!

I'm not racist!

I have a color TV.

R68, you're fucking dumb. You don't know where human civilization began - clearly. When you write something as stupid as you did and that's pointed out, so your immediate response is some low IQ racist bullshit about Beyonce (who I never even listen to) and "Angry Black Man" (strike two), then WTF else are you but a dumb racist and a troll?

R72 Don't be tight. haha.

Why can no one in this thread spell W H O O P I correctly? Not Whoppi, nor Whoppy.

They're doing it on purpose. Why can't aspies understand irony, sarcasm and wit?

[quote] As far as I know / means ' and or', not 'equates to the same' but you know everything.

I know ALMOST everything and I do know that the symbol "/" has no universal grammatical or semantic meaning other than "divided by."

My father's family has been in this country for over 300 years, and I always expected some native American and possibly black DNA to be in there, especially because my family name is much more common among black people than among white people. (My mother is 100% Irish - both parents born in Ireland). However, according to 23andme, we are 99%+ European. That won't be true in future generations. The only ones of my nephews with my last name who have procreated are half-Asian, and their children are more than half-Asian, because they married women who were of Asian or mixed-Asian heritage.

r75 I think most people know it as 'and or'

and so do you

r75 then why did you read racism/shame as being the same?

Here is Whooping Goldberg on Donahue with Billy Crackpipe and Robin Williamsburg.

How did he get 3 A listers on?

Van Salee, r2. She and Humphrey Bogart both descend from this mixed race slaveowner.

you mean it ain't "whopee?"

Ali Krieger's 2x great grandfather is Benjamin Harrison.

A government study from the sixties claimed that ten percent of white Americans had varying degrees of sub Saharan African ancestry. Some of the oldest families in America. Before slavery became a thing, most Africans came here as indentured servants and they married and fucked who they wanted. I find it hilarious because some of the families in question are so WASP-y and whitebread you’d never guess. And then some people knew that they were black and chose to pass for white, sometimes breaking ties with their more ethnically identifiable black family members. It was the best way to get access to the best jobs, housing, the social autonomy that came with being white in America.