Top 20 Most Emotional Reveals on Finding Your Roots

#20: Shonda Rhimes

Like many celebrities who appear on “Finding Your Roots,” TV producer Shonda Rhimes longed to uncover the hidden stories of her family, particularly on her father’s side. To fill this knowledge gap, the show’s researchers turned to historical records. The 1900 census revealed the names of her paternal great-great-grandparents, Anna Watson and Burrell Love, who were born before the civil war. Another census document from Anna’s teenage years showed her living with her mother, Matilda, Rhimes’ third great-grandmother. Rhimes was astonished by how far back the records reached, but what truly overwhelmed her was a personal coincidence. As a child, she had always planned to name her child Matilda, unaware she was honoring an ancestor who bore the same name.

#19: Christopher Meloni

During his appearance on the seventh season of “Finding Your Roots,” actor Christopher Meloni got to know more about his paternal ancestry. His great-grandfather Enrico Meloni, was born in Italy and endured a childhood that was plagued by unimaginable hardship. Shortly after he was born, Enrico was abandoned by his parents and taken in by a nurse who cared for him only until he was about 12 years old. After that, he was left completely on his own. Yet, against all odds, Enrico managed to move to America and build a new life for himself. When Meloni reflected on the resilience and sacrifice it must have taken for Enrico to survive, he couldn’t help but be moved to tears.

#18: Dustin Hoffman

Growing up, actor Dustin Hoffman knew little to nothing about his paternal great-grandparents. In fact, he only learned their names when he appeared on “Finding Your Roots” in 2016. Apparently, Hoffman’s father had deliberately kept their history from him to shield him from the trauma they endured. Hoffman’s great-grandparents, Sam and Libba Hoffman, were reportedly arrested during anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire. Sam was tragically killed, while Libba survived five years in a concentration camp, before escaping and ultimately making her way to America. Hearing this for the first time shattered Hoffman. However, it also made him more grateful for his ancestors’ sacrifices and strengthened his pride in his Jewish heritage.

#17: Sheryl Lee Ralph

Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph has always viewed her family as resilient and determined, no matter the odds stacked against them. On the 11th season of “Finding Your Roots,” she uncovered even deeper evidence of that resilience. Ralph learned that her paternal great-great-grandfather, a man named George Thomas Ralph, was born free. However, when he entered an apprenticeship with a white farmer, he was denied the right to read and write solely because of his race. Surprisingly, George defied those barriers. He taught himself, gained an education and went on to establish his own farm – an extraordinary achievement for that period. The magnitude of his story was not lost on Ralph, who tearfully expressed how proud it made her feel.

#16: Don Lemon

From a broad perspective, slavery was a devastating period in history. But even when you zoom in on the small details, its horror becomes all the more unbearable. News anchor Don Lemon was confronted with this reality when he uncovered the story of his own ancestors. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented Lemon with a document listing the estate of a plantation owner. This document included the names and ages of some of Lemon’s ancestors, who were held as slaves on the plantation, along with the dollar amount assigned to their worth. Reading this figure aloud filled Lemon with emotion, as he was left grappling with the dehumanizing cruelty of the practice.

#15: Iliza Shlesinger

Stand-up comic Iliza Shlesinger had a tangible connection to the Holocaust. But she never knew about it until she appeared on “Finding Your Roots” in 2024. That link came through her great-grandmother, Esther, who left Poland for the United States before the Holocaust began. However, she left behind at least two siblings, who became victims of that harrowing era. After the Nazis invaded Poland, Esther’s brother, Lipa, was captured and forced into the walled ghetto of his town, Mława. From there, he was sent to Auschwitz, where his life was tragically cut short. For Shlesinger, learning about Lipa’s fate felt like discovering a missing piece of her own story, one that carried a sorrow she never imagined she would inherit.

#14: Questlove

At the start of his episode, Questlove promised himself he wouldn’t cry. But he had no idea the powerful revelations that lay ahead. Questlove learned about his third great-grandparents, Charles and Maggie Lewis, who were captured from present-day Benin and brought to the United States as slaves. Their arrival was illegal, since slavery had already been abolished at the time. Through extensive research, the show’s team traced other descendants of the Lewises and uncovered a rare photograph of Charles, which they presented to Questlove. Coming face-to-face with his ancestor gave the Oscar-winning entertainer a profound sense of identity and belonging, so profound that he broke his promise to himself and cried tears of joy.

#13: Maya Rudolph

“Saturday Night Live” alum Maya Rudolph came on “Finding Your Roots” eager to explore a part of her family history she knew little about: her mother’s African-American heritage. On the show, Rudolph discovered her maternal great-great-great-grandfather, James Grigsby, who was born into slavery in Lincoln County, Kentucky. The team was able to trace his origins using a census document from 1860 that identified him not by name, but only by sex and age. Realizing how young James was at the time and the experiences he endured moved Rudolph to tears, especially since she has children around the same age. Still, discovering this part of her life made her feel less alone in this vast world.

#12: Mandy Patinkin

The horrors of the Holocaust are near impossible to fathom, even for Mandy Patinkin who has built a career portraying human pain on stage and screen. While he had always known he descended from Jewish immigrants, Patinkin never realized that members of his own family were among the victims. He learned that some of his relatives from Bransk, a town in northeastern Poland, were rounded up and sent to the Treblinka concentration camp, where they were killed. Patinkin barely finished reading out the gory details of their deaths before he broke down in tears. He recalled asking his father about this in the past but never receiving an answer, perhaps because his family chose not to burden him with the truth.

#11: John Lewis

In 1965, the late John Lewis led a bold march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, demanding that African-Americans be allowed to exercise their right to vote. The peaceful march descended into the infamous “Bloody Sunday,” when Lewis and his fellow demonstrators were attacked by law enforcement. Lewis was a guest on the first season of “Finding Your Roots,” where he discovered a striking parallel between his own life and that of his great-great-grandfather, Tobias Carter. In 1867, after he gained his freedom, Carter wasted no time in registering to vote in Alabama, becoming one of the first formerly enslaved people to do so. For Lewis, that throughline across generations was almost too powerful to bear and it left him wiping away tears.

#10: Pamela Adlon

Actress Pamela Adlon went on “Finding Your Roots” in 2022 to validate a long-held rumor in her family: that her mother was the product of an extramarital affair. Through an arduous research process, the show ultimately confirmed that the rumor was indeed right. Adlon discovered that her actual grandfather was not the man she had known all her life; instead, it was someone else named Joseph Walthew. Further investigation revealed that Walthew had another daughter named Gloria, who shared a 25% DNA match with Adlon’s mother, making them half-sisters. Remarkably, Gloria was found to still be alive and well. Adlon was overwhelmed by this revelation and could not contain her excitement to share the news with her mother.

#9: Claire Danes

Claire Danes was named after her paternal grandmother when she was born, but beyond that, she didn’t know much about the other Claire Danes. On a 2023 episode of “Finding Your Roots,” Danes discovered that she and her grandmother shared so much in common. It turned out that her grandmother, like herself, was deeply involved in theater, directing local productions and even writing her master’s thesis on William Shakespeare. This connection was particularly poignant for Danes who had her breakthrough role in the 1996 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” After years of wondering about her grandmother’s life, learning about their shared passion was enough to bring Danes to tears.

#8: Tamera Mowry

The horrors of slavery will forever be agonizing regardless of how many times they are recounted. For actress Tamera Mowry, it was particularly distressing to find out about the harrowing ordeal suffered by her third great-grandmother, Margaret Rolle, who was born into slavery in the Bahamas. At a mere nine years of age, Rolle was already listed in an official document as a field laborer, a reality that was incomprehensible to Mowry. The actress was further overcome with emotion as she contemplated the unimaginable journey her ancestor was left to endure to attain freedom following the abolition of slavery.

#7: Sterling K. Brown

Although African-Americans trace their origins to individuals forcibly brought from Africa, it is rare to find people who were directly born on the continent in their family lineage. This is because by the time African-Americans were first identified by name in the 1870 federal census, most of those born in Africa had already passed away. One of such rare cases occurred with actor Sterling K. Brown. On “Finding Your Roots,” Brown discovered that his fifth great-grandparents were among the few native-born Africans who were still alive when the census took place. While their exact country of birth was not specified on the document, the revelation still had a profound impact on Brown.

#6: Regina King

The third great-grandfather of actress and director Regina King was a man named Bob Kane, who was born into slavery. At a very young age, Kane was treated like a piece of property, passed among the family members who enslaved him. Reflecting on such a harsh reality compared with her own life at the same age brought King to tears. Her sorrow eventually turned to joy when she learned that after slavery ended and voting rights were granted to formerly enslaved people, Kane immediately registered to vote. Despite being unable to read or write at the time, Kane was determined to exercise this fundamental right, which filled King with immense happiness.

#5: Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson’s roots trace back to Poland and Russia, with her maternal ancestors migrating to New York City in the early 20th century. Although Johansson had prior knowledge of this ancestry, it was on “Finding Your Roots” that she uncovered the fate of her relatives who remained in Europe. Her maternal great-grandfather, Saul Schlamberg, had a brother named Moishe, whom he left behind in Grojec, Poland. Through a document retrieved from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel, Johansson discovered that Moishe and some of his children lost their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto. This revelation not only made her cry, but it admittedly also helped her to consider her heritage in a new way.

#4: LeVar Burton

“Roots” actor LeVar Burton indeed found out more about his roots when he appeared on the show in 2024. For 23 years, Burton hosted the educational series “Reading Rainbow” on PBS, becoming an advocate for children’s literacy. On “Finding Your Roots,” Burton discovered that his passion for education, which he once attributed solely to his mother, may have also come from the ancestors of his father, from whom he had been estranged for decades. A 1940 Arkansas census document revealed that both his grandfather, Aaron C. Burton, and great-grandfather, Pearl B. Burton, served as school superintendents. This struck Burton profoundly, as he realized how deeply his family’s legacy had influenced his own advocacy, despite not being aware of it initially.

#3: David Duchovny

The ancestors of actor David Duchovny faced an arduous journey from their homeland before establishing their roots in the U.S. Upon learning that his grandfather, Moshe, was born in Russia, Duchovny was immediately brought to tears. He further discovered that Moshe and his family were part of about one million Jews who left Russia to escape anti-Semitic violence. However, even after moving to Jaffa, in present-day Israel, the discrimination continued, and they were eventually deported to Egypt. Moshe and his father ultimately sailed to the United States, and settled in New York. Their resilience in seeking a better home and securing a stable future for their descendants deeply touched Duchovny and left him with a sense of pride.

#2: Tracy Morgan

Before the Civil War, only a small fraction of Black people living in America were not enslaved. One of them was Wiley Wharton, who happens to be the third great-grandfather of comedian Tracy Morgan. This fact came to light because Wharton was listed by name in the 1860 census. For Morgan, the revelation that his ancestor didn’t have to endure being enslaved brought him a mixed feeling of relief and intense emotion. However, although Wharton was free, his wife, Judy, and their children were still in slavery. Fast forward a decade, after the practice had been abolished, records indicate that Wharton, Judy and their children all remained together, and learned to read and write.

#1: Pharrell Williams

Few African-Americans have gotten the opportunity to trace their enslaved ancestors. And even fewer are lucky enough to read their first-hand testimonies. In a 2021 episode of “Finding Your Roots,” acclaimed musician Pharrell Williams was introduced to his great-great-great-aunt Jane Arrington. Arrington was a participant in the Slave Narratives Project in the 1930s and provided a detailed account of her years spent living as an enslaved person. Through her words, Williams gained insight into her harrowing experiences, and was able to reflect on the hardships that she and many others like her were forced to endure. He also discovered that Arrington’s brother, Fenner Williams, his great-great-grandfather, spent the first decade of his life enslaved.

What other harrowing “Finding Your Roots” revelations did we miss? Trace them out in the comments below.