Top 30 Darkest Family Reveals on Finding Your Roots

#30: Joyce Willis

While Finding Your Roots typically focuses on celebrities, the season 10 finale dived into the ancestry of three everyday Americans. One of them, Joyce Willis, hoped to discover if Robert G. Willis, the man believed to be her great-grandfather, actually was. The investigation revealed surprising details about Robert and his wife, Elnora. Researchers uncovered that while Elnora was still nursing their baby, Robert had hit her, an offense that wouldve landed him in jail if Elnora hadnt begged the judge. Their turmoil didnt end there. Just months later, their baby, Robert Jr., died at just seven months old. Aware of the state of her great-grandparents marriage, Willis reflected that such a loss likely deepened the cracks in their already fragile relationship.

#29: Terrie Morrow

The Viewers Like You episode also featured Terrie Morrow, a school bus driver who set out to uncover why Lenora Chambers, her great-grandfather's mother, had abandoned him as a child. Morrow's great-grandfather, Walter Tagger, was only five when Lenora left him with another family. Through the show, she learned that Walter was the product of a relationship between Lenora, who was white, and Hal Moore, a Black man. At the time, interracial relationships were illegal, making it impossible for the couple to stay together. Lenora later married a white man and had two more children, one of whom died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Though Morrow struggled with Lenoras decision, she ultimately came to see it as an act that ensured Walters survival and, eventually, her own existence.

#28: Ed ONeill

Hes best known for portraying the patriarch of beloved fictional families, but in 2024, Ed ONeill sought to know more about his real family. What he discovered about his third great-grandmother, Bridget Tyrrell, left him both shocked and deeply moved. An Irish immigrant living in Ohio when the civil war broke out, Bridget watched two of her sons join the Union Army. She then decided to serve in her own way. Despite likely having no formal medical training, Bridget made several trips to the battlefields to care for wounded soldiers. In this role, she witnessed unspeakable horrors and often stayed with the dying soldiers in their final moments. When she passed away, her obituary was published in the newspaper, honoring her compassion and selfless service.

#27: Christopher Meloni

For actor Christopher Meloni to be born in America, his paternal great-grandfather, Enrico Meloni, first had to overcome incredible odds to migrate from Italy. In this season 7 episode, Meloni learned that Enrico never knew his parents as he had been abandoned at a church when he was a baby. He managed to survive his childhood thanks to a nurse who cared for him, but that support ended when he was just 12 years old, forcing him to fend for himself. Although such experiences were common for orphans in Italy at the time, that didnt make the revelation any less harrowing for Meloni. As he processed the hardships Enrico had to endure, Meloni grew emotional and was ultimately brought to tears.

#26: Ted Danson

Actor Ted Danson Dansons tenth great-grandmother was Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan who emigrated from England to Colonial Massachusetts and soon challenged the strict norms of her community. Hutchinson held gatherings in her home where she encouraged women to think critically and interpret sermons on their own. That would be celebrated today, but back in the 17th century, it was a radical step. After claiming she could communicate directly with God, Hutchinson was eventually brought to trial for heresy. At her hearing, she gave a defiant speech, asserting that her fate rested with God and not the court. Though she was convicted and banished from the colony, Hutchinson is now remembered as a feminist icon and a trailblazer for religious freedom.

#25: Eric Stonestreet

As a child, Eric Stonestreet shared a close bond with his grandmother, Helen Heath, so when he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019, he took the opportunity to explore her ancestry. Helens grandfather Wilhelm Kiekert had emigrated from Germany to America in his early 20s. He settled in Kansas, where he bought land and started a farm with his family. However, after the U.S. entered World War I, the government grew suspicious of German immigrants and required them to register or face arrest. As a result, Wilhelm and his wife, Anna, were forced to register as alien enemies of the state and were treated like criminals. They endured this discrimination until the war ended, after which Wilhelm became a naturalized American citizen.

#24: Lupita Nyong'o

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o came on Finding Your Roots to learn more about her father, Anyang' Nyong'o. A political science professor, Anyang' was a key figure in the fight for democracy during the autocratic rule of President Daniel Moi in Kenya. In 1980, his family was informed that his younger brother, Charles, had died, but they later suspected he had been deliberately killed as a warning. Despite this, Anyang' continued to hold secret political meetings in his house. When the government discovered these gatherings, he was abducted and held in a torture facility for several weeks. Nevertheless, he remained committed to advancing democracy in Kenya. Anyang's resilience eventually led to his election to the Kenyan Senate and later, his appointment as Governor of Kisumu County.

#23: Brendan Fraser

For Oscar-winning actor Brendan Fraser, the dark revelation in his ancestry was far more than a family dispute or hidden secret it involved an attempted murder. In season 10, Fraser learned about his great-great-grandfather, Patrick Devine, who emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. as a child, and worked as a coal miner. When their wages were reduced, Patrick and his fellow miners went on strike, only to be replaced by new workers. In response, Patrick and another engineer tried to kill their replacements by shooting them, but they fortunately survived. Despite this being a crime, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. found no records of Patrick being charged. In fact, he later returned to the same job and managed to purchase his own home.

#22: Don Lemon

Its heartbreaking to fathom a human being being treated as the property of another. And its even more disturbing to think of a monetary value being placed on such lives. TV anchor Don Lemon confronted this painful reality when he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2021. Lemon was shown a document listing the names of some of his ancestors who were held as slaves at a plantation. The records, compiled after the death of the plantations mistress, included not only their names and ages, but also their appraised worth in dollars. As Lemon read this figure aloud, he was overcome with emotion and couldnt stop himself from shedding tears.

#21: Michael Imperioli

The infrastructure we enjoy today was built through tireless hard work and, at times, painful human sacrifice. Actor Michael Imperiolis family suffered one such tragedy during the development of the New York City subway system. Back in the early 20th century, his great-grandfather, Giovanni Luzzi, worked as a car cleaner for the trains. However, his life came to a shocking end in 1919 when he was struck by a train while working on the tracks in the Bronx. This sudden loss meant that his young wife was left to raise their children all on her own. The absence of a father had a lasting impact on the young family, and it reportedly led to Imperiolis grandfather, Alberto Luzzi, acting out as a child.

#20: Alanis Morissette

Canadian rock artist Alanis Morissette didnt learn about her Jewish ancestry until she was in her late 20s. On Finding Your Roots, she uncovered even more details about that side of her family, particularly the fate of her great uncles Gyorgy and Sandor Feuerstein. Both men disappeared during the Holocaust, leaving their family with no answers. However, using records at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, the shows team dug up those answers. They discovered that the brothers had been sent to work camps in Russia, where they tragically lost their lives. Morissette found this especially heartbreaking, as her grandfather, who escaped the same fate as his brothers and moved to Canada, passed away without ever knowing what happened to them.

#19: Jordan Peele

One often overlooked consequence of the slave trade was the separation of familiesfathers never seeing their kids again; young children forced to grow up on their own. That unfortunate fate befell filmmaker Jordan Peeles great-great-grandmother, Alvania. In 1860, when she was just 12 years old, Alvania was taken away from her parents and brother, and sold into slavery for $1,250. While reflecting on what effects such an experience could have had on the psyche of Alvania and her family, Peele felt a mix of pain and pride. He recognized the psychological trauma they must have endured as a result, and how that may have been passed down through generations.

#18: Lisa Ling

In December 1941, during WWII, Japan invaded Hong Kong, beginning a nearly four-year military occupation that led to widespread starvation and countless deaths. To escape the famine and brutality of Japanese rule, many residents fled on foot to China. One of them was journalist Lisa Lings grandmother, who wrote a book about her harrowing experience making that journey. Ling had actually read the book years earlier, but seeing it again on the show, she was able to reexamine it with a more mature perspective. She was clearly struck by the immense resilience and strength her grandmother showed in embarking on that journey while carrying her family on her back literally.

#17: Justina Machado

The freedoms enjoyed by queer people in some parts of the world today are the result of long, hard-fought battles. Few things highlight the significance of these struggles as clearly as cases like this. On Season 6 of Finding Your Roots, actress Justina Machado discovered a surprising part of her grandfathers past. In his youth, he was sent to the Río Piedras State Penitentiary, one of the most notorious Caribbean prisons, for having sexual relations with another man. At the time, this was considered a crime in the eyes of the law, one that attracted even more prison time for her grandfather while he was already incarcerated.

#16: Wes Studi

Between 1830 and 1850, the U.S. government forcibly displaced around 60,000 Indigenous Americans from their ancestral homelands in what became known as the Trail of Tears. This ethnic cleansing left scars that have impacted generations of Native Americans, including actor Wes Studi. When he appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2024, Studi learned of his maternal third great-grandmother, Big Nancy, who was among those forced to leave their home in Georgia and suffer a grueling journey to Oklahoma. Years after the harrowing ordeal, Nancy filed a claim for compensation, seeking $187 for the properties white settlers had taken from her. Studi reflected on the deep pain this history carries, acknowledging the lasting effects it has had on his people.

#15: Jeff Daniels

During the Salem witch trials of 1692, one of the few men convicted of witchcraft and executed was Samuel Wardwell. Wardwell was a self-professed fortune teller, whose practices apparently drew suspicions of the occult among the locals and led to his conviction. One of the people who testified against him was Captain Thomas Chandler, the eighth great-grandfather of actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels learned this unsettling fact on Finding Your Roots, where he also discovered that Chandler testified against another accused witch, Mary Parker. Unlike Wardwell, Parker was Chandlers neighbor and peer, yet he believed she was using sorcery on his daughter and granddaughter, which prompted his testimony.

#14: Iliza Shlesinger

Although she had always been aware of her Jewish heritage, comedian Iliza Shlesinger never knew she had a direct link to the Holocaust, until she appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2024. In the episode, Shlesinger learned that while her great-grandmother immigrated to the U.S. from Poland before the Holocaust, she left behind at least two brothers. One of them, Lipa, was a textile dealer who was forced into a ghetto in Mawa after the Nazis invaded. He was later sent to Auschwitz, where he tragically lost his life. The revelation brought Shlesinger to tears, as she confronted both the atrocities that her ancestor endured, as well as her newfound connection to the Holocaust.

#13: Sigourney Weaver

Award-winning actress Sigourney Weaver came to Finding Your Roots hoping to uncover a juicy scandal in her ancestral line. What she found, however, was far darker than she expected. Using census records from 1871, the shows researchers discovered that Weavers great-great-grandparents, Josiah and Barbara Hunt, were living apart, despite having a child together. Barbara had moved in with another man, whom Josiah accused her of having an affair with. She became pregnant by this man, but suffered a miscarriage, after which she was institutionalized in a psychiatric facility, where she remained for the rest of her life. Perhaps inspired by this ordeal, Barbaras son, Weavers great-grandfather, later became a doctor in another psychiatric facility, where patients were treated much more humanely.

#12: Scarlett Johansson

Its one thing to hear about your ancestors suffering a tragic fate, but its an entirely different experience to see the details of their deaths written down. That can bring tears to even the driest eyes. Such was the case for actress Scarlett Johansson who, in this 2017 episode, discovered the fate of her great-uncle, Moishe and his family, who lived in Grojec, Poland when WWII began. Moishe and his family were rounded up and taken to the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. There, he and at least two of his 10 children were killed. Johansson couldnt help but fight back tears, though she was grateful to learn more about her family history, as it deepened her connection to her roots.

#11: LL Cool J

Some genetic discoveries are so sensitive that they need to be shared privately first before being revealed on camera. This was the case with LL Cool J. For most of his childhood, the rapper was raised by the people he believed to be his maternal grandparents. Even his mother, Ondrea Griffith, thought they were her biological parents. However, a DNA test on Finding Your Roots revealed otherwise. In reality, Griffith was adopted as an infant, and her adoptive parents, Eugene Griffith and Ellen Hightower, never made that information known to her throughout their lives. Regardless, the revelation didnt change LL Cool Js perception of his adoptive grandparents. If anything, it deepened his love and respect for them.

#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, Cashs 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. Vivians 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

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

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 ancestors upbringing. At the age of seven, Fitzpatrick lost his father and was placed in an orphan asylum alongside two of his brothers. Surprisingly, this wasnt due to their mothers 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 mayors 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 Nortons third great-grandfather, John Winstead, was a slave owner in North Carolina. While he wouldnt 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 familys 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 Dunhams 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 Reginas 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

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 wasnt. 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. Madisons 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

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

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 age5. This discovery was deeply unsettling to Rudolph, causing her to break down in tears. She also learned of another maternal ancestor whose owners grandson denied him the financial compensation and freedom promised in his owners will. Fortunately, he took the grandson to court and won.

What dark discoveries do you think are buried in your family tree? Share your thoughts in the comments below.