Edward Norton just found out that Pocahontas is actually his 12th great-grandmother.
The Incredible Hulk star just made the discovery on an episode of the PBS show Finding Your Roots.
In each episode of the series, celebrities are presented with a ‘book of life’ that contains information researched by professional genealogists.
It lets them see their ancestral histories, learn familial connections, and also uncover secrets about their ancestry.
Past celebrities have included Sean Combs, who found out that his third great-grandmother was a free man in Maryland in the 1980s, and Paul Rudd, who discovered that his ancestors changed their family name from Rudnitsky to Rudd.
Scarlett Johansson also found out that the Danish side of her family had Swedish roots dating back to the 15th-century of royalty.
Now, Norton just made an interesting discovery that he had ancestral ties to Pocahontas, the legendary Native American belonging to the Powhatan people and the one who maintained relations between her father and the Jamestown colonists.
When the actor found out that he was related to Pocahontas and colonizer John Rolfe, and that she was actually his 12th great-grandmother, he was completely shocked.
He then shared that he heard some stories about his relation to them but he believed that they were all rumors.
Host historian Henry Louis Gates Jr told Norton: “Pocahontas is indeed your 12th great grandma. You have a direct paper trail. No doubt out it.”
The actor appeared surprised as he said: “This is about as far back as you can go.”
During the episode, Norton also found out that his ancestors had been slave owners. His third great-grandfather held ‘seven human beings in bondage,’ including a 37-year-old woman, a 55-year-old man, and five girls, aged between 4 and 10, BBC News reported.
When Gates asked him: “What’s it like to see that?”
The actor replied: “The short answer is these things are uncomfortable. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it. It’s a judgment on the history of this country and it needs to be contended with. When you read ‘Slave, age 8’, you just want to die.”
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