Many celebrities have taken part in the PBS show Finding Your Roots. The documentary series presents stars with facts about their ancestry. While most are excited to put pieces of their past together, others, like Edward Norton, are a little uncomfortable with what they learn. 

Finding Your Roots is hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. Each episode features a group of celebrities who are given a “book of life” that contains information about their family tree, from famous relatives, to secrets about their ancestors. 

The show’s team uses genealogical research, like written documents and records, and genetic tests to complete their books of life. Each book typically takes hundreds of hours to put together and is extremely comprehensive. 

Julia Roberts discovers she’s not really a Roberts

Most of the celebrities who appear on the show are happy to have a book all about their ancestry, but some learn secrets about their family that really shake up their view of themselves. 

For example, Julia Roberts was told that she’s not exactly who she thought she was — her last name isn’t really Roberts. Gates told the actress that Willia Roberts, her supposed great-great grandfather, actually died before the birth of her great-grandfather, making her real great-great grandfather a man named Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr.

Edward Norton learns of connection to Pochahontas

Roberts isn’t the only one who found out something slightly upsetting about her family tree. In a recent episode, Glass Onion’s Edward Norton learned that he is distantly related to Pochahontas, the daughter of a Native American chief. 

“You have a direct paper trail — no doubt about it — connection to your 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather, John Rolfe and Pocahontas,” Gates informed Norton. 

He went on to tell the actor that the pair wed in 1614. Pocahontas died three years later; Rolfe, in 1622. “It just makes you realize what a small … piece of the whole human story you are,” Norton marveled. 

Edward Norton said learning about slavery connection made him ‘want to die’

In addition to learning about his connection to such a well-known historical figure, Norton also learned that one of his ancestors, John Winstead, was a slave owner. Norton expressed his unease with this knowledge, saying, “The short answer is these things are uncomfortable. And you should be uncomfortable with them.”

He continued, “It’s not a judgment on you in your own life but it’s a judgment on the history of this country and it needs to be acknowledged first and foremost and then it needs to be contended with.”

While Norton seems to accept that his relation to slave owners is not a reflection on him personally, he did share that seeing the records of children being sold in the slave trade makes “you just want to die.”

How DNA testing has revealed many family secrets

Norton is far from the only person who has made unsettling discoveries about their family history through genealogical testing. Stories abound online of people who have found out they have half-siblings from parents’ extramarital affairs. 

More seriously, California’s infamous Golden State Killer was caught through GEDMatch, a personal genealogy website. Investigators uploaded the DNA samples they had to the site, which led them to find twenty people who shared his DNA. This allowed them to narrow their search down and eventually capture Joseph James DeAngelo.