Image source, Getty ImagesBy Madeline HalpertBBC News, New York
Actor Ed Ward Norton had grown up hearing stories about his family's relationship with Native American heroine Pocahontas and treated it like a longtime rumor.
But during an appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots, the rumor became fact for him.
"Pocahontas is indeed your 12th great-grandmother," the show's host historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. told her.
The weekly show explores the ancestral stories of famous guests.
In the premiere episode of the show's ninth season on Tuesday, Gates said Norton grew up hearing he was a direct descendant of Pocahontas - the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the leader of a tribe of Native Americans - but the Glass Onion star thought the story was just a "family legend".
While tracing Norton's ancestry, M discovered that his 12th great-grandparents were John Rolfe and Pocahontas.
"You have a direct paper trail," Gates said. "No doubt about it."
The two were married on April 5, 1614, in Jamestown, Virginia, when William Shakespeare was still alive, according to Gates.
Image source, Getty ImagesBy Madeline HalpertBBC News, New York
Actor Ed Ward Norton had grown up hearing stories about his family's relationship with Native American heroine Pocahontas and treated it like a longtime rumor.
But during an appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots, the rumor became fact for him.
"Pocahontas is indeed your 12th great-grandmother," the show's host historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. told her.
The weekly show explores the ancestral stories of famous guests.
In the premiere episode of the show's ninth season on Tuesday, Gates said Norton grew up hearing he was a direct descendant of Pocahontas - the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the leader of a tribe of Native Americans - but the Glass Onion star thought the story was just a "family legend".
While tracing Norton's ancestry, M discovered that his 12th great-grandparents were John Rolfe and Pocahontas.
"You have a direct paper trail," Gates said. "No doubt about it."
The two were married on April 5, 1614, in Jamestown, Virginia, when William Shakespeare was still alive, according to Gates.
Image source, Getty Images
