Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: I'm Henry Lous Gates Jr.

Welcome to "Finding Your Roots."

In this episode we'll meet actors Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni... two women whose lives have been marked by deep family mysteries.

Téa Leoni: I said, "Mom, I didn't know you were adopted."

I was scared.

I remember feeling, like, untethered.

The first thing I could think of was -- then who are grandmom and grandad?

Gaby Hoffmann: I grew up with no father and no idea about my father's side of the family and I have at times felt very, very lost.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: To uncover heir roots, we've used every tool available.

Genealogists helped stitch together the past from the paper trail their ancestors left behind, while DNA experts utilized the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets hundreds of years old.

Gaby Hoffmann: O h, my Gd, this is crazy!

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: A nd we've compiled everything into a book of life -- Téa Leoni: I am chomping at the bit!

Come on, what is it?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: -- a record of all of our discoveries... Gaby Hoffmann: T ha is so cool!

Téa Leoni: Oh, my gosh, that is something.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Téa and Gaby came to me hoping to solve long-lingering mysteries on their family trees, beset by questions that have haunted them since childhood.

Those questions, at last, are about to be answered.

In this episode, they're going to meet ancestors whose identities they couldn't possibly have imagined... They're going to hear stories they've only dreamed of hearing... And they're going to see, for the first time, where their roots really lead.

(Theme music plays).

♪♪ ♪♪ When we look at our parents and our grandparents, we often catch glimpses of ourselves.

And it's not just from shared DNA.

The people who raise us shape us, almost invisibly.

Through the values they convey, their convictions, and especially through their actions.

For actor Téa Leoni, childhood was a joyous time, a time of stability and comfort and her parents were at the center of everything.

Téa Leoni: My parents, you know, were very young when they got married and when they had us.

So, they were growing up with us, you know?

So, it was... They're great, they're pretty awesome.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Téa's parents, Anthony and Emily, had their children when they were in their early 20's and they infused their household with a youthful energy, creating a world where Téa could be totally herself.

Téa Leoni: I had a really active imagination and I loved storytelling, and I loved entertaining my parents and making 'em laugh and my brother, who is funnier than I am, he would sort of coach me and send me out.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Oh, yeah?

Téa Leoni: And I guess I was dramatic in my storytelling, and I think that planted a little bit of a seed.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Téa's career grew out of that seed.

And looking back, it's been a remarkably diverse career.

From blockbuster action films, like "Bad Boys"... and comedies, like "Flirting With Disaster"... Mel Coplin: With all your nervous energy you kind of remind me of my mother.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: ...to her current role, as the star of the hit television drama, "Madam Secretary."

Aide: The White House wants you front and center to reassure the public that everything is okay.

Téa Leoni: Is it?

News to me.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Téa has succeeded so well in so many different genres that I was surprised to learn that she might not have gone into acting at all if it hadn't have been for her parents.

Téa Leoni: I was gonna become an anthropologist.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Really?

Téa Leoni: Yeah, I was very good at it.

You know, I was an a student and, you know I was studying in college at one point the Tui Indians of New Guinea, and I was gonna follow up with this, and my dad said, "Hey, you know, before you do that, you should go to a cocktail party with a bunch of anthropologists."

And I could kind of sense that he, for me, thought, "You need to be doing with people who are creative, more creative than that maybe."

I think he saw something there that wasn't a good match.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: When did you decide, "I'm gonna be an actress"?

Téa Leoni: It was a dare... I got dared to do it.

There was a cattle call, you know, these big, long sort of anybody-come, anybody, whatever, for the remake of "Charlie's Angels."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Huh.

Téa Leoni: And I said, "I'll go."

And so, I just went, and then months later, oops, I got it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: D i your parents go crazy?

Téa Leoni: No, my dad said, "Don't do something because you're good at it.

Do it because you're passionate about it, and you'll get good at it."

I don't know that that's right, but I went with that idea.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Did you go to the cocktail party with the anthropologists?

Téa Leoni: Never made it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Any regrets?

Téa Leoni: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: My second guest is Gaby Hoffmann, one of the most compelling actors of her generation.

From a star turn in the Sundance film "Chrystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus" to her indelible performances on "Louie" and "Girls."

Gaby Hoffmann: Well Adam's very happy, I mean, there's that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Gaby has brought life to a series of lovably unconventional free-spirits.

Gaby Hoffmann: I see you completely.

It's like I've never seen you before!

Father: Okay, that hurts.

Gaby Hoffmann: I'm sorry.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Most recently in the Emmy-award-winning series "Transparent," in which she plays a young woman struggling to understand her evolving family... Gaby Hoffmann: You're telling me that I didn't have a bat mitzvah because dad wanted to go into the woods and dress up like a woman?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Like Téa, Gaby, was shaped by her childhood home, but it was a dramatically different type of home.

She grew up with her mother Viva, a former muse of Andy Warhol, who starred in cult films like "Nude Restaurant."

Viva: Until they told me that I always looked like I had just gotten out of bed.

Of course, I always did look like I had just gotten out of bed because I had just gotten out of bed.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: T hey lived in he famed Chelsea Hotel, known for its wild parties and celebrity residents, from William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen... to Patti Smith and Madonna.

The Chelsea is a kind of legend unto itself, the setting for a wide variety of films... Stansfield: I like these calm little moments before the storm... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Songs... Nico: Chelsea girl... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: As well as it's share of fires and even murders... But young Gaby took it all in stride.

Gaby Hoffmann: It was this real community, you know?

And I had the freedom that you would have maybe in a suburban neighborhood in the 1950's, you think of kids running around on their bikes, and their parents don't know where they are.

Everybody was looking out for you, and I had friends on every floor, and it was really fabulous.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Oh, that's great.

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, I mean, sometimes you found a vial of crack in the stairwell, but... (Scoffs) Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Raised in a community of artists, it's not surprising that Gaby soon started pursuing creative work of her own... She was cast, alongside Kevin Costner, in the hit movie "Field of Dreams" when she was just 7 years old.

Other big films followed like "Uncle Buck" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

Gaby Hoffmann: H and G. Hi and goodbye.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: But despite her many hours on set, Gaby says acting always felt more like an adventure than like a job.

Gaby Hoffmann: I didn't have any notion of what, you know, it meant to be an actress or have a career.

I just, I had fun.

Movie sets are fun, and especially if you're a kid like I was.

You know, I loved adults.

I loved being around, you know, a hundred people every day, so I don't really remember the movies themselves.

I didn't really care about that.

I was just kind of having a ball.

And when it stopped being fun I would declare I was never going to work again, and go back to third grade until it seemed fun again.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: After meeting my guests, I was struck by how strongly each of them felt connected to their childhoods and to the people who raised them.

At the same time, both told me that they grew up wrestling with questions about their families, questions that had troubled them for decades.

It was time to reveal the answers that they'd been seeking for so long.

I started with Gaby Hoffmann.

Gaby's parents split up soon after her birth.

As a result, she barely knew her father, a soap opera actor named Anthony Herrera, best known for his role as a villain on "As the World Turns."

Anthony Herrera: Patience, lover, there's something we have to discuss first.

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, he was the bad guy.

He died, like, 30 times.

There's a family portrait.

It is my mother holding me as a baby, my sister standing behind a television, and my father on the television screen.

So, that's the only family portrait we have, because the three of us were never really in the same room except for in court.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Gaby's desire to learn more about her family tree was really a desire to gain a better understanding of her father Anthony... Their relationship was complicated from its very start.

Her earliest memories of him are the court-ordered visits that began when she was 5 years old.

What was he like?

Gaby Hoffmann: Uh, he was not a natural with children you might say.

Um, he was a very tall, uh, dark, sort of looming man, uh, with a very deep voice, and very formal.

You know, he was, grew up in the South, but he came North to be an actor, and I think he made a very deliberate effort to sound differently and have a very, um, commanding, impressive presence, you know?

So, he had this sort of strange formality to him that I think was a, was a put-on.

It was very hard to interact with as a 5-year-old.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: When Gaby was 8, she said that the visits with her father were making her uncomfortable, and she asked that they no longer see each other.

Anthony agreed.

And they wouldn't meet again until Gaby was a teenager, after Anthony had been diagnosed with cancer.

Gaby Hoffmann: And so, I was living in California at the time.

I flew to New York, and went to go see him in the hospital.

Not much had changed.

I think the first thing he told me to do was go get my teeth fixed or something like that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Really?

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, um, and then he recovered, and a, uh, a couple years later I reached out and said, like, uh, you know, "I'd like to get to know you.

Let's try to spend some time together," and we did.

We started spending some time together.

I was about 18 years old, and I think I needed some grounding, um, and it occurred to me that getting to know my father might, might be useful.

But that became difficult quickly, and I then never saw him again.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Anthony died in 2011, when Gaby was 29 years old.

And though Gaby has since connected with some of her father's family, his loss pains her deeply... Gaby Hoffmann: I think he lived a life that was very much alone.

I think he was popular and handsome and he was a ladies' man, you know, and he moved down to Argentina in his final days so he could tango his life away.

So... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And he died in Argentina.

Gaby Hoffmann: He died in Argentina.

Um, so I think he, I hope he had a little bit more, um, intimacy in the last decade of his life.

But I think he was, he was living, he was going through this world alone, and um, sort of, well, here I go, I'm gonna psychoanalyze my dead father.

How often does this happen on this show?

Um, I think my father was just a very, um, deeply insecure man who didn't really trust that anybody loved him, and he had a very difficult father himself.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Anthony's father, Gaby's grandfather, was a man named Rafael Herrera.

Gaby met him at the end of his life.

She'd heard stories that he had a violent streak and that he'd run afoul of the law but details were sketchy.

Gaby Hoffmann: I knew that his father was a bootlegger, and he followed in his footsteps, and he even had my dad running for him when he was 8 years old or something like that.

But, I barely even knew these people.

You know, I barely even knew my father, let alone his father.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Our research revealed that Gaby's grandfather definitely had a checkered past and he seems to have been a very troubled man.

We found newspaper articles indicating that he was jailed for bootlegging in 1936.

And we found something else, as well, a memoir written by Gaby's father, which Gaby had never seen before.

In it, her father details the challenges he faced growing up with Rafael.

Gaby Hoffmann: "My father and four other men had gone away into the woods to inspect some 400 gallons of moonshine ready for shipment when 10 federal revenue men came out of the surrounding woods with pistols and shotguns... I was in the third grade and the next day at school everyone knew but no one said a word, except for Olan Ray Bond... Right before the first bell rang he blurted out, 'Your daddy was arrested last night.'

The shame was unbearable.

I didn't cry.

I just wanted to run away."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Can you imagine what it might have been like for your father, who was only about 8, to have his father arrested?

Gaby Hoffmann: I don't think it was easy living with my grandfather.

You know, arrested or not.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Yeah.

Gaby Hoffmann: When I saw a lot of pictures of my father as a child in their house, I noted that he looked like a different person when he was a young boy.

There was something about his eyes and smile that I never saw before.

And then I saw a picture of him a little older, as a young teenager, and he looked like the man that I knew, and you could see the change in his face.

Téa Leoni: I know nothing about my mother's biological side.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right.

Much like Gaby, Téa Leoni grew up with an entire branch of her family tree shrouded in mystery... How did you find out your mother was adopted?

Téa Leoni: I was about 8, 7 or 8 and, I was down in Amarillo, and we were with my cousins and uh, and it's one of those things, it flew out of somebody's mouth like everybody knew it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: What was its effect on you?

Téa Leoni: Um, I was scared.

I had a sudden feeling, I remember feeling, like, untethered all of a sudden, like literally, like, like my knees were gonna go, because I guess it, the only, first thing I can think of was -- then who are grandmom and granddad?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: For young Téa, "Grandmom and Granddad" were Virgil and Florence Patterson, a Texas couple who adopted her mother Emily when she was an infant.

They were the only parents Emily ever knew.

They adored their daughter.

And she adored them.

Téa did, as well.

But learning that they were not her biological grandparents unsettled Téa and she told me that it took her some time even to raise the subject again.

Téa Leoni: I was at home having dinner with my parents, and I said, "Mom, I didn't know you were adopted."

And I had not uttered it out loud, and I remember my mother took her tray and put it on the table, and walked out of the room.

And my dad gave me a look, maybe he thought I should've known better.

And then he got up and left, and I remember sitting there and just feeling like I'd done, I'd done something very wrong, you know?

And I don't know when it was, it was not immediately after, but I remember my mother sat me down and she said, "You know, I was adopted.

I don't know why I didn't tell you, because Grandmom and Granddad are my mother and daddy."

And she said, she told me something like, she thinks, you know, you have somebody like a carpenter who builds your house, but then it was Grandmom and Granddad that made it a home.

So, she never, she was never curious, and I asked her if she was curious, and she said, "Are you curious about the person that built this house?"

I said no.

She said, "Me neither."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Téa and her mother were facing a challenge that many families affected by adoption must face and each handles it in their own way.

The bonds between parent and child can be equally deep, whether the relationship is biological or adoptive.

Nevertheless, the desire to know one's roots is profound.

And over time, Téa grew increasingly curious about who gave birth to her mother Emily.

Indeed, it's the main reason she wanted to be in our series.

Emily, however, needed to be convinced.

Téa Leoni: She immediately struggles with it, is she betraying my grandparents by doing this?

My grandparents are gone, and you know, I tried to, I guess, explain to her that we're not challenging an ownership.

This is a chance for her to know where her essence maybe comes from, where her bones come from, you know, the hammers and the nails and the beams.

So she's on board.

She did not want to be here today.

I think, she told me, "You go find out what you're gonna find out, and then you come tell me."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: With Emily's blessing, we began to try to unravel this mystery.

There was absolutely no guarantee that we'd succeed.

Countless adoptees have spent their entire adult lives without ever discovering the identities of their birth parents.

Fortunately, we had an ally, genetic genealogist Cece Moore.

Cece specializes in what's known as biological family reunification.

She's a detective, with skills that would put Sherlock Holmes to shame.

If anybody could find Emily's birth parents, it was Cece.

Cece Moore: Well, first we want to look at the records that exist.

And, so, we asked for her birth certificate.

Now, I didn't expect it was going to tell us much because adoptees generally have what's called an "Amended birth certificate."

And you can see here it has her adoptive parents.

So, when you are adopted they seal your original birth certificate, and they issue a new one with the adoptive parents on it.

So that's her legal birth certificate, and because adoptions are sealed in the state of Texas, we're not able to get access to her original birth certificate.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So then what did you do?

Cece Moore: DNA.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: DNA.

Cece Moore: So all we have is DNA.

We're going to turn to the DNA and see if we're able to identify them that way.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: With no records to guide her, Cece began a painstaking process.

She compared Emily's DNA to the DNA of people in multiple databases, hoping to find a close relationship.

There are more than six million people in these databases.

That didn't deter Cece.

She started by looking at the family trees of all the people who share significant amounts of DNA with Emily, trying to find common ancestors.

The reason for this is that Emily would likely descend from those ancestors, too... Cece Moore: So I identified four key ancestral couples that I thought should be in Emily's tree because there were enough people sharing DNA with Emily who had those people in their trees, that they seemed that they should fit in there somewhere.

And then I look at their descendants, and I triangulate those descendants trying to find where they intersect.

Because we're looking for someone who carries the DNA of those four ancestral couples.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Cece built dozens of family trees, looking for connections between the descendants of these four ancestral couples... Her search finally narrowed down to two sisters from Louisiana named Irene and Abilene Gindratt... And we believe that one of them is your mother's-mother.

Téa Leoni: Whoa, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So, then we have to find out which one it is, and to figure that out, we needed to do more DNA testing.

Irene never had any children that we know of, but Abilene did and thankfully, Abilene's daughter agreed to test for us.

If we were right, this last test had only two possible outcomes... If Abilene were Emily's mother, then Abilene's daughter and Emily would be half siblings and they'd share about 25% of their DNA.

But if Irene were Emily's mother, then Abilene's daughter and Emily would be first cousins and they'd share about 12.5% of their DNA.

The solution to our mystery was finally at hand... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So, on the next page I'm gonna show you a chart that compares your mother's DNA to our tester's DNA.

Any segments that they share will be highlighted in red.

Téa Leoni: Okay.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You read to find out?

Téa Leoni: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Would you please turn the page?

You see a lot of red or you see little red?

Téa Leoni: I see a lot of red.

Shared DNA, 26% Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And I said that if they shared 25% then they shared a mother.

Téa Leoni: Right, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Your biological grandmother is a woman named Abilene Gindratt.

This resolves a question that you were asking, Téa Leoni: 43 years ago.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: 43 years ago.

I want to show you something.

Would you turn the page?

Téa Leoni: Yeah, who's that?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: That's your grandmoher.

Téa Leoni: God... She looks like my mom a lot.

That is... I mean, even, just the way she holds her head.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Really?

Téa Leoni: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You want to know a little bit about her?

Téa Leoni: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Okay.

Abilene was born on May 13, 1920, likely in a place called Zwolle, Louisiana.

She grew up on a farm and she got married in the 1950's, and had two daughters.

Téa Leoni: Oh, my gosh.

Wow, boy, that is something.

I was ready to have that question answered.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Oh, I believe you were.

Téa Leoni: She looks like she has a good heart.

I mean.

My mom does and she looks like my mom.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: We'd already revealed the story of Gaby Hoffmann's grandfather Rafael, the bootlegger with the troubled relationship to Gaby's father... But now, as we dug deeper, we found that the story was far more complicated than it first appeared... Rafael was raised by a man named Antonio Herrera.

And according to Gaby's family, Antonio was abusive, particularly towards Rafael.

So much so that, on his deathbed, Rafael asked the question he'd harbored since childhood -- was Antonio really his biological father?

Or could he have been abused because he was actually the child of another man?

Gaby's family had investigated and heard rumors that Rafael's mother had been romantically linked to someone else, a Frenchman named Gaston Malecot.

But they couldn't determine if the rumors were true.

I set out to answer this question and uncovered an incredible story.

It began with a marriage record from the year 1909, more than seven years before Rafael was born.

The bride was Rafael's mother, Mariana Ramirez.

And the groom had a very familiar French name... Gaby Hoffmann: "From the groom, full name -- Gaston Louis Malecot.

From the bride, full name -- Mariana Benita Rairez."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You recognize that name?

Gaby Hoffmann: Mariana.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Mariana... Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You know who she is?

Gaby Hoffmann: She is my great-grandmother.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: That's right.

Gaston Malecot married her on February 10, 1909 in New York City.

They were actually married.

Gaby Hoffmann: I did not know that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Gaston and Mariana did more than get married.

Records indicate that in 1911, they had a son named Paul.

Soon after, Gaston began teaching French at Columbia University's teacher college.

All seemed to be going well for the young couple, but appearances can be deceiving... Gaby, this is an article published in The New York Times on July 28, 1914.

Gaby Hoffmann: "Wife sues Columbia instructor.

Mrs.

Mariana R. Malecot began suit yesterday against Gaston l. Malecot for a separation on the ground of cruelty... She says her husband threatened to put her in an insane asylum.

The couple have a son, who is 3 years old."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: What do you make of this?

Gaby Hoffmann: It, uh, sounds like it was a bad situation.

So they got divorced, or not?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Well, let's see.

Would you please turn the page?

Gaby, this is a letter written by an official of the French army.

Would you please read the translated section?

Gaby Hoffmann: "Malecot, Gaston, Louis... A brave and intelligent soldier who always gave total satisfaction to his superiors."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So, you know what that means.

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, he went home and joined the army.

(Gunfire and explosions) Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Just months after Mariana filed a suit against him, Gaston returned to France, to serve in World War I... He was assigned to the infantry.

And saw combat in the trenches along the Western Front... Do you think that decision to return to France had anything to do with the contents of the article in The New York Times ?

Gaby Hoffmann: Of course.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: He said, "I'm out of here.

I would rather fight the Germans than deal with Mariana."

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Pretty drastic a reaction to a... Gaby Hoffmann: Well, if you've got a crazy lady living in your house.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Gaston's decision would have enormous consequences for Gaby's family.

In December of 1914, he was wounded during an attack on German lines... He lost vision in his left eye and was hospitalized, ending his military service.

But he didn't return to Mariana and Paul.

Our researchers uncovered a memoir, written by a French woman named Berthe Brevet.

She recounts how, as a teenage nurse, she spent time with Gaston while he was recuperating from his injuries.

Gaby Hoffmann: "I figured that that soldier must be 57 years old, but a 16 year old girl is no judge of age."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: He was 34, by the way.

Gaby Hoffmann: "In spite of his gray hair, there was an alertness about him, which his friends lacked..." Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: The memoir describes how Gaston and Berthe struck up a relationship while he was in her care.

Despite the fact that he still had a wife and child back in the United States... What do you think's gonna happen next?

Gaby Hoffmann: God, I'm so tense already.

Um, I have no idea.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Well, let's find out.

Would you please turn the page?

Gaby, this is a page of the New York City census from June 1, 1915.

Gaby Hoffmann: "Name: Malecot, Mary, lodger."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: By the summer of 1915, your great-grandmother Mariana was living by herself as a lodger in Manhattan, and Paul has been put in an orphanage.

Meanwhile, Gaston is in France recuperating, and shall we say, cavorting with a teenage girl.

At this point, the paths of Mariana and Gaston diverged, significantly... In 1916, Mariana gave birth to Rafael, Gaby's grandfather, in New York City.

On his birth certificate, "Antonio Herrera," the man who raised Rafael, is listed as the father.

And two years later, in 1918, Antonio married Mariana.

As for Gaston?

Well... By 1921, he had married his nurse Berthe.

So the evidence seemed to suggest that Antonio was Rafael's father.

Even if his family so strongly wished otherwise... Gaby Hoffmann: I think that there was some relief on my dad's side of the family, amongst his brothers and sisters, that their grandfather may not have been their grandfather, Antonio Herrera because I think that he was not a great guy.

So I think there was this glimmer of hope.

Oh, maybe... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right.

Gaby Hoffmann: It's a bit of a fairy tale isn't it?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Yeah.

Gaby Hoffmann: That your big bad grandfather wasn't the real guy!

Thank god.

And some, although this guy doesn't sound too great either.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: No.

Gaby Hoffmann: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: It now seemed like the mystery had been solved.

But one question remained... In 1915, when Rafael was conceived, Mariana was living alone in New York and Gaston was recovering from his wounds in France.

Could they have reunited one last time?

We didn't find any records to support the idea, but we couldn't rule it out.

This was a chaotic period in history.

World War I was raging and the French shipping records from these years are incomplete.

Many passenger lists have been lost.

So, theoretically, it's possible that either Gaston or Mariana crossed the Atlantic... Who do you think is your great-grandfather?

Is it Gaston, or is it Antonio?

Gaby Hoffmann: I have no idea.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You gotta guess.

Gaby Hoffmann: But do you have the answer?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Gotta wait and see.

Gaby Hoffmann: Oh, my God, this is crazy.

I don't know.

I'm, I'm getting nervous having to make this decision.

I can't find that picture of my father.

And I'd rather be Spanish than French, just for the record.

Antonio Herrera kind of has my father's mouth.

But this nose, this nose looks familiar.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Mhm?

Gaby Hoffmann: I don't know guys.

I'm gonna go with Antonio.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Okay, Antonio.

That's your final vote?

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: All right.

Well, the paper trail seemed pretty conclusively in favor of Antonio, right, being Rafael's father, but just to cover our bases, we turned to your DNA.

And we found a descendant of Gaston Malecot, his granddaughter, and she graciously agreed to give us the DNA.

Gaby Hoffmann: That is so cool.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: With DNA in hand, we were able to follow much the same process with Gaby that we'd followed with Téa... We compared Gaby's test results to those of Gaston Malecot's granddaughter, looking for shared sequences, then highlighting them in red.

If there was enough common DNA between the two of them, that would mean that Gaby and Gaston are related... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Please turn the age.

Gaby Hoffmann: So stressful!

You freeze a girl, then make her... Whoa, there's red.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You share 10 segments of DNA across seven chromosomes, with Gaston Malecot's descendant.

Gaby Hoffmann: That's pretty clear.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You know what that means.

You are a Malecot.

The mystery is solved.

Does it change the way you think of your father, now that you know the truth of his ancestral line?

Gaby Hoffmann: I think, you know, the idea is probably that Antonio knew that his, that Rafael was not his son, and took it out on him.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right.

Gaby Hoffmann: So, my grandfather, Rafael, was raised in a violent climate, and unfortunately, he didn't break that chain, you know?

So, my father was the victim of this, you know, decades-old, uh, grudge between these two men, or whatever, you know, however we want to play it out.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: These two rivals.

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right?

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, um and so, this, this violent family culture that he was raised up into, um, deeply affected him, and thus me of course.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right.

Gaby Hoffmann: It's just, I mean, these three generations are just like a flash in the history of the universe, right?

So, it makes sense that it might take a hundred years to work this stuff out.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: In the end, it's likely that we'll never know the exact circumstances that lead to Rafael's conception, but the DNA evidence is overwhelming -- Gaston was his father.

And our discovery proves a valuable lesson about genealogy -- sometimes family stories are true, even if they sound like fairy tales.

Turning back to Téa Leoni, we had already revealed that her biological grandmother was a woman named "Abilene Gindratt," thus answering a question that Téa had been asking since childhood.

But another question lingered, one we hadn't even discussed... You know something?

You only think about this, and the whole time, you've only talked about in terms of your mother's mother.

Not once have you mentioned your mother's father I don't believe.

Téa Leoni: Wow, I, that's funny, you're right, I don't... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Right.

Téa Leoni: Leftover sexism, I suppose.

You know why, 'cause somewhere in the fantasy, you imagine that she's a single mother, and that she gave my mother up because she was unwed... So I never, I didn't think about him.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Mmm-hmm.

Well, using exactly the same technique, we decided to look for your biological grandfather.

Our search took us back to the Texas state archives.

Now that we knew Abilene's name, we were able to request Emily's original birth certificate.

We hoped it would confirm what we had learned, and possibly provide clues to help guide us further.

Unfortunately, our request was denied, leading us to conclude that Abilene had likely given the state pseudonyms, a common practice among unwed parents.

So once again, our only hope was DNA.

And once again, DNA didn't let us down.

Cece was able to identify a number of significant paternal matches in the databases that finally converged on a man named Sumpter Daniel.

Sumpter was born in Vick, Louisiana on August 25, 1909.

Which meant he was the right age to be Emily's father.

But we had to be certain.

So we contacted one of his grandchildren and fortunately, they agreed to take a test for us.

If Sumpter is in fact Emily's father, she and his grandchild will share approximately 12% of their DNA... Please turn the page.

Téa Leoni: Wait, 11.3?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: 11.3 is enough.

This confirms that your mother's father was a man named Sumpter Daniel.

Sumpter Daniel is your biological grandfather.

Téa Leoni: Do you have a picture of him?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Would you please turn the page?

That was Sumpter in 1964.

That's your grandfather.

Any family resemblance you can see from that photo?

Téa Leoni: I see it in this part and I see it a little bit, mom's not gonna like this part, but a little bit in his nose.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Once we had discovered her grandfather's identity, I wanted to fill in the gaps for Téa.

Who was this man, and what were the circumstances surrounding his relationship with Abilene?

Would you please turn the page?

Téa, this is a page of the federal census for the year 1940, for Elizabeth, Louisiana.

So, this is the year before your mom was born, 'cause your mom's born in 1941.

Téa Leoni: Right.

"Sumpter Daniels, 25 years old, single.

Completed 4 years of high school.

Works on winder machine room at the paper mill."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And he was a permanent guest at a place called the Elizabeth Hotel.

In fact, everyone on the top half of that census record was a permanent guest at the Elizabeth Hotel.

Now, aside from a few other residents working in the paper mill and the lumber mill, can you see what profession the other residents had?

Téa Leoni: Public school.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Public school.

Teachers.

It turns out that there was a public high school here that served the small town of Elizabeth and the surrounding rural areas.

Okay, now, I want to show you something else, okay?

Please turn the page.

This is an article from the local Alexandria, Louisiana, newspaper called The Town Talk, dated January 13, 1941.

Téa Leoni: "Tuesday marked the election of the officers of the junior class of the local high school Miss A. Gindratt, faculty member will sponsor the activities of the class."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Now, who's "A. Gidratt"?

Téa Leoni: That'd be Abilene.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: That is your grandmother Abilene.

This article tells us that your biological grandmother was a teacher at Elizabeth high school.

Now, remember that Elizabeth is the same small town where Sumpter Daniel was living in a hotel with 10 public school teachers.

Now, we can't be sure, but it seems likely that they met through this teacher connection at the hotel.

Téa Leoni: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: We now had an idea of how Téa's grandparents may have come together.

And while we don't know anything further about the nature of their relationship we were able to get a slightly more detailed glimpse of Sumpter in the records of the United States Army... Téa Leoni: "Name, Sumpter, J. Daniel.

Enlistment date, 15th of January 1942."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Sumpter enlisted about a month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Téa Leoni: 68 inches.

I'm in no mood for math, how tall is that?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: 5'8" inches tall.

Téa Leoni: And 175 pounds, this guy was... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Yeah, he was in good shape, right?

Téa Leoni: I get the whole picture... That's so funny.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So, after all these years, you now know the identity of your biological grandparents, your mother's parents.

Téa Leoni: It's funny, it feels a little surreal, because... I feel more settled, even, just with minutes that pass, because I think, well, I'm meeting the builders.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Mh-- yeah.

Téa's grandfather died of a heart attack in 1965 when he was 56 years old.

We don't know if he and Abilene ever saw each other again after he left Louisiana.

We don't even know whether Sumpter was aware that Abilene had given birth to their daughter shortly before he joined the army.

Nevertheless, once we discovered Sumpter's name, an entire branch of Téa's family tree opened up to us, one that extended throughout the south -- from Louisiana and South Carolina to Virginia, stretching back centuries over time... There's William, your fifth-great-grandfather, this is your great-great-great-great great-grandfather.

He was born in Fairfax, Virginia.

His father was a man named John O'Daniel, born about 1718, and his father was a man named William O'Daniel, who was born about 1691, possibly in Ireland.

Téa Leoni: I'm Irish?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Did you ever imagine you had Irish ancestry?

Téa Leoni: No, I've got an O in me, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: William O'Daniel is Téa's seventh great-grandfather.

Records suggest that he is the first ancestor on this line of her family tree to settle in North America.

He arrived in Virginia sometime in the early 18th Century and became a landowner.

His son John, Téa's sixth great grandfather, built on his father's success.

He was a prominent farmer with one very notable neighbor... Téa, this is a poll sheet that we found at the Library of Congress.

It's for a local election in Fairfax County, Virginia, from the year 1755.

Téa Leoni: "Fairfax County poll, December 11, 1755.

John O'Daniel... Colonel George Washington."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Your sixth-great-grandfather was George Washington's neighbor.

Téa Leoni: Oh, my gosh.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: He lived about seven miles from Mount Vernon.

Téa Leoni: Wow, this is so wild.

I, I never, i, I never played with a fantasy that far back.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: John O'Daniel was born in Virginia around 1720.

By the mid 1700s he owned thousands of acres of land, including a plantation where he likely grew tobacco.

But that wasn't all he owned.

We found a ledger in the court archives of Fairfax County, Virginia.

Taken for purposes of taxation it reveals that John's property included human beings.

Téa Leoni: "Tom, a negro boy belonging to John O'Daniel being brought before the court is judged to be 11 years of age.

Esther, a negro girl belonging to John O'Daniel being brought before the court is judged to be 10 years of age."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: So your ancestor very much a person of his time... Téa Leoni: Right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Was like his neighbor, George Washington, an owner of slaves.

Téa Leoni: Right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: These weren't the only people John owned in his lifetime.

According to his will, he distributed 23 slaves among his second wife Nancy and their nine adult children.

Téa Leoni: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: George Washington kept 317 slaves at Mount Vernon.

Téa Leoni: Yeah, that's our history.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Does it change the way you see yourself?

Téa Leoni: No, it doesn't, I mean, I think... I guess in a way it just feels like hopeful because I look at it and I think, we should all know that, because it means that we leave that behind in its entirety.

You are not tethered to your biology.

You can outperform, you can outlive, you can outsmart your relatives maybe but not your history.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: DNA has opened up an entire new branch of Téa's family tree.

It allowed us to do the same thing for Gaby Hoffmann.

Once we'd determined that her great-grandfather was Gaston Malecot, we were able to trace his roots.

This led us deep into the archives of central France to a marriage record from the early 1700s.

Gaby Hoffmann: "On the 22nd of July 1709 were married... Andre Malecot, winemaker, son of deceased Michel Malecot and of deceased Francoise Ecot and Louise Charier, age 19, daughter of Urbain Charier, winemaker and Louise Morin, his spouse."

So, this is my, how many great-great-greats?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You just read the marriage record for your seventh-great-grandparents on the Malecot line.

That's amazing.

Gaby Hoffmann: That's amazing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And what's more, it also introduces you to their parents, Michel and Francoise Malecot and Urbain and Louise Charier.

They would have likely been born, you ready for this, 1650's.

Gaby Hoffmann: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And at the time of their birth, Louis the Great, was the King of France.

Gaby Hoffmann: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: They are your eighth great-grandparents.

Gaby Hoffmann: You guys are wizards.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Can I ask you what it feels like to be able to trace your ancestors back to the mid-1600's in France?

Gaby Hoffmann: It feels right, it feels good.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: "I knew I was French!"

Gaby Hoffmann: I've been telling you.

Well, I know I like wine and in fact, I was told, I worked at, um, as a waitress and the sommelier was obsessed with me becoming a sommelier.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: No kidding?

Gaby Hoffmann: Yeah, because he would have me take a sip and say, "What does it taste like?"

And I would just rant on ridiculous, you know, spurting out ridiculous, and he was obsessed.

He said, "You have a natural palate," and he said, "You must, you must have had a wine person in your past."

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Well, you did!

Gaby Hoffmann: So here they are!

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Our journey was nearing its end.

We had found answers to the mysteries that Téa and Gaby had so wanted resolved and introduced them to ancestral lines they never even knew existed... Now it was time to place those ancestors in context... to show them their full family trees, with all that we'd discovered in place, at last... Alright.

Téa Leoni: Oh, whoa!

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Isn't that amazing.

Gaby Hoffmann: This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: We were able to trace your ancestors all the way back to Charlemagne and Charlemagne's third great grandfather Arnulf who was born in 582 AD.

Téa Leoni: Unbelievable!

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: We go all the way up to your 27th-great-grandfather.

Gaby Hoffmann: Oh, my God... Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: And guess who he is.

Gaby Hoffmann: Who?

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: King Henry II.

(Claps and laughs).

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: Did you think that we had resolved the mystery that we would?

Téa Leoni: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: No?

Téa Leoni: No, I really didn't.

And I was curious because I thought I'd hate to be disappointed.

I'm not disappointed.

Gaby Hoffmann: I feel like I have a gold mine at my disposal that is completely my own.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: It's all yours.

Gaby Hoffmann: It's so unique.

There's no other, I don't have a sibling that, a full sibling.

My sister and I have different fathers.

Um, this is my own strange, bizarre, beautiful story through the last 1,500 years.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: That's the end of our journey into the family trees of Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni.

Join me next time, when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode of "Finding Your Roots."

Narrator: Next time, on "Finding Your Roots," talk show host, dr.

Phil McGraw.

Dr.

Phil: It fills in a big void for me.

In all of my life, I've had no information.

Narrator: Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault: This just brings out a range of emotions.

Narrator: And musician Questlove.

Questlove: Until an hour ago, I didn't know who I was.

Narrator: Family history shaped by slavery.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

: You didn't know about any of these stories.

Dr.

Phil: None, not one.

Narrator: On the next, "Finding Your Roots."