WATCH: Edward Norton learns Pocahontas is his 12th great-grandmother
Heather Hamilton
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Actor Edward Norton discovered his family roots can be traced back to the real-life Pocahontas.
The Incredible Hulk and Fight Club star appeared on the PBS show Finding Your Roots and was shocked by the news.
“I understand that was family lore,” host Henry Louis Gates said. “Well, it is absolutely true.”
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Gates reveals the genealogy of celebrities on the show and told Norton his ancestry traced back “through the paper trail” to Pocahontas, who married John Rolfe on April 5, 1614, in Jamestown, Virginia.
“This is about as far back as you can go,” Gates said, noting that William Shakespeare was still alive at the time.
“Unless you’re a Viking,” Norton quipped in response. “Makes you realize what a small piece of the whole human story you are.”
Norton also learned his third great-grandfather, John Winstead, was a slave owner, according to the 1850 North Carolina census.
“The short answer is these things are uncomfortable, and you should be uncomfortable with them. Everybody should be uncomfortable with it,” Norton said while looking over documents. “It’s not a judgment on you and 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.”
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Norton shared his amazement at the documentation from so long ago.
“I got to be honest, one of the things that amazes me is that they were making these kinds of records in that kind of a tumultuous time,” he said.