ancestry

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Taylor Swift Is Related to an Actual Tortured Poet

Guess who's related to Emily Dickinson?

(Newser) - Taylor Swift has a rather interesting sixth cousin, three times removed. Ancestry.com gives Today the scoop that dangling out on the songstress's family tree is another bit of American royalty: Emily Dickinson. "Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th-century English immigrant (Swift's ninth great-grandfather and...

23andMe Has Gone From Hot to Not. Can Its CEO Save It?

Stocks are trading below $1, but Anne Wojcicki sees promise in drug development

(Newser) - Genetic testing company 23andMe's stock is trading at around 75 cents as of this writing, a precipitous fall for a company that the Wall Street Journal dubs "one of the hottest startups in the world ... five years ago." Its valuation has fallen 98% from its former $6...

LeVar Burton Gets a Shock From His Family Tree

'Reading Rainbow' host learns of a white ancestor, who served with the Confederacy

(Newser) - In unraveling celebrities' family trees, PBS' Finding Your Roots brings surprising discoveries, some welcome, some not so welcome. For former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, it appears to have been a bit of both. In an episode aired Tuesday, host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed the Roots star that...

Accused of Being a 'Pretendian,' College Prof Comes Clean

Calls emerge for UC Berkeley's Elizabeth Hoover to resign after admitting she's not Native American

(Newser) - A California college instructor accused of falsely claiming Native American ancestry is now admitting she's white and apologizing—and it was one of her closest friends who conducted a good amount of the probing that led to her apology. The hubbub stretches back to February 2021, when Elizabeth Hoover,...

Edward Norton, Julia Roberts Surprised by Family Trees

Norton learns he's a direct descendant of Pocahontas on 'Finding Your Roots'

(Newser) - Family lore told Edward Norton that he was related to Pocahantas. Now PBS' Finding Your Roots has told him the same. The actor was stunned to learn that he is, in fact, descended from the favorite daughter of Wahunsenaca, also known as Powhatan, who ruled over dozens of Algonquian-speaking tribes...

DNA Slavery Study Yields Suprises
DNA Slavery Study
Yields Surprises
NEW STUDY
Jul 24, 2020 12:20 PM CDT

DNA Slavery Study Yields Surprises

More enslaved people came to the US from Nigeria than previously thought, researchers say

(Newser) - Using historical records has been the most traditional way to shed light on the dark stain of slavery in the United States. Now, per new research that the Scientist calls "the largest DNA study to examine African ancestry in the Americas," gene analysis is helping put more pieces...

Scientists Find Clues of 'Ghost' Human Ancestor
Evidence of a 'Ghost' Human
Ancestor Revealed in DNA
in case you missed it
Feb 16, 2020 4:06 PM CST

Evidence of a 'Ghost' Human Ancestor Revealed in DNA

Researchers say unknown archaic population mated with homo sapiens

(Newser) - Scientists already know that early humans mated with Neanderthals and Denisovans, distant relatives on the family tree. Now a new study suggests that another such group existed, one that has yet to be identified, reports the Guardian . In their study in the journal Science Advances , researchers say they found evidence...

Guess Who Tom Hanks Is Related To?
Guess Who Tom
Hanks Is Related To?
Nov 20, 2019 8:00 AM CST

Guess Who Tom Hanks Is Related To?

Turns out Hanks, who plays Fred Rogers in new movie, is Rogers' 6th cousin, per Ancestry.com

(Newser) - It felt like a "no-brainer" that Tom Hanks was cast as Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , opening nationwide Friday. Some even say the 63-year-old actor "was born" to play the gentle children's show host. That turns out to be more true than any...

As Old Document Surfaces, Warren Apologizes Again

1986 Texas bar registration shows identification as 'American Indian'

(Newser) - Her private apology has moved public: Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells the Washington Post she is sorry for identifying as Native American for nearly two decades. "I can't go back. But I am sorry for furthering confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship and harm that resulted," the...

Her Baby Died After Birth 69 Years Ago—or So She Was Told

An emotional reunion for Genevieve Purinton and the daughter she never knew she had

(Newser) - For nearly 70 years, Genevieve Purinton believed the baby girl she delivered in an Indiana hospital died soon after birth. This week in Florida, however, she met that baby girl, now a 69-year-old mother and grandmother, very much alive and working as a massage therapist in Vermont. "I'm...

A Search for Ancestors Reveals She Had Been Swapped at Birth

Women discover they were switched at birth

(Newser) - A fun foray into finding out more about her ancestry through a popular genealogy website led to a shocking revelation for 72-year-old Denice Juneski: She wasn't related to any of her own relatives—at least not the ones she'd grown up knowing. KARE reports that as Minnesota's...

Korean-American Explores the Meaning of Her 'Blue Butt'

'Mongolian spot' refers to distinctive blue birthmark

(Newser) - If you want to get technical, it's called congenital dermal melanocytosis in Western medicine, and it often results in a distinctive blue birthmark on the bottoms of babies from East Asia. If you want to get nearly poetic, you'll want to read Jennifer Hope Choi's piece at...

America's Most Irish Cities Are...

 America's Most 
 Irish Cities 
 Are ... 
happy st patty's day
Mar 17, 2013 4:14 PM CDT

America's Most Irish Cities Are ...

... Boston, of course, plus a few surprises

(Newser) - Quick St. Patrick's Day quiz: How many Americans are of Irish descent? Some 22 million say Irish is their "primary ancestry," and 13.5 million more have at least some Irish blood, reports the Huffington Post . That adds up to 35.5 million or 11.6% of...

Obama Roots Traced to 1st African-American Slave

Ancestry.com genealogists spent 500 hours making the connection

(Newser) - Ancestry.com has traced President Obama's roots back to Germany and linked him to Rush Limbaugh . Now the site has named a new potential Obama relative: the first documented African-American slave. CNN reports on the result of some 500 hours of work by four genealogists, who were able to...

Great Depression Data Goldmine to Finally Go Public

1940 census to be released after 72 year of privacy protection

(Newser) - After 72 years of privacy protection lapses, intimate details of 132 million people who lived through the 1930s will be disclosed as the US government releases the 1940 census on April 2 to the public for the first time. Access to the records will be free and open to anyone...

Barack Obama Is Related to Sarah Palin

Ancestry.com also links the president to Rush Limbaugh

(Newser) - Ancestry.com has dug up an ironic distant relationship between President Obama and one of his foes. Two of them, actually. It turns out both Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are both 10th cousins of the president (in Limbaugh's case, once removed). Ancestry.com traced both Obama's mother and Palin's...

Girl, 12, Finds All Presidents Related Except...

...Martin Van Buren

(Newser) - So where did Martin Van Buren come from? He's the only US president that doesn't share a common ancestor, according to a 12-year-old California girl who spent months combing through scores of names and family histories. BridgeAnne d'Avignon has put together a family tree for the commanders-in-chief,...

First Lady's Roots Linked to Slave Girl

Genealogist fills in gaps of her lineage

(Newser) - Michelle Obama can trace her lineage to a female slave sold as a young girl from a South Carolina plantation and sent to Georgia. As a teenager, Melvinia Shields became impregnated by a white man, possibly her master, and those two are the great-great-great grandparents of Michelle. A genealogist working...

Gates, Crowley Share Irish Ancestor
Gates, Crowley Share Irish Ancestor
Jul 29, 2009 9:25 AM CDT

Gates, Crowley Share Irish Ancestor

Better make that White House beer a Guinness

(Newser) - The beer James Crowley and Henry Louis Gates have with the president should be a Guinness if genetics are anything to go by, Irish Central reports. The Harvard professor and the Cambridge cop—along with about 3 million other people—are distant cousins with shared Irish heritage, both descended from...

Obama: 'Blood of Africa' in Me
 Obama: 'Blood of Africa' in Me 
Jul 11, 2009 9:55 AM CDT

Obama: 'Blood of Africa' in Me

(Newser) - President Obama today warned Africans that corruption and strong-arm tactics must be overcome if the continent is to see prosperity, and he promised US support to nations on the right path, Politico reports. “America will be with you,” Obama said in Ghana. “As a partner. As a...

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