Julia Roberts has found that her surname isn’t really Roberts.
The Fairly Lady star took half in newest season of the Finding Your Roots TV present from Ancestry. The collection sees Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr use genealogical detective work and DNA evaluation to assist stars uncover their household timber.
In an episode which aired final week, Roberts was informed that the surname she has passed by all her life was not really appropriate. The star was informed she’s really “Julia Mitchell”.
Sitting down with the Mystic Pizza actor, Gates defined: “The story begins along with her nice grandfather, John Roberts, and along with his mom, a girl named Rhoda Suttle.” When requested in regards to the title, Roberts admitted she’d by no means even heard of Suttle.
Nonetheless, she does joke that “refined” — a play on the title Suttle — isn’t a phrase that’s ever been used to explain her household. As issues progressed Roberts was then urged her to show the web page within the 1880 census for Douglas County, Georgia, the place she’s proven her nice grandfather, full title John Pendleton Roberts.
On the time he was only a toddler and dwelling below the care of his mom, full title Rhoda Suttle Roberts, alongside his three brothers. That mentioned, Gates identified that the daddy is lacking. He informed the Hollywood star: “Digging into Georgia’s County archives, we found that someday within the 1850s, Rhoda married a person named Willis Roberts.
“Julia carries Willis’ final title. However Willis handed away in 1864, over a decade earlier than Rhoda gave beginning to Julia’s nice grandfather, John, resulting in an inescapable conclusion.”
Talking to the Hollywood star, he went on to clarify: “Willis Roberts couldn’t presumably be your nice, nice grandfather. He was useless.” The star then requested the ancestry knowledgeable the golden query: “However am I not a Roberts?”
In response, the Gates informed her that the present’s specialists had scoured by way of Douglas County data in search of any file that named John’s father, however discovered nothing. And, because it turned out, they needed to flip to a distinct instrument: DNA.
“Julia and considered one of her father’s first cousins, a fellow descendant of John Roberts, each agreed to take DNA checks,” Gates defined on digital camera. “We then in contrast their outcomes to individuals in publicly obtainable databases, looking for matches, hoping to establish John’s father by way of the DNA of his descendants.”
He added: “In the long run, we discovered a cluster of matches that tie Julia and her cousin to 1 man.” The person in query was referred to as Henry MacDonald Mitchell Jr. After studying out the title, Roberts requested: “So we’re Mitchells?” To which Gates replies: “You’re Julia Mitchell.”