Teriz “Rose” Darakjian came to the U.S. after surviving the 1915 Armenian massacre in Turkey and giving birth to a daughter by a German soldier. But Rose never revealed his name to their daughter who became the grandmother of actor Joe Manganiello of HBO’s True Blood.
“The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the Armenian genocide and doesn’t ever permit researchers access to records that would document it,” explains Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the show’s host. Gates, however, turned to genetic genealogist CeCe Moore to analyze Manganiello’s DNA to find the identity of his German great-grandfather. Genealogist were then able to trace the actor’s roots to fourteenth-century Germany.
Unexpectedly, Manganiello’s DNA revealed that his father is not biologically from the Italian Manganiello family. Instead, his direct paternal bloodline traces back to an African-born enslaved man who gained freedom and served in the American Revolution.
Also in this episode, CeCe Moore uses DNA to solve a mystery surrounding football legend Tony Gonzalez’s great-grandmother, who was adopted as a child. Gonzalez learns that his great-grandmother—believed to have been white—was the daughter of an African American woman by a white man from a prominent family.
Finding Your Roots airs Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS.