Did you know Edward Norton is related to Pocahontas? He didn’t either

It’s not every day that you discover that you are related to Pocahontas. But on the TV show Finding Your Roots, in which historian and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates explores the ancestry of famous people using "genealogical detective work and DNA analysis", everything is possible. 

The premiere episode of the show's ninth season on Tuesday (January 3) saw folklore turn into fact for Hollywood actor Edward Norton as he discovered that the real-life Pocahontas—the 17th-century daughter of a Native American chief, is his 12th great grandmother. 

On asking Gates on how he came to this conclusion, Gates said that he had documents to prove it.

“You have a direct paper trail, no doubt about it, connection to your 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather, John Rolfe and Pocahontas," he told Norton.

Gates said Pocahontas married English settler John Rolfe in 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia—the first permanent English colony in North America.

Norton, after learning his ancestral links said, “It just makes you realise what a small… piece of the whole human story you are."

Things didn’t just end there as Norton was also told that one of his ancestors owned slaves. His third great grandfather held "seven human beings in bondage", including a 55-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman and five girls, aged 10, 9, 8, 6 and 4, the PBS host said.

"When you read 'slave, age 8', you just want to die," the actor said in response.

"The short answer is these things are uncomfortable," he added. "Everybody should be uncomfortable with it. It's a judgment on the history of this country and it needs to be contended with."