Julia Roberts Learns She Isn't Actually a 'Roberts' After DNA Test: 'My Mind is Blown'

[arielilane]

Julia Roberts discovered a centuries-old marital affair involving her great-great-grandfather on PBS' Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.​

Julia Roberts is not who she thought she was.

The Oscar-winner appeared on PBS' Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Wednesday, and was left speechless by a hidden centuries-old secret.

After researching Roberts' family tree, Gates Jr. discovered that the man who was supposedly her great-great-grandfather, Willis Roberts, actually died more than a decade before her great-grandfather was born.

While her great-great-grandmother Rhoda Suttle Roberts had been married to Willis since the 1850s, his death in 1864 left a startling gap.

Julia Roberts Learns She Isn't Actually a 'Roberts' After DNA Test: 'My Mind is Blown'

Julia Roberts discovered a centuries-old marital affair involving her great-great-grandfather on PBS' 'Finding Your Roots' with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

people.com

 

[Laughing]

Yes, genealogy, the hobby that confuses the dead and irritates the living!

This kind of thing is not that unusual when you are a genealogist.

 

[Blurgle]

SO MANY breaks in DNA lines are due not to adultery but to simple things like this. I wonder if the child was even the mother's bio child; she wouldn’t have been the first widow to take in an orphan or an illegitimate child, and give it her name.

 

[Laughing]

SO MANY breaks in DNA lines are due not to adultery but to simple things like this. I wonder if the child was even the mother's bio child; she wouldn’t have been the first widow to take in an orphan or an illegitimate child, and give it her name.

And, census enumerators would talk to neighbors if no one answered the door. A child might be a cousin, a foundling, a secret grandchild but recorded in the census as a child of the parents.

Error -- or neighbor protecting neighbor? We'll never know!

My own family tree includes a 'cousin' John known as Cyclone Johnny. Yes, rural Oklahoma, a tornado passed over -- and left debris along with a toddler! We Websleuthers weren't around to chase down missing children in 1897, no Internet after all, so the family just kept him.

Beyond completing 8th grade, I don't know much about Johnny.

 

[mynoyb]

DBM

 

[Blurgle]

And, census enumerators would talk to neighbors if no one answered the door. A child might be a cousin, a foundling, a secret grandchild but recorded in the census as a child of the parents.

Error -- or neighbor protecting neighbor? We'll never know!

My own family tree includes a 'cousin' John known as Cyclone Johnny. Yes, rural Oklahoma, a tornado passed over -- and left debris along with a toddler! We Websleuthers weren't around to chase down missing children in 1897, no Internet after all, so the family just kept him.

Beyond completing 8th grade, I don't know much about Johnny.

A lot of breaks in the 19th century happened when birth mothers died, and the father either didn’t want the child or couldn't care for it. If you're not careful you might assume the issue was infidelity when the real issue was a couple taking in a sister's, niece's, or aunt's child.

 

[Laughing]

A lot of breaks in the 19th century happened when birth mothers died, and the father either didn’t want the child or couldn't care for it. If you're not careful you might assume the issue was infidelity when the real issue was a couple taking in a sister's, niece's, or aunt's child.

Or, Dad remarries and the census enumerator doesn't record this -- most census forms really don't have a place to enter this information. Mom may come into this marriage with kids, too. Yours, Mine, and Ours all become one household.

Marriage was (and still is) a stabilizing economic situation. Whether in town or on a farm, there was women's work and men's work, a couple fills both roles.

Just plain poverty was also a factor. There was no medical insurance, no disability, no retirement plans at work, no SNAP benefits, no TANF. My grandfather & his two sibs were in an orphan's home for a while after their Dad died in a mill accident. (The Woodmen of the World did cover funeral expenses, after building his coffin.) When their Mom remarried, they all lived together & added 2 half-sibs.

Great that Julia Roberts was willing to share this in the broadcast -- family history is a never-ending hobby!

 

[MajorHoople]

And, census enumerators would talk to neighbors if no one answered the door. A child might be a cousin, a foundling, a secret grandchild but recorded in the census as a child of the parents.

Error -- or neighbor protecting neighbor? We'll never know!

My own family tree includes a 'cousin' John known as Cyclone Johnny. Yes, rural Oklahoma, a tornado passed over -- and left debris along with a toddler! We Websleuthers weren't around to chase down missing children in 1897, no Internet after all, so the family just kept him.

Beyond completing 8th grade, I don't know much about Johnny.

Now that's a cool story!

 

[IceIce9]

A lot of breaks in the 19th century happened when birth mothers died, and the father either didn’t want the child or couldn't care for it. If you're not careful you might assume the issue was infidelity when the real issue was a couple taking in a sister's, niece's, or aunt's child.

Exactly. My great-uncle who passed away years ago, used to talk about one of the neighbor families. Both parents died leaving nine children, who were split up between neighbors and church members to raise. No one family could take in all nine, and IIRC the nine kids were split between eight different homes.

That is just the way things were done way back in the day in some rural areas.

 

[mynoyb]

Julia Roberts not a Roberts

According to this article, Rhoda had an affair with a married man named Mitchell, and got pg with John. He went by Roberts even though he couldn't possibly be a genetic Roberts. John went on to have 9 children, so this news affects a lot of other people. On a side not, I am very, very, very distantly related to both Rhoda and Henry Mitchell.