Actor Edward Norton is Direct Descendant of Pocahontas, Records Confirm; Julia Roberts

- Edward Norton is direct descendant of Pocahontas, records confirm, The Guardian, Jan. 5, 2023.

TV show Finding Your Roots finds Oscar-nominated actor is 12th great-grandson of famed 17th-century Native American.

Genealogical records reviewed on the show Finding Your Roots reveal that Pocahontas, the mythologized 17th-century Native American woman, is the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton. The PBS history show confirmed Norton’s longstanding family lore on a recent episode, with host Henry Louis Gates Jr telling the American actor: “You have a direct paper trail, no doubt about it, connection to your 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather, John Rolfe and Pocahontas.”

Pocahontas, the daughter of a Powhatan chief, welcomed British settlers to present-day Virginia in the early 17th century. According to legend, she saved the life of Captain John Smith, stopping his execution by placing her head on his. She married Englishman John Rolfe in 1614 and died three years later in Gravesend, England, according to records. They had a son, Thomas, in 1615.

Norton, the star of such films as Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Fight Club, said the revelation “just makes you realize what a small … piece of the whole human story you are”.

The show, which helps celebrities trace their ancestral histories, also found that the Oscar-nominated actor’s third great-grandfather, John Winstead, enslaved a family including a 55-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman and five young girls, according to census records. Asked how it felt to know he was descended from slave owners, Norton said: “The short answer is these things are uncomfortable. And you should be uncomfortable with them.

“It’s not a judgment on you in your own life but it’s a judgment on the history of this country and it needs to be acknowledged first and foremost and then it needs to be contended with.” Norton added that he personalized the details available in the census – “when you read ‘slave aged eight’, you just want to die”. Gates also revealed that Norton shares a distant cousin with another A-lister: actress Julia Roberts...https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/05/edward-norton-descendant-pocahontas-genealogical-records
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- Also: Edward Norton on Discovering an Ancestor Was a Slave Owner: “Everybody Should Be Uncomfortable With It.” The 'Glass Onion' actor also confirmed he is a direct descendent of the Indigenous historical figure Pocahontas during the season 9 premiere episode of 'Finding Your Roots.' The Hollywood Reporter, Jan. 4, 2023.

Edward Norton says discovering one of his own ancestors owned enslaved Black people is an “uncomfortable” truth that “needs to be acknowledged” and contended with. The Glass Onion star and Oscar winner discovered the ancestral connection during the season 9 premiere of PBS’ Finding Your Roots. In the episode, which also featured Julia Roberts, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that Norton’s third great-grandfather, John Winstead, had a record of owning enslaved people in the 1850 North Carolina census.

The revelation — which coincided with Norton learning about being a direct descendant of the Indigenous American historical figure Pocahontas as well as a wealthy iron manufacturer-turned-Union soldier who wrote to Abraham Lincoln and a late 19th-century pro-union labor activist involved in the Pullman Strike — was something Norton said made him uneasy but that had to be addressed...https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/finding-your-roots-edward-norton-julia-roberts-slave-owner-ancestors-1235291024/