Finding Your Roots

GATES: I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Welcome to "Finding Your Roots."

In this episode, we'll meet Sharon Stone and Chrissy Teigen, two stars known around the world, who know little about their own family trees.

TEIGEN: Honestly, without this show, I just would've died without knowing any of this, honestly, because it's been so gone forever.

STONE: If someone else told me this was their story, I wouldn't believe them.

(laughter) GATES: To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.

Genealogists comb through paper trails, stretching back hundreds of years.

TEIGEN: I'm so nervous.

(laughing) GATES: While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.

(gasps) STONE: Oh, no.

GATES: And we've compiled it all... TEIGEN: Oh my God.

GATES: Into a Book of Life, a record of all of our discoveries and a window into the hidden past.

They're traditionally itinerant people who lived all over Europe for centuries, and you are part Roma.

TEIGEN: That's so cool.

STONE: I dunno why I, I'm feeling so emotional about people I never met.

GATES: They're your family.

Sharon and Chrissy both found fame when they were young and left their roots behind.

In this episode, they're going to be introduced to ancestors who did the same thing, meeting women and men who set out on their own to build lives that their parents could never have imagined.

(theme music playing).

(book closes).

GATES: Sharon Stone may look like a femme fatale, but the iconic actor who came to fame as a killer in "Basic Instinct" is actually something far more complicated.

Sharon is a survivor with a wry sense of humor, and her story sounds more like a fable than a film noir growing up in rural Pennsylvania where her father worked at a tool factory, Sharon's dreams of stardom seemed like fantasies, but she didn't let that stop her.

She started modeling as a teenager, moved to New York City, and got very lucky.

STONE: I met this fantastic casting agent named Ricardo Bertoni.

And Ricardo was a very extravagant Italian, really like, you know, talked really super extravagant from Italy.

Sharon, a, ciao, you know, he was like, and he was so great, and he said, I'm gonna call you in to be in in movies, in a movie, 'cause he knew that I really wanted to, and I was so poor.

I was roller-skating to all of my modeling things with my big book.

And he called me and said, Julia Taylor's doing a casting for a Woody Allen movie, come.

So I clunk, clunk, clunk, and I roller skated over.

So I'm like 11 feet tall in my roller skates.

I'm standing in this long line, and Woody was actually there.

GATES: Huh.

STONE: And she set, sort of set up a podium in front of him and taking all the pictures, and when she took mine, she went like this and handed it back.

I didn't know what she was doing.

And then she was listening, and then she said, Woody wants you to come and sit down and talk to him.

GATES: Uh-huh.

STONE: And I was, so I went and sat down next to him, but he didn't talk to me.

And so I sat there for like 20 minutes, like, okay.

And then I just sort of clomped off.

And then I got a call and he cast me as an extra.

And I went down to a school, it was like an elementary school where all the extras came.

And I was just sitting there with my bag of books that I always drug around with me.

And I was reading a book, and Michael Peyser, the assistant director, came out and he said, a girl was supposed to play a part and she didn't show up... GATES: Huh.

STONE: ...for whatever reason.

And, uh, Woody wants to think about casting you.

How do you feel about that?

And I said, "I feel fantastic."

GATES: That moment changed Sharon's life.

Her part in Allen's movie was small, but it was soon followed by larger roles, including a star turn opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Total Recall," a box-office smash.

Yet even so, Sharon was almost totally unprepared when just two years later, "Basic Instinct" made her a household name.

STONE: This was before cell phones.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: So like now, like the beautiful Taylor Swift... GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Can go to a concert with her boyfriend and a couple of bodyguards... GATES: Right.

STONE: Because they're cell phones... GATES: Uh-huh.

STONE: So everybody really feels like they know her and they feel like we're friends.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: But when there wasn't cell phones, people felt like when they saw you... (gasping) ...they're, they have to get some.

GATES: Right.

STONE: And they literally ripped the clothes off my body and pull my hair.

GATES: How did you cope with that?

STONE: The first thing that happened is that I went to a psychiatrist.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And I was like, I'm having trouble leaving my house.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I keep going back and seeing if the iron's unplugged and if the stove is off, and if I turned off the coffee pot.

And I, I'm having so much trouble going out and I, I, you know?

GATES: Yeah.

STONE: And she was like, um, "I'm sorry, I just wanna make sure, are you the girl on the billboard on the corner?"

And I'm like, "Yeah."

And "Are, are you that girl in that movie?"

"Yeah."

"That's you, right?"

"Yeah."

She's like, "Yeah."

And she's like, "You know, I've had other celebrity clients..." GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: "And I just wanna tell you, I don't think you're having a psychiatric problem, I think you're having a security problem."

GATES: Absolutely.

STONE: And I said, what do you mean?

She said you need to have an armored car and a driver who's armed.

GATES: Huh.

STONE: And I was like, uh oh.

GATES: Did you, do it?

STONE: Yeah.

GATES: Sharon may have solved her security problems, but greater challenges lay ahead from a pervasive sexism that sometimes put her at odds with producers and directors to a massive stroke that forced her to take years away from the camera.

Yet through it all, Sharon fought back emerging as one of the most recognizable and beloved actors of her generation.

The lesson, according to Sharon, she's simply doing her job the way it's supposed to be done.

STONE: You know, I go to work on time, I know my lines, I hit my marks, I sell my movies.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I'm professional, I behave like I know what I'm doing.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I'm grateful to my fans and to the public because I know without them, I wouldn't have a job.

GATES: Right.

STONE: And I treat them with respect and kindness because I get it.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And I don't also go out in public, I try not to go out in public looking a wreck because I also understand that I'm a public figure.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And that, that, that is the gift that I give to the public for giving me the gift of the way that I get to live.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: So I feel a lot of people think that's very old fashioned... GATES: Uh-huh.

STONE: But for me, it's a relationship of respect and gratitude.

GATES: My second guest is supermodel and social media maverick, Chrissy Teigen.

Much like Sharon, Chrissy grew up far from the limelight.

She was born in Utah where her father worked on industrial construction projects and she spent her childhood living in five different states.

Along the way, Chrissy says she became highly adaptable as well as something of a free spirit.

And those qualities would be put to good use professionally.

Indeed, Chrissy's first job as a model, a photo shoot for the Red Bull Energy drink was barely a job at all.

But Chrissy didn't care.

TEIGEN: I thought it was a commercial in my mind, I heard a Red Bull commercial, but it ended up being like one of those girls on the beach that handed out cans of Red Bull wearing those thick flip-flops, a bikini with like the Red Bull logo on it.

And you would walk around with a bunch of girls and give out handout Red Bulls to dudes.

And there was one video involved, so that's why they got to call it a commercial.

But I had asked for the, the day off work to do it.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: And, um, they were like, you need to make a choice, do you want to do this Red Bull thing?

Or, um, do you wanna continue to work here?

And I was like... GATES: Or you want a real job.

TEIGEN: Yeah, I know.

I was like, I'm gonna do the Red Bull thing.

So I got fired/quit my job that day.

Went off and did this Red Bull thing, and, uh... GATES: A star was born.

TEIGEN: A star was born.

GATES: As it turns out, Chrissy's star would rise very quickly.

Just four years later, she was featured in the "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue and saw her career explode.

By 2017 she was one of the highest-paid models in the world.

And true to form, Chrissy didn't take any of it too seriously.

How did you know you had talent?

Was there a moment?

TEIGEN: Oh, I still don't know, no.

Uh, there, I, I, I don't think, um, necessarily this took much talent.

I think, um, I think the big thing in the modeling world for me was to let people know that I could speak.

Um, uh, and that, I think that's why "Sports Illustrated" was such a wonderful thing for me, was because that was the kind of the first thing that I ever did, where when I spoke, they listened.

And it was to your benefit to be able to speak and to interact with people and, um... GATES: To show you had a brain.

TEIGEN: Yeah.

GATES: Modeling, of course, is notoriously challenging both physically and emotionally, but Chrissy has found a unique way to deal with it.

Social media, for more than a decade, she's been sharing her irreverent voice online, cultivating an enormous fan base in the process.

What's more, Chrissy has also used the internet to craft a kind of second career for herself as a cook and food lover, celebrating a lifelong passion and finding a level of satisfaction that had previously eluded her.

TEIGEN: Food is everything, like getting to see my daughter try new foods, um, whether it is like my mom's recipe or it's a can of SpaghettiOs, uh, it makes me really happy to get to be the first person to serve her that food or get to see her smile when she eats something.

Or get to see her frown when she hates something.

Like, I, food is the only constant in my life that it just doesn't let me down.

It doesn't, uh, yeah... GATES: It's great.

TEIGEN: It's everything.

GATES: Chrissy and Sharon have something in common, both are self-creations, people who built their careers largely on their own.

Through a combination of talent, ingenuity, and hard work.

It was time to introduce them to ancestors who shared those same traits.

I started with Sharon and with her father, Joseph Stone.

Sharon told me that she believed she inherited Joseph's work ethic, and she vividly recalls his tremendous physical strength.

STONE: My dad was super fit, like unbelievably muscular.

He, um, was a tool-and-die guy.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: So he lifted steel blocks all day.

GATES: Oh, wow.

STONE: So he was just so muscular, it was unbelievable.

Um, even when he died, he died of cancer, uh, ultimately, and even when he shrank away, even to at the very end, he was just muscle on bone.

He looked like a ballet dancer, but, um, he was a really healthy, healthy dude.

GATES: Did he get it from his mother or his father?

STONE: I think he got it because his father died when he was four... GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And he grew up in a barn.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And my uncle was in the Navy at 14.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: On a Navy ship alone.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I think they got it from protecting themselves.

GATES: Sharon's father undoubtedly had a very difficult childhood.

In 1934, his father, Sharon's grandfather died of heart disease.

At the time, he was the manager of an oil well in Western Pennsylvania, a lucrative job.

But following his death, his wife inherited nothing and couldn't provide for their young children.

In the chaos, the family was scattered and their stories forgotten.

Indeed, Sharon told me that she knew her father's roots lay in Ireland, but beyond that, his ancestry was a blank slate.

We set out to fill it in and trace Sharon, back to a couple named Mary and Alexander McElhaney.

They're Sharon's fourth great-grandparents, and we found them in the 1850 census for Pennsylvania.

STONE: Alexander McElhaney, 73.

Occupation, farmer, great.

Place of birth, Ireland.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Mary, 70, place of birth, Ireland.

Alexander, 30, place of birth, Pennsylvania.

GATES: These are your original Irish immigrants on this branch of your family.

These are the ones who got on the boat and rolled the dice... STONE: And moved to Pennsylvania.

GATES: And moved to Pennsylvania.

What's it like to see that?

STONE: I think it's just super cool, I think it's super cool.

I mean, you know, we're a very Pennsylvania family, and I like to know that they're, they came from Ireland to Pennsylvania.

GATES: Uh-huh.

STONE: I like knowing that it really began there in Pennsylvania for this side of my family, that it's very interesting for me.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And I feel really excited that they were farmers, that they actually got to have something.

GATES: Turn the page.

Sharon, this is a record from the Pennsylvania State Archives.

It's dated February 10th, 1842.

Eight years before the record we just saw.

STONE: Yeah.

GATES: Would you please read that transcribed section?

STONE: Know Ye that in consideration of the sum of $81 and 26 cents paid by Alexander McElhaney is granted a certain tract of land situated in Sandy Creek Township, Venango County containing 406 acres to have."

It's so great.

I'm so, I dunno why.

I just, it really gets to me.

"To have and to hold the said tract of land until the set Alexander McElhaney his heirs and assigns forever."

406 acres.

GATES: 406 acres for $81 and 26 cents.

STONE: Well, you know, in my family, that would be a really, really big deal.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: You know.

GATES: Oh, yeah.

You weren't going to own any land back in Ireland.

STONE: Wow, I just love it.

GATES: Alexander McElhaney bought his farm when he was roughly 70 years old.

We don't know how he saved the money, but that purchase was a watershed moment for his family.

Sharon's father would be born less than five miles from the farm, and Sharon herself was raised in a nearby town.

And when Alexander died at the age of 88, his obituary shows that he passed on much more than land.

STONE: "As a man, he was distinguished for his truthfulness..." That's my dad.

"...kindness, and industry.

During his last illness..." (sighs, crying) "...his constant response to inquires was, 'I have great peace.'"

That's how my dad was.

GATES: Hmm.

STONE: My dad was so sick when he had cancer and he could vomit on his shoes, and you'd say, how, how are you?

And he'd say, "I'm great."

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: "I'm just great."

GATES: Hmm.

STONE: It's that fortitude.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Just the same, "I have great peace."

It's kinda, it's kind of incredible.

It's like a family, uh, trait.

GATES: Yes.

STONE: It's like people say, where did you get it?

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Clearly from Alexander McElhaney.

(laughter) GATES: Turning from the McElhaneys to Sharon's direct paternal ancestors, we encountered another man who embodied her family's best traits.

Sharon's great-grandfather, John Stone was born in 1862.

As an adult, he leased the oil well that brought his descendants a measure of prosperity.

And records show that even in his youth, he had a great array of talents.

STONE: While in his teens, he studied photography and conducted a small picture business at the same time working in a bakery.

I didn't know that.

GATES: Before getting into the oil business.

Your great-grandfather ran his own photography business.

STONE: That's so early to be in photography.

GATES: How about that, huh?

STONE: Wow.

GATES: Art.

STONE: Wow, cool.

GATES: You feel a connection?

STONE: I feel that, it seems like my relatives were all kind of, um, like high steppers.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Like, they stepped in, stepped out.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: They just like, "Hey, I'm doing it."

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I'm stepping out, I'm doing this thing.

GATES: Outside the boundaries.

STONE: Yeah.

GATES: Yeah and quirky.

STONE: Yeah.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I'm stepping out, I'm going to America.

I'm stepping out, I'm digging for oil.

I'm stepping out, I'm gonna try this photography that nobody knows what even what it is.

GATES: Yeah.

STONE: You know, they just stepped out and tried all these new ventures.

Yeah, wow.

GATES: Like Sharon, Chrissy Teigen was about to discover that she'd inherited much more from her father's ancestors than she could have possibly imagined.

But first, we needed to show her exactly where those ancestors came from.

A subject that had been the source of much confusion within her family.

The story begins with her father's parents and with a photograph that Chrissy had never seen before.

TEIGEN: Oh my gosh.

Wow, look how beautiful.

So chic.

(laughs) GATES: Your grandfather, Henry Elmer Teigen was born on March 25th, 1915 in Pierce County, North Carolina.

Your grandmother, Ruth Helen Schafer, was born March 18th, 1916 in Wild Rose, North Dakota.

They both died when you were very young.

And I understand in, in the last couple of years, you have come to believe that your grandmother Ruth was Jewish.

TEIGEN: Yes.

GATES: Well, that was quite a story, and we wanted to investigate it for you.

TEIGEN: Yeah.

GATES: We couldn't find any records, though, to indicate that she might have been Jewish.

TEIGEN: Oh!

(laughing) GATES: But records are not always accurate.

So, so we turned, we turned to DNA.

Now, since your father's one generation closer to your grandmother, we looked at his DNA.

So if Ruth was indeed fully Jewish, we would expect to see 50% of Jewish DNA in your father.

You with me?

TEIGEN: Yeah.

GATES: Okay.

So let's see how much Jewish DNA your father actually has.

Please turn the page.

TEIGEN: 0%... GATES: Zero.

TEIGEN: Jewish DNA.

GATES: I'm... TEIGEN: You have no idea how proud I was to be Jewish.

That is so, wow.

GATES: Where do you think that idea came from?

TEIGEN: I have no idea.

GATES: Hmm.

TEIGEN: Is it, is Schafer not a Jewish last name though?

GATES: Mm-mm, it's German, but it's not, and there were some German Jews, but it would be in your DNA.

It's a clear category, and, and your father has zero Jewish ancestry.

I'm sorry, if you wanna be Jewish that bad, I bet the Jewish people would welcome you.

TEIGEN: It was like, that's why I'm so funny, and like there's so many.

Okay.

GATES: Chrissy's disappointment would not last long, in the archives of Washington state where her grandmother passed away in 1991, we began to trace Ruth's roots for real.

TEIGEN: Name Ruth Helen Hornbacher.

Father's name Richard Schafer.

Mother's name Minnie Heller.

GATES: This is your grandmother Ruth's death certificate.

Have you ever seen that before?

TEIGEN: No.

GATES: Um, well, this document is important because it gives us the names of Ruth's parents.

This is how we piece together family trees.

They were Richard Schafer and Willamina Heller.

Willamina went by the nickname... TEIGEN: Willamina.

GATES: Willamina and Willamina's nickname was Minnie.

And, um, Richard and Willamina are your paternal great-grandparents.

Have you ever heard those names before?

TEIGEN: No.

GATES: Could you please turn the page?

Chrissy, on the right, is a list of passengers who arrived in... TEIGEN: Oh, my gosh.

GATES: Port of New York from Bremen, Germany, you ready for this?

June 1st, 1885.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: That's the passenger list, would you please read who was on that ship?

TEIGEN: Wow.

Uh, Johann Heller.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Age 34.

Occupation workman.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Rosalia, age 32, babies, wife.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Herman.

GATES: Mm-Hmm, Herman... TEIGEN: Per se age six child.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Willamina, age three child.

The country, which they're citizens, Germany.

Number of pieces of luggage, four.

GATES: That's the moment, they stepped foot on the United States soil.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: June the first, 1885.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: And she arrived with her parents.

TEIGEN: Hundred years later.

GATES: Yeah.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: Your great-great-grandparents were Johann and Rosalia Heller.

TEIGEN: Wow, that's, that's incredible.

GATES: Johann and Rosalia were both born in towns that were then part of the German state of Prussia, and are now in Poland.

As we comb through the records that they left behind, we notice something unusual.

Rosalia had a brother named Traugott Franz, who's listed as being an oboist.

And it seems that this was a family business.

Indeed, documents indicate that at least three generations of Chrissy's ancestors were musicians.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: How do you think this history gets lost?

How do you think people forget what their ancestors... TEIGEN: I, I would've definitely thought, like I, I do feel like our family has a musical connection with vocals.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: I always felt like our family, uh, always been in choirs and things, but would've never guessed instruments, especially so with how terrible I am at instruments.

But yeah, I don't know how it, it would get lost, but I also don't know how you would find it, because it's been so gone forever.

GATES: As it turns out, there was a great deal more to learn about the Franz family.

Not only were they musicians, they also appear to have lived nomadic lives traveling in mostly rural areas.

And it seems that several of them were illiterate, which was surprising because Prussia had compulsory education laws at the time.

At first, we didn't know what to make of all this, but then we realized that Chrissy's ancestors belonged to an ancient European community called the Sinti.

And thus were part of a very specific minority group known as the Romani or Roma people, a group once denigrated as gypsies.

They're traditionally itinerant people who lived all over Europe for centuries.

And you are part Roma.

TEIGEN: Wow, that's so cool.

GATES: What's it like to see that?

TEIGEN: I love It.

GATES: These are your people.

That's why they were moving around so much.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: That's why they were illiterate.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: And guess what?

It was rough to be a Roma.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: For centuries they were discriminated against and they were even persecuted, just like the Jews were in Europe.

They spoke their own language, which is based on Sanskrit, which is the classical language of India.

TEIGEN: Wow, Sanskrit?

GATES: Yeah, and generally, they lived among themselves on the outskirts of larger communities or pursued in itinerant trade within those communities, such as being a musician, they traveled often, usually with families, and they were living constantly on the edge.

So do you think this is one of the reasons Rosalia and Johann moved to America to escape all the persecution for her people?

TEIGEN: Yeah, of course.

I just, it's so unreal.

GATES: Unfortunately, this story was about to darken significantly when Rosalia moved to America.

Much of her family remained behind in Europe.

We don't know what happened to all of them, but we found evidence that one of her cousins, a woman named Else Adler, was living in Poland when Germany invaded in September of 1939.

Soon the Roma were being rounded up and persecuted by the Nazi regime.

The story was covered in newspapers around the world, but the world did nothing to save them.

It's estimated that at least 250,000 Roma died in the war.

This is what your family would've faced had your branch not immigrated.

And it's what your relatives, that's what happened to them.

TEIGEN: That's what they saved us from.

GATES: That's right.

In December of 1942, the Nazis ordered the deportation of all Roma from the greater German Reich to Auschwitz.

At the time, your great-great-grandmother, Rosalia's cousin Else would've been 50 years old.

You know much about Auschwitz.

TEIGEN: I mean, more than I'd like to know.

GATES: Right, please turn the page.

These are photos of Auschwitz.

Most people associate it with the extermination of Europe's Jewish population.

And nearly one million of the camp's victims were Jewish.

But the lesser-known story is of the Roma people of whom some 21,000 were murdered.

Did you have any idea that any part of your ancestry could be connected to the Holocaust?

TEIGEN: No.

GATES: Records show that Else was part of a transport that arrived at Auschwitz on April 1st, 1943.

Less than three months later, she was dead.

But while it's impossible to know what she endured, we found an account written by another Roma woman who was in the camp at the same time.

And it sheds a light on what may have happened to Else.

TEIGEN: "The children died first, day and night they cried..." (sighs) "Day and night they cried for bread, soon they all starved to death.

In our work briga..." Ah, sorry.

(clears throat) "In our work brigade," "In our work brigade, we had to do everything in double time.

An S.S. block leader rode a bicycle alongside us.

If a woman collapsed because she was too weak, he would beat her with a baton.

Many died as a result of this physical abuse.

The S.S. camp doctor, who was in charge of the gypsy camp, was named Dr.

Mengele."

GATES: Yep.

TEIGEN: "He was one of the most dreaded camp doctors at Auschwitz.

He carried out experiments on the handicapped and twins.

He also used my cousins who were twins as guinea pigs.

I lost about 30 relatives in Auschwitz.

My siblings and my father literally starved to death within the first few months.

And finally, my mother starved to death."

GATES: What's it been like to learn that this is part of your heritage?

I mean, to discover a whole new biological link in your ancestry and then to discover how they were treated?

TEIGEN: Um, I mean, it's heartbreaking, but, um, it, I, I will say it, it doesn't feel real.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Uh, yet I think maybe when I go back and talk about it in therapy or something, maybe it will.

Um, but it, it still feels like we're looking at a book and at, at stories told of somebody else.

GATES: Right, and that's normal.

TEIGEN: Okay.

GATES: Because it takes a, a long time in the process.

TEIGEN: It's like a, like a fairytale that you hear, and then, um, you'll make more sense of it later.

GATES: We'd already explored Sharon Stone's father's roots, introducing her to ancestors who embodied strength and courage.

Now, we encountered those same qualities in Sharon's own mother, Dorothy Lawson.

Dorothy was born in 1933, and she's still going strong today, which is all the more remarkable, given the circumstances of her childhood.

According to Sharon, Dorothy's parents were simply unable to care for her.

STONE: They lived in abject poverty.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: They had a two-room house on the railroad tracks and five daughters.

They had more.

One of them was hit by a drunk driver and killed when she was crossing the street with my mom and her sisters, and was killed instantly.

GATES: Mm.

STONE: Uh, my mother had a twin who died, was dead at birth.

GATES: Mm.

STONE: Um, just malnutrition.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Um, had my mother grew up with rickets and scurvy.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: You know, and finally they took her out of her house and moved her into the local dentist's home.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: When she was nine.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And she became their maid, their cook, their laundress, their shopper.

GATES: Hmm.

STONE: Till she met my dad at 16 and got married.

GATES: That's tough.

STONE: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: As it turns out, Dorothy is not the only member of her family to survive great hardship.

Moving back on her paternal line, we came to a man named George Greggs.

George is Sharon's third great-grandfather.

He was born in 1842, and he spent much of his life as a coal miner in Pennsylvania.

But that's not all that he did.

This is the veteran schedule of the 1890 Federal Census for Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

STONE: Oh wow.

George Gregg's address, Stone Borough, Pennsylvania Rank, Private, Company A 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Date of enlistment, August 30th, 1864.

Date of discharge, June 17th, 1865.

GATES: Did you have any idea that you'd descend from a veteran of the Civil War who fought on the right side?

STONE: From a Yankee?

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Feels good.

GATES: Yeah.

STONE: You know, um, it's a proud moment for me to look at this.

I'm a proud American.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I'm proud of our democracy, and I believe in our democracy, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

I'm sure my great, great, great, great grandfather was too.

GATES: George signed up to fight when he was 22 years old and was assigned to a Calvary regiment.

As a coal miner, he likely had little experience riding horses, but he quickly found himself tested.

In the early hours of October 19th, 1864, Confederate forces launched a surprise attack on the Union Army in the Shenandoah Valley threatening Washington, D.C. By mid-morning, the Union was in disarray, but a ferocious counterattack led by the Calvary turned the tide in what became known as the Battle of Cedar Creek.

STONE: Wow.

GATES: The victory became national news.

That victory helped ensure Abraham Lincoln's reelection to a second term the following month.

And your ancestor was there.

STONE: Freaking badass, I love that.

GATES: When the war ended, George was a hero, but he paid a heavy price.

His military records show that he left the army suffering from rheumatism.

A chronic condition marked by intense pain in the joints and muscles.

What's more George's mental health suffered too.

STONE: Patient is a male, age 75 years, married, laborer, Protestant, residence, Franklin, Pennsylvania.

Patient began working in the coal mines when about eight years old and received practically no education.

He has worked as a laborer throughout his life until about six or seven years ago when his health began to fail.

Throughout his adult life, he drank to great excess and was very abusive towards his family.

When was any change in the patient first noticed?

Two months ago, no steady work for five, six years, threatened to kill wife, struck wife with a club.

Carries sticks and pokes people in the back, imagines he is in the army, and that the Cavalry is charging.

GATES: This is 51 years after the end of the Civil War, and he's still reliving his time on the battlefield.

STONE: Well, that's not uncommon.

GATES: No, PTSD wasn't... STONE: Yes.

GATES: Didn't have a name.

STONE: Right.

GATES: But it's clear... STONE: That that's what it was.

GATES: At least in part, yeah, he's suffering from that.

STONE: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: George never found the help he needed.

In 1918, after being admitted to a state hospital, he passed away from heart disease.

But we had another revelation for Sharon, a far happier one.

Looking over the records of George's life, we discovered that he had been born in England and that he immigrated to America as a child.

This surprised Sharon because she had long believed that the vast majority of her roots lay into Ireland, not in England.

And when we analyzed her DNA, she was in for an even bigger surprise.

Read those percentages.

STONE: 43% Scotland.

GATES: You are 43% Scottish.

STONE: I thought I was all Irish.

GATES: Interesting.

STONE: I'm Scottish.

GATES: You are indeed.

STONE: I'm Scottish.

43% Scottish.

GATES: Strangely, despite her admixture results, we couldn't find any Scottish lines on Sharon's family tree.

There are several possible explanations for this.

The most likely is that Sharon's ancestors moved from Scotland to Ireland during the 1600s as part of a wave of migration that produced what we now call the Scots-Irish people, many of whom would later travel to North America.

A notion that compelled Sharon to rethink her family's story from the very beginning.

STONE: You know, my parents didn't have anybody.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And their parents were scrambling to have their own self together.

Um, there wasn't time or moments to even think about was there anybody before them?

There wasn't the luxury of imagining.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: Who were your ancestors?

You know what I mean?

It's like, how can we get dinner on the table?

GATES: Right.

STONE: Can we eat?

GATES: Sure.

STONE: And, um, it's so important to know who your people are.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: And it's really nice to be able to find that out and, you know, to, you know, like how people talk.

You know, America, because we are all immigrants so much, we don't have that culture of our grandparents help us raise our children.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: We don't have that, you know, extended family.

That is so beautiful when you go to Europe and you have dinner and it's the whole family.

GATES: Yeah.

STONE: And I always have been attracted to people who have whole families.

GATES: Uh-huh.

STONE: Bigger families.

GATES: Right.

STONE: I'm like, oh, I just really, can I just get in there?

GATES: Sure, being adopted into your fantasy family.

STONE: Yes.

GATES: Yeah.

STONE: And so, um, just this sense of consciousness that there is spiritually a bigger family for me.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

STONE: I don't know, it's very grounding.

GATES: We'd already traced Chrissy Teigen's paternal roots to Roma communities in Eastern Europe.

Now turning to the maternal side of her family tree we found ourselves in a very different part of the world, Northeast Thailand.

Chrissy's mother was born here in 1961, and her grandparents lived here almost all their lives.

But while Chrissy feels very bonded to her Thai roots, her grandparents passed away when she was a teenager and her impressions of them are limited.

Do you have any memories of your grandparents?

TEIGEN: Um, I remember my grandfather being in a car for the first time.

Um, and the smile on his face for that.

And then, this is so terrible, but I, one of the, I don't even know if it's a fond memory or just a memory of my grandmother, but like, I remember being so terribly sick on one of my trips to Thailand when I was young and I was laying on the floor and I had been asleep for days.

I had, I don't know if it was terrible food poisoning or what, but I remember just like being on my back and looking up and her adjusting her sarong and then seeing the biggest boobs of my life.

(laughing) That's like a, that's definitely like a distinct memory that I have.

And I don't know if that's good or bad, but I was just like, so out of it and I was like looking up and I was like, "Oh, wow, those are some big boobs," yeah.

GATES: What did they make of their American granddaughter?

TEIGEN: I don't know.

I don't really don't know.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Um, I know they were proud of my mom.

Uh, but no, I don't know what they made of me, really.

GATES: Chrissy told me that her most powerful connection to her grandparents comes through food.

She still cooks her grandmother's dishes passed down by her mother.

In fact, in 2021, Chrissy helped her mother publish her own cookbook.

Happily, we were able to trace this connection back to its source, a food cart that Chrissy's grandmother ran outside of school in the city of Korat.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: Have you seen that before?

TEIGEN: I have not seen this photo before, no.

GATES: Well, that's your grandmother with the food cart, she owned and operated.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: She sold dishes such as Pad Mi.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: Is that how you say?

TEIGEN Yes.

GATES: Fried noodle.

Um, Som Tam.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: The famous papaya... TEIGEN: Som Tam is, yeah, papaya salad.

GATES: Papaya salad.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: And Wan Yen.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: Dessert.

Have you heard much about this?

TEIGEN: I have, because I heard on my mom's book tour how much, how involved my mother was in helping her sell food, so yeah.

GATES: And in food prep?

TEIGEN: Yes, absolutely.

GATES: Must have been a ton of work.

TEIGEN: Yeah, I can't even fathom it.

GATES: While Chrissy's grandmother was running her cart, Chrissy's grandfather was keeping busy as well.

He was a teacher at a time when Thailand was attempting to expand and improve its educational system, especially in rural areas.

Chrissy had heard stories about her grandfather's career, but she'd never seen any evidence of it until now.

Guess what you're looking at?

TEIGEN: Is that his school?

GATES: That's his school.

TEIGEN: Cool.

GATES: This is a photo of the elementary school where your grandfather... TEIGEN: Elementary school.

GATES: He was an elementary school teacher.

TEIGEN: Cool.

GATES: It's located in Takon.

TEIGEN: Mm-Hmm.

GATES: A small village in Northwestern Sisaket, can you imagine teaching out there?

TEIGEN: Yeah, when I used to go to Thailand as a kid, uh, my mom used to take me to visit, uh, different international schools.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

TEIGEN: Um, with teachers taking, uh, speaking English and, and kids from all over the world.

Um, and then this is just very, this is like, as you know, this is as pure and small and, and opposite of that, as you can imagine.

GATES: As it turns out, Chrissy's grandfather eventually left this school for one in Korat, where he taught subjects ranging from agriculture to algebra, while also coaching the traditional Southeast Asian sport known as Sepak Takraw.

TEIGEN: What is that?

GATES: Kick volleyball, and it's wild.

You gotta look it up, it's great.

TEIGEN: That's so interesting, I wonder if my mom even knows that.

I'm just excited.

GATES: And remember when we talked about your grandmother's food cart, she operated it right outside of the school where her husband taught to their kids.

TEIGEN: They were in cahoots.

GATES: Had a monopoly, yeah.

TEIGEN: Yeah.

GATES: They would sell to parents in the afternoon when they came to pick up their kids and to adults attending evening classes.

So she... TEIGEN: Oh my gosh, they really were.

GATES: She had three shifts.

TEIGEN: Wow.

GATES: So your entire family's history really revolved around that very school.

TEIGEN: Yeah, I love it.

GATES: Chrissy's grandparents likely had status within their community.

Her grandmother's food cart would've fed much of the town, and her grandfather would've been highly respected, both inside and outside of his classroom.

Turning back one generation, we saw just how far they'd truly come.

Chrissy's great-grandparents, her grandfather's parents, both worked in the rice fields of their village.

What do you imagine life as rice farmers was like?

TEIGEN: Incredibly difficult, um, tedious work.

I mean, we're talking grains of rice for, um, and in the fields, the, obviously the humidity, uh, growing in water, the plowing, the, it is, I, I can't imagine a more strenuous, difficult job.

GATES: Yeah.

TEIGEN: And you're talking one grain at a time, literally, it makes you think differently every time you have... GATES: A bowl of rice.

TEIGEN: Or a spoonful of rice, yes.

GATES: Rice growing was indeed an extremely labor-intensive process.

Much of the work had to be done by hand under backbreaking conditions.

And though we can't document it, we believe that Chrissy's relatives likely did this work for centuries, if not longer.

Even so, surveying the journey that her ancestors took, Chrissy was struck not by the differences between her life and theirs, but rather by all they shared in common food, faith, and family.

TEIGEN: It's funny 'cause some parts of me wanna say like, how crazy different and like, I'm so, you know, outspoken and I'm so crazy and this that, but I don't really think I've strayed too far from, from what they were.

Like, we are, we have the same belief system, the same, uh, the same passions, the same love for one another.

And, and, uh, it doesn't feel like we strayed too off course.

GATES: Yeah, you were true to your roots.

TEIGEN: Yes.

GATES: My time with my guest was coming to a close, but we did have one more story to share with Sharon.

Turning back to her father's family tree, we discovered that we could trace one of her paternal lines back into the very distant past.

The line contains a slave owner in colonial Connecticut, but it also contains two French kings.

And it culminates with one of the most famous men who ever lived.

Please turn the page, you know who that is?

(gasps) STONE: Oh no.

What's his name?

GATES: His name is Charlemagne.

STONE: No.

GATES: Charlemagne is your 38th great-grandfather.

(laughs).

The first holy Roman emperor was a mean dude.

STONE: Charlemagne was my grandfather.

GATES: Mm-Hmm.

Your 38th great-grandfather.

He's one of the most important people in history, of course.

And he basically created modern Europe with... STONE: Yeah.

GATES: An iron will.

STONE: Well, if you wanna see someone whose mind is completely blown, here it is.

GATES: The paper trail had run out for Sharon and Chrissy.

It was time to show them their full family trees.

TEIGEN: Wow, oh my goodness.

STONE: Oh my goodness, gracious sakes.

GATES: Now filled with people whose names they'd never heard before.

TEIGEN: That's incredible.

GATES: For each, it was a moment of awe.

STONE: This is unbelievable.

GATES: Offering the chance to see how their own lives were part of a larger family story.

TEIGEN: To be able to tell my kids now at such a young age for them, what I spent my whole life not knowing is, is really cool.

GATES: Oh, that's great.

TEIGEN: This has been so special.

STONE: You know, I think we all kinda wonder, like people say, what are you made of?

And it's so, um, grounding to find out for the good and the bad of it, right?

GATES: Yes, sure.

STONE: Because then you can just see yourself and know, oh, that's what I'm made of.

GATES: That's the end of our journey with Sharon Stone and Chrissy Teigen.

Join me next time when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode of "Finding Your Roots."