Finding Your Roots

Alem and Elizabeth married in 1823 and records suggest they had at least four children together.

But when we searched for the family in the 1850 census, we noticed something unusual.

"Elizabeth Hagar, age 40.

Granville Hagar, age 14.

William R. Hagar age five.

Polly Means Hagar age 20."

There's your great-grandfather, William R. Hagar as a child living with his mother and two of his likely siblings in Mercer County, Virginia.

Okay.

But his father's missing.

No Alem.

So we wanted to see what happened to him.

Could you please turn the page?

Man, these people are disappearing, like the Italians.

This is another part of the 1850 Federal Census only this one is from Tazewell County, Virginia.

Would you please read the transcribed section?

"Alem Hagar, age 50, place of birth, Virginia.

Sally Hagar, age 89.

Place of birth, Virginia."

That's Elizabeth's husband, Alem alive and well, but living in a different county.

With his mother?

With his mother.

With his 89-year-old mother.

Wow.

What do you make of that?

I don't know what to make of that.

Our researchers were equally baffled.

The divorce rate in Virginia at this time was less than 1%.

We assumed the census taker had made an error, but when we jumped forward 10 years to the 1860 census, we discovered that Alem and Elizabeth were still living in separate counties.

And as far as we could tell, they never reunited.

They separated and never reunited.

Wow, she raised kids by herself back then?

She raised kids by herself, yep.

Wow.

So this is where the story gets wild.

Alright, you ready?

I want you to- I'm buckled up, brother.

I want you to fasten your seatbelt.

Alright?

Because I'm gonna walk you through some complicated stuff.

Don't turn that page yet, alright.

Now, the available records for Elizabeth and Alem do not shed any more light on their relationship, but when we looked at your DNA, remember we gave you a couple DNA tests.

We noticed something very interesting.

Okay.

Our interest was focused on the results of Sammy's Y-DNA test.

This type of test traces a man's direct male lineage by identifying the genetic signature that is passed from father to son across generations.

In theory, Sammy's Y-DNA should have matched Alem Hagar's DNA, and that of all the Hagar men who came before him on his father's father's line.

That's not what his results showed.

Sammy, this chart shows the total number of men found with a surname Hagar, who match your Y-DNA signature.

Could you please read that number?

Zero.

I don't need glasses for that, brother.

How can that be?

Sammy, genetically, you are not a Hagar.

Get outta here.

You wanna find out what your real biological surname is?

Yes, yes, this is nutty as anything I've ever imagined.

What I'm about to introduce you to is 100% certain.

Okay?

Okay.

Because you are not a Hagar.

This is who you are.

Please turn the page.

Oh man.

I'm not, I don't know if I'm ready for this.

Sammy, this is the same graphic we just saw in the previous page.

I'm a Belcher?

You are a Belcher.

Oh my God.

Your Y-DNA matches 27 men with the surname Belcher.

There is no doubt, this is a slam dunk identification.

Wow.

You are Sammy Belcher.

What a trip!

There was only one possible explanation for this anomaly.

Somewhere on Sammy's direct paternal line, one of his female ancestors had born a child with someone who was a Belcher and not a Hagar, and the most likely candidate was his great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth.

Woo-wee.

And perhaps that was the very reason why Alem and Elizabeth weren't living together in 1850 and 1860, when he goes back and lives with his mother, she, it's possible, had an affair and he figured it out.

And left.

Split.

I'm outta here.

Boy, that changed everything.

That changed everything.

What do you think about this, man?

This stuff happens all the time.

I mean, this is so normal in life.

Yeah, and guess what?

It has happened.

People fell in love outside of marriage, but only now are we able to find the evidence because of DNA.

People took these secrets to the grave.

Yeah, it's so sad because it's, you know, thank God for DNA because otherwise this stuff we just, I mean, not that it, I don't even know what it matters or what it really means at my age, but if I was a young man, if I was seven, eight year old, a teenager, this, you might think, hey, I want to meet some of these people and get down to the bottom of it and find out who loves me and who don't, and who I care about and who I need to help, who don't.

I don't know.

We were not able to determine who fathered Sammy's great-grandfather William.

There are at least 11 Belcher men who are possibilities.

And the DNA evidence is not sufficient to distinguish among them.

But one thing is certain.

All 11 share the same father, a man named Isham Belcher and DNA indicates that Isham has a very clear connection to Sammy.

Isham Belcher is your third great-grandfather.

He is your great-great-great-grandfather.

You ready for this?

Sure.

Born in Virginia around the year 1770, six years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Whoa.

So you have deep, deep roots in Revolutionary America.

Deep roots in Virginia.

How does it make you feel to know this?

Oh, it's crazy.

This is lunacy, man.

This is so beyond my, this is like trying to think about black holes and stuff.

I know it's true.

- It's like Carl Sagan stuff.

- Like, "Take me up!"

Stephen Hawking stuff.

It is, are you glad to know this?

I'm so happy to know this, and this gives me so much mind-chewing ability.

I mean, man, I can, my mind's gonna work on this, like a mouse on a wheel of cheese, man.