An in-depth investigation into one’s family tree may unearth many revelations, not all of which are pleasant, for anybody who undertakes such an investigation. Finding Your Roots on PBS had this in mind when it reached out to Joe Manganiello to inquire about his participation in his episode, which is something that the show very seldom does.
Despite the fact that Manganiello’s family tree had more shocking turns and surprises than the last season of True Blood, he went ahead and filmed his episode. In fact, he and host Henry Louis Gates even held a special screening of the episode in Los Angeles, which was a first for the series. Watch the exclusive video above to see how he reacted when he “met” one of his long-lost relatives for the first time.
According to a quote that Bill Gates gave to Rolling Stone, “If I had a short list of all-time best hits, Joe Manganiello’s paternal heritage is on that list.”
So, let’s begin with the mother’s side of the family. After witnessing the execution of her husband and seven of her eight children in 1915, Manganiello’s great-grandmother Terviz “Rose” Darakjian was essentially a superhero for surviving the Armenian genocide. Her husband and seven of her children were killed in front of her.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Manganiello said, “It’s nearly inconceivable that I exist.”
Rose fled with the eighth kid, a newborn, strapped to her back, and swam over a river to avoid loss marches. However, by the time she reached the other side of the river, her baby had drowned in the water. She stayed in a cave until she was discovered by German forces and transported to a camp, where one of the Germans impregnated her. After giving birth to a child, she was executed.
Manganiello had known that his great-grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian genocide and that his great-grandfather was a German officer, but he had never been able to find out his great-identify. grandfather Manganiello’s great-grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian genocide. till you discovered your own roots. That officer’s name was Karl Wilhelm Bettinger, and he had already settled down in Germany with a wife and three children. His oldest son, Manganiello’s great-uncle, grew up to serve in the Nazi SS during World War II.
Manganiello said that one must “take the good with the bad” in this situation. “And the same may be said about historical accounts. There is a propensity, in my opinion, to say something along the lines of “I’m so happy that my forefathers were on the right side of history,” but that is not you; that is someone else.”
And now we come to the father’s side. Following the completion of DNA analysis, Manganiello discovered that he is both one hundred percent that bitch and seven percent of sub-Saharan African descent.
It wasn’t until I was on the program that Manganiello explained what it meant to be of Sub-Saharan African descent in the context of the United States. “Basically, being of Sub-Saharan African descent implies that you are descended from slavery,” he said.
Plato Turner, who was born in Africa but taken to the United States when he was a boy and forced to work as a slave there, was the actor’s fifth great-grandfather. After some time had passed, he was finally granted his freedom and enlisted in the Continental Army to fight the British during the Revolutionary War. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is a memorial that was built in his honor.
According to Manganiello, “it’s so unusual to believe that you’d have liberated slaves fighting for the Colonies,” and he added this. “You fight for freedom and the promise that all men are created equal, and then one hundred years later there’s another war for equality among men? To think that everything went in the wrong direction like that…”
The interracial marriage that took place between Manganiello’s great-grandparents, William Henry Cuter, a black man, and Nellie Alton, a white woman, took place in Rhode Island in 1887. This was 80 years before interracial marriage was legalized in the rest of the country. Manganiello’s great-grandparents were Manganiello. Because of this relationship, Manganiello’s great-great-grandparents, Nellie’s parents, rejected her. Nellie was Manganiello’s grandmother.
“I’m descended from survivors,” Manganiello said, noting that although the revelations of his family history are shocking, he feels as though Finding Your Roots has handed him a pair of glasses after all of these years. “I’m descended from survivors,” Manganiello said. “I’m descended from survivors.” “All of a sudden, I am able to see myself for the very first time in a clear and undistorted manner.”
The episode of Finding Your Roots with Joe Manganiello will show on PBS on February 9th.