Connect Whoopi without her Husbands?

I've copied across your work as a start, Abby. :).

Unknown Profile maybe take a look and see if there are some ends to pick up on?

I think I'm going to chase Pinder and (oh my) Tillinghast.

That's fine, Erica! I was going to try to get some of it in later tonight. So much to do, so little time... :-)

Why hello there Unknown Profile

Did you know you are only 16 steps in the World Family tree away from cultural icon Unknown Profile

http://www.geni.com/path/Harold-Gordon-Fleming+is+related+to+Whoopi...

Whoopi Goldberg is Harold Gordon Fleming's second great uncle's aunt's husband's wife's first cousin's wife's great niece!

AJ > Harold: http://www.geni.com/path/Harold-Gordon-Fleming+is+related+to+A-J-Ja...

AJ > Whoopi's dad (to bypass computer cache)

http://www.geni.com/path/A-J-Jacobs+is+related+to+Robert-Johnson?fr...

Robert James Johnson, Jr. is A.J. Jacobs' second great aunt's husband's aunt's husband's nephew's ex-wife's second cousin's husband's second cousin's husband's sister's husband's aunt's husband's wife's first cousin's wife's nephew.

And we'll see what we can do to extend and create more pathways.

Great job, Erica!

I assume no one has found the mythical Jewish ancestry Whoopi has claimed to have for years?

In the 1990s, she even told the media that her mother is Jewish.

I think it was her mother (who sounds like she was a very sharp cookie) who advised her to go with the Goldberg stage name. :)

Let's get more ends extended!

Yes, because there are so many famous actors who carry this surname (I don't mean ones who were born with it but didn't keep)... :-)

Her grandmother's name was Rachel Freedman, which sounds curious. But I'm sure Henry Louis Gates, Jr. would have mentioned in his show or in his book write-up if he found Rachel to be Jewish at all. "Freedman" is just "Freed man", I guess.

Perhaps Whoopi was inspired by her grandmother's name.

Just like I suspect Michelle Obama's cousin Capers Funye converted to Judaism and became a rabbi because his black maternal grandmother (also an ancestor of Michelle's) had the surname Cohen.

Also, there are African-Americans with Jewish surnames, born with them, sue to their ancestors having taken those names for various reasons.

The Puritans, African Americans and us Jews have a very vivid connection with the Tanach (Old Testament). My Polish ancestors and my Great Migration ancestors named their children very similar names :)

Great work everyone!

Hatte, I think it's very interesting that the modern television revival of genealogy is being led by a black man (Henry Louis Gates) and a Jewish woman (Lisa Kudrow).

And of course, AJ, as well as many posters on here, and myself, are Jewish.

Historically, so to speak, genealogy was an occupation of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (i.e. the New England Genealogical Society). It seems there's been a shift lately, though.

I'm waiting for the Scotch-Irish to get on board, there are so many of them and a lot of work has to be done.

I'm actually a mutt -- 50% Ashkenazi and 50% mostly Anglo-Norman, Scotch-Irish, a little Huguenot, apparently quite a bit of Dutch, and some Anglo-Saxon. A DAR Mayflower descendant Jew.

I think the Scotch-Irish influence in the Southern United States is overstated. They are really mostly English.

The "average" white American is, or used to be, of mostly English, with a bit of Scottish (or Scots-Irish) and German, ancestry.

Indeed, in the American south people, often say they're "Irish and Cherokee". I translate that to "mostly English, with a bit of Scottish (or Scots-Irish) and German".

Hah!

I'm one of what you describe, Jennifer. That is, my mother is Ashkenazi Jewish and my father's family is English, Scotch Irish, German, and "John the Dane," an original settler of Newtown (now Queens). One great grandfather from Maine hooks me into the Massachusetts Bay Colony ("the witches of Ipswich" - me & Jewish Sarah Jessica Parker are 9th cousins).

We haven't found our Cherokee Princess yet but wishful thinking will have results ....:)

I really do have two Scotch Irish lines & probably more. And a Huguenot line or three ...

I don't doubt that Southerners (and many other Americans) have some Scots-Irish roots. It's just not the majority of their ancestry, barring cases like the children/grandchildren of immigrants (who would be very old now).

Henry Gates told Sally Field that her DNA reveals some Native American ancestors. Can anyone find them? (I suspect not....).

Speaking of Sarah Jessica Parker, has anyone had any luck on her father's side at all? I suspect the claim that the name used to be "Bar-Kahn" is blatantly false.

I was intrigued by their finding Native American DNA on Sally Field! And I'll let those more conversant with DNA testing speculate more, but my (very basic) understanding is 1) she got lucky it showed up at all, become recombination could have resulted in no showing 2) it will be a long & tedious "triangulation" trail to "try and find the ancestor."

Her reaction that "could be in MA" may have been based on more details than we saw on the show? Because why not in other points along the long migration trail?

Unfortunately I'm getting the Carnivore King 57 generation "bloodline" path from Sally to AJ, but here is Sally to James Spader; we know how to "walk the tree" from there to AJ if need be:

http://www.geni.com/path/Sally-Field+is+related+to+James-Spader?fro...

14th cousins once removed, no Wampanoag ....

I suspect Sally Field's Native ancestry comes from her mother, who was a Texan.

I know George Lopez's DNA test stated that Larry David is 37% Native American, but I think Gates's tests are more reliable.

I know Armie Hammer has a confirmed Cherokee ancestor around the early 1700s, so people of Southern ancestry do have Native roots, though rarely.

His Lone Ranger co-star, Johnny Depp, has no confirmed Native ancestry as far as I know (though he is descended, at least twice over, from biracial Elizabeth Key).

My Scotch-Irish ancestors came in the first wave apparently to PA and from there to VA. And although my direct ancestors hightailed it out of VA to OH and were staunch abolitionists, I have a lot of DNA cousins who are from KY, GA, TN and NC and there are strong Y-DNA links with SC Pettigrew.

So I am biased due to my own family tree, but I do know that there are a lot of us descendants, many in the South, and that not nearly enough is documented and available for those with Scotch-Irish roots.

James Stewart is one actor who really was entirely/almost entirely Scots-Irish (and Scottish). His family was rooted in that Pennsylvania Scots-Irish community.

Johnny Depp is my 8th cousin once removed. We had a lively discussion about his tree

http://www.geni.com/discussions/125167

Obviously, Armie Hammer should have been the one to play Tonto, not Depp.