There have been many mind-blowing revelations on Finding Your Roots, the Henry Louis Gates Jr.-hosted PBS television series that employs a team of professional genealogists to trace celebrities’ ancestral histories. We’ve learned that Bernie Sanders is related to his SNL doppelgänger Larry David, that actor Joe Manganiello is part-Black and descended from slaves, and that LeVar Burton is part-white, which caused the Roots star to jokingly scream, “Nooooooo!”
The Jan. 30 episode of Finding Your Roots, now in its tenth season, focuses on comedians Bob Odenkirk and Iliza Shlesinger.
Odenkirk, 61, is the star of sketch-comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David, served as a writer on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and played Saul Goodman on the all-time great TV series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. He was born and raised in Illinois, and always believed himself to be of Irish and German descent. His father, Walter, left the family when he was 15, and they only reconnected seven years later, as his dad was dying.
“I could not sort it out. I just could not figure that guy out. I don’t know what his deal was. My mom was the core of our lives,” Odenkirk tells Gates on Finding Your Roots.
According to Gates and his team of researchers, Odenkirk’s late mother Barbara’s great-great-grandfather was a man named François Xavier Fricker, a French carpenter born in 1820. Odenkirk had no idea that he’s part-French.
“I’m part-French? Never heard anything [about that]! Nothing,” offers a surprised Odenkirk. “I wish my mom could hear this. She would have loved this.”
François, his wife, and his five children immigrated to America in about 1854. They auctioned off their home and all their belongings in order to pay for the passage.
“It’s moving because I am so thankful for the sacrifice that these people made,” Odenkirk says to Gates. “And if they could see what I’ve been given, this gift of this career and the people in my life, I think they’d be so proud — and I have them to thank for it.”
Watch Bob Odenkirk Express Gratitude for His French Ancestors:
But Gates is far from finished.
On his grandfather Walter Odenkirk’s side, Gates went back five generations to Friedrich Carl Steinholz, who was born in 1755 in Plön, Germany. That’s Odenkirk’s fifth great-grandfather. Steinholz’s mother was Maria Catharina Bein, who gave birth to him out of wedlock with the Duke of Plön — meaning Odenkirk’s sixth great-grandfather was the Duke of Plön, and his sixth great-grandmother was his mistress. And the Duke of Plön was related to the royal families of Europe, since they all intermarried.
“I’m an American. I’m not a monarchist. I don’t believe in, uh, that,” Odenkirk tells Gates. “You know, I feel like it’s a little twisted. I understand why society built itself around monarchs and leaders, and they passed them down through generations. I understand that goes through every society, every civilization. But I think that we’ve gotten to a better place with democracy and we should keep going down that road.”
Then — surprise! — Gates tells Odenkirk that he’s 11th cousins with King Charles III through the Duke of Plön, causing the comic to laugh out loud.
Watch Bob Odenkirk Realize He’s Related to King Charles III:
“That is crazy!” he exclaims.
