“My three guests share a common experience: all have recent immigrants in their family trees, but know little about them, thanks to the chaotic circumstances of their own lives,” says Henry Louis Gates of actors Danny Trejo and Jamie Chung, and singer Cyndi Lauper.
Gates traces Danny Trejo’s paternal great-grandfather, Cirilo Garay, who brought his family from Monterey, Mexico, to Texas in 1918 and eventually became a grocery store owner. Since Trejo had limited contact with his mother, he never knew the names of his maternal grandparents. Gates traces the actor’s roots from Luciano Agúndez (born in the latter 1700s) who became a large landowner in San Jose del Cabo. “This history could’ve changed my whole family’s life,” says Trejo.
Jamie Chung’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Korea, but no stories were shared about their family background. “We don’t talk about these things in our family.” A chokbo (or jokbo), a genealogy book located by genealogists, traces her direct paternal line from an influential government official born in the 1300s.
Cyndi Lauper’s maternal family came to the U.S. from Sicily in 1909. They descended from a long line of coachmen, and Gates traces their lineage back to 1787. Paternally, the singer’s seventh great-grandfather, Christian Lauper, was a political activist in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1600s.
Finding Your Roots airs Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS.