John Lithgow and Maria Hinojosa on “Finding Your Roots”

Maria Hinojosa discovers descent from a Conquistador

“The New World,” a new episode of Finding Your Roots, features actors John Lithgow and journalist Maria Hinojosa. Although the two guests come from divergent backgrounds, host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. finds both come from European families who settled in the New World by the early seventeenth century.

John Lithgow admits he knew little of his paternal ancestry due to his father’s distancing himself from his family’s past. The actor is stunned to learn that the Lithgows lived in the Dominican Republic for four generations in the 1800s. “I’m learning things that were all this time just waiting to be discovered,” says Lithgow. Of his maternal lineage, he hears of his descent from William Bradford, among eight other Mayflower passengers—what Gates calls “the most of any guest on the series to date.”

Maria Hinojosa’s parents gave her what she calls “an ancestral understanding” of their Mexican heritage which she found grounding. Still, she had scant details about her family’s roots beyond their having come from Tampico. Gates extends the fascinating Hinojosa lineage to the 1500s in Spain and their descent from a Conquistador ancestor—with a story involving scandal and murder. Maria Hinojosa’s maternal lineage is also explored, including the truth of a family legend that tells of Spanish nobility. However, it’s the results of DNA testing that brings tears to the journalist’s eyes.

The show airs Tues., April 13, 2021, at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS.

Photo: Courtesy of McGee Media

See also Pious Pilgrims and Mayflower Misbehavior