Genealogical records analyzed by the American PBS show “Finding Your Roots” revealed that Pocahontas, a Native American woman mythologized from the 17th century, she is the 12th great-grandmother of the actor Edward Norton, writes The Guardian, citing news.ro.

“Pocahontas is indeed your twelfth great-grandmother,” confirmed historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. in the PBS television documentary In Search of Her Roots. “You are her direct descendant,” assured the host of the show. “No doubt.”

Until now, the actor has always considered himself a “family legend.”

The story of Pocahontas, which inspired the Disney cartoon, is one of the founding myths of the United States. The daughter of Chief Powhatan, she married settler John Rolfe in 1614 before leaving with him for the United Kingdom, where she died in 1617.

According to legend, she saved the life of Captain John Smith, stopping his execution. He reportedly died in Gravesend, England. They had a son, Thomas, who was born in 1615.

“We can’t move on,” marveled Edward Norton, who also had fun learning about family history before appearing on the show. On PBS, he also discovered that his great-grandfather was a slave owner.

The latter owned slaves: “seven people”, including “five little girls aged 10, 9, 8, 6 and 4”. “When you read this, you want to die,” concluded Edward Norton.

Norton, star of films such as The Glass Onion: Knife Mystery and Fight Club, said the discovery “just makes you realize what a small piece you are in the whole of human history.”

Gates also revealed that Norton has a distant cousin with another star: actress Julia Roberts. “You and Ed share a long, identical stretch of DNA on chromosome nine,” said Gates Roberts, who also analyzed her family tree on the show.

“That means you inherited that common DNA from a distant ancestor somewhere in the middle of the family tree,” Gates said.