Ex-Cal Star Tony Gonzalez Gets the Family Lowdown on `Finding Your Roots'
Tony Gonzalez made stunning discoveries about his ancestry during the most recent episode of the PBS series, “Finding Your Roots.”
Then, as the program ended, the former Cal two-sport star and NFL Hall of Fame tight end learned he is a distant cousin to one of history’s most famous people. Scroll to the bottom of this story to find our who that is.
Gonzalez appeared on the program this week in an episode called, “Family: Lost and Found.” He shared the stage with actor Joe Manganiello, who also had his family history unearthed by host Henry Louis Gates and the PBS ancestry team.
Tony Gonzalez
Gonzalez, 46, was especially excited to get previously unknown details about his family’s background that he could share with his 104-year old grandmother, Helen.
“She’s going to freak out. She’s going to love it,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe this is part of the reason she’s still alive. She’s been wanting to know this stuff for a long time.”
Helen’s mother, Ophelia, was adopted as a child, and PBS was able to share with Helen the identity of her mother’s biological parents. They knew only a family story that Ophelia was born in Georgia with the surname name Birdsong.
From that, in a 1900 census, they discovered Ophelia, then 4, lived with her grandmother, Mariah Birdsong. Ophelia was living with her grandmother because her mother, Dora, married another man and moved to Alabama, leaving her and her two brothers with their grandmother.
Eventually, Ophelia was adopted, and likely never saw her grandmother and brothers again. By using a DNA database, PBS researchers found Ophelia’s father, a white man named John Reese Hudson. He worked for the U.S. government, living part of the time in Washington D.C., and he and Dora could not be married because it inter-racial marriages in Georgia were against the law.
Gates shared a second significant ancestry discovery with Gonzalez, a heartbreaking story about his third-great grandfather, George Washington Betts, who was likely born into slavery in Wilmington, North Carolina, around 1828.
In 1855, according to a notice in the newspaper, Betts escaped, perhaps because he believed he was about to be sold, which would separate him from his wife Polly and children.
“Damn right he did,” Gonzalez said of Betts’ escape. “That doesn’t surprise me. My family, we don’t like authority too much. That’s me, too. Can’t tell me anything.”
Within a week, Betts was found and sold to another man in Wilmington.
Eleven years later, shortly after the end of the Civil War, George and Polly found each other and were formally married, which wasn’t possible while they were in slavery. Records show they later owned a home and that George was elected a major in an all-black militia created to protect their community from white supremacists.
“It tells me he was a hell of a citizen, a hell of a man,” Gonzalez reacted. “Proud of him. You look at that and I think about the things I’ve gone through in life. You think you’ve been tough. You think you’ve persevered. You think you’ve done the hard things. And I have to a certain extent, but nothing like this.
“I am nothing compared to my third-great grandfather. He was the man. It’s inspiring. It’s a lot to live up to. But I love it.”
William Shakespeare
With the show about to end, Gates sprung one more stunning surprise on Gonzalez — his first cousin, 12 times removed, is William Shakespeare. Yes, that one.
The connection was through his 104-year-old grandmother, Helen, whose 10th great-grandfather was a man named Richard Shakespeare, grandfather to the famous bard.
Gonzalez could hardly speak when given the news.
“That is the most mind-blowing thing I’ve ever heard,” he finally said. “This is why you come on this show. It’s amazing.”
Here is the entire PBS program on Gonzalez's ancestry:
Cover photo of Tony Gonzalez with "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
