Viola Davis is the latest celebrity to find out some messy shrubbery around her family tree. She joined with Henry Louis Gates Jr., the host of “Finding Your Roots.”
The Academy Award-winning actor has always felt a strong connection to her mother’s ancestors from South Carolina, but she knew little about them.
During the episode, Davis learned that her maternal grandfather kept a secret about his paternity from the rest of his family.
Apparently, Davis’ had two potential grandfathers. On her father’s social security application, he listed a man named Gable Logan as his dad, but his obituary listed a man named John Young.
Davis, 57, said that her mother had never mentioned this discrepancy before.
“Isn’t that interesting, that silence?” Gates asks her.
“Silence is always interesting to me,” the star responds.
According to historical records, Henry Logan’s mother Corine Ravenell Logan married Gable Logan in 1912. The couple was together when Henry Logan, Davis’ grandfather, was born in May of 1920.
But that does not prove that Gable Logan was his biological father.
There is another record from 1919 shows that Gable Logan served in the military in World War I. When he returned to America from serving in France, there was “no evidence” that Gable Logan ever returned to South Carolina.
So, if Gable Logan never returned home, who was Henry Logan’s father? Was it John Young?
Gates asked Davis what her take on this information was. She responded, “I think Corine, I don’t know, got bored, had a disconnect and went with someone else while (Gable Logan) was away. And I think that that was a very short-lived relationship.”
With the help of DNA from Davis’ mother, the “Finding Your Roots” team discovered that Henry’s father was indeed Young.
“I’m the amalgamation of a lot of stories and a lot of secrets,” Davis said.
“I think that all of us want to create a past that benefits us and our fantasies. I think because the other is too hard to process. We like stories that are going to elevate us. We’re not so good with messy truth and this is a messy truth,” she says.
Davis also learned about one of her ancestors who was born into slavery and was forced to fight alongside his owner’s son in the Confederate Army.
“It hurts my soul. It really does,” Davis says.
At the same time, Davis says she feels proud knowing how far her family has come.
