As if having royalty in your bloodline was not impressive enough, imagine having roots stemming from the first king of Rome.
On the Season 11 episode of “Finding Your Roots” that aired on Jan. 28, actor and former fashion model Sharon Stone discovered just that.
After discussing the paper trail of her parents’ bloodline, host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed to Stone that her line of heritage from her father’s paternal line extended back over a thousand years to medieval times, making Charlemagne her 38th great-grandfather.
Referred to as the “father of Europe,” Charlemagne is one of the most important people in history, according to Gates.
The King of the Franks was the first crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800, over one thousand years before Stone was even born.
Not only did the line of lineage contain Charlemagne, but also two French kings, making up Stone’s bloodline as a one-of-a-kind royal line.
“Well if you want to see someone whose mind is completely blown, here it is!” Stone said after Gates revealed the image of Charlemagne.
Stone had multiple revelations about her family history in the episode, including her DNA test, which revealed she was 43% Scottish. Before the episode, she believed her ancestors were almost exclusively Irish, which Gates concluded could be a result of a migration of Scottish people to Ireland, known as Scotch-Irish people.
Contrasted with the royal lineage in her distant bloodline, Stone’s parents did not grow up with financial fortitude. Her mother, Dorothy Larson, was born in 1933 in rural Pennsylvania in extreme poverty. Dorothy Larson’s parents, Stone’s grandparents, could only afford a two-room house for their five children.
“There wasn’t time or moments to even think about was there anybody before them; there wasn’t the luxury of imagining ‘who were your ancestors,” Stone explained to Gates. “It’s so important to know who your people are. It’s really nice to be able to find that out.”
Larson grew up surrounded in tragedy, with her twin dying at birth due to malnourishment and one of her sisters being struck and killed by a drunk driver, according to Stone. She also grew up with rickets and scurvy, and at age 9 moved in with their local dentist to live as their maid.
Stone’s third great-grandfather on her mom’s side, George Greggs, also suffered from great hardship. A Pennsylvania Union cavalry soldier in the Civil War and during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Greggs potentially suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder in the later stages of his life.
With hardship on her mother’s side, Stone’s dad’s upbringing also had unfortunate circumstances. Sharon’s grandfather, Joseph Stone, managed a lucrative oil well that passed from heart disease, leaving his wife with no inheritance.
Stone explained she believes she inherited her father’s work ethic, who was a tool and dye maker. Stone herself battled career challenges herself, including a bounceback from a life-threatening stroke.
