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Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker has always assumed that her ancestors were recent immigrants and doubted that her family had any significant lineage in the United States. On her father's side, she knew that she had Jewish roots, but her mother's side was more of a mystery. She knew that her mother was born and raised in Cincinnati's German community, like her parents and grandparents before her, but didn't know much more than that. But a visit to her mother reveals a distinctly non-German sounding name, Lillian Hodge, Sarah Jessica's great-grandmother.\n\nIntrigued by the Hodge name, Sarah Jessica heads to Cincinnati, where she discovers an obituary for her three-times grandfather that reveals that his father, John Hodge, died on a journey to California in 1849. Wanting to know more, Sarah Jessica embarks on a journey which takes her to the gold fields of northern California, where she uncovers a tragic story surrounding another of her ancestors who, like thousands of other young men, travelled west in search of gold. \n\nDigging further back, her journey takes her to Colonial New England, where she uncovers a collection of 17th-century trial papers, revealing that another ancestor was involved in one of the most terrifying events in American history. \n\nSarah Jessica, it seems, is much more 'classically American' than she thinks.

Source: BBC 4