When Henry Louis Gates Jr. set out to trace the family tree of America's first pope, he had no idea he was about to uncover ...

Pope Leo XIV received a copy of his family tree from Henry Louis Gates Jr., marking his first public acknowledgment of his Black ancestry.

Pope Leo XIV's ancestry is largely Creole, with deep roots in New Orleans, but he also possesses French, Spanish, and Italian heritage.

While the findings were presented with humor online, Gates’ research continues to highlight the unexpected ways that ancestry can connect figures across faith, politics and entertainment.

New genealogical research traces the Pope’s ancestry back to the 1500s, revealing what Harvard historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls ‘one of the most diverse family trees’ he’s ever come ...

A noted historian dug into Pope Leo XIV‘s family tree, discovering it includes a who’s who of A-list celebrities, political figures and even a famous novelist.

According to Gates, Pope Leo XIV shares a distant relative from Quebec with the pop icon, creating an ironic twist given Madonna’s well-documented tensions with the Catholic Church, including ...

According to family history sleuths and ancestry experts, they all share something far more unexpected than Grammys and red carpets, though: They’re reportedly distant relatives of Pope Leo XIV.