Most of us don’t know the histories of our families as well as we should.

On Tuesday night, the popular PBS show “Finding Your Roots” had an episode titled “Chosen,” which revealed startling information regarding the Jewish ancestry of actor David Duchovny, known for starring on “The X-Files” on Fox, as well as Richard Kind. Kind is a heralded character actor known for Showtime’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the film “A Serious Man,” as well as “Spin City,” in which he played Paul Lassiter.

Host Louis Gates, Jr. surprised both guests with information about their families. Gates told Duchovny that his grandfather Moshe was a journalist for The Morning Journal and wrote in Yiddish, which Duchovny knew, but he wasn’t aware how prolific his grandfather was, writing novels, and coming to America on a boat as a teen.

Duchovny also didn’t know that his great-great-grandfather took the family from what was then Berdychiv, Russia — and is now Ukraine — to Jaffa. The family ran an inn, but the Ottoman Empire was not kind to Jews. Men were murdered.

Gates told Duchovny that Jews were ill-treated and robbed aboard a ship taking them to Egypt, and had Duchovny read newspaper clippings.

“Are you saying that my family was involved in that or is that just something that happened?” Duchovny asked Gates.

“Your ancestors were among 6,000 Jewish residents of Jaffa who were deported to Egypt in December of 1914,” Gates responded.

Duchovny was also stunned to learn that some of his family members were dairy farmers who came to the United States via Greece.

“I never milked a cow,” the actor says. “I wouldn’t know which end to squeeze.”

His grandfather died at age 59, just as he was supposed to start his job as a press agent for Israel Bonds.

“It makes me so sad that I didn’t get to know him really,” Duchovny says.

He adds: “I’m proud … what a world.”

Moshe’s mother, Duchovny’s great grandmother Doba, died of tuberculosis six weeks after coming to New York City and Duchovny sees her face on a picture for the first time. He appears to say he will visit her grave in Queens, New York.

“I know they didn’t do it for me, but they gave my father a chance to have a different life,” he says. “…They made some good decisions. I always thought it was luck.”

He is shown a picture of the grave of his great-grandfather in Israel.

“The question is, what do you owe, what’s your responsibility?” Duchovny asks, later noting that in his life in New York, he never had to worry about his safety.

That’s a great question. Knowing where you come from is always important to know who you are.

In Richard Kind’s case, there is a bizarre murder mystery.

Kind’s maternal grandfather, Alvin Berson, was “a real New Yorker … loved a good joke but was the furthest thing from a funny man,” Kind says.

His great grandfather Hyman was a peddler who left his cart behind to be president of Star Crayon Manufacturing Company on Centre Street.

Hyman was murdered — shot in the neck, according to the news report, at the age of 55. This was a surprise to Kind. It was suspected that Simon Stern, a business partner, was the shooter, but a court found him not guilty, even though Hyman identified him as the shooter. The nephew, Charles, a foreman, was shot three times and would also die from his wounds. Prosecutors believe Stern did it for the insurance money. Stern claimed Hyman was killed by a group involved in racketeering.

Of his grandfather, Kind said: “He didn’t talk to us, he spoke to us.” He reasoned that the murder likely affected his grandfather.

Gates said that the show, in its ninth season, didn’t often have descendants of people whose ancestors were murdered. Kind said he didn’t think he’d be the one.

The show was able to trace six generations back to Kind’s great-grandfather Samuel Kind, who left Hamburg for New York City in March of 1875. He was a gold worker. He came on a boat alone at 17, and had lived in Prague in the kingdom of Bohemia. A census from 1793 reveals Moises Katz was a rabbi and ritual slaughterer or shochet.

This prompted Kind to remark: “As an actor and as a guy with an ego, I think my opinions are strong and always right and I have strong political opinions. Now I know where I get them.”

Avraham Wacht, an ancestor who was in New York, returned to Poland in the town of Narew.

In June 1941, the German army entered and Avraham and his family were among the 300 Jewish residents. Avraham’s son Leibel, 28 wrote the only known account of what took place. In July, the Gestapo demanded gold, silver, and more, and then beat Avraham badly. Most ended up in Treblinka. Leibel and his testimonials tell of the murder of his father, three siblings, and nephew by the Nazis.

“Those who tried to run were shot,” Kind reads.

Kind refers to the Holocaust as the “great inhumanity” and is impressed that a gentile farmer hid Leibel for two years under a barn.

“That’s fantastic,” Kind says.

Duchovny, born to a Protestant mother and Jewish father, says he doesn’t identify as Jewish, but remarks that he feels the presence of his ancestors.

Kind simply says: “This astounds me.”

It is quite something to see the real-time reactions of celebrities learning truths about their ancestry. Some actors are no doubt afraid to go on the show, as some have learned that their ancestors owned slaves. But it is clear that these two actors are not only thankful they have learned about their ancestors, but have likely encouraged viewers to shake their family tree.

The author is a writer based in New York.

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