HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Now, in order to go farther using DNA, we tested your mitochondrial DNA and we traced your mother’s, mother’s, mother’s line about 35,000 years ago in the Near East. That’s a long time ago.

GYLLENHAAL: And interesting also because on my mom’s side, because they’re not the establishment, the paper trail is so much shorter. So...

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Yeah. But the DNA trail…

GYLLENHAAL: Can go back as far as you can think.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Right. So this is specific to Jewish populations.

NARRATOR: The Jewish DNA passed down by Maggie and Robert’s ancestors holds a unique wealth of genetic information.

NARRATOR: To understand why, we talked to Bennett Greenspan, president of Family Tree DNA.

BENNETT GREENSPAN: For the last thousand, 1,500 years there’s been a lot of cultural pressure within the Jewish community to marry within. Especially for the hundreds of years where Jews were living in Europe in the ghettos, the only choice for a Jew to marry was another Jew.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: So in effect, extended cousins are marrying extended cousins.

BENNETT GREENSPAN: Absolutely.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: And they all share a common gene pool.

BENNETT GREENSPAN: And they all share a restricted common gene pool going back 600 or 700 years.

NARRATOR: Maggie is part of this genetically isolated group of Jewish people. And this portion of her DNA unlocks a window on to truly ancient history. Scientists have concluded that forty percent of Eastern European Jews share genetic lineages that reach back two or three thousand years. Remarkably to just four women. Their birth places and family names have been lost to time. But their genetic legacy has endured.

Today about 3.5 million Jewish people descend from one of these four maternal ancestors.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Could Maggie have descended from one of these four founding mothers?

BENNETT GREENSPAN: Maggie does descend from one of these four founding mothers. She has something on the order of 150 exact matches in our system. From a genealogical and genetic standpoint you kind of hit the jackpot.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: We showed your DNA to the geneticists at FamilyTreeDNA.com. And they concurred that you are indeed one of these 40 percent, descended from just four women.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: Wow.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: This means that you’re genetically Jewish all the way back to Judea and the Bible.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: So I’m really Jewish?

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: You are as Jewish as Jewish could get.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: I’m not surprised. I, I feel, I feel Jewish. You know, I feel at least half-Jewish. Recently I went to, uh, this great Russian restaurant.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Hum.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: And it just like completely appeals to me. I wanted to eat the red caviar and blinis and, I just want it, you know.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: (Laughs.)

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: I wonder is it the culture that I’m responding to? Is it just how I was brought up or is it something in my genes? You know, I don’t know.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: Well, what do you think makes us who we are? Environment, genes, nature, nurture?

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: I think it’s both. I really do. I think it’s both, but I think we have a lot of responsibility for our children. I mean I, I don’t think you just go like, that’s who she was. Sorry.

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.: No.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL: You know, I think a lot comes from where you come from. And then I think it’s a big job of trying to sort out even a little bit of it.

Print Transcript