 "Pope Leo is a relative of Clinton, Trudeau and Madonna: A historian traces his family tree")
On May 8, American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. Later that day, The Times published findings from genealogist Jari C. Honora, revealing that the new pope has recent African American ancestry, traced back just three generations.
Research goes back to the 1500s
The discovery sparked interest from viewers of PBS’s Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
In collaboration with genealogists at American Ancestors and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, Gates traced the pope’s ancestry back to his 12th-great-grandparents, who lived in the early 1500s.
Famous cousins
Further research uncovered connections to public figures. Through a distant maternal ancestor born in the 1590s, Pope Leo is a ninth cousin (various times removed) of Hillary Clinton, Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Angelina Jolie, Justin Bieber, Jack Kerouac, and Madonna.
A global family tree
Pope Leo’s lineage is international. His ancestors were born in France (40), Italy (24), Spain (21), the U.S. (22), Cuba (10), Canada (6), Haiti (1), and Guadeloupe (1). The birthplaces of nine others remain unknown.
Black ancestry, including his grandfather
Seventeen of the pope’s American-born ancestors were identified as Black in historical records, described using terms such as “negresse,” “free person of colour,” and “quadroon.” His grandfather, Joseph Nerval Martínez, was born in Haiti to African American parents who had returned to New Orleans in 1866.
A complex American story
Twelve of the pope’s known ancestors were slaveholders—eight of them Black.
One ancestor, Marie Jeanne, was born enslaved, later freed, and eventually became a landowner with 1,040 acres and five enslaved individuals.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe family tree also includes revolutionary figures: one fought for American independence; another, Antonio José de Sucre, was a Latin American independence hero and Bolivia’s first president.
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