For most people, including celebrities, cautions Szucs, the ancestors discovered and the lives they led will be more mundane.
TV shows about celebrity genealogy searches unduly raise expectations that every quest will uncover some famous (or infamous) ancestor, such as actor Sarah Jessica Parker’s tenth great-grandmother who escaped death at the Salem witch trials. For most people, including celebrities, cautions Szucs, the ancestors discovered and the lives they led will be more mundane.