The preview for the next episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" features actor and former Petersburg resident Blair Underwood saying incredulously, "My great-grandfather had two slaves," and later a surprised "What?!"
You have to tune in to find out what came before and after these snippets from the show, which airs Friday on NBC.
The show traces the family history of celebrities. Previous episodes have traced the family trees of Susan Sarandon, Rosie O'Donnell and Martin Sheen.
Underwood's father, retired Army Col. Frank Underwood Sr., also is featured in the episode, in which father and son traveled to the Republic of Cameroon in west Central Africa.
"Through DNA they found out we were related to this family in Cameroon," Frank Underwood said. "I always wanted to go to Africa. This was a big opportunity."
Underwood said show producers started collecting data in the United States.
"They started off here at our home in Petersburg," Underwood said. "Producers and camera people came here. They collected a lot of information from us pertaining to our family."
With that information, they went to Alabama, where Underwood's father grew up, he said.
"Meanwhile, they are researching my wife's family background, which primarily was here in Virginia. They did research in the various court records in Richmond, which led them to Lynchburg, which we knew was the home of my wife's mother's father," Frank Underwood said.
In Cameroon, Underwood said he was awed by the landscape and meeting people there and knowing there was a blood connection.
"It was an awesome thing. I remember we were sitting in this hut, really, in the mountains," Underwood said. "This middle-aged gentleman came in and he sat next to me. I said 'and who are you, sir?' He pointed to one of the gentlemen who was the father of the fellow they identified as our relative. I said, 'Oh, you're my cousin.' That was an interesting moment in terms of revelation."
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