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On Finding Your Roots, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. told Bob Odenkirk that he and King Charles III are 11th cousins through the Duke of Plön. That is the relationship the program reported; the episode’s account is not, by itself, an independent audit of the historical genealogy.
What did Henry Louis Gates Jr. tell Bob Odenkirk?
In the episode, Gates tells Odenkirk: “Through the duke, you and King Charles III are 11th cousins.” Gates also states, “You and, you and King Charles III are 11th cousins.” The connection he describes runs through the Duke of Plön.
How did the episode trace Odenkirk’s ancestry?
The program’s clip describes a gap in the records for Odenkirk’s fifth great-grandfather, identified as Friedrich Karl: his marriage record did not name either parent. Researchers then located the death certificate of Maria Catharina Bein in the Plön archives. In the episode’s reading of the record, Bein had children with the last deceased Duke of Plön, including Friedrich Carl Steinholz.
Odenkirk responds, “I am descended from the Duke of Plön.” Gates identifies the duke as Odenkirk’s sixth great-grandfather and explains that the duke’s title connects Odenkirk to European royal families, including Charles III. PBS materials vary between the spellings “Friedrich Karl” and “Friedrich Carl.”
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Which episode featured the reveal?
The announcement appears in “Hold the Laughter,” Finding Your Roots Season 10, Episode 5, featuring Odenkirk and Iliza Shlesinger. PBS dates the episode January 30, 2024. The season premiered January 2, 2024, according to PBS’s Season 10 listing.
PBS says the series is available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS app. Availability may change and can vary by location; check PBS for current access.
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What the reveal establishes—and what it does not
The episode and its transcript establish what Gates told Odenkirk and how the show presented the family connection. The materials cited here do not independently verify the archival lineage. It is therefore most precise to say that Finding Your Roots described Odenkirk and Charles III as 11th cousins through the Duke of Plön, rather than present the relationship as independently confirmed.
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