Henry Louis Gates, Jr., had Michael Strahan, retired NFL player (NY Giants), as one of his two featured people on his “Finding Your Roots” episode yesterday. DNA testing showed that Strahan had a lot of matches with people named Bishop, but Strahan had never heard of any ancestors with that name. A white man named William Bishop turned out to be one of his ancestors (he had several children by one of Strahan’s female ancestors, but that being 1890s Texas, they could not have gotten married even if they had wanted to). At the end Gates showed Strahan a chart showing his ancestry back to Charlemagne via William Bishop.
He helped find a key ancestor of one famous Black celebrity (I don't recall exactly who) who was emancipated by his Virginia owner in the 1820s in return for a small share in a blacksmith business whom he helped set up beside the National Road (roughly present day US 40).
The investment paid off handsomely for both former slave and owner. The one blacksmith shop grew into a chain of at least nine known shops and was highly profitable as traffic grew.
Instead of being proud of being a descendant of such a go-getter, the celeb was livid with anger, choosing to believe all of his ancestors were oppressed field hands rather than mainly descendants of a highly successful blacksmith who provided employment for scores of newly freed slaves over his lifetime.
I have Sarah Stearns (1732 Sutton, MA - 1803 GA) and Micajah Paulk (1733 Tolland, CT - 1812 GA) who were the Gr Gr grandparents of William Bishop.
http://ethnicelebs.com/michael-strahan