Shaking the family tree
These Canadians are digging into their family's past, in hopes of changing their family's future
As more and more Canadians are digging into their family's past through genealogy sites and at-home DNA tests, it can raise some sticky questions, and uncover some uncomfortable truths. The question is: what do you do with all that family history you're digging up?
On this episode of Now or Never, you'll meet people who are delving into their family's past, in hopes of changing their family's future.
'60s Scoop survivor Colleen Hele Cardinal grew up fantasizing that her birth parents were Cher and Eric Estrada. When she went searching for the truth, it led to an identity crisis that nearly destroyed her. Find out what is helping her heal.
As a kid, Kim Ruttig's mom forced her to watch The Lawrence Welk Show on TV — claiming Kim was distant cousins with the legendary polka bandleader. But when Kim started digging into her family genealogy, she discovered it wasn't just a family legend...
45 years after her son was murdered, Amanda Pierlet is ready to seek closure. She and her granddaughter Holly Gordon take a final trip to commemorate this devastating loss.
Jeff Chiba Stearns didn't know a lot about his Japanese Canadian identity as a kid growing up. But then he started digging into his family's past, and made some surprising discoveries — about the lasting impact of internment camps, integration, and what it means to be mixed-race. And now Jeff's determined to show his two young kids that being "hapa" is something to celebrate.
And for the first time, Now or Never host Ify Chiwetelu sits down to ask her mom about her experiences of living through Nigeria's Biafran civil war.