Gwyneth Paltrow cried as she discovered the moving past of her family in the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You AreGwyneth Paltrow was moved as she found out one of her ancestors was a revered rabbi said to have stopped a fire from consuming a village.
Appearing on the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are, the actress, who is married to British rocker Chris Martin, travelled to Barbados to find out about her heritage.
First she looked into her mother's side of the family and stories that her great grandmother was born on the Caribbean island.
Moved: The actress cried as she found out one of her ancestors was a revered Rabbi, said to have stopped a fire from consuming a villageBut it turned out it was her great grandmother who was born there - and left for New York at 18 on a commercial boat with her sister in search for a better life.
Speaking to a historian in Barbados, she found out Rosamund Stout was orphaned at 13 and was then probably affected by the emancipation of the black population in the island in the late 19th century.
As a seamstress, her job would have been affected by young black women willing to do it for a lower wage.
Looking back: A picture of Gwyneth's great great grandfather SimonThere were also more women than men on the island, so there would have been competition for a husband, Paltrow was told.
'I think it was very brave of her to leave with her sister and I really like that. sense of "I can make something of my life",' she said.
'I have the same self-belief and I've always credited that to my father.'
Search: Gwyneth's search took her to Barbados where she found her great grandmother Rosamund Stout was orphaned at 13 and emigrated to New YorkPaltrow then decided to look into the mother of her grandfather Buster, who was said to have been uncaring and even mentally unstable.
She found out that his mother Ida had a bright future as a teacher until she was mysteriously kicked out of college.
It emerged that the same year she lost both her mother - to cirrhosis of the liver - and her brother.
Other records showed that one of her daughters died aged three, run over by a wagon, while she was pregnant with another child.
'I can only imagine it's the loss of her daughter that really spun her out, then the hormones of having the baby right away while being in the depths of depression of the loss of a child really made her incapable of caring for them.
'I wish I could share this information with my grandfather. He didn't have any compassion for her at all and maybe this would have changed that.'
Tragedy: Gwyneth's great grandmother Ida's daughter died aged three, run over by a wagon, while she was pregnant with another childBut the most emotional revelations came from her father's side of the family.
Paltrow looked into stories that her great-great-granddad Simon Paltrovich was a rabbi.
She found out his father was also a rabbi - and according to a memorial book by Holocaust survivors from his Polish community, he had incredible powers.
The book said he was 'a great holy man and master of Kabbalah' and told of a fire that erupted in the town and was heading towards the Jewish neighbourhood.
Reading from a translation, Paltrow said the rabbi 'went out to the balcony of his house, waved his handkerchief towards the fire and the fire was extinguished.'
No compassion: A young Gwyneth and her gradfather Buster, who knew nothing of his mother's traumatic pastThe actress, who also studies Kabbalah, said: 'This is all blowing my mind.'
She also found a book written by her great-great grandfather that was lovingly dedicated to his father.
'We have a long line of people loving their fathers in my family,' she said.
'It's funny because you have these like echoes of your own relationships. It's amazing to see so many parallels that keep coming together.'
She added: 'I've come to understand all these pieces of myself and that's very impactful to me.'
source:dailymail