Overview

• Henry Louis Gates Jr. traced Pope Leo XIV and Madonna as ninth cousins through Louis Boucher de Grandpre, a settler born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec in the 1590s.
• The research mapped the pontiff’s 500-year lineage with ancestors from France, Italy, Spain, the United States and the Caribbean.
• Genealogists identified 17 African-American ancestors in the pope’s family tree and eight forebears who owned slaves.
• Madonna celebrated the revelation on Instagram with a photo and the caption “Strike a pose!” following her longstanding tensions with the church.
• The pope’s extended family network also includes Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton and former Canadian prime ministers.