Wow Pope of the People: Map of Pope Leo XIV’s Ancestry Across Continents - Reveals Ties to Africa and Even Justin Bieber!

"The Ancestry of Pope Leo XIV: An American Story," is a new temporary exhibit that is part of the Family Heritage Experience, a permanent interactive exhibit on family history located in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. American Ancestors, a national center for family history, geneology, heritage, and culture, produced the “The Ancestry of Pope Leo XIV: An American Story”

The Pope Leo exhibit, which opened to the public on October 4th and continues through December 31st, highlights a chart of the pope's ancestry that goes back 15 generations, tracing the pontiff's ties to nobility, slave owners, slaves and modern celebrities that include former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, actress Angelina Jolie and singer Justin Bieber.

Pope Leo XIV's  fourth-great-grandmother, Marie Jeanne was an enslaved "mulata" part of the property of François Lemelle in 18th-century New Orleans, according to The New York Times Magazine. In 1772, Lemmelle freed Marie Jeanne and two of the six children they had together. 

The exhibit reveals the pope's Creole and Latin American heritage, as well as his ancestral ties to New Orleans, Cuba, Haiti, Italy and beyond.

"It is, in short, a family history as complex and as layered as that of the Americas themselves," said Ryan Woods, the president and CEO of American Ancestors, a Boston-based organization dedicated to family history research. American Ancestors launched the Family Heritage Experience permanent exhibit in 2025, located in the organization's building.

Just after Pope Leo XIV came out on May 8 from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica,when he was elected pope, genealogists affiliated with American Ancestors partnered with a team of researchers from the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami and others, including Henry Louis Gates Jr., a literary critic and scholar from Harvard University, to trace the pope's extensive family tree.

Gates, the host of the Emmy-nominated PBS show "Finding Your Roots," earlier this year encountered Pope Leo at the Vatican, where he presented the Holy Father with a copy of his family tree. According to The Harvard Gazette, Gates told the pontiff that the tree went as far back as the pope's 12th-great-grandparents, who were born 500 years ago when Leo X sat on St. Peter's chair.

The new exhibit reveals how Leo XIV's ancestry is a mirror of the history of American migration. His ancestors were born in France, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Canada, Haiti and the United States, among other countries.

At least 17 of the pope's American ancestors were Black. As Gates wrote for the New York Times Magazine, they were described in historical records in terms that included "negresse," "free person of color," "quadroon" and "mulâtresse créole." According to media reports, his maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez, who was born in Haiti, and Louise Baquié, were identified as Black in the 1900 census while living in New Orleans.

Gates estimated that if Leo were to take a DNA test, it likely would indicate that he is 10% to 15% Black.

"The pope's ancestors, as late as the 20th century, right down in New Orleans, were identified as people of color," said Jari C. Honora, a New Orleans-based genealogist.

Honora explained that Leo's family formed in  New Orleans in the centuries before the Civil War. He noted that the pope has ancestors who as recently as 1834 were recorded as being enslaved in that city.

Lourdes Del Pino, a Cuban genealogist with the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, spoke about one of the pope's maternal relatives, Antonio José de Sucre. The New York Times Magazine's feature said de Sucre played a decisive role in defeating Spanish colonialism throughout Latin America in the 1824 Battle of Ayacucho.

"That battle was fought in Peru," said Pino, who noted the pontiff's connection to Peru in his two decades as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.

The exhibit features records documenting information about the pope's ancestors and offers contextual explorations of themes such as immigration, race, slavery and freedom that are woven through his family lineage.  Woods said visitors will find universal truths about the human experience and personal details.

"What an exhibit like this shows," Woods said, "is that there is a possibility that when you have a question and you follow your curiosity, there are answers. And when you find answers in your family history journey, it reveals stories and people that help you feel more connected, not only to your family but to stories and history, and perhaps our common sense of humanity."

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/familyheritageexperience/

https://www.ncronline.org/news/boston-exhibit-highlights-pope-leos-family-tree

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/11/magazine/pope-leo-xiv-ancestry-family-tree.html