How actor Edward Norton is related to Pocahontas

Actor Edward Norton had grown up hearing tales of his family's relation to Native American heroine Pocahontas and had treated it as a longstanding rumour.

But during an appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots, the rumour became a fact for him.

"Pocahontas is indeed your 12th great grandma," the show's host historian Henry Louis Gates Jr told him.

The weekly show explores the ancestral histories of celebrity guests.

In the premiere episode of the show's ninth season on Tuesday, Mr Gates said Norton had grown up hearing he was a direct descendent of Pocahontas - the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the leader of a tribe of Native Americans - but the Glass Onion star believed the story to be just "family legend".

While tracing Norton's ancestry, Mr Gates discovered his 12th great grandparents were John Rolfe and Pocahontas.

"You have a direct paper trail," Mr Gates said. "No doubt about it."

The two were married on 5 April, 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia, when William Shakespeare was still alive, according to Mr Gates.

Pocahontas died several years later in March 1617 in Gravesend, England, while colonist John Rolfe died around March 1622, he added.

But according to a 2007 book, The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History, written by Dr Linwood Custalow and Angela Daniel, Pocahontas was already married to a Native American warrior named Kocoum and had a child with him before she was kidnapped and married John Rolfe.

The book contains oral and written historical documentation supporting the events, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

The Fight Club actor - who has an interest in history and studied his own ancestry before his appearance on the PBS show - appeared genuinely shocked.

"This is about as far back as you can go," Norton said.

The 53-year-old's connection to Pocahontas wasn't the only surprising news about Norton's family revealed during the episode.

Mr Gates also told Norton his ancestors owned slaves.

His third great grandfather held "seven human beings in bondage", including a 55-year-old man, a 37-year-old woman and five girls, ages 10, 9, 8, 6 and 4, the PBS host said.

"What's it like to see that?" Mr Gates asked.

"The short answer is these things are uncomfortable," Norton said. "Everybody should be uncomfortable with it."

"It's a judgment on the history of this country and it needs to be contended with," he added. "When you read 'Slave, age 8', you just want to die."