An older adult female wearing a bright pink blazer with notched lapels and black turtleneck, holding 'Madly Odd' text in a studio setting.

5:30

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DNA tells Carol Burnett who her grandpa was

Name: DNA tells Carol Burnett who her grandpa was
Uploaded: 2023-02-22T04:59:47Z
Duration: 5 min 30 s
Description: The trouble started with a memoir. Carol Burnett called a cousin to get her grandmother's husbands straight, and the cousin told her she had it all wrong.

The trouble started with a memoir. Carol Burnett called a cousin to get her grandmother's husbands straight, and the cousin told her she had it all wrong. more

Carol called her maternal grandmother Nanny, and Nanny had several husbands while Carol's mother was a child. Carol believed the first one, Mr. Creighton, was her mother's father. "No," the cousin said. "Your mama was Mr. Melton's daughter."

That can't be, Carol told her. The cousin said everybody knew it. Carol wondered why her mother would name her Carol Creighton Burnett if she was really a Melton, and whether her mother even knew. The question nagged at her for decades.

The search starts in the archives. Nanny was Mae Jones, and she married William Creighton at 20. She had Carol's mother, Ina, about six years later, and the couple didn't divorce until Ina was almost five, so William looks like the likely father.

Then comes the record of that divorce. In it, William told the court that Mae had "bestowed her love and affections on numerous other men" and was engaged to a young man at Belleville, set to marry him as soon as she was free. "Woo," Carol says. "She was a trip."

Carol Burnett, in glasses, hoop earrings and an orange jacket over a black top, looks down. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Carol takes in the old court record of her grandmother's first divorce.

The young man was Harmon Melton, and Mae married him almost right after the divorce. They had troubles of their own. Carol reads Harmon's words from a Yell County, Arkansas, court record, stopping to say she has to laugh or she could cry. Mae, he said, told him she didn't love him, and that the only man she ever loved was her former husband.

The papers point toward William, but they can't rule Harmon out. So the team turns to DNA, comparing Carol's genetic profile with millions of others in public databases and studying the family trees of her matches until they make a breakthrough.

An older adult female wearing a bright pink blazer with notched lapels and black turtleneck, holding 'Madly Odd' text in a studio setting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — The trouble started with a memoir.

William Henry Creighton is her biological grandfather, and there's no doubt about it. "Wow," Carol says. "I'll be darned." She came by her middle name honestly, they tell her. So much for what everybody knew.

Carol Burnett, in glasses, hoop earrings and an orange jacket over a black top, smiles broadly. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Carol smiles as the DNA answer settles the family question.

They also show her a photo of Nanny with Bill Creighton, her biological grandparents together. Asked how it feels to have the mystery put to rest, Carol says her heart is going "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." Then she adds, "But I'm glad I know," and offers a simple thank-you that fans keep pointing to.