Joe Manganiello Discovers Armenian Heritage

Manganiello was told his great-grandmother was incarcerated and met a German officer stationed at the camp. He said she became pregnant by the officer, who later returned to Germany without her. The actor’s aunt had a picture of the man, which later got lost.

“We had nothing to connect us being German other than this,” he said.

The show’s researchers found that the actor’s mother and aunt were the children of the half-German baby.

“That was a really profound moment for me,” he said.

Gates said it took nearly a year to uncover the ancestry in part because the Turkish government doesn’t give researchers access to vital records and population documents dating to the Ottoman Empire.

Manganiello was filming in Europe last year, and the locals mistook him as being German.

“To think that I don’t look like the other people in my family is because I look like the Germans, OK, now that makes sense,” he said. “It’s really wild what we uncovered.”

The 45-year-old actor known for “True Blood” and “Magic Mike” was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He is married to Colombian-born actor Sofía Vergara.

The new season of “Finding Your Roots” begins Jan. 3. Among those featured are Oscar winners Viola Davis and Julia Roberts, as well as Carol Burnett, political activist Angela Davis and actor Danny Trejo.