Lisa Kudrow jokes about Irish ancestry search

Former Friends star Lisa Kudrow joked with Conan O’Brien about the difficulty of tracing his Irish ancestry.

The actress has produced the series Who Do You Think You Are? – which helps celebrities research their family history – since 2010. She joined O’Brien on his chat-show recently, and admitted that tracing Irish family history is notoriously hard because “everyone has the same name”!

O’Brien told his guest that he had been approached by the Who Do You Think You Are? team about appearing on the show. He said that he gave a DNA sample and a few basic details but has heard nothing back in a year.

Ogham, the mysterious language of the trees The Origins of the Ogham alphabet are still a mystery for many historians, but it is primarily thought to be an early form of the Irish written Language.

O’Brien asked Kudrow why he hadn’t heard anything to which she replied: “Irish ancestry is really tough.”

She pointed out that it is not too difficult to trace family history of Irish Americans in America, but the problems start when they try to follow the trail further back to Ireland.

O’Brien jokes that no-one in Ireland keeps records and everyone is drinking.

Kudrow does point out that there are useful records available, within the Catholic Church and also the prison system.

Many people take an interest in researching their family tree, and in recent years the task has become a little easier thanks to online documentation.

O’Brien is one of millions of Americans that has descended from Irish immigrants.

Take a look at O’Brien and Kudrow below.