There's been quite a fuss about a nationalistic, Russian beer commercial David Duchovny made not long ago -- especially given that he recently discovered that his roots are actually in Ukraine. For obvious reasons, this is less than ideal timing. As a genealogist who also has Ukrainian roots, but grew up being told she was Russian (Smolenyak -- we must be from Smolensk, of course!), I decided to take a look into the specifics of Duchovny's case.
It doesn't take much effort to learn that his grandfather was Moshe Duchovny, but that's where things start to get challenging. If you search Ellis Island records for likely candidates, a couple with similar names pop up, but their ages and years of arrival don't match what's known about David's grandfather. That's because the real Moshe Duchovny is well hidden since his name was badly distorted on his passenger arrival record, possibly because he and his father Abraham embarked in Greece where names like theirs would have been unfamiliar (in spite of the popular myth that names were deliberately altered at Ellis Island, officials there mostly verified lists created at the point of departure).
The wild sex life of Californication star David Duchovny is going to cost him big bucks as RadarOnline.com can reveal that his divorce to actress wife Tea Leoni has been finalized.
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