Friends legend Lisa Kudrow highlighted one of the potential pitfalls people can fall into when researching their family tree.
The actress was a guest on chat king Conan O’Brien’s show and was discussing her role as a producer on the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?
Kudrow is a household name and favourite of millions of people thanks to her role as Phoebe in the global megahit Friends.
However, unlike her quirky character she is a focused and clear-minded individual and took on the role as producer on the genealogy show.
Who Do You Think You Are? sees celebrities trace back their ancestry with the help of the expert historians and researchers on the show.
Many find stories of heartache and heroism within their family history and are frequently humbled and moved by the lives of their ancestors.
However, Kudrow was happy to laugh about some of the frequent problems she and her team encounter when trying to trace back family histories.
O’Brien, who has Irish ancestry, said he had taken a DNA test but had not heard back on the results.
Kudrow laughed as she explained that tracing Irish ancestry is notoriously difficult because “everyone has the same name”.
She added: “Irish ancestry is really tough.”
However, Kudrow did say 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.
She did offer some hope though in the form of useful records available online, within the Catholic Church and also the prison system.
You can see the clip of O’Brien and Kudrow below.
