Birth Name: Kenneth Lauren Burns
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Date of Birth: July 29, 1953
Ethnicity: English, Irish, Scottish
Ken Burns is an American filmmaker. He is known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in documentary films.
Ken’s paternal grandparents were Robert Kyle Burns (the son of William McLaurin Burns and Sarah E. White) and Emily Lucille Moore (the daughter of George Moore and Nellie Lee Crook).
Ken’s maternal grandparents were George Bancroft Tupper (the son of John Powers Tupper and Frances Howard McManus) and Lyla Morris Smith (The daughter of Lyle Austin Smith and Susan H.).
Ken appeared on a 2014 episode of the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In his 2016 book about the show, Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series, Gates wrote that one DNA test stated that Ken is of 100% European descent (including 26% Irish, 10% British, and 6% Iberian), while another DNA test stated that Ken’s ancestry is approximately 99.6% European, 0.4% Sub-Saharan African, and 0.1% Native American.
Source: Genealogy of Ken Burns – https://www.geni.com