Lisa Ann Walter and Elanie Hendrix Discover Wild Family Connection in New Ancestry Series 'unFamiliar' (Exclusive)

Lisa Ann Walter and Elanie Hendrix have a deep family connection.

By Brian Jones

Lisa Ann Walter and Elaine Hendrix are known for being on-screen enemies in the 1998 film The Parent Trap. But ever since working on the movie together, the two actresses have been very close in real life, and they have recently discovered an interesting family connection they share, which is seen on the new YouTube series unFamiliar presented by Ancestry. PopCulture.com spoke to Walter and Hendrix, who talked about how their great-grandparents lived on the same street in New York City. 

"Ancestry reached out to my team and myself to say, 'Hey, we have this really great idea. Do you want to come surprise Lisa on this show that we're doing?' And I was like, 'Absolutely,'" Hendrix exclusively told PopCulture. "And so they were like, 'Let's hope that we can find a connection.' And sure enough, I get a call later on and they're like, 'You're not going to believe this, but your great-grandparents and her great-grandparents lived two blocks from each other,' which, back in that day, it was all the Italians lived in one area, the Irish lived in another area, and so they were part of this big Italian community there. So I had to keep it all this secret as the Ancestry and I are going back and forth and they're digging more and more, and then we go to the street where they lived, and then that's where I surprise Lisa."

For Walter, she was happy to have her kids involved in the show. "I was so thrilled because they didn't go like I did to New York, coming up and meeting all of the... My great-grandmother had 12 kids on her kitchen table," Walter explained. "The other great-grandmother had four kids. There were a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins around that they never got to know, so I wanted [my kids] to be able to see that tiny apartment where 13 people lived for 20-plus years and know a little bit what that must've been like and learn about their family. So I was really happy to do it." Walter and Hendrix are convinced their great-grandparents knew each other since they lived so close. Ancestry has records of the families living on Elizabeth Street in the early 1900s.

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It's fitting for Walter and Hendrix to have a family connection since they are close. But Walter knew she was going to be friends with Hendrix as soon as she met her. "I can basically be friends with most women I talk to. I get along very well with women," Walter said. "I find affinity. But there are those that you just have a connection, and Elaine was immediate. I talk so much that sometimes it's hard to tell if the person feels the same way back, but apparently she did because we had really enjoyed... She made me laugh. She was really smart. We took care of each other."

Hendrix said despite the two living in different parts of the country, they connect as much as they can. "I used to live in LA, that's where Lisa lives, and so we saw each other all the time. Weekly," she said. "We were always doing things together. And then I moved to New York, and we still got to see each other a fair amount, but obviously less. And now, I live in the ATL, and I feel like we see each other even less now. And so now it takes a little bit of an effort, which is a bummer, but that's life. Listen, we're not going away. This is it. We're life partners. This is it."

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