Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) s03e01 Episode Script
Martin Sheen
Narrator: On the third season of Who do you think you are? 12 of the country's most beloved celebrities embark on monumental explorations into their family histories.
Oh, my gosh.
This is extraordinary.
This is the first time I've heard my great-grandparents' names.
Wow, this is amazing.
Narrator: They will travel the globe [Chuckles.]
Narrator: Questioning everything they thought they knew about their ancestry.
Wow, I wanna know why that little boy was on this ship.
I don't think I'd ever be able to rest until I know why.
It's amazing to think that my dad came from a town this remote and ended up in America.
Narrator: Secrets will be revealed.
A bad person came in and really did great harm to the family.
Like, I've never seen anything like this.
It's--it's chilling to see that my great-great-grandfather could only write a "x" for his name.
It's just disturbing.
Oh, my-- wow.
Narrator: And lives will change forever.
What we found was a gentleman who's your cousin.
What? Narrator: Because to know who you are This is pretty cool that I'm standing right here where my seven-times-great-grandmother and grandfather are buried.
This is really cool.
My daughter will now know that her great-great-great- grandmother paved the way for everything.
Narrator: You have to know where your story began.
So now I'm looking forward to walk in the same footsteps You--if you'd written a novel with all these truths in it, they'd say, "eh, it's a bit over the top.
" It actually happened.
You heard? Oh, man.
Man, it's good to see you.
Who I thought I was when we started this odyssey is different than who I know I am today.
It's been incredible.
Narrator: Tonight Martin Sheen embarks on an epic journey into both sides of his family history, where he discovers two ancestors And the suffering that they endured.
Narrator: Who help him understand the true meaning of activism.
You do it because you cannot not do it.
Narrator: And before his search is over My God, it's cavernous like an old cathedral.
Narrator: Martin will uncover a family connection he never could have imagined.
Oh, my God.
[Pop music.]
Who Do You Think You Are? - S03E01 Martin Sheen Original air date February 03, 2011 Narrator: With a career spanning more than half a century, actor Martin Sheen is one of the country's most versatile Hollywood icons.
After garnering worldwide recognition for his work in Apocalypse Now, Martin began to let his passion for political activism influence the roles he chooses, most notably in his golden-globe-winning portrayal of president Jed Bartlet on the hit series The West Wing.
Martin's four children, Charlie, Emilio, Ramon, and Renee, all work in the entertainment industry.
Born Ramon Estevez to Spanish and Irish immigrants, Martin and his wife of 50 years, Janet, live in Malibu, California Hola, Emilio.
Narrator: Just a stone's throw from son Emilio Estevez - Que tal? - How you doing? Narrator: Who is carrying on the family tradition of wine-making.
- What have you got today? - Well, nothing you can have.
Nothing I can have, but I can look.
- This is the new brew.
- New label.
- New label.
- Yeah.
- In pop's vineyard in Galicia.
- Yes.
This is the photograph we took in the vineyard - Yeah.
- In 1969.
- Right.
- Amazing.
And if you see, you've got-- you are credited - Ah.
- With taking the photo.
Ramon Gerard Antonio Estevez.
- [Laughs.]
The photographer.
- Yeah.
I'm going on this journey for myself, but the residual effect could very well be beneficial to my children and their children.
That would be a wonderful gift for them I think.
I don't, uh, know very much about my father's ancestry in Spain at all.
I have less information about my father's side than my mother's.
My mother's name was Mary-Ann Phelan, and she was born in Borrisokane, county Tipperary, in Ireland, of course.
Unfortunately, she died very young.
She was just 48 when she died in 1951, and I was almost 11.
So a lot of her memory has faded over the years, but she had a brother named Michael Phelan, who I've always been fascinated with.
He was an Irish volunteer with the Irish Republican Army in the war of independence from Great Britain.
But I don't know the extent of his, uh, activity in the civil war in Ireland in the 1920s.
So that-- that intrigues me immensely because I've spent a good number of years protesting for peace and social justice, and I've been tossed in jail more than a couple of times because of it.
So I'm really curious to know where that committed spirit comes from.
Did my uncle Michael or anyone else in my family have similar convictions? I'm going to begin my search for Michael here on ancestry.
com.
And here we go.
Uh, I see his death record here, which tells me he died in Tipperary but not much else.
It looks like I'm going to have to go to Ireland myself to find out more about Michael Phelan.
I'm starting my search in Dublin.
[Celtic music.]
I think I should begin at the military archives to see if there's any record of my uncle Michael Phelan's involvement in the Irish civil war.
Oh, Mr.
Sheen, we found Michael Phelan's application under the 1934 act.
So if you want to have a look, and if you wouldn't mind wearing these gloves, please.
- I will.
- Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Okay.
Oh, my.
Whoa.
It's amazing.
This is all in his hand.
This is a--an actual document that he filled out in order to get his, uh, pension for service in the army.
All right, it's saying here, uh, "continuous act of service period from 12 July, 1921, to June 30, 1922.
" So that would be the beginning of the civil war.
Narrator: The Irish civil war began on June 28, 1922, amid controversy regarding Ireland's freedom from Great Britain.
Just six months before, the Anglo-Irish peace treaty was signed, dividing the region into two territories-- northern Ireland and the newly created Irish free state, which was deemed a self-governing dominion under the British crown.
For years before, the old I.
R.
A.
, under the leadership of Michael Collins, had been fighting for a truly free and entirely independent Ireland.
And when the treaty was offered, Michael Collins felt it was a step toward their ultimate goal and accepted.
But many of the staunch activists who fought alongside Collins for years felt betrayed and continued to push for an Irish Republic, resulting in the all-out Irish civil war.
All right, here looks like a letter.
"A statement in support of my application for pension "after an armed attack on free state troops "with land mine laid on July 20th near Roscrea, "I was captured with others and taken to Maryborough prison "and released there on December 23, 1922.
Whilst in Maryborough, I assisted to burn the prison.
" Oh, my God, he burned down the prison.
"I continued with a small company "in my own area to be active, "blocking roads, cutting telegraph poles, et cetera.
"I was arrested on march 10th by free state troops "and served in Birr, Athlone, and Kilmainham jail, released from latter in October 1923.
" Wait, if he was captured by free state troops, that means he was fighting against Michael Collins and the treaty.
It's interesting because I had thought he was on the other side during the civil war, that he was supporting Mick Collins.
But evidently, he was on the other side, supporting the Republic.
I didn't know this.
I'm inclined to become more and more interested in the mystery of Michael Phelan because, you know, he was a great mystery to all of us and particularly those in the States.
We only heard rumors about his involvement with the civil war, but until now, I didn't realize what side he was even on.
[Chuckles.]
I thought it was the other one.
So this makes quite a big difference in understanding where he stood and what it cost him because he was in prison on several different occasions, and it leads me to want to know more.
Narrator: Martin walks in the footsteps of his activist uncle.
Would that have been a result of the activity in Tipperary? Narrator: And later he traces his father's family Oh, my God.
Narrator: To a Spanish prison.
I've never seen anything like this.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in Dublin, where he's just discovered that his uncle Michael Phelan was fighting against Michael Collins in the Anglo-Irish treaty, which created an Irish free state as a dominion under the British empire.
Martin is meeting with Dr.
Edward Madigan to get a better understanding of his uncle's decision to continue the fight for an independent Ireland.
I was surprised to learn this morning that he opposed the free staters.
And, uh, what really fascinated me was, - uh, his imprisonment - Mm-hmm.
- And the number of times.
- Mm.
What happens is that very staunchly antitreaty I.
R.
A.
Men and I.
R.
A.
Officers, especially in the south-- places like Tipperary and Cork-- say, "we will never accept this treaty.
"We're--we've sworn to fight for Irish independence, and that's what we're going to continue to do.
" The people who are in favor of the treaty-- they form the national army, what Michael here refers to in his-- in his pension record as the free state army.
And the free state army go to war against antitreaty I.
R.
A.
So you can understand the Motivations of a very idealistic young man like your uncle.
This is something that he committed his life to.
And now he's been told, "well, it was all in vain.
"We haven't established a Republic, "or we haven't, uh, defended the Republic that we-- - that we swore to die for.
" - Mm-hmm.
So he's a committed republican.
He's part of the movement.
He's active in it.
And the sort of activity we see him involved in, uh, in the pension records-- raiding barracks, um, getting in prisons and arrested-- this is very typical of I.
R.
A.
Activity.
So he's right in the middle of it? He's--he's at the epicenter of what's going on here.
And when he's in prison, it's not simply, "okay, I'm in jail now, and that's it.
" He's c-- he continues to serve.
This is active service as well, so he continues to resist the regime from inside the prison walls.
He's still active.
He sees himself as a prisoner of war.
It's his duty to keep annoying the, um--the establishment.
He already burned one down.
Yeah, he-- I mean, he was active.
There was organized disobedience and resistance to the prison regime and destruction of the whole prison.
- Yeah.
- Uh, so His activity during this period definitely suggests that he was a man of commitment, a man of conviction, and a brave man.
Mm-hmm.
In a very real way, Michael Phelan's story is the story of the Irish revolution.
I have a very great appreciation and admiration for his idealism and his courage and his-- his commitment to a cause that he believed in, the cause of freedom, and, uh, what he was willing to pay for that.
And so I'm looking forward now to visiting one of the jails that my uncle Michael was confined to, and that would be Kilmainham jail here in Dublin.
- Hello.
- Hello there.
- You're Will.
- I am.
Welcome.
Good to meet you.
Thank you so much.
- So this is it.
- This is Kilmainham.
Wow.
Oh, my God.
- So-- - Draconian, to say the least.
This is probably the most iconic prison of the revolutionary period.
So was my uncle held in this-- this very - As far as we know-- - compound? As far as we know, your uncle was held in--in this wing.
Our best guess is that he was held up on--on this floor here.
- The second floor? - And that's, uh-- yeah, that's uh-- would you like to go up and have a look of that cell? Yes, I would.
Yes, thanks so much, yeah.
- Okay.
- Here we go.
Wow.
This is the cell where we think - perhaps your uncle was held.
- Wow.
So you can see the c-- conditions here.
Uh, they're not very pleasant.
Very small cells.
You've got very poor sanitation here.
It's quite overcrowded during the civil war period, and you've got very basic bedding.
And--and there would be one person in here? - He would've been alone in here? - Um, it varied.
So the ideal was that there would be one person here, but the civil war is a period when you have, you know, a lot of people in prison.
Come the end of the civil war-- we're not exactly sure, but we think there were about 12,000 people in various prisons and camps around Ireland.
Wow.
I'm enormously proud of him.
I would like to hope that, if I had been here in Ireland at the time, I would've followed him, you know, and I'd have been as committed as he was.
I've been involved in a lot of campaigns for peace and social justice.
And I had the same kind of, uh, commitment in those areas that he had here, and that is that you really do it for yourself.
You don't expect to change the world.
You don't expect to even influence your family or your friends.
You do it because you cannot not do it and be who you are or who you're meant to be.
This part of the journey is-- is over.
And now we're headed, uh, to my father's side in Spain, and I'm enormously curious about what, uh, awaits me there.
So the first stop on my journey into the Estevez side will be the Spanish capital of Madrid.
[Heroic music.]
And we'll be visiting one of my favorite people in all the world, my sister Carmen.
She has a lot of information because she's lived here for so long and worked here.
And so she has a lot more knowledge and a better understanding of our father's, uh, Spanish heritage than I could ever have.
[Laughs.]
Aren't you-- why I ought to-- you th--you weren't gonna do this without me.
[Laughs.]
Before we talk about pop, I just thought it might be nice to look at us.
Sons and daughter of immigrants.
See, at a very early age, you obviously didn't want much to do with the rest of us.
Can you see, hiding over here, trying-- removed myself from-- you've already got that James dean pose.
- Before he had it.
- [Laughs.]
Before he had it.
- Yes, I think that we should-- - oh, God, don't look at me.
- Don't look at me.
- That's in a very wounded-- I think I had a big, uh, safety pin holding up my overalls.
This is our grandmother Oh, my God.
That's herself.
In Parderrubias.
Yes.
- That's the old homestead.
- Yes, yes, yes.
We think we were poor, but they were really poor.
I mean, really poor.
I know our grandparents, Manuel and Dolores, had seven children.
But Carmen has a fascinating piece of information about our dad's youngest brother, our uncle Matias.
You remember the Spanish civil war? - Sure.
- Yeah, well Matias was arrested as a communist, and he was in jail in Tui.
Every time he would go by that-- what is now a-- a cultural center, he would say, "oh.
"They had me in there, and they were going to kill me.
And now they're all dead, and I'm still alive.
" [Laughs.]
This is news to me because I only heard kind of rumors and stories.
I didn't know about, uh, Matias', uh, uh, background.
I knew that he was forbidden to travel.
Yeah, yeah.
That's when-- I mean, that's when he was marked as a--as a communist.
Yeah.
Narrator: Matias' home in Galicia was precisely where the Spanish civil war began.
In 1936, general Francisco Franco and his rebel forces launched a violent coup d'etat against the democratically elected Spanish Republic.
Anyone who opposed Franco's regime and fought to restore the elected government, like Matias Estevez, was thrown in jail.
The resulting civil war raged for three years until Franco emerged victorious.
Franco's brutal fascist dictatorship remained in power for nearly 40 years until his death in 1975.
- And this is Matias.
- Oh, my God.
This is Matias with Joaquina and his daughters, Angelita and Lola.
It's so interesting because there were civil wars in both of our parents' countries.
- Yeah, and we had no idea.
- Yes.
And the suffering that they endured.
I'm particularly interested in Matias and his background.
He, uh, went through the civil war, and I'm interested in finding out specifically what happened to him and why.
Narrator: Martin discovers the consequences of his uncle Matias' fight against Franco's regime.
I had no idea that he suffered this-- this gravely.
Narrator: Political activism runs deep on both sides of Martin Sheen's family.
In Ireland, Martin discovered that his uncle Michael, a member of the I.
R.
A.
, landed in jail for his beliefs, just like Martin himself.
Now in Spain, Martin has found another uncle who fought for freedom-- this time in the Spanish civil war against Franco's fascist rebel forces.
I'm particularly interested in the story of my uncle Matias' involvement in the civil war, so I'm meeting with historian Alejandro Quiroga.
I'm hoping, Alex, that you can enlighten me with some truth about Matias.
Yeah, he had, um, a very interesting life and, um-- and a very difficult life.
The first reference of, uh, your uncle, uh, Matias is a reference in this book that was written by a pro-Franco priest.
So this is a propaganda book.
So this is the actual translation.
"By mid-July 1936, armed groups "committed all kinds of abuses.
"One of those groups was led by Matias Estevez Martinez, "also known as 'el raton', 'the mouse'.
"his gang went on a van to the house "of the mayor of the village, Mr.
Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez.
"The group required the mayor to join them "in an attack on a local military police barracks and threatened to kill him if he was not to obey.
" So basically he was fighting against the rebels.
Yeah.
The thing that's quite important are the dates 'cause dates are the 20th and the 21st of, uh, July 1936.
That's very near the start of the civil war.
That's the very, very beginning, exactly.
So he is actually attempting to stop the coup d'etat, and what we know is that he was arrested after that and was put in front of a military tribunal.
And they charged him with military rebellion.
They weren't even a legitimate government.
- No, of course not.
- They were a military coup, and they were already holding tribunals.
- So these fascists - Mm-hmm.
Were forcing their form of law on people who were law-abiding.
That's the bottom line, isn't it? - That is the bottom line.
- Yeah.
And you can read this sentence.
"We do declare that Matias Estevez Martinez must be condemned to life imprisonment.
" So-- my God, huh? Life imprisonment? Do you know where he was-- - yes.
- Where he was in prison? We know that because this book is, um, episodes of terror, during the civil war in the island of, um, San Simon.
And this is the list of, uh, um, prisoners.
Wow, there were a lot of Estevezes.
[Chuckles.]
I probably had a whole-- a whole bunch of, uh, relatives there with him.
My God.
So here he is.
He's--it-- would he be 611? Is that his prison number? His prison number, yeah.
This is a place of extermination, place of terror, a place created with the idea of, um-- in a very fascist manner of purifying the nation, the idea is to put as many people as possible there.
If they die out of starvation or, uh, lack of sanitary conditions, it doesn't matter.
Narrator: Prior to the civil war, Spanish jails held some 12,000 convicts.
But after the war's end, the number of detainees swelled to more than one million.
Nearly 100,000 of them died behind bars.
Matias Estevez served a year of his life sentence in San Simon before he was transferred in 1937 to Franco's largest and most notorious prison, San Cristobal near Pamplona.
We have found the, uh, actual register of, um, San Cristobal.
This is the sort of, uh, clase de penas, a sort of sentence, life imprisonment.
He is actually sentenced on 24 of September 1936.
But I know he didn't serve a life sentence.
Does it say anything about when he is to be released, or-- he is to--to-- released here.
Oh, my God.
1966? - Did he serve that whole time? - He didn't.
He was released in 1940.
Thank God.
- Yeah.
- And what does this say? Prision atenuada, which means that he was released but still under, uh, surveillance.
He was, like, uh, under house arrest.
And it says here until 1966.
It's astonishing.
So he spent a total of four years in prison-- one year on San Simon island and three years in San Cristobal in Pamplona.
Mm-hmm.
And they kept records of all these people that far - Mm-hmm.
- After the war? That's, like, 30 years.
I had no idea that he suffered this-- this gravely.
What a brave guy.
He survived four years in two different concentration camps, and they were instituted to break people's will and to create fear in the populace, and that's what they did.
So I'm just anxious to get to Pamplona and discover his circumstances in San Cristobal.
Alejandro suggested I meet with Spanish civil war historian Julius Ruiz.
Matias would've arrived by bus and by, um--or by van.
He would've been driven through those gates, and then he would've been driven through this tunnel.
Oh, my God, it's cavernous like an old cathedral.
- Extraordinary.
- Amazing, yeah.
- Absolutely extraordinary.
- Yeah.
How many were confined here? When it was used before the civil war, um, to hold, um, the prisoners for the revolution, maybe 600, 700 prisoners were here.
But by the time your uncle arrived, um, pris-prisoners were arriving en masse from all over Spain.
And, uh, so in 1938, there were-- - there were 2,500.
- Wow.
If we walk here, what we're gonna see is something that's dantesque.
We're now entering the worst of the very worst.
Wow.
This is kind of what it would've been like, uh, at night down here.
- Well-- - or even in high noon, huh? - Yeah.
- Oh, my.
So here we are.
This is just one of the cells in which 25 to 50 prisoners were being held.
What? This is the only source of light? This is the only source of light that they--that they had.
- Do you see, there's no glass-- - yeah.
Uh, so you know, there were-- it was open to the elements.
We're very close to the Pyrenees, so in winter, we're talking sub-zero temperatures, uh, biting winds.
This is a reasonably warm sunny day, so you can just imagine.
This is where, you know, he was expected to serve his 30 years' sentence.
Wow.
- Boy, oh, boy.
- Yeah.
There's a great similarity here on this journey, uh, to San Cristobal from Kilmainham.
The idealism of both of these young men-- both uncles the same age, a year's difference maybe.
Idealistic, tough, deeply human.
And they suffered greatly for-- I-I-- th-this place is-- like, I've never seen anything like this.
I can only imagine what being confined here at that time and never knowing how it was gonna end and how he must have felt when he was released because he really wasn't released.
He was on a tether.
He was out from behind these walls, but he was confined to the walls of his own village.
And you know, these scoundrels denigrated him by calling him "el raton," which means "the mouse.
" He outlived all of these fascists.
So in the end, he was the mouse that roared, and I say, "God bless him.
" Narrator: Martin discovers a bombshell in his father's family history.
My God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in Spain, where he's discovered that his uncle Matias Estevez was a political activist sentenced to life in prison for his beliefs.
Martin is now trying to dig further back into his Spanish ancestry.
His sister Carmen sent him their father Francisco's birth certificate.
Martin is in Tui, meeting with genealogist Matthew Hovius to see what secrets it may contain.
So Matthew, this is my father's birth certificate.
The problem is, it's in Galego, and, uh, not only do I not speak Spanish, I don't speak Galego either.
So if you could help me, I'd be grateful.
Sure, I'd like to just go through the, um--the text here.
Now let's see, we've got your father Francisco.
So it says, um, he is the legitimate son of Manuel Estevez Fernandez-- and that would be your grandfather-- and of Dolores Martinez-- that would be your grandmother.
And, uh, the maternal grandparents of the child are Carmen Martinez and grandfather unknown.
It's amazing to learn that my great-grandmother was named Carmen Martinez, and Matthew was able to take me back three more generations to the 1700s and to my fourth great-grandparents, don Diego Francisco Suarez and Maria Gonzalez.
But it sounds like Matthew has found something intriguing about don Diego and Maria Gonzalez in the marriage record of their daughter Paula.
This gives us a lot of interesting information, but there's one particularly important aspect of the record.
Um, if you notice here where it describes Paula, it's says, uh, "hija natural de don Diego Suarez y de Maria Antonia Gonzalez.
" And what that means is, that, uh, Paula-- - she was the natural daughter-- - is the natural daughter-- - of don Diego - Of don Diego Suarez.
- And Maria Gonzalez.
- That's right.
Uh-huh.
Why is it important to say that? Well, because what that means is that she's the natural daughter.
You notice that, um, Pelayo, her husband, is described as the legitimate son of his parents.
If, uh, Paula is described as the natural daughter of don Diego, um, that means that her father wasn't married to her mother.
Her father don Diego was not married to-- was not married to Maria Gonzalez.
Now let's take a look at Diego's own marriage record.
Now everything we've seen so far have been books from Parderrubias.
This register is actually from a cathedral in Tui.
Now this is in 1740, and what the priest is telling us is, "I celebrate the marriage contracted by don Diego Suarez Delago, who married Manuela de Alfaya.
" We have Paula Suarez's mother as Maria Gonzalez Yes.
And here we see don Diego marrying Manuela de Alfaya.
Whoops.
So not only was don Diego not married to Maria Gonzalez, he was actually married to a woman named Manuela de Alfaya.
And then I learned that don Diego didn't stop there.
In addition to my third great-grandmother Paula, he and his mistress Maria went on to have five more illegitimate children together.
And, uh, this is the baptism book covering-- 1739 to 1780.
But they also used the baptism register for some other sacraments such as confirmation.
I see, mm-hmm.
And the way confirmation was done at the time was usually not every year but every few years if some particularly prominent local church would happen to come through, like the bishop of Tui - or someone like that.
- Mm-hmm.
Or the children who hadn't been confirmed since the last visit would be brought out for confirmation.
Now if you notice, this was in September 1777.
And I can tell you that your great-great-great-great- grandfather don Diego, uh, died just three years before this.
So this would've been the first confirmation ceremony in Parderrubias since Diego had passed away, and-- so she came out of the closet with this brood of children.
Exactly.
After they put him in the ground.
And I think what that says about her is that she, uh, must have been a very loyal person because she seems to have kept all these children out of sight for as long as she could.
This is an extraordinary woman-- Maria Gonzalez.
Wow.
How did don Diego come to his status as a don? For Galicia, the first place I would look would be the regional archive known as the Archivo del Reino de Galicia in La Coruna.
This investigation is getting curiouser and curiouser.
We have landed on a very interesting couple, namely, don-- I wanna say don Juan.
He--he--it appears he was a bit of a don Juan.
Don Diego, uh, Suarez.
And I have to go to La Coruna to find out more about don Diego and see just what his life was all about and how many relatives he left on my tree.
Narrator: Martin uncovers an incredible connection 150 years in the making.
Oh, my God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in northern Spain exploring his father's family history.
He's just learned that his fourth great-grandfather, Diego Suarez, had six illegitimate children but was also referred to in the records as a don.
So Martin is enlisting historian Edward Behrend-Martinez to find out who this prominent man really was.
I have here, um, the only document that we have relating to-- to, uh, don Diego Francisco Suarez, your great-great-great-great- grandfather.
- [Chuckles.]
- Um, and, uh So I'll let you take a look at that.
- Oh, my.
- And it says-- I translated it here for you.
All right.
"In the said town in jurisdiction "on 24 June of the said year, "his honor don Diego Francisco Suarez, the said ordinary judge--" what is this all about? Is don Diego Francisco Suarez a judge? Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
- He is the--the-- - so-- - the highest authority? - Yeah.
Legal authority in the community? - Yeah, absolutely.
- Unbelievable.
So the judge "stated that, based on the contents "of the said proceedings regarding the absence "of Antonia Pereira, single woman, "he would and did order that the following edict be made public as specified in the law.
" So please tell me, uh, this-- [chuckles.]
This judge, don Diego Francisco Suarez, has decreed - someone is--is a criminal.
- Yes.
He's going after a-- a young woman, Antonia Pereira, who had had an affair, uh, with a very privileged man in the community.
When they say "privileged," meaning he's untouchable, they mean, very likely, a cleric or a priest.
Oh.
Uh, and then it turned out in the spring of 1748, she gets pregnant.
And then Antonia goes off to a midwife, uh, to seek remedies for the pregnancy.
- An abortion.
- Yeah.
Wow, so the basic crime here, if you will, is not the affair or the impending birth, - but the abortion.
- Yeah.
So don Diego Francisco Suarez was pursuing Antonia with, um, as much power and, uh, vigor as he could.
In fact, your ancestor sends out an order to have wanted posters all over, uh, the area.
But his motivation, uh, really strikes me as a double standard obviously because he was engaged while he was married, in an illicit affair with, uh, uh, senora Gonzalez, and he had six children.
Right, but I don't think it ever occurred-- so in essence, he was quite above the law, we would say.
- Yeah, he is the law.
- He is the law.
- Right.
- Okay, wow.
Don Diego, you son of a gun.
We've done a bit more research.
Uh, we have a family tree for you.
Wow.
That's taking us on my grandmother's side to don Diego, and he is buried 6 December, 1773, in thecatedral in Tui, Galicia.
- He's buried in the cathedral? - Yeah.
- Wow, he really was a big shot.
- Yeah, he was.
Hmm, now we're gonna look at my grandfather's side.
His father was Augustin Estevez Martinez.
And Augustin's father was Jose Estevez, and he was married to Maria Rosa Martinez.
And her mother and father are Juan Martinez and his wife, Liberata.
And her father is Ramon Martinez.
Mm-hmm.
And his wife is Antonia Pereira.
The young girl.
Oh, my God.
Isn't that amazing? Nearly 150 years after don Diego Suarez' attempted prosecution of the young Antonia Pereira, an extraordinary thing happened.
Two lines on my family tree converged when my grandfather, Manuel Estevez Fernandez, married my grandmother, Dolores Martinez, which means, incredibly, that it was my fourth great-grandmother who was being relentlessly pursued by my fourth great-grandfather.
Unbelievable.
It's amazing that we have one document that leads to this result.
It's just astonishing that the connection is so far back and so intimate and yet so spread apart.
Mm-hmm.
- Over two centuries.
- Mm-hmm.
- This is the Antonia - Yeah.
That was so scandalized and brutalized and pursued.
But apparently she was able to come back to Parderrubias and-- and make a life for herself - and get married.
- Astonishing.
This extraordinary young woman pursued by this [Chuckles.]
Unbelievable figure, don Diego Francisco Suarez.
Wait till Carmen gets a load of this.
It makes me feel a bit more human to have uncovered what this dear woman particularly-- Antonia did as a young, single girl, what she endured, and how she kept her life together and stayed in that community with all of this exposure falling on her.
This disgrace makes me extremely proud to have been grown on the same tree as my great-great-great-great- grandmother Antonia.
Narrator: Martin shares his extraordinary discoveries with his sister and his son.
- Tell me the name of the-- - oh, my God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen has experienced one revelation after another in both his Irish and his Spanish ancestry.
I'm heading to the village of Parderrubias to meet my sister Carmen at the site where our father was born and raised.
I can't wait to share what I've learned with her and my son Ramon.
I've been on quite a journey these last few weeks, and I have a-- a lot of information I need to share with you.
To have uncovered information on two uncles, both of whom suffered imprisonment and ostracization by the community-- I didn't have a clue.
It encourages me to continue my work in peace and justice, and, uh, now I have a sense of where that, uh-- that gene comes from.
And then to have had this whole other section of the tree suddenly blossom before my eyes, where we go to Maria Gonzalez, who has this association with a don.
If you had told me at the beginning of this journey where I was going, I wouldn't have imagined such a place.
Tell me the name of the girl again.
- Antonia Pereira.
- Antonia.
And who prosecuted her? Don Diego Francisco Suarez.
Your great-great-great-great- grandfather.
Are you ready to meet your great-great-great-great- grandmother? - Tell me the name of the-- - oh, my God.
Say her name.
Antonia-- [Chuckles.]
Antonia Pereira.
He is our great-great-great-great- grandfather, - who prosecuted her-- - and he prosecuted her.
This is the Spain where these people live.
- Oh, my goodness.
- It's unbelievable.
I mean, I-- you couldn't-- y-you couldn't come up with this if you tried.
- You couldn't.
- I mean, this is, uh, unbelievable.
It's astonishing that the tree has revealed what you couldn't have imagined, a-a-a-and you-- if you'd written a novel with all these truths in it, they'd say, "eh, it's a bit over the top.
" It actually happened.
Oh, my gosh.
This is extraordinary.
This is the first time I've heard my great-grandparents' names.
Wow, this is amazing.
Narrator: They will travel the globe [Chuckles.]
Narrator: Questioning everything they thought they knew about their ancestry.
Wow, I wanna know why that little boy was on this ship.
I don't think I'd ever be able to rest until I know why.
It's amazing to think that my dad came from a town this remote and ended up in America.
Narrator: Secrets will be revealed.
A bad person came in and really did great harm to the family.
Like, I've never seen anything like this.
It's--it's chilling to see that my great-great-grandfather could only write a "x" for his name.
It's just disturbing.
Oh, my-- wow.
Narrator: And lives will change forever.
What we found was a gentleman who's your cousin.
What? Narrator: Because to know who you are This is pretty cool that I'm standing right here where my seven-times-great-grandmother and grandfather are buried.
This is really cool.
My daughter will now know that her great-great-great- grandmother paved the way for everything.
Narrator: You have to know where your story began.
So now I'm looking forward to walk in the same footsteps You--if you'd written a novel with all these truths in it, they'd say, "eh, it's a bit over the top.
" It actually happened.
You heard? Oh, man.
Man, it's good to see you.
Who I thought I was when we started this odyssey is different than who I know I am today.
It's been incredible.
Narrator: Tonight Martin Sheen embarks on an epic journey into both sides of his family history, where he discovers two ancestors And the suffering that they endured.
Narrator: Who help him understand the true meaning of activism.
You do it because you cannot not do it.
Narrator: And before his search is over My God, it's cavernous like an old cathedral.
Narrator: Martin will uncover a family connection he never could have imagined.
Oh, my God.
[Pop music.]
Who Do You Think You Are? - S03E01 Martin Sheen Original air date February 03, 2011 Narrator: With a career spanning more than half a century, actor Martin Sheen is one of the country's most versatile Hollywood icons.
After garnering worldwide recognition for his work in Apocalypse Now, Martin began to let his passion for political activism influence the roles he chooses, most notably in his golden-globe-winning portrayal of president Jed Bartlet on the hit series The West Wing.
Martin's four children, Charlie, Emilio, Ramon, and Renee, all work in the entertainment industry.
Born Ramon Estevez to Spanish and Irish immigrants, Martin and his wife of 50 years, Janet, live in Malibu, California Hola, Emilio.
Narrator: Just a stone's throw from son Emilio Estevez - Que tal? - How you doing? Narrator: Who is carrying on the family tradition of wine-making.
- What have you got today? - Well, nothing you can have.
Nothing I can have, but I can look.
- This is the new brew.
- New label.
- New label.
- Yeah.
- In pop's vineyard in Galicia.
- Yes.
This is the photograph we took in the vineyard - Yeah.
- In 1969.
- Right.
- Amazing.
And if you see, you've got-- you are credited - Ah.
- With taking the photo.
Ramon Gerard Antonio Estevez.
- [Laughs.]
The photographer.
- Yeah.
I'm going on this journey for myself, but the residual effect could very well be beneficial to my children and their children.
That would be a wonderful gift for them I think.
I don't, uh, know very much about my father's ancestry in Spain at all.
I have less information about my father's side than my mother's.
My mother's name was Mary-Ann Phelan, and she was born in Borrisokane, county Tipperary, in Ireland, of course.
Unfortunately, she died very young.
She was just 48 when she died in 1951, and I was almost 11.
So a lot of her memory has faded over the years, but she had a brother named Michael Phelan, who I've always been fascinated with.
He was an Irish volunteer with the Irish Republican Army in the war of independence from Great Britain.
But I don't know the extent of his, uh, activity in the civil war in Ireland in the 1920s.
So that-- that intrigues me immensely because I've spent a good number of years protesting for peace and social justice, and I've been tossed in jail more than a couple of times because of it.
So I'm really curious to know where that committed spirit comes from.
Did my uncle Michael or anyone else in my family have similar convictions? I'm going to begin my search for Michael here on ancestry.
com.
And here we go.
Uh, I see his death record here, which tells me he died in Tipperary but not much else.
It looks like I'm going to have to go to Ireland myself to find out more about Michael Phelan.
I'm starting my search in Dublin.
[Celtic music.]
I think I should begin at the military archives to see if there's any record of my uncle Michael Phelan's involvement in the Irish civil war.
Oh, Mr.
Sheen, we found Michael Phelan's application under the 1934 act.
So if you want to have a look, and if you wouldn't mind wearing these gloves, please.
- I will.
- Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Okay.
Oh, my.
Whoa.
It's amazing.
This is all in his hand.
This is a--an actual document that he filled out in order to get his, uh, pension for service in the army.
All right, it's saying here, uh, "continuous act of service period from 12 July, 1921, to June 30, 1922.
" So that would be the beginning of the civil war.
Narrator: The Irish civil war began on June 28, 1922, amid controversy regarding Ireland's freedom from Great Britain.
Just six months before, the Anglo-Irish peace treaty was signed, dividing the region into two territories-- northern Ireland and the newly created Irish free state, which was deemed a self-governing dominion under the British crown.
For years before, the old I.
R.
A.
, under the leadership of Michael Collins, had been fighting for a truly free and entirely independent Ireland.
And when the treaty was offered, Michael Collins felt it was a step toward their ultimate goal and accepted.
But many of the staunch activists who fought alongside Collins for years felt betrayed and continued to push for an Irish Republic, resulting in the all-out Irish civil war.
All right, here looks like a letter.
"A statement in support of my application for pension "after an armed attack on free state troops "with land mine laid on July 20th near Roscrea, "I was captured with others and taken to Maryborough prison "and released there on December 23, 1922.
Whilst in Maryborough, I assisted to burn the prison.
" Oh, my God, he burned down the prison.
"I continued with a small company "in my own area to be active, "blocking roads, cutting telegraph poles, et cetera.
"I was arrested on march 10th by free state troops "and served in Birr, Athlone, and Kilmainham jail, released from latter in October 1923.
" Wait, if he was captured by free state troops, that means he was fighting against Michael Collins and the treaty.
It's interesting because I had thought he was on the other side during the civil war, that he was supporting Mick Collins.
But evidently, he was on the other side, supporting the Republic.
I didn't know this.
I'm inclined to become more and more interested in the mystery of Michael Phelan because, you know, he was a great mystery to all of us and particularly those in the States.
We only heard rumors about his involvement with the civil war, but until now, I didn't realize what side he was even on.
[Chuckles.]
I thought it was the other one.
So this makes quite a big difference in understanding where he stood and what it cost him because he was in prison on several different occasions, and it leads me to want to know more.
Narrator: Martin walks in the footsteps of his activist uncle.
Would that have been a result of the activity in Tipperary? Narrator: And later he traces his father's family Oh, my God.
Narrator: To a Spanish prison.
I've never seen anything like this.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in Dublin, where he's just discovered that his uncle Michael Phelan was fighting against Michael Collins in the Anglo-Irish treaty, which created an Irish free state as a dominion under the British empire.
Martin is meeting with Dr.
Edward Madigan to get a better understanding of his uncle's decision to continue the fight for an independent Ireland.
I was surprised to learn this morning that he opposed the free staters.
And, uh, what really fascinated me was, - uh, his imprisonment - Mm-hmm.
- And the number of times.
- Mm.
What happens is that very staunchly antitreaty I.
R.
A.
Men and I.
R.
A.
Officers, especially in the south-- places like Tipperary and Cork-- say, "we will never accept this treaty.
"We're--we've sworn to fight for Irish independence, and that's what we're going to continue to do.
" The people who are in favor of the treaty-- they form the national army, what Michael here refers to in his-- in his pension record as the free state army.
And the free state army go to war against antitreaty I.
R.
A.
So you can understand the Motivations of a very idealistic young man like your uncle.
This is something that he committed his life to.
And now he's been told, "well, it was all in vain.
"We haven't established a Republic, "or we haven't, uh, defended the Republic that we-- - that we swore to die for.
" - Mm-hmm.
So he's a committed republican.
He's part of the movement.
He's active in it.
And the sort of activity we see him involved in, uh, in the pension records-- raiding barracks, um, getting in prisons and arrested-- this is very typical of I.
R.
A.
Activity.
So he's right in the middle of it? He's--he's at the epicenter of what's going on here.
And when he's in prison, it's not simply, "okay, I'm in jail now, and that's it.
" He's c-- he continues to serve.
This is active service as well, so he continues to resist the regime from inside the prison walls.
He's still active.
He sees himself as a prisoner of war.
It's his duty to keep annoying the, um--the establishment.
He already burned one down.
Yeah, he-- I mean, he was active.
There was organized disobedience and resistance to the prison regime and destruction of the whole prison.
- Yeah.
- Uh, so His activity during this period definitely suggests that he was a man of commitment, a man of conviction, and a brave man.
Mm-hmm.
In a very real way, Michael Phelan's story is the story of the Irish revolution.
I have a very great appreciation and admiration for his idealism and his courage and his-- his commitment to a cause that he believed in, the cause of freedom, and, uh, what he was willing to pay for that.
And so I'm looking forward now to visiting one of the jails that my uncle Michael was confined to, and that would be Kilmainham jail here in Dublin.
- Hello.
- Hello there.
- You're Will.
- I am.
Welcome.
Good to meet you.
Thank you so much.
- So this is it.
- This is Kilmainham.
Wow.
Oh, my God.
- So-- - Draconian, to say the least.
This is probably the most iconic prison of the revolutionary period.
So was my uncle held in this-- this very - As far as we know-- - compound? As far as we know, your uncle was held in--in this wing.
Our best guess is that he was held up on--on this floor here.
- The second floor? - And that's, uh-- yeah, that's uh-- would you like to go up and have a look of that cell? Yes, I would.
Yes, thanks so much, yeah.
- Okay.
- Here we go.
Wow.
This is the cell where we think - perhaps your uncle was held.
- Wow.
So you can see the c-- conditions here.
Uh, they're not very pleasant.
Very small cells.
You've got very poor sanitation here.
It's quite overcrowded during the civil war period, and you've got very basic bedding.
And--and there would be one person in here? - He would've been alone in here? - Um, it varied.
So the ideal was that there would be one person here, but the civil war is a period when you have, you know, a lot of people in prison.
Come the end of the civil war-- we're not exactly sure, but we think there were about 12,000 people in various prisons and camps around Ireland.
Wow.
I'm enormously proud of him.
I would like to hope that, if I had been here in Ireland at the time, I would've followed him, you know, and I'd have been as committed as he was.
I've been involved in a lot of campaigns for peace and social justice.
And I had the same kind of, uh, commitment in those areas that he had here, and that is that you really do it for yourself.
You don't expect to change the world.
You don't expect to even influence your family or your friends.
You do it because you cannot not do it and be who you are or who you're meant to be.
This part of the journey is-- is over.
And now we're headed, uh, to my father's side in Spain, and I'm enormously curious about what, uh, awaits me there.
So the first stop on my journey into the Estevez side will be the Spanish capital of Madrid.
[Heroic music.]
And we'll be visiting one of my favorite people in all the world, my sister Carmen.
She has a lot of information because she's lived here for so long and worked here.
And so she has a lot more knowledge and a better understanding of our father's, uh, Spanish heritage than I could ever have.
[Laughs.]
Aren't you-- why I ought to-- you th--you weren't gonna do this without me.
[Laughs.]
Before we talk about pop, I just thought it might be nice to look at us.
Sons and daughter of immigrants.
See, at a very early age, you obviously didn't want much to do with the rest of us.
Can you see, hiding over here, trying-- removed myself from-- you've already got that James dean pose.
- Before he had it.
- [Laughs.]
Before he had it.
- Yes, I think that we should-- - oh, God, don't look at me.
- Don't look at me.
- That's in a very wounded-- I think I had a big, uh, safety pin holding up my overalls.
This is our grandmother Oh, my God.
That's herself.
In Parderrubias.
Yes.
- That's the old homestead.
- Yes, yes, yes.
We think we were poor, but they were really poor.
I mean, really poor.
I know our grandparents, Manuel and Dolores, had seven children.
But Carmen has a fascinating piece of information about our dad's youngest brother, our uncle Matias.
You remember the Spanish civil war? - Sure.
- Yeah, well Matias was arrested as a communist, and he was in jail in Tui.
Every time he would go by that-- what is now a-- a cultural center, he would say, "oh.
"They had me in there, and they were going to kill me.
And now they're all dead, and I'm still alive.
" [Laughs.]
This is news to me because I only heard kind of rumors and stories.
I didn't know about, uh, Matias', uh, uh, background.
I knew that he was forbidden to travel.
Yeah, yeah.
That's when-- I mean, that's when he was marked as a--as a communist.
Yeah.
Narrator: Matias' home in Galicia was precisely where the Spanish civil war began.
In 1936, general Francisco Franco and his rebel forces launched a violent coup d'etat against the democratically elected Spanish Republic.
Anyone who opposed Franco's regime and fought to restore the elected government, like Matias Estevez, was thrown in jail.
The resulting civil war raged for three years until Franco emerged victorious.
Franco's brutal fascist dictatorship remained in power for nearly 40 years until his death in 1975.
- And this is Matias.
- Oh, my God.
This is Matias with Joaquina and his daughters, Angelita and Lola.
It's so interesting because there were civil wars in both of our parents' countries.
- Yeah, and we had no idea.
- Yes.
And the suffering that they endured.
I'm particularly interested in Matias and his background.
He, uh, went through the civil war, and I'm interested in finding out specifically what happened to him and why.
Narrator: Martin discovers the consequences of his uncle Matias' fight against Franco's regime.
I had no idea that he suffered this-- this gravely.
Narrator: Political activism runs deep on both sides of Martin Sheen's family.
In Ireland, Martin discovered that his uncle Michael, a member of the I.
R.
A.
, landed in jail for his beliefs, just like Martin himself.
Now in Spain, Martin has found another uncle who fought for freedom-- this time in the Spanish civil war against Franco's fascist rebel forces.
I'm particularly interested in the story of my uncle Matias' involvement in the civil war, so I'm meeting with historian Alejandro Quiroga.
I'm hoping, Alex, that you can enlighten me with some truth about Matias.
Yeah, he had, um, a very interesting life and, um-- and a very difficult life.
The first reference of, uh, your uncle, uh, Matias is a reference in this book that was written by a pro-Franco priest.
So this is a propaganda book.
So this is the actual translation.
"By mid-July 1936, armed groups "committed all kinds of abuses.
"One of those groups was led by Matias Estevez Martinez, "also known as 'el raton', 'the mouse'.
"his gang went on a van to the house "of the mayor of the village, Mr.
Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez.
"The group required the mayor to join them "in an attack on a local military police barracks and threatened to kill him if he was not to obey.
" So basically he was fighting against the rebels.
Yeah.
The thing that's quite important are the dates 'cause dates are the 20th and the 21st of, uh, July 1936.
That's very near the start of the civil war.
That's the very, very beginning, exactly.
So he is actually attempting to stop the coup d'etat, and what we know is that he was arrested after that and was put in front of a military tribunal.
And they charged him with military rebellion.
They weren't even a legitimate government.
- No, of course not.
- They were a military coup, and they were already holding tribunals.
- So these fascists - Mm-hmm.
Were forcing their form of law on people who were law-abiding.
That's the bottom line, isn't it? - That is the bottom line.
- Yeah.
And you can read this sentence.
"We do declare that Matias Estevez Martinez must be condemned to life imprisonment.
" So-- my God, huh? Life imprisonment? Do you know where he was-- - yes.
- Where he was in prison? We know that because this book is, um, episodes of terror, during the civil war in the island of, um, San Simon.
And this is the list of, uh, um, prisoners.
Wow, there were a lot of Estevezes.
[Chuckles.]
I probably had a whole-- a whole bunch of, uh, relatives there with him.
My God.
So here he is.
He's--it-- would he be 611? Is that his prison number? His prison number, yeah.
This is a place of extermination, place of terror, a place created with the idea of, um-- in a very fascist manner of purifying the nation, the idea is to put as many people as possible there.
If they die out of starvation or, uh, lack of sanitary conditions, it doesn't matter.
Narrator: Prior to the civil war, Spanish jails held some 12,000 convicts.
But after the war's end, the number of detainees swelled to more than one million.
Nearly 100,000 of them died behind bars.
Matias Estevez served a year of his life sentence in San Simon before he was transferred in 1937 to Franco's largest and most notorious prison, San Cristobal near Pamplona.
We have found the, uh, actual register of, um, San Cristobal.
This is the sort of, uh, clase de penas, a sort of sentence, life imprisonment.
He is actually sentenced on 24 of September 1936.
But I know he didn't serve a life sentence.
Does it say anything about when he is to be released, or-- he is to--to-- released here.
Oh, my God.
1966? - Did he serve that whole time? - He didn't.
He was released in 1940.
Thank God.
- Yeah.
- And what does this say? Prision atenuada, which means that he was released but still under, uh, surveillance.
He was, like, uh, under house arrest.
And it says here until 1966.
It's astonishing.
So he spent a total of four years in prison-- one year on San Simon island and three years in San Cristobal in Pamplona.
Mm-hmm.
And they kept records of all these people that far - Mm-hmm.
- After the war? That's, like, 30 years.
I had no idea that he suffered this-- this gravely.
What a brave guy.
He survived four years in two different concentration camps, and they were instituted to break people's will and to create fear in the populace, and that's what they did.
So I'm just anxious to get to Pamplona and discover his circumstances in San Cristobal.
Alejandro suggested I meet with Spanish civil war historian Julius Ruiz.
Matias would've arrived by bus and by, um--or by van.
He would've been driven through those gates, and then he would've been driven through this tunnel.
Oh, my God, it's cavernous like an old cathedral.
- Extraordinary.
- Amazing, yeah.
- Absolutely extraordinary.
- Yeah.
How many were confined here? When it was used before the civil war, um, to hold, um, the prisoners for the revolution, maybe 600, 700 prisoners were here.
But by the time your uncle arrived, um, pris-prisoners were arriving en masse from all over Spain.
And, uh, so in 1938, there were-- - there were 2,500.
- Wow.
If we walk here, what we're gonna see is something that's dantesque.
We're now entering the worst of the very worst.
Wow.
This is kind of what it would've been like, uh, at night down here.
- Well-- - or even in high noon, huh? - Yeah.
- Oh, my.
So here we are.
This is just one of the cells in which 25 to 50 prisoners were being held.
What? This is the only source of light? This is the only source of light that they--that they had.
- Do you see, there's no glass-- - yeah.
Uh, so you know, there were-- it was open to the elements.
We're very close to the Pyrenees, so in winter, we're talking sub-zero temperatures, uh, biting winds.
This is a reasonably warm sunny day, so you can just imagine.
This is where, you know, he was expected to serve his 30 years' sentence.
Wow.
- Boy, oh, boy.
- Yeah.
There's a great similarity here on this journey, uh, to San Cristobal from Kilmainham.
The idealism of both of these young men-- both uncles the same age, a year's difference maybe.
Idealistic, tough, deeply human.
And they suffered greatly for-- I-I-- th-this place is-- like, I've never seen anything like this.
I can only imagine what being confined here at that time and never knowing how it was gonna end and how he must have felt when he was released because he really wasn't released.
He was on a tether.
He was out from behind these walls, but he was confined to the walls of his own village.
And you know, these scoundrels denigrated him by calling him "el raton," which means "the mouse.
" He outlived all of these fascists.
So in the end, he was the mouse that roared, and I say, "God bless him.
" Narrator: Martin discovers a bombshell in his father's family history.
My God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in Spain, where he's discovered that his uncle Matias Estevez was a political activist sentenced to life in prison for his beliefs.
Martin is now trying to dig further back into his Spanish ancestry.
His sister Carmen sent him their father Francisco's birth certificate.
Martin is in Tui, meeting with genealogist Matthew Hovius to see what secrets it may contain.
So Matthew, this is my father's birth certificate.
The problem is, it's in Galego, and, uh, not only do I not speak Spanish, I don't speak Galego either.
So if you could help me, I'd be grateful.
Sure, I'd like to just go through the, um--the text here.
Now let's see, we've got your father Francisco.
So it says, um, he is the legitimate son of Manuel Estevez Fernandez-- and that would be your grandfather-- and of Dolores Martinez-- that would be your grandmother.
And, uh, the maternal grandparents of the child are Carmen Martinez and grandfather unknown.
It's amazing to learn that my great-grandmother was named Carmen Martinez, and Matthew was able to take me back three more generations to the 1700s and to my fourth great-grandparents, don Diego Francisco Suarez and Maria Gonzalez.
But it sounds like Matthew has found something intriguing about don Diego and Maria Gonzalez in the marriage record of their daughter Paula.
This gives us a lot of interesting information, but there's one particularly important aspect of the record.
Um, if you notice here where it describes Paula, it's says, uh, "hija natural de don Diego Suarez y de Maria Antonia Gonzalez.
" And what that means is, that, uh, Paula-- - she was the natural daughter-- - is the natural daughter-- - of don Diego - Of don Diego Suarez.
- And Maria Gonzalez.
- That's right.
Uh-huh.
Why is it important to say that? Well, because what that means is that she's the natural daughter.
You notice that, um, Pelayo, her husband, is described as the legitimate son of his parents.
If, uh, Paula is described as the natural daughter of don Diego, um, that means that her father wasn't married to her mother.
Her father don Diego was not married to-- was not married to Maria Gonzalez.
Now let's take a look at Diego's own marriage record.
Now everything we've seen so far have been books from Parderrubias.
This register is actually from a cathedral in Tui.
Now this is in 1740, and what the priest is telling us is, "I celebrate the marriage contracted by don Diego Suarez Delago, who married Manuela de Alfaya.
" We have Paula Suarez's mother as Maria Gonzalez Yes.
And here we see don Diego marrying Manuela de Alfaya.
Whoops.
So not only was don Diego not married to Maria Gonzalez, he was actually married to a woman named Manuela de Alfaya.
And then I learned that don Diego didn't stop there.
In addition to my third great-grandmother Paula, he and his mistress Maria went on to have five more illegitimate children together.
And, uh, this is the baptism book covering-- 1739 to 1780.
But they also used the baptism register for some other sacraments such as confirmation.
I see, mm-hmm.
And the way confirmation was done at the time was usually not every year but every few years if some particularly prominent local church would happen to come through, like the bishop of Tui - or someone like that.
- Mm-hmm.
Or the children who hadn't been confirmed since the last visit would be brought out for confirmation.
Now if you notice, this was in September 1777.
And I can tell you that your great-great-great-great- grandfather don Diego, uh, died just three years before this.
So this would've been the first confirmation ceremony in Parderrubias since Diego had passed away, and-- so she came out of the closet with this brood of children.
Exactly.
After they put him in the ground.
And I think what that says about her is that she, uh, must have been a very loyal person because she seems to have kept all these children out of sight for as long as she could.
This is an extraordinary woman-- Maria Gonzalez.
Wow.
How did don Diego come to his status as a don? For Galicia, the first place I would look would be the regional archive known as the Archivo del Reino de Galicia in La Coruna.
This investigation is getting curiouser and curiouser.
We have landed on a very interesting couple, namely, don-- I wanna say don Juan.
He--he--it appears he was a bit of a don Juan.
Don Diego, uh, Suarez.
And I have to go to La Coruna to find out more about don Diego and see just what his life was all about and how many relatives he left on my tree.
Narrator: Martin uncovers an incredible connection 150 years in the making.
Oh, my God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen is in northern Spain exploring his father's family history.
He's just learned that his fourth great-grandfather, Diego Suarez, had six illegitimate children but was also referred to in the records as a don.
So Martin is enlisting historian Edward Behrend-Martinez to find out who this prominent man really was.
I have here, um, the only document that we have relating to-- to, uh, don Diego Francisco Suarez, your great-great-great-great- grandfather.
- [Chuckles.]
- Um, and, uh So I'll let you take a look at that.
- Oh, my.
- And it says-- I translated it here for you.
All right.
"In the said town in jurisdiction "on 24 June of the said year, "his honor don Diego Francisco Suarez, the said ordinary judge--" what is this all about? Is don Diego Francisco Suarez a judge? Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
- He is the--the-- - so-- - the highest authority? - Yeah.
Legal authority in the community? - Yeah, absolutely.
- Unbelievable.
So the judge "stated that, based on the contents "of the said proceedings regarding the absence "of Antonia Pereira, single woman, "he would and did order that the following edict be made public as specified in the law.
" So please tell me, uh, this-- [chuckles.]
This judge, don Diego Francisco Suarez, has decreed - someone is--is a criminal.
- Yes.
He's going after a-- a young woman, Antonia Pereira, who had had an affair, uh, with a very privileged man in the community.
When they say "privileged," meaning he's untouchable, they mean, very likely, a cleric or a priest.
Oh.
Uh, and then it turned out in the spring of 1748, she gets pregnant.
And then Antonia goes off to a midwife, uh, to seek remedies for the pregnancy.
- An abortion.
- Yeah.
Wow, so the basic crime here, if you will, is not the affair or the impending birth, - but the abortion.
- Yeah.
So don Diego Francisco Suarez was pursuing Antonia with, um, as much power and, uh, vigor as he could.
In fact, your ancestor sends out an order to have wanted posters all over, uh, the area.
But his motivation, uh, really strikes me as a double standard obviously because he was engaged while he was married, in an illicit affair with, uh, uh, senora Gonzalez, and he had six children.
Right, but I don't think it ever occurred-- so in essence, he was quite above the law, we would say.
- Yeah, he is the law.
- He is the law.
- Right.
- Okay, wow.
Don Diego, you son of a gun.
We've done a bit more research.
Uh, we have a family tree for you.
Wow.
That's taking us on my grandmother's side to don Diego, and he is buried 6 December, 1773, in thecatedral in Tui, Galicia.
- He's buried in the cathedral? - Yeah.
- Wow, he really was a big shot.
- Yeah, he was.
Hmm, now we're gonna look at my grandfather's side.
His father was Augustin Estevez Martinez.
And Augustin's father was Jose Estevez, and he was married to Maria Rosa Martinez.
And her mother and father are Juan Martinez and his wife, Liberata.
And her father is Ramon Martinez.
Mm-hmm.
And his wife is Antonia Pereira.
The young girl.
Oh, my God.
Isn't that amazing? Nearly 150 years after don Diego Suarez' attempted prosecution of the young Antonia Pereira, an extraordinary thing happened.
Two lines on my family tree converged when my grandfather, Manuel Estevez Fernandez, married my grandmother, Dolores Martinez, which means, incredibly, that it was my fourth great-grandmother who was being relentlessly pursued by my fourth great-grandfather.
Unbelievable.
It's amazing that we have one document that leads to this result.
It's just astonishing that the connection is so far back and so intimate and yet so spread apart.
Mm-hmm.
- Over two centuries.
- Mm-hmm.
- This is the Antonia - Yeah.
That was so scandalized and brutalized and pursued.
But apparently she was able to come back to Parderrubias and-- and make a life for herself - and get married.
- Astonishing.
This extraordinary young woman pursued by this [Chuckles.]
Unbelievable figure, don Diego Francisco Suarez.
Wait till Carmen gets a load of this.
It makes me feel a bit more human to have uncovered what this dear woman particularly-- Antonia did as a young, single girl, what she endured, and how she kept her life together and stayed in that community with all of this exposure falling on her.
This disgrace makes me extremely proud to have been grown on the same tree as my great-great-great-great- grandmother Antonia.
Narrator: Martin shares his extraordinary discoveries with his sister and his son.
- Tell me the name of the-- - oh, my God.
Narrator: Martin Sheen has experienced one revelation after another in both his Irish and his Spanish ancestry.
I'm heading to the village of Parderrubias to meet my sister Carmen at the site where our father was born and raised.
I can't wait to share what I've learned with her and my son Ramon.
I've been on quite a journey these last few weeks, and I have a-- a lot of information I need to share with you.
To have uncovered information on two uncles, both of whom suffered imprisonment and ostracization by the community-- I didn't have a clue.
It encourages me to continue my work in peace and justice, and, uh, now I have a sense of where that, uh-- that gene comes from.
And then to have had this whole other section of the tree suddenly blossom before my eyes, where we go to Maria Gonzalez, who has this association with a don.
If you had told me at the beginning of this journey where I was going, I wouldn't have imagined such a place.
Tell me the name of the girl again.
- Antonia Pereira.
- Antonia.
And who prosecuted her? Don Diego Francisco Suarez.
Your great-great-great-great- grandfather.
Are you ready to meet your great-great-great-great- grandmother? - Tell me the name of the-- - oh, my God.
Say her name.
Antonia-- [Chuckles.]
Antonia Pereira.
He is our great-great-great-great- grandfather, - who prosecuted her-- - and he prosecuted her.
This is the Spain where these people live.
- Oh, my goodness.
- It's unbelievable.
I mean, I-- you couldn't-- y-you couldn't come up with this if you tried.
- You couldn't.
- I mean, this is, uh, unbelievable.
It's astonishing that the tree has revealed what you couldn't have imagined, a-a-a-and you-- if you'd written a novel with all these truths in it, they'd say, "eh, it's a bit over the top.
" It actually happened.