Who Do You Think You Are? : Marisa Tomei

Its Friday so its Who Do You Think You Are? night.
Tonight Marisa Tomei, traveled to Italy to find her Great-Grandparents and find out if the family story of her Great-Grandfather's murder.


If you haven't seen it, or don't want to know the details skip the part between the spoiler alerts.


*Spoiler*
Marisa Travels to the church where her Great-Grandparents are buried, only to find out she was off the year of death for her GGrandfather. Easily fixed she moved on to find their marriage cert. Now the family tale was that her GGrandfather was killed for being a womanizer but according to the paperwork he died of an illness. Of course Marisa digs further to find out what happened. In a newspaper article she finds that he was killed by a man who was arrested on the spot, she travels to the town that he was killed in and She meets with a professor in that town, in a cafe. What he tells her is that she is sitting in the exact cafe that he was murdered in front of, and that it was over a business deal between the two families (the murderer and Marisa's family) that caused it. She had to travel 1hr to the town that the trail was in, and found out that the man that killed him was acquitted but was guilty of carrying a gun which was only a misdemeanor and served 38 days and paid fines, the man then fled the area because of the honor code at the time.


At the end of the episode the researchers had found a cousin 1x removed who, at 88 yrs old, wrote her a letter explaining some things, like how after her GGrandfather died, her GGrandmother remarried and was very happy.
*Spoiler*


In other news if you go to ancestry.com/sweeps you can win the "ultimate family history journey" 3 Grand Prize winners will win a trip valued at $10,000 which includes a trip to the winner's homeland, round trip for two, hotel, and $2,000 in cash, a 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership,and a DNA test. 20 First Prize winners will win 6-month Ancestry.com World Explorer membership. I mean wholly cow thats cool!


One last thing, like my last post I am asking you to sign The We the People petition, posted at http://wh.gov/khE about the SSDI  if you already haven't. We are going to need ALL the help we can get.


We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott

Who Do You Think You Are?: Martin Sheen

Ahhh...the new season of Who Do You Think You Are? is finally here! The first celeb to be featured is Martin Sheen, and let me say the things he digs up are the things that we wish we could find and what keeps us (genealogist) going.

Now before you read any further there are a few minor spoilers and one JUMBO one, so if you don't want to know skip everything between the ** starting.....now


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Martin, who's real name is Ramon Estevez,  was born on Aug 3, 1940 in Dayton, Ohio to a Spanish father and an Irish mother. What he finds is  pretty amazing. He goes first to Ireland then to Spain and finds revolutionaries, illegitimate children, and !JUMBO SPOILER! his 4th great grandfather was a Judge who was after a girl for arrest who had gotten pregnant by what is thought to be a clergy man, and was seeking an abortion, now his 4th great grandmother on his father's side is that girl! His Grandmother and Grandfather were each decedents one of the girl and one of the judge! You just have to see this episode to fully understand.

Would a diagram help? I though it would...and even if you don't need one you are getting one, HA!

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Okay if you have skipped all that you can read now!




Hint: If you have it on your DVR you will be thankful. Like everything Ancestry. com does their commercials are through out the show and really how many times do you need to hear about the site?




Catch it on NBC Fridays 8/7c or go to the Who Do You Think You Are? website for previews and more info.







We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott