- I believe that seeking success at all costs is an inherited family trait.

There was a story that my ancestors were so determined to create a new life in Canada that they hid the fact that they were Jewish and that they were black, and they may have even gone to the extent of leaving a daughter behind because she was too dark.

Woman 1: David's drive has had a great impact on the family.

He is so wrapped up in his goal.

The kids rarely go to him for support.

David: I'm not sure I'm happy with the person I am.

I need the Generations Project to help me discover the truth about my ancestors so that I can understand my drive for success.

My name is David Dossett, and this is my Generation's Project.

♪♪ [whoosh] [indistinct PA announcements] John F. Kennedy: Let the word go forth from this time and place that the torch has been passed to a new generation.

PJ: I really never thought that finding out about your ancestry could change you the way it's changed me.

♪♪ [old projector running] ♪♪ David: Well, success for me has always been defined by money and by prestige and position.

As I've gotten older, it's gotten worse.

And through middle age, that's when it really got kind of out of hand.

It has driven a bit of a wedge between me and the rest of my family because of the intensity of it.

- David's drive to be successful has had a great impact on the family.

Uh, the kids rarely go to him for support for their studies.

Uh, when they need something, uh, when they have a problem or a question, they all come to me.

He is so wrapped up in his goal, in his being driven for success, that he can't always sit calmly and help them with one of their problems because that would interfere with his own drive.

David: For my midlife crisis I'm going through, I've looked at myself and thought, Well, I'm kind of boring.

I haven't really done anything of note.

And this is the thing, what have I done?

What, what kind of mark have I made?

And so I've been going, trying to get myself in these little movies and TV shows and it's been, it's been a wild ride, but sometimes it's just, uh, I leave the family behind.

They say that those who do not understand the past are doomed to repeat it.

So I-- looking at the past actually will be very relevant for me.

I need to understand my ancestors' drive for success.

I need to learn about my ancestors' drive for success in order to understand my own actions.

We, we just want to have someone that we can, you know, that we can talk to or that we can be ourselves with, um, and not have to worry about, you know, hearing for the next hour what your next success thing is going to be or, you know, hearing you talk about your own technology that you've gone and gotten.

- I do competitive volleyball during the school year and during the summer I play beach volleyball.

And this summer I was playing many competitions, and he only attended one, but it was on the beach so he just kind of like, hung around and he was on his iPhone a lot, so he went swimming and stuff.

He didn't really pay much attention to me playing.

- I guess sometimes it can be hard because... like, I don't... really have, like, a dad to always talk to, but... - I believe that the, the suc-- the drive for success is very strong in my ancestors.

I think that they were preoccupied with success because there was a story that they were so determined to create a new life in Canada that they hid the fact that they were Jewish and that they were black, and they may have even gone to the extent of leaving a daughter behind because she was too dark.

Well, well, leaving a child behind, if that's true, that, that would be, I mean, that would be heartless.

It would mean that this drive for success that's inherited in my family is something that's so strong I'll have to deal with it for the rest of my life.

It's not something that I can just quickly fix.

It's something like an addiction.

It's something that is a part of me that I'll always have to suppress or deal with.

Right now, I'm gonna go see Jenny.

I discovered that we were Jamaican by uh, a random search on the internet when I was looking up my grandfather's name.

And it led me to Jenny's website.

Jenny is apparently a cousin that I never knew existed.

Jenny: [giggles] David: I cannot believe this.

After two years!

Jenny: [giggling] David: [muffled] It's so good to see you.

Jenny: It's so good to see you.

I'm gonna cry.

Both: [laugh] Jenny: So, I had to show you some stuff.

I've got some stuff with me from uh, Illinois, and I didn't know what you might have found already, and we have to, like, compare notes.

David: Yeah, we've got a lot to compare 'cause I, I tell you, there, there are three things I, I want to confirm, okay?

I need evidence.

Did they hide their origins?

Did they hide their true religion?

And did they leave somebody behind?

- I have proof that this was a big cover-up.

I have your father's birth certificate.

- Grandfather.

- Grandfather's birth certificate.

Your grandfather's birth certificate, John Charles.

And it says that he was born in Man-- in Manchester.

David: In Com-- in the town of Comfort.

Jenny: In the town of Comfort.

And Comfort was just outside of Mandeville.

So I know that your grandfather was born in Jamaica.

David: Oh, yeah.

- I know my grandfather was born in Jamaica.

I know that.

And I don't know if you've seen this at all, but this is even further proof of the extent to which your grandfather went.

David: Yes.

- These are his attetation-- attestation papers.

David: Yeah.

- These are his papers for the military where he actually lied.

Lied, David.

He says right here that he was born in Toronto.

David: Yeah.

- In Canada.

David: Yeah.

- And it's just really sad-- David: Yeah.

- because they went to this degree even to try to cover this up.

It's just sad.

David: Hmm.

Okay, what I know is that my grandfather lied about who he was, where he came from.

I'm not sure if he did that to succeed or not, but it seems quite likely.

He would have been seen as a foreigner in the Canadian forces, and that would not have helped him.

♪♪ Now I want to look for a genealogical expert who can give me an idea of what the immigrants faced at that time.

Melissa Ellis, and it even has a phone number.

If I just click on this, we should be good to go.

♪♪ Hi, how are you, Melissa?

Melissa: [over phone] I'm fine, thanks.

Yourself?

- Oh, good, thanks.

Melissa: I would be delighted to meet with you to go over what uh, life was like in the turn-of-the-century Toronto.

♪♪ David: Hi, you wouldn't be Melissa?

- Yes, I am.

- Hi, I'm David.

Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, David.

- I was looking for someone who would look like a Melissa.

So... - You found me.

So, the reason why I brought you to this area is this area is indicative of the thriving metropolis that your relatives would have come to and started their life here in Toronto.

David: Okay.

Oh, you have a lot of documents there.

- Yes, and I'd love to show them to you in their entirety, so why don't we find a place to sit, and I will show you what I have.

Now, on that 1911 census, you'll find that, if you look here-- David: Yeah.

- they actually give all of their places of birth as being the West Indies.

David: The West Indies, places of birth.

Melissa: Mm'kay?

David: Alright.

- If we continue along, in 1911, we look at Lillian's declaration.

We, we see that she says her birthplace... David: Is the West Indies.

Melissa: is the West Indies as well.

We now go to 1917.

Now, the first time we ever find that somebody is actually misrepresenting themselves... - Yes.

- is your grandfather.

- Yes.

Melissa: Your grandfather states that he was born in Toronto.

David: So, what you're telling me, up to this point, is they hadn't been lying about their origin.

- The family has not been lying about their origin.

Um, basically, uh, from the passenger manifest to the 1911 census, they have reported that they are West Indian.

You have to kind of look at the circumstances that surround why suddenly there was a shift in the family, um, from saying that they are not from Jamaica.

In 1908, the government of Robert Borden, uh, the Opposition, decided to say that Canada was for white people.

David: Mm-hmm.

Melissa: And in 1911, Laurier's government, not to be outdone by Borden, said that we're going to enact a law that says that we are going to limit the amount of black people that can come into the country.

David: Really?

Melissa: Yes.

David: It's not something we focus on, I suppose.

Melissa: No, it's not something that I think even Canada is particularly um, uh, comfort-- comfortable about-- - No.

- um, stating that they've limited the amount of immigrants coming into the country.

We like to see ourselves as a multicultural society.

David: Now-- - Right.

David: but not that-- Melissa: But it wasn't-- David: back then.

Melissa: it wasn't necessarily so in 1911.

David: In talking to Melissa, it did clarify some of the documents because I kind of lumped them all together.

But when you look at them in sequence and in the context, and with the explanation that she had, plus a background about the laws that were enacted against people who were non-white and not-- from non-white European countries, it's very, it's, it's a lot clearer to me.

My family did not lie about their origin when they came to Canada.

And for a long time, they continued to say who they really were.

They didn't deny it.

When I looked into the-- my family's history, I assumed that they were poor immigrants from Jamaica and that is not the case.

Uh, looking at the ship's records, they had $500, which was a lot of money back then.

That was the amount of money they declared.

So they weren't poor immigrants that this country would have to support.

They weren't a bur-- a burden.

They came here with money, and they came here to build.

And um... ♪♪ and they, that's how they were treated.

Eventually, they were just not welcome, so.

♪♪ Melissa: Go to Jamaica and learn about this family and who they really were.

David: It would be very devastating to discover that they left a child behind just because she was dark and could give the family away.

My ancestors were so determined to create a new life in Canada that they hid the fact that they were black.

Melissa: You have to kind of look at the circumstances, why suddenly there was a shift in the family, saying that they are not from Jamaica.

You're familiar with this family who covered up their origin in which to succeed in Canada.

I would suggest, go to Jamaica and learn about this family and what their real values were and who they really were.

♪♪ Singer: ♪ Yeah, man!

[indistinct] ♪ - There's, there's a vibrancy here.

And I noticed, too, about the people, they're hanging around in the street.

Back home, they're in a hurry to get from point A to point B.

♪♪ Singer: Ooh-ooh!

♪♪ David: Okay.

It looks like I've located a genealogist here in Kingston, Jamaica.

And I'm hoping that she can help me out.

Her name is Dianne Golding Frankson.

So, I think I'll contact her and send her the information I have, along with the picture that I marked up.

♪♪ My understanding is that this, my family, 'cause I was raised Roman Catholic, but my grandfather was supposed to be Anglican.

Dianne: Mm-hmm.

- 'Kay?

He's-- This is what I had always been told.

However, the fe-- the research seems to point to the fact that they were Jewish?

- Well, I found something that I think you'd find very interesting here.

- Okay, what am I looking at here?

- You're looking at the marriage-- David: Yes.

Dianne: registry.

David: Okay.

Dianne: This is the official certificate.

And this is the marriage of John Charles Augustus Samson David: Right.

Dianne: To Alice Marie Parsons.

David: Okay, this is a marriage certificate.

Dianne: Yes.

And as you can see here, down here you'll see married at Coke Chapel-- David: Yes.

- which is where you're sitting.

David: That's true.

- Which means that they were Methodists.

David: The documents on the boat, 'kay, do say that they were Hebrew, right?

Alice was Methodist-- Dianne: Mm-hmm.

- but all the others were listed as Hebrew.

Dianne: In terms of Jamaica and the culture that we have... a lot of Jewish men, when they actually chose Gentile women, the children either chose to be Jewish in religion, but a vast majority chose to be the religion of their mothers.

So many times, the mother's religion was what they chose to become.

David: Hm.

Dianne: And they were many times never raised in the Jewish religion at all.

- Since they really probably weren't Jewish-- Dianne: Mm-hmm.

- then that would-- that's what you seem to be saying, that would cross off number two on-- Dianne: On your-- David: on my list.

Dianne: On your list.

- That is, they did not come to Canada as Jews and h-- and, and hide that and abandon that.

- No, they didn't.

- Wow.

That's very interesting.

I didn't-- but it does start to make sense.

I discovered, just discovered, that my family didn't hide that they were Jewish because really, they probably weren't Jewish.

That's what it looked like.

So two of them are crossed off.

So that leads one more question.

Did they leave somebody behind?

♪♪ I knew that my family was involved in a banana plantation.

They were quite wealthy, quite successful, and that's how they had all that money to come over to Canada.

So I wanted to come here to see what life was like.

Oh, wow.

Okay, well, I should have gone to the gym first, but that-- I'll give it a try.

And I slant like this.

Okay, okay, I'll do that.

♪♪ [thwack] [thwack] All right, can I just go like this?

Can I give it a try?

♪♪ Okay, maybe you better do it.

Yeah.

[thwack] [thwack] Okay.

Now, where does this go?

Actually, this is, this was quite neat.

I uh, I'm really glad to be here.

Um, I don't know if I'd want to do this for the rest of my life, but it's nice to know what life-- what this is like.

And I'm hoping that we're near the entrance soon.

[chuckles] Yeah, I don't think I want to do this all day.

It's starting to get kind of routine and tiring.

This is bananas.

[laughing breathlessly] ♪♪ It would be very devastating to discover that they left a child behind just because she was dark and could give the family away.

That would mean that I had inherited their drive for success and that could be very destructive.

The next stop is the Jamaican archives, so maybe they'll have some more answers about my family.

♪♪ Dianne: Look here.

♪♪ One death certificate.

Two death certificates.

David: Oh.

Dianne: Three death certificates.

David: You have death certificates.

Dianne: Yes.

So I've proven here with this information that these three children all died.

I have here a printout of all the children.

- Okay.

Dianne: So, we know here that you have an unnamed female birth, and they die two days later.

Then you have another in 1891, another unnamed.

And then you have this little, teeny weeny one here, down here, named Vashti.

And she dies a year later.

The key to figuring out whether or not there was a child left behind is identifying correctly who the three youngest children in this picture are.

- Okay.

- All right.

Now, I spoke with your cousin, Kit.

- Yes.

Dianne: Kit confirmed that this is her grandfather, so he couldn't be Sidney.

He's definitely Franklin.

And we know from this record that Sidney and Franklin were born pretty much a year apart.

- Yes.

- So they're very close in age.

This child-- David: Oh, yes, yes, yes, okay.

Dianne: would have to be Sidney.

If this is Franklin, then this has to be Sidney.

And this child has to be Vashti.

This picture was taken in Jamaica before they left.

And this is probably the only record of little Vashti before she died.

- In 1907?

- In 1907.

- In 1907, before they got on the boat.

- Before they got on the boat.

- Oh wow, okay.

Ah, eee.

Now I'm feeling tingles here.

Dianne: Your family isn't racist.

They're not so callous that they would have done something as cruel.

- No.

♪♪ Thanks.

That's a good thing to know.

- Yeah.

You come from good stock.

Both: [chuckle] - That's what my grandfather told me.

- Came from good stock.

You came from-- ♪♪ David: Waiting for Dianne's explanation or Dianne's news, what she had found, was very intense.

I know that I was wrong.

And they were a loving family.

That makes me feel a lot better.

Knowing that, that I don't have this success gene and that it's some kind of inherited trait to succeed at all costs, I think I can just relax a bit and, and let success come to me naturally.

[waves crashing] - Actually, I have an interesting surprise for you, that I think you'll find very fascinating.

Ah, more?

[laughs] - Yes, I have something more for you.

This is your complete genealogical pedigree chart.

Claudius Archibald is the youngest child.

And the youngest daughter was a woman named Anna Wilhelmina Archibald.

- Okay?

- She's my ancestor.

You're my cousin.

- You have to be kidding me.

- [laughing] - Oh no, you're kidding me.

So I have really deep roots here.

- Yes, you do.

- Really, really deep roots.

- And you have a cousin that you didn't even know.

- Yeah, well-- [chuckles] welcome cousin.

Dianne: Aaah.

[chuckles] David: Th-this is like, wow.

[engine running] Right now, we're on the road that leads from Kingston to Port Morant.

That is where my family left Jamaica in 1907 on August 28th.

They left Jamaica for the very last time to never come back.

[engine running] That's it, right there.

United Fruit Company, that's the building.

That's it, this is it, this is where they left.

I wanna, I wanna take a look inside.

♪♪ They were here, I'm sure of it.

they were actually here before they stepped on that wharf and onto that boat.

They left the land that they had been a part of since the 1790s, but they left together.

♪♪ I thought my family was, was almost self-destructive and driven to part, uh, and, uh, really that's not the case because they all left together.

I realized what they did... they did for a better future and it worked out well for me.

♪♪ This journey has shown me that I-- there is hope and that I can change because it is not something that I was born with.

That is something-- that this is because of the way I've allowed myself to be.

And just like that, I can turn it around and change it.

I'm realizing that, that my family's been paying a terrible price for me and my, my-- my drive to succeed.

Um, I'm always the focus of everything and uh, it's just, just too much pressure, always too much pressure on them and too much technology.

Letting technology come between me and them even when we're in the same room.

I need to change that.

I need to make it so that they want me around more.

[waves crashing] ♪♪ Spencer: Hey!

David: Hey!

Spencer: How's it going?

- Good, good.

Hey, listen.

Wendy: [laughing] What it the world?

[laughs] David: So you're wondering why I wanna talk to you.

Um, I know I haven't been very easy to live with.

When I went, when I went to Jamaica, I discovered a lot of things, and there's a lot I can tell you.

But really, the most important thing I learned down there is that-- [sighs] my family, I was wrong about my family, they weren't people who sought success at any cost.

When I try to be successful, I try to be successful for myself and not for all of you, and I don't consult with you guys and I don't ask you.

I just do what I want to do just to move ahead, just for myself, no matter what anyone else thinks.

So that will change.

I'll try harder.

Okay?

Symbolically, I'm just gonna put it away, except when I need it.

And I can't bring everything down here, but I'll start with that.

All: [laughing] Wendy: Is that what it is?

Spencer: Yeah, your Lego whatever the-- Wendy: What do you call that?

Spencer: She's got a Lego team.

David: What do you mean?

Oh, of the-- Oh, L-Lego league?

- They made you carry bananas?

David: No, they made me cut the bananas and then carry them.

Singer: ♪ And I will swim the mess-- ♪ Spencer: I think he's really going to uh, change a lot um, from, from what I've seen, uh, in the short time that he's been back.

Um, so, I'm, I'm quite, quite hopeful of that.

Henry: He seems more like peaceful, I guess, and just happy, as opposed to just like thinking about random stuff that might not matter that much.

Hannah: He um, he pays more attention to us and he seems more relaxed and he seems like he's more outgoing and he, he's just more attentive to what we're doing.

Singer: ♪ the big parade ♪ Wendy: It's interesting, he's rethinking all of that and saying, Probably it wasn't my family.

That was me.

And if that was just me, then I should be able to change that and look for other things to fill my life rather than being so driven to succeed.

Singer: ♪ that looks back at me ♪ David: Yo, man, no problem.

It's alright.

Singer: ♪ But sunshine and dreams ♪ ♪ and those sorts-- ♪ David: I should have my uh... Singer: ♪ could take my love and somehow-- ♪ David: That's it.

Singer: ♪ row it out to you ♪ David: Oh, that was off, yeah.

Oh, watch out for that cord.

♪♪ Singer: ♪ To you ♪