Henry Louis Gates Jr: I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Welcome to "Finding Your Roots."

In this episode we'll travel to Hollywood... to explore the surprising families of three extraordinary actors: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and William H. Macy... Each has roots that illuminate pivotal moments in our nation's past... revealing stories that haven't been told before... Ted Danson: I'm feeling history in a way I never, ever, ever have even begun to think about.

Mary Steenburgen: I did not expect this at all.

William H. Macy: Where in the hell did you get this picture?

It makes me weepy.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available: genealogists helped stitch together the past from the paper trail their ancestors left behind, while DNA experts utilized the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets hundreds of years old.

And we've compiled it all into a book of life... Mary Steenburgen: Wow!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: A record of our discoveries... Ted Danson: Alarms are going off in my head going, okay!

Mary Steenburgen: What a crazy story!

William H. Macy: This is magnificent.

It gave, I got a chill.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and William H. Macy have been entertaining America for nearly four decades.

They're about to meet a cast of fascinating characters hidden in the branches of their family trees, men and women every bit as dramatic as the people they have played on camera.

(Theme music plays).

♪♪ ♪♪ Ted Danson: I guess I'm terrified they were just really boring.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted Danson has been a television star for more than 35 years... Ted Danson: You always think you gotta get the last one in... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Beginning with "Cheers," and his lovable Lothario Sam Malone, he's created a series of indelible characters... earning him millions of loyal fans... Today he and his wife Mary Steenburgen share a home in Los Angeles, where they're passionate advocates for the environment and fixtures on the Hollywood landscape... It's a far cry from the scene of Ted's childhood: the high deserts of northern Arizona where his father moved the family in the 1950s.

Ted Danson: My father was raised with an upstairs and downstairs maid, a chauffeur.

The family had huge sums of money.

Then he went off and became an archeologist and the most he ever made was $10,000, you know, with a free car thrown in.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Amazing.

Ted Danson: Some of his relatives thought he'll never amount to anything.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted's father served as the director of a museum focused on the Indigenous cultures of Arizona, and Ted grew up steeped in his father's world.

But when he left for a boarding school on the East Coast, he soon developed a very different set of interests.

Ted Danson: This is probably one of the last few moments of my glorious basketball career.

This is what I wanted to do in life.

I'm at Kent School in this photo in the early '60s.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did you dream of becoming a professional basketball player for real?

Ted Danson: Probably didn't think it through that much, but it was my passion.

It was my heart.

It was everything I wanted to do.

But I went to Stanford and tried out for the freshman basketball team thinking basketball will be my life... Wrong!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted didn't make the freshman team at Stanford, but he discovered another talent... acting and fell head over heels in love.

Success, however, didn't come easily.

Woman: This is coffee cultivated for centuries... Ted Danson: Still, we haven't always tamed it's bitter nature.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted spent almost a decade doing soap operas and commercials.

Woman: What are you doing here?

Ted Danson: Meetings.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Then he got a call... for "Cheers."

Ted Danson: It was one of those first moments in my acting career where I didn't doubt myself.

I for some reason just kept this attitude of this is going to happen.

So something magical was afoot in my head at least.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted's intuition proved correct.

"Cheers" ran for eleven seasons and turned Ted into a star.

Talking about it with him today, he's still grateful for the chance he was given... Ted Danson: You have to say "Cheers" is the reason why you and I are sitting here.

It's the reason why I get to talk about oceans.

It's the reason why Mary met me really.

So all of those things trace back to "Cheers."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You're only here because I'm in love with your wife and that was the only way I could get her to be in the series.

Didn't she tell you?

Ted Danson: You're a smart man, you're a smart man.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted's wife, Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, has been enchanting audiences as a leading lady for nearly four decades, with her nuanced performances in films like "Melvin and Howard," "Ragtime," and "Philadelphia."

Lately, she's also been enjoying a renaissance on television-earning raves for her work on the acclaimed series "Justified."

Like her husband, Mary's roots lie far from Hollywood.

She grew up outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, where her father was a train conductor.

Unlike Ted, however, Mary's childhood was anything but idyllic... Mary Steenburgen: My dad started having heart attacks and it devastated our family because he couldn't work for years at a time and we were frightened, frightened that we would lose him.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mary found solace in dreams of becoming an actor, dreams that began when she was eight years old and her mother took her to see a performance of "The Music Man."

Mary Steenburgen: I was dazzled.

My mother said that from that day on, I was a different person and I was obsessed with somehow being an actor, which was like saying I was obsessed with being an alien, because we didn't know any actors.

You know, we were in Arkansas.

There was nothing like that.

It was my escape.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mary's father recovered, and when she was 19, she moved to New York City.

She credits her parents with standing behind her during the long, dry years that followed... Mary Steenburgen: My parents didn't try one second to dissuade me.

They loved that I had that dream.

And six years later, when I was still a waitress in New York and their friends would say, "You know, tell Mary she can come home and be a, probably be a theater teacher or something like that," my dad would say, "Oh no, she's gonna be fine; she's gonna make it, you'll see!"

Henry Louis Gates Jr: They were, they sound like great parents.

Mary Steenburgen: They were amazing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Her parent's confidence ultimately paid off.

In 1977, Mary met Jack Nicholson who was casting a movie he wanted to direct.

This led to a screen test that changed Mary's life... Mary Steenburgen: They fly me out to Hollywood.

They put me up at the Chateau Marmont, they're going to pay for one night.

I do three scenes in full costume and makeup and then, I don't have enough money to get even by bus from the airport back to my waitressing shift on Friday.

So I go to Paramount and I said, could you, pay me my one night's hotel bill that you owe me in cash, because I need the money to get" and Jack's smoking a big cigar, and he goes, "Sit down, kid, don't worry about it.

You're on the payroll."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, wow, did you cry?

Mary Steenburgen: I made them call my parents and tell them, because I wanted them to hear it, that it was so real.

William H. Macy: I guess I know so little about my mom.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: My third guest is William H. Macy... one of the most talented, and celebrated, actors of his generation... William H. Macy: What the heck are you talking about?

What do you fellas got yourself mixed up in?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The star of "Fargo," "Boogie Nights," and "Shameless" among many, many others.

Bill was raised just a few miles from my own hometown, in Cumberland, Maryland.

And like Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, Bill's the product of a very tight-knit family... William H. Macy: Our family looked like a TV family, and interestingly, we might've been trying to look like that.

You know, we wanted so much... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Everybody, we were trying to look like that, and we were Black.

William H. Macy: Yeah.

Everybody wanted to be that cool, never losing it, there is a solution, and we'll find it before the commercial break.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Nice house.

William H. Macy: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You know, he had white-collar job, William H. Macy: Oh man, she got dressed up for her husband to come home.

The cocktail was waiting.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, I liked that life.

I want to grow up and live like that.

William H. Macy: I, it's not bad now that I talk about it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: But while Bill may look back fondly on his childhood, at the time, it was another story.

He struggled nearly every day at school... William H. Macy: I refused to study.

I was the worst student ever.

I think I might've had a touch of dyslexia and A.D.D., and it all went undiagnosed.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bill took refuge on stage.

He started a folk-music group and acted in school plays, yet he had no idea what he wanted for his future.

William H. Macy: I dropped out of school, and my parents started saying, "What are you gonna do with your life?"

And all I was doing was smoking pot and chasing women, so I agreed... Henry Louis Gates Jr: He ended up at Goddard College, in rural Vermont, an experimental school with very few rules.

Bill fit in perfectly... William H. Macy: I went up there, and oh man, all these hippie girls, and there were no grades, no classes, no requirements.

All you had to do was pay your tuition.

The rest of it, it was up to you... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Despite the apparent lack of structure, Bill turned himself around at Goddard.

He met a rising playwright named David Mamet, and he began to take acting seriously... William H. Macy: I am a born actor.

I was insecure, and I found a go-around for feigning being strong and secure.

I didn't do well in school, so I found go-arounds for everything.

I'm a born actor.

But it's also, I don't have any other skills, there's nothing else I can do.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Was this a traumatic thing for your parents?

William H. Macy: Not at all, not at all.

My mother had a theatrical bent.

She loved the movies, and I'd watch movies with her.

My dad was a jokester.

My dad would write down jokes and put 'em in his wallet so he wouldn't forget them.

And they were never anything but 100% supportive.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's great.

William H. Macy: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: After spending a little time with my guests, I was struck by how strongly each of them felt connected to their parents.

Yet, like so many of us, Ted, Mary and Bill know little about the generations that preceded them: the ancestors who fill the upper branches of their family trees.

It was time to meet these ancestors... I started with Ted, who told me that growing up in Arizona, he had heard that his father's family had once been prominent on the East Coast, but he had no idea how.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Edward, III.

Your name obviously carries family tradition.

Ted Danson: Yes, yes.

There was an Ed, an Ed, and I'm a Ted and thank God I only had daughters because I don't know what I would have done.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did your parents ever talk about your family tree?

Did they say you come from people?

My mother used to say, "You come from people."

Ted Danson: I have been told things that I have forgotten over the years.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's hard to imagine how Ted could have forgotten his family story-because it's extraordinary.

We were able to trace his ancestry back more than 500 years and reveal a host of riveting personalities.

Perhaps none more so than his fifth-great-grandfather, a man named Oliver Smith ... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Any idea what that is?

Ted Danson: I don't know what that is actually.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You are looking at your fifth great-grandfather's home in Stonington, Connecticut.

Ted Danson: Oh no, I don't know that at all, that's amazing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oliver Smith built this house sometime around the year 1760.

And it's still standing... Ted Danson: That's huge.

Somebody like me 300 years ago making their way in the world.

I hope they're not turning over in their grave.

An actor?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I think they'd be proud.

Ted had never heard of Oliver Smith before... and had absolutely no idea that his family had deep roots in Stonington, a seaside town in Connecticut.

As it turns out, Oliver did much more than just build a house there... In the summer of 1775, just after the start of the American Revolution, the British Army found itself under siege in Boston.

Desperate for supplies, the British began plundering towns on the Eastern Seaboard.

And on the morning of August 30th, four British ships sailed into Stonington's harbor... and launched an attack.

They were opposed by a small force of patriots, led by Oliver Smith.

Would you please turn the page?

Ted Danson: I hope he's not hanging from some yardarm... Oh good.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: This is a document from the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Ted Danson: Wow, the Eighth Regiment of Foot from the state of Connecticut in the service of the United Colonies commanded by Oliver Smith Esq.

Lieut.

Col.

Wow!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Smith and his men, with a handful of reinforcements, repulsed the English troops... and saved Stonington from further damage.

Ted Danson: Well done, well done... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did you ever think that you had a patriot ancestor?

Ted Danson: No, I never envisioned one of me's out there in the Revolution.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: While Ted was thrilled to learn about his ancestor's heroism, the next page of his book of life revealed something more challenging about Colonel Smith... Would you please read that transcribed section?

Ted Danson: "Miner had... given Col.

Smith a bill of sale for me."

Meaning Colonel Smith bought him?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bought him.

Ted's fifth great-grandfather was a slave-owner.

Sometime around 1760, he purchased a man known as "Venture."

But Venture didn't remain a slave for long.

Oliver permitted him to work for his own wages, which eventually allowed Venture to purchase his freedom.

Venture memorialized his remarkable story in a book that he published in 1798.

Ted Danson: "In which time he procured so much money as to purchase his freedom from his late master Col.

Smith.

After which he took upon himself the name of Venture Smith, and has since his freedom purchased a Negro woman, called Meg, to whom he was previously married, and also his children who were slaves."

It's hard to read something that is so everyday.

You know, about purchasing people and owning people and everyday, yes, this happened.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: But your ancestor let him work and make money and keep the money and purchase his own freedom.

Ted Danson: Even that's weird.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's weird, but it's better than... Ted Danson: No, I understand, I understand.

And then was able to buy his wife's freedom... and their children.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You were caught up in a system, but you had choices.

Your ancestor had choices.

He owned a man who was his property, he didn't have to treat him with dignity.

Ted Danson: No, I, I get it and I get that this is America and this is where we came from.

This is how we were.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: But unlike the Founding Fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, your ancestor freed his slave before the American Revolution.

Ted Danson: Well good on him.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Good on him.

What's it like to find this out?

Ted Danson: Complicated.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Like her husband Ted, Mary Steenburgen told me that she knew almost nothing about her family beyond her parents' generation.

Mary Steenburgen: I've always felt a little sad that I don't know more.

My mother's mother, I believe, had Alzheimer's at quite a young age.

And I never knew a grandfather.

They were both gone when I was born.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ah that's too bad.

Mary Steenburgen: There's just so many missing stories in my life... Henry Louis Gates Jr: To find these stories, we began exploring archives in Arkansas, where both of her parents were born.

But our search soon took us to a place much further away... Now, Mary, this is amazing!

It's a list of marriages performed in the Oudekerk Church in Amsterdam.

Mary Steenburgen: "Marriage certificate for Dirck Harmonsz and Annetje Pieters."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You're looking at a record of the marriage of your eighth-great-grandparents.

That is the earliest surviving paper record in your family tree, from the year 1664.

Mary Steenburgen: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did your family say that you were Dutch?

I mean, when you'd ask your parents?

Mary Steenburgen: They didn't know.

I, I don't think anybody's known this far back, ever.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mary told me that she wanted to know how her Dutch family came to America.

The answer lay with one of the most colorful characters we have ever encountered: Peter Steenburgen, Mary's fifth great-grandfather... Sometime in the early 1750's, Peter left Holland for the New World... He ended up in colonial Virginia, as a soldier, under the command of a very famous man.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mary, you're looking at a military order written by a young officer in the militia of colonial Virginia.

Would you please read the transcribed section starting there... Mary Steenburgen: "You are to conform yourself, in every respect, to the rules and articles of war.

Given under my hand, this day of September 1755."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And you see who wrote those orders, you know who?

Mary Steenburgen: George Washington.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: George Washington wrote those orders for your fifth-great-grandfather.

Mary Steenburgen: Just incredible.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Peter Steenburgen served under George Washington in 1755, at a critical moment in American history... At the time, the Thirteen Colonies still belonged to England, and England was locked in a war with France and its Native American allies.

Washington was a young, ambitious colonel, trying to make a name for himself.

Unfortunately, it seems that Mary's ancestor wasn't exactly helping... We found a journal written by Captain Charles Lewis of the Virginia Regiment.

Your fifth-great-grandfather Peter served with Lewis, under Colonel George Washington.

Now, this is the very first entry from Captain Lewis's journal... Would you please read the highlighted section?

Mary Steenburgen: "Left Fredericksburg with 80 men.

The men being most of them drunk... we marched but seven miles to Pickets.

This night two of my company deserted."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Your ancestor's regiment was out of control.

They raised so many complaints about drunkenness, neglect of duty.

Mary Steenburgen: Now it's starting to feel like my family.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: George Washington was so embarrassed, Mary, that he wanted to offer his resignation.

Mary Steenburgen: Oh my God.

So, my relative was the shame of George Washington?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: But think about that, imagine if George Washington had quit the army because of the conduct of your ancestor and his buddies, you know, getting drunk and doing whatever with Irish... Mary Steenburgen: That's a scary thought.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The whole history of America would have... George Washington said, "I'm out of here, I'm mortified, these guys are out of control, I can't control them."

Mary Steenburgen: I'm going to think twice about my cocktail tonight.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In the end, Colonel Washington gave Mary's ancestor a second chance.

Peter Steenburgen was given a new assignment on Virginia's western frontier.

And the opportunity to start over.

But Peter was unable, or unwilling, to change his ways... Mary Steenburgen: "Mr.

Steenburgen's accounts he had against the soldiers under his command and can make it appear that he has defrauded the soldiers of the greatest part of their pay..." He was a mess!

Oh my gosh, he was terrible!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Peter was being accused of cheating his soldiers of their pay by running a private store in the camp and then selling the goods at exorbitant prices.

Mary Steenburgen: And this is while he's supposed to be redeeming himself.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Do you think this story's gonna end well or not?

Mary Steenburgen: It doesn't sound like it.

It sounds like somebody's going to put him in front of the firing squad or something... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Fortunately, Peter managed to avoid anything so serious as a firing squad, but he couldn't escape judgment... This is a letter written by George Washington on May 28, 1758, about your ancestor.

Mary Steenburgen: Holy cow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Would you please read the transcribed section?

Mary Steenburgen: My husband is not gonna believe this.

This is crazy.

Uh, "Lt.

Steenburgen, having been guilty of several irregular and ungentlemanly practices, and finding his conduct was about to be inquired into, begged leave to resign, which I granted so far as depended upon me; because the crimes he was then accused of, were not sufficient to break him, although quite sufficient to give the whole corps the most indifferent opinion of his morals."

Oh my God.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Well, you know, this concluded your fifth great-grandfather's service.

(Laughs) Mary Steenburgen: Yeah, you think?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It might not surprise you to know.

There was no coming back from this.

Mary Steenburgen: I am, I'm, you know, kind of ashamed, and a little bit relieved to hear they weren't all saints.

I don't know.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Well what do you think happened to him?

Prison, the poorhouse?

Mary Steenburgen: Which was it?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: He married a rich woman.

Mary Steenburgen: Of course he did, of course he did.

He's a scoundrel.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: He got married to a rich woman, neither one happened.

He didn't go to the poorhouse, he didn't go to prison.

Peter Steenburgen married Anne Gaines, your fifth-great-grandmother.

Ever hear of her?

Mary Steenburgen: No, she must have been crazy.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: She was from a well-to-do family, and she chose this scoundrel to be her lawful wedded husband.

Mary Steenburgen: God bless her.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And with marriage, he took up a new occupation.

You want to guess what he did?

Take a wild guess.

Mary Steenburgen: Uh, uh, something, he ran a, he ran a bar?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ding, turn the page.

Mary Steenburgen: No way.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In 1766, Peter obtained a license to operate a tavern, and finally settled down.

His son Robert Steenburgen, Mary's fourth great-grandfather, was born roughly ten years later.

Mary Steenburgen: What a crazy story.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You come from a family with deep, deep roots in America.

Your ancestor knew George Washington, for goodness sake.

Mary Steenburgen: And George Washington really knew him, the good and the bad.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Like Mary and Ted, Bill Macy also has military roots, but we didn't have to travel back to Colonial America to find them.

They start with his father, William H. Macy, Sr... Henry Louis Gates Jr: This is a newspaper clipping from a paper we know very well, The Cumberland Evening Times.

Can you please read the transcription?

William H. Macy: "William Hall Macy will graduate tomorrow with commission as second lieutenant in the Air Forces."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bill's father joined the United States Army in 1944, at the height of World War II.

Unlike many other men of his generation, he wasn't drafted.

He volunteered to fight.

And fight he did... William was a bomber pilot in the Eighth Air Force.

He flew more than 30 missions above Europe.

It was incredibly dangerous.

The Eighth lost over 26,000 men.

Bill told me that his father rarely spoke about his combat experience.

I wanted to give him a better sense of what his father had gone through... We showed him a mission report from one of his worst flights.

William H. Macy: "One B-17, from C.H.W.

behind, hit by flak over target, exploded before hitting ground.

Most crews reported seeing no chutes..." Henry Louis Gates Jr: So, think about this.

It means that your father most likely saw planes full of his friends shot down.

William H. Macy: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And your dad was only 22 years old.

Can you imagine?

William H. Macy: I just can't.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The effect that that would have on you?

William H. Macy: I think you have to be 22 years old.

If you're 32, you're, you got, you're too smart to get in that thing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: When you and your brother were boys did your mom say, "Your father was a hero"?

Did, how did you learn that you're the son of a hero?

William H. Macy: No, we didn't talk hero.

Um, no, he talked about, um, doing his duty, uh, the waste of war.

It's an interesting question.

I, I hadn't thought about it much.

But no, there was no talk of "my dad's a hero."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mmm-hmm, what do you tell your children?

William H. Macy: That he was a hero.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mmm-hmm.

As it turns out, Bill's father wasn't the only brave man in his family.

His grandfather, Albert Hall Macy, served in World War I. And moving up the branches of the Macy family tree, we found a man who displayed a very different kind of bravery... Bill's seventh-great-grandfather, Thomas Macy, was born around 1605, in southern England.

When he was in his late 20's, Thomas braved the dangerous passage across the Atlantic, to settle in the newly-founded Massachusetts Bay Colony... where he built a home and a saw mill.

We all studied about the Puritans, the Pilgrims, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Did you ever in your wildest dreams think your family had anything to do with that?

William H. Macy: No.

I thought we were the, the poor kin that they brought in to paint the house.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No, you were the guys that built the house.

William H. Macy: Aw man, that's pretty grand.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Thomas Macy turned out to be a very successful settler.

By the mid-1650s, he was a thriving merchant, married, with a family.

But his life changed radically, all in a single day.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: This is a court document dated November 12, 1659.

William H. Macy: We were in trouble already.

"The court, having considered of the several offenses of those persons that entertained the Quakers, doe order... that Thomas Macy pay as a fine the sum of 30 shillings, and be admonished by the governor."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The story here is hard to believe today... but one summer morning, Bill's ancestor committed the strangest of crimes: he allowed four Quakers to enter his home, to seek shelter from the rain.

At the time, Quakerism was outlawed in Puritan Massachusetts.

Thomas Macy had broken the law!

Between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers were put to death by the Puritans.

So, this was a big deal.

Can you imagine?

And all your ancestor did was just say, "Yeah, you can come in out of..." William H. Macy: "Yeah, come in out of the rain."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right?

Man, the Puritans didn't mess around.

William H. Macy: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Thomas wasn't a Quaker, but he seems to have been a principled man.

Or just very, very stubborn.

He turned his back on the Puritan authorities and moved, yet again, to a new wilderness... Bill, this is a deed of purchase for the island of Nantucket.

William H. Macy: I knew we owned that thing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, you did.

William H. Macy: "Deed of purchase of Nantucket by Thomas Macy, 1659."

The whole island.

"Be it known unto all men by these presents that I Thomas Mayhew do hereby acknowledge that I have sold unto, Thomas Macy, all the right and interest that I have in the island of Nantucket."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Thomas Macy, your seventh great-grandfather, along with a handful of other men, bought Nantucket Island.

They were the first Europeans to settle the island of Nantucket.

Can you imagine what that must have been like?

Bill, that's 358 years ago.

William H. Macy: It would have been rough.

I don't know if, you've been to Nantucket, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, yeah.

William H. Macy: It's windswept, it's cold, the storms just come roaring over it.

And people flee the place before they, they don't want to spend the winter there.

But what about to be camping out... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bill's family would live on Nantucket Island for generations.

And, ironically, over time, they would convert to the faith of the men that Thomas Macy had helped on that fateful rainy day... Henry Louis Gates Jr: These are lists from Quaker monthly meetings held on the island of Nantucket in the 1700s.

William H. Macy: We have "John Macy, born January 17, 1748."

John Macy, okay.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And over there?

William H. Macy: "Phoebe Macy, born January 4, 1763."

It's fantastic, and I love the handwriting.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

And think that these Quaker lists still survive, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years later, and that your family's names were inscribed on them.

William H. Macy: I know, it's amazing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: So, not only do you have soldiers in the Macy family, you have pacifists.

William H. Macy: I'm proud of that pacifism, that makes me feel good.

I feel it, too.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mmm-hmm.

William H. Macy: I mean, the morality in my household really, it all just came from the golden rule, and that's what my father quoted the most, and it was prevalent in the whole family to live and let live, do unto others.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's a pretty good way to live.

William H. Macy: It's a good way to live.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

Interestingly, the Macy's weren't the only family among our guests whose destinies were dramatically altered by the Puritans... Ted Danson's ancestors were also affected, but in a very different way.

The story began with a baptismal record, from 16th century England!

It's written in Latin.

Now, as a good Kent boy, I know that you read Latin, (Mumbles Latin reading) but we've translated it for you anyway.

Ted Danson: I'm starting to sweat, you said Latin.

"Anna Marbury, daughter of Francis Marbury, baptized 20 July."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You're looking at a document from the year 1591, man.

That is the baptism record for your 10th great-grandmother, Anne Marbury.

Ted Danson: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted had never heard of "Anne Marbury," but Anne led a fascinating life.

In 1612, Anne married William Hutchinson and began raising a family.

But everything changed when she and her husband joined the congregation of a Puritan minister named John Cotton.

Cotton was a radical firebrand, deeply at odds with the Church of England.

By 1633, he found himself risking imprisonment.

So he decided to flee England for the fledgling Puritan colony in Massachusetts Bay.

And Ted's ancestors decided to follow him... Anne and William gave up everything and risked it all and headed to the wilderness of North America.

Ted Danson: That's, that's, that's brave.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's brave.

Ted Danson: That's huge.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: For their religious beliefs.

Ted Danson: I'm trying to wrap my brain around it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I know.

Ted Danson: I understand spiritual.

But organized religion I can find tricky in that it can justify, depending upon your interpretation so many things.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ted needn't have worried so much.

Anne wasn't your typical puritan.

Soon after her arrival in Massachusetts, she began organizing meetings in her home to pray with other women.

She was taking a huge risk.

This was not done.

She was organizing women to think, to read.

Ted Danson: Well done.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: To interpret.

Ted Danson: Oh, I like that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Not everyone, Ted, was amused.

Ted Danson: No, I imagine not.

How'd her husband do?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Let's find out how the whole town did.

Ted Danson: Oh really?

Oh, no, don't burn her, please don't burn her.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Please turn the page.

As Anne's prayer meetings grew in popularity, she began to criticize the sermons of Puritan ministers, throwing herself into direct conflict with the colony's religious establishment.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It was heresy.

I mean, it was so radical.

Ted Danson: Wow, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: This woman is famous, man.

Big time famous.

Ted Danson: Oh, I love this.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yes.

Ted Danson: I love this.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Anne created a crisis in the Puritan world by claiming that she was communicating directly with God, and that she could interpret the scriptures on her own.

In 1637, she was brought before the civil authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including its governor: John Winthrop.

Ted Danson: "Mrs.

Hutchinson, you are called here as one of those that have troubled the peace of the commonwealth and the churches here.

You are known to be a woman that hath had a great share in the promoting and divulging of those opinions that are causes of this trouble... You have maintained a meeting and an assembly in your house that hath been condemned by the General Assembly as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God nor fitting for your sex."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: "Nor fitting for your sex."

Ted Danson: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Doesn't look good for your grandma.

Ted Danson: Don't look good for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Shame, shame on them.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Anne was accused of disturbing the peace, slandering ministers who did not share her views, holding unauthorized home meetings, and finally just being a woman with too much sass.

Ted Danson: Yeah, exactly.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The men who were judging her had come to America for religious freedom.

Ted Danson: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Talk about hypocrites!

Ted Danson: That's funny.

I'm more emotional now and angry about this than pretty much anything I've read so far.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, you should be.

Ted Danson: And proud.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: A transcript of Anne's examination has survived in the Massachusetts State Archives.

It contains a powerful defense made by Anne herself in front of the entire court... Ted Danson: "You have no power over my body, neither can you do me any harm," wow.

"For I am in the hands of the eternal Jehovah, my Savior, I am at His appointment.

Therefore, take heed how you proceed against me, for I know that, for this you go about to do to me, God will ruin you and your posterity and this whole state."

Well, she fought back.

You may kill me but you and the whole state are going to go down.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Ted Danson: I love the first part.

You have no power over my body, neither can you do me any harm, for I am in the hands of the eternal Jehovah, my Savior.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's extraordinary.

Ted Danson: It almost felt like Joan of Arc, I mean you have no power over my body.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Very much a Joan of Arc kind of figure.

Ted Danson: Yeah, very, very happy about that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Anne would pay a heavy price for her words.

After a grueling trial, she was banished from the colony.

She spent the next six years moving around the Eastern Seaboard before finally settling in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

Where she met a tragic ending... In September of 1643, Anne Hutchinson, and five members of her family, were killed by Native Americans.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I mean this is a real heroine.

I learned about her in elementary school.

Ted Danson: You know, it's funny, it's like I admire men.

I love their company.

It's very relaxing to hang out with them but there's been part of me that's always going but I can't stay long because really the answer's over there.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I sympathize with that.

Ted Danson: I'm married to a very strong woman and I'm surrounded by and friends with very strong women.

And it's really, really interesting to know about Anne, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I had now taken my guests deep into Colonial America, and uncovered stories of their ancestors who witnessed our nation's heroic, but tumultuous founding.

It was time to move forward, to see how their families experienced America's second great cataclysm: the Civil War.

William H. Macy has deep Southern roots.

His mother's family lived in Mississippi for generations.

And deep in the branches of his family tree, we found one of the most unusual Civil War stories that I've ever encountered... a story that began with Bill's second great-grandfather, a man named Usant Quave... You ever heard of Usant Quave?

William H. Macy: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is your great-great-grandfather.

He was born in the year 1834, so he was 27 years old when the Civil War began.

You come from a line of warriors on your father's side.

Do you think that your great-great maternal grandfather fought?

William H. Macy: Well, I'm gonna say, yes.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bill guessed right.

Usant Quave joined the Confederacy, and ended up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, trying to defend the city against a coordinated attack by the Union army and navy.

The battle devolved into a prolonged siege, with significant losses on both sides.

We tried to find out what happened to Bill's ancestor... Now Bill, this is a state pension application filed in the year 1903 by Usant's wife, who is your great-great-grandmother, Sarah.

Could you read the transcribed section?

William H. Macy: "Was he honorably discharged?

Was home sick furlough and died.

When did he die?

Don't remember, about July 1863.

Do you apply for a pension because you are indigent and unable to earn a livelihood?

I do.

Have you any property on your own right?

One horse, one cow worth about $50.

Have you a home of your own?

I have a small, cheap home."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: According to Sarah Quave's pension application, her husband Usant died from battle wounds in 1863, leaving her a destitute widow... It was sad story.

There was just one problem... We uncovered a muster roll for Usant Quave's regiment.

It suggested that Sarah wasn't exactly telling the truth... William H. Macy: Here's his name, Usant Quave.

"July and August 1864... Absent without leave since June 1863, now deserted."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It looks like your second-great-grandfather deserted the Confederate Army right at the end of the Vicksburg campaign.

William H. Macy: He was doing so well.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: As the Confederate force in Vicksburg collapsed, Usant Quave shed his uniform and returned home.

Where he lived for almost 30 more years!

We found his obituary, in a newspaper published in 1890!

William H. Macy: "Mr.

Usant Quave, died at his residence Monday.

He leaves a large family and many relatives to mourn his death."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: On April 11, 1890 your great-great-grandmother lied about her husband's death during the war.

William H. Macy: Hey, things happen.

I mean, not to excuse him, but I bet you there were a lot of people who knew that the war was over and didn't know what to do about it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, sure.

William H. Macy: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: We wondered why Bill's great-great grandmother had filed a false pension application.

The answer was financial.

The value of her family's land had collapsed in the years following the Civil War.

And the reason for that was bound up in the commodity that had made the land so productive before the war: the free labor of enslaved human beings... The evidence lay in an 1850 census entry for Usant's father, a man named Pierre Quave... William H. Macy: Pierre owned nine slaves, three male and six female slaves.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: How does it feel to see this document?

William H. Macy: Spooky, isn't it?

I'm not, uh, surprised that they were slave owners.

It stands to reason.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And you can see, because they lost their slaves between 1850 and 1880... William H. Macy: Oh, that's why the value of the farm... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

William H. Macy: Interesting.

Boy, it's, it's not that long ago, is it?

I mean, on one hand it feels like forever ago, but it's not that long ago.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No, no, no, it's a century and a half.

The story of Usant and Sarah had been forgotten by the generations who followed them.

Hearing it for the first time enabled Bill more fully to understand his mother's family... William H. Macy: What little I knew of my grandmother, and I can see that there was a loss there.

I'll bet you it's part and parcel of the Civil War.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mmm-hmm, when you go from being a wealthy person to being, and then you have to make up a story in order to get a pension.

William H. Macy: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, that would fill you with shame if you're proud.

William H. Macy: It would fill you with shame, it's a... Henry Louis Gates Jr: And you want to run away from the past.

William H. Macy: It's a harsh word to put to it, but there was, it was lost, and I can't thank you enough for, uh, bringing it back.

I wish my mom was here.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Like Bill, Mary Steenburgen has deep Southern roots, and a number of her ancestors also owned slaves.

But there was one notable exception... Mary's second great-grandfather was a man named William Pinckley.

William Pinckley was born in Tennessee in 1838 and when the Civil War broke out, he faced a difficult choice.

Tennessee would ultimately join the Confederacy.

But many of its men chose to serve the Union.

Mary wanted to know upon which side of history her ancestor William fell... Your second great-grandfather William was from Carroll County, which split almost 50-50, dead even, between supporters of the Union and supporters of the Confederacy.

Mary Steenburgen, which side did your ancestor pick?

Mary Steenburgen: I think he fought against slavery.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: We got all these slaves in the family.

I thought you'd be betting on the Confederacy.

Mary Steenburgen: No, no.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The 7th Regiment Infantry from Tennessee was... part of the Union army.

Mary Steenburgen: Yes, redemption at last.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Redemption!

Mary's great-grandfather would pay an extraordinary price for his choice.

In March of 1864, William was captured in a battle outside of Union City, Tennessee.

He was sent to Andersonville, the largest and most brutal of all Confederate prisons.

A place that would become synonymous with suffering and death.

Mary Steenburgen: Wow, are these photos of?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's Andersonville when your great-great grandfather was there.

Mary Steenburgen: That's Andersonville, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The grounds were infested with maggots and lice.

The water supply was contaminated.

The prisoners were forced to drink from the same creek that the camp used as a sewer.

William was basically sent to hell.

Andersonville opened in February of 1864 in rural Georgia.

Built to house 10,000 prisoners, its population soon swelled to three times that number.

As the months wore on, the situation worsened.

Hunger, infection, and disease were pervasive in the camp.

By August of 1864, nearly 100 men were dying each day.

That's a photograph of one of the survivors of Andersonville.

Mary Steenburgen: Oh, my goodness.

It looks like a concentration camp photo.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It does, on American soil.

Mary Steenburgen: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And your great-great-grandfather saw men like this every day, and he may even have looked like that himself.

Mary Steenburgen: Yeah, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: William contracted scurvy at Andersonville, and barely survived.

His military records show that he suffered from partial paralysis for the rest of his life.

So, how's that make you feel?

Mary Steenburgen: Blessed to be here.

You know, just, just lucky that he survived.

I'm so glad I can tell my children, "This is who you came from," and I can tell my grandchildren, "this is who you came from."

You know, part of me is sad I didn't know it in time for my, to share it with my parents, but I'm so thrilled to share it with my granddaughters.

So, I just, I couldn't feel luckier.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: This marked the end of my journey through the branches of the family trees of Mary, Ted, and Bill.

Now it was time to turn to their DNA.

While the paper trail had revealed their ancestors' many connections to pivotal events in American history... their DNA would uncover connections a little closer to home.

You actually share DNA with another person who's been in our series previously and you probably know him.

Turn the page?

Ted Danson: How wonderful, much respect.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You share a stretch of identical DNA with Stephen Colbert on your 20th chromosome, which means that the two of you have a common ancestor somewhere in your family tree.

Ted Danson: Who is a very silly man.

Whoever it was, was a very silly man.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You have a cousin who is a guest in the series that we are shooting right now.

Mary Steenburgen: You're kidding.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You want to find out who it is?

Mary Steenburgen: Oh my God, is it gonna be Ted Danson?

Oh my God, William H. Macy.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You and William H. Macy are DNA cousins.

You share a segment of identical DNA on chromosome 12, which means that you share an ancestor.

Mary Steenburgen: That's fantastic, I love him.

William H. Macy: Turn the page?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Please turn the page.

William H. Macy: I'm getting onto this.

Oh man, seriously?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, you and Mary Steenburgen are sixth cousins once-removed.

William H. Macy: Oh, that's amazing!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: As I said goodbye to each of my guests, I thought about the complicated, even contradictory stories that we had uncovered on the branches of each of their family trees... From Quakers to slave-owners, war heroes to deserters, from visionaries to scoundrels... the sheer range of it all was stirring.

Ted Danson: It gives you compassion for the human condition.

You know, it gives you compassion for America.

You know, good people did bad things.

I'm sure bad people did good things.

You know, we are this very complicated world that having compassion for and some understanding for would be very good for all of us.

Mary Steenburgen: It makes you realize that none of us are as good or bad as we call out each other to be, you know?

There's just no pureness anywhere.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: None, none.

Mary Steenburgen: Yea, thank God!

William H. Macy: Being an actor, my life is chronicled.

You know, there's a photographic record of my demise, you know, or me growing up and starting to decay and watching my face fall off my head... But to be connected to all of these people feels comforting.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Mmm-hmm, yeah.

William H. Macy: Feels comforting.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's a good way to put it.

That's the end of our journey.

Join me next time as we unlock the secrets of the past on another episode of "Finding Your Roots."

Narrator: Next time on "Finding Your Roots," three African Americans rethink old assumptions about their ancestry.

Social activist, Janet Mock.

Janet Mock: I didn't think that this was possible.

It makes me so happy.

Narrator: Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates... Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is your third great-grandmother.

Someone else's property.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: That's something.

When I think about Black folks, I think about struggle.

Narrator: And film director Ava DuVernay.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Your fifth great-grandfather was a slave owner.

Ava DuVernay: The truth of us is complicated.

Narrator: "Finding Your Roots."