[rustling footsteps] Man 1: [chuckling] I don't know why I live in a tent.

[rustling] You know I-- I don't understand who wouldn't wanna be up here on a morning like this when there's mist burning off the mountain.

[rustling] It's a spiritual place, I guess.

[rustling] I-- I mean other people... maybe are more day-to-day, y'know they live their life in a different way, but for me this is...

I don't know, I don't feel close to myself, um, in the normal world, I guess.

[draws breath] [bright acoustic guitar music] ♪♪ I don't know if things happen for a reason.

♪♪ Y'know, I had a lot of mistakes in my life, but... when I made it through those hard times, um, I ended up here.

And I feel-- I like myself a lot better up here.

♪♪ Um, so on one hand it's the most beautiful thing in the world, on the other hand I feel so out of place, I feel lonely or isolated a lot of the time.

♪♪ So I’m just really frustrated, y'know, I’m just always behind and... trying to get by.

♪♪ I guess right now I think I’m just worried about my whole future.

I have no idea what's gonna happen.

But hopefully you follow that call.

Y'know, it all makes sense in the end I guess.

[music strums to finish] ♪♪ - Hi everybody, I’m Lise Simms.

And each week on our show we bring you the story of someone who for one reason or another, wants to get in touch with an ancestor, or perhaps an entire generation of their family tree, and we help them do just that.

We're an ongoing project dedicated to connecting families across generations, and today that person is Sean Plasse.

Welcome Sean.

- Thank you.

Lise: You know you say something in here that is-- is a small moment in this open, but I wanna talk about that because I know it's really important to you, you say "following that call."

And in fact, "The Call," as you call it, has meaning to you.

Can you tell me what it means to you?

- The nearest I can get is that it's like, "The Call" is like an inner voice within you that pushes you to cross frontiers and push boundaries, uh, regardless of the risk or sacrifice involved.

'Cause ultimately it's the best thing for you and for the world, so it's... almost like a moral obligation to pursue your destiny.

Lise: Is this a religious practice, or did this come down from your family?

Where did the idea of this come from?

Sean: I think in my family it just seems to be the way people are, like my mother worked in crack houses helping single moms.

My dad went out to sea in the Arctic on 100-foot waves, and, so there's just this, um... example in our family of people who are always pushing the boundaries of life.

Lise: Um, I wanna clarify that the term "The Call" is of your own making.

Could I be correct in saying that?

Sean: Yeah, I guess so, yeah.

Lise: Yeah, it's not a religious, uh-- Sean: It's comes from mythology, Joseph Campbell-- Lise: Oh... - talks about "The Call."

The hero's myth actually starts with a call, where the hero is called on a journey.

Lise: Interesting, okay this is very interesting, and also what intrigued me that you just said was, "my mother worked in crack houses, "my dad crossed the ocean," do you feel... a pressure to live up to their life?

- No, the opposite, I feel like I can't help doing those things.

[laughs] I feel like I’m always on those types of adventures, and um, the results are always mixed.

Lise: Well that's what I wanna talk about next because you mentioned in the open as well, "I struggle so much, I’m really frustrated," it sounds like you've come to a turning point in your life.

Would that be a correct way to describe it?

Sean: Yup.

- So in practicing going for "The Call" in your life, prior to your beginning The Generations Project, what was the outcome of that?

What was happening?

Sean: Uh, probably the most recent thing was when I donated bone marrow, uh, I got matched up with a woman with leukemia, and um, I had become a carpenter because I was dyslexic, then I donated bone marrow and damaged my hips, so I was unable to really keep doing carpenter anymore.

So, I’m dyslexic, I’m a carpenter who's all banged up, and that's why I’m trying to become an author.

I just wrote a novel.

So I can't tell if "The Call" is a good thing, or if you end up damaged from it or whatnot.

Lise: So you're questioning "The Call" at all?

It's something that's been sort of your life source, and at the beginning of this journey, you're wondering, "Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?"

Would that be a correct way to describe... Sean: Yeah, should you always follow "The Call" and how do you deal with the consequences?

Lise: Dealing with the consequences is a big part of it.

Sean: Exactly.

- And I know that you're actually looking to find peace with what comes from you following "The Call," the things that come after.

Sean: That's what I was looking for on this journey, was, uh, the peace with "The Call" and the consequences that you live with afterwards.

Lise: And that's the "Why," everybody starts with a "Why."

So that's what we're looking for, you actually start close to home which is what we tell everyone to do, Sean: Yep.

- your grandmother was-- or your grandfather rather, was someone you sort of thought personified this ideal.

And you go to him for advice, and I’d like to watch that part of the story with you.

Sean: Let's do it.

- Okay.

[adventurous percussion music] ♪♪ Sean: So the theme of the show is "The Call," I feel like our family always has a call to push frontiers, to challenge ourselves to take risks.

Say World War II, you were in Normandy and you were in Okinawa, ♪♪ and how do you evaluate if that risk was worth it, is it the fact that you got something of value out of it?

- I got value out of it because I survived.

- [laughs] - And that's about the biggest value you could put on it... - [laughing] That's pretty good value.

- Uh... - What about like your brother, Joe who got shot down as a pilot?

How do you evaluate whether that was worth it or not?

How do you evaluate something like that?

- That to me was a tragedy for the family and, and so forth.

There were many other planes involved, but they turned around and went back in the bad weather, - And he kept going through the bad weather... - and he kept going, but he crashed into a mountainside.

There's where you can surmise, as he figured, they needed the supplies, they needed the help.

And it was worth the risk to try to do that.

I can't speak for whether or not he was satisfied, I think he was.

Sean: You think he followed his, he had the integrity to follow his own core.

- Right.

It's satisfaction to yourself that you've lived up to your philosophy.

Sean: Right.

[adventurous percussion music resumes] ♪♪ Lise: Now that Sean has gotten his grandpa's advice about "The Call," the first ancestor Sean is investigating is his great-grandfather, Sturgis Durgin.

He feels Sturgis lived "The Call" in his life by enlisting and fighting in World War I, and that injuries from the war led to Sturgis's premature death.

Sean meets his father Dan at Sturgis's old house where many of his personal effects remain.

Dan: You open that side, and I’ll open this side.

Sean: [laughs] [laughing] Wow!

[laughs] Are you kidding me?

Dan: Yeah.

- That is awesome.

Dan: Yep.

- Look at that, that's his helmet from the war?

[knocking] Dan: Yup.

- Man, where did you find this stuff?

[clicking] [laughs] Dan: Binoculars... um, his pipes, Both: [laugh] Dan: massive collection of pipes.

Sean: Wow, what is this?

♪♪ Dan: You know that he was in the Yankee Division, Sean: Yeah.

Dan: and he was a sergeant.

Sean: Man... look at this stuff.

♪♪ Is that him?

Dan: Yup, he volunteered, you know.

He didn't get drafted.

Sean: How old was he?

- Um, he was 19.

[soft gasp] Sean: What is this?

- Your grandfather was a bit of a hero, right?

Sean: What is this?

Dan: That is a victory medal.

And each one of these clasps is-- represents one of the battles-- Sean: [surprised laugh] Dan: that he was in.

Sean: This is priceless, I can't believe you found this stuff Dad.

The purple heart?

Dan: Yep.

Sean: He got a purple heart?

- He got a purple heart.

Sean: I never knew that.

Dan: When he was gassed and shell-shocked, he was laid out with the dead actually, when he was initially injured he got shrapnel in the back of his head.

Sean: This is incredible Dad.

So he was in a hospital, July 25, 1918.

"Dear Father and Mother, just alive today.

"I went over the tops, [memorial music] "as it is called again, and here I am still alive."

Lise [continues quote]: "Soon after reaching "the frontline trenches, "a big shell exploded very close to me.

♪♪ "So close that the concussion knocked me silly "for a short time, and, "I didn't know whether I was hit or not.

♪♪ "Machine gun bullets "were flying very thick and fast.

♪♪ "They sent gas into our midst.

"Some of the poor wounded fellows "couldn't even get on their masks.

♪♪ "I took my mask out to put it on "after smelling the gas, "and found that two bullets had passed through it, "making it useless.

"I saw a mask lying in a shell hole "and I knew I could crawl back and find it, "but before reaching the place where the mask was, Sean: "I got more or less gas."

So he-- his mask had holes shot in it.

Dan: Yep.

And it's extraordinary that he could've got hit.

It's 'cause they wore it around their waist y'know.

Sean: [chuckling] Wow.

Wow, I don't know, it's overwhelming.

I can't believe this.

I’ve never seen his handwriting before, Dan: Yeah.

Sean: you know?

Dan: I know.

[music fades] Sean: That's, uh, Grampy Sturgis right there in his World War I uniform.

- Yep, that's my favorite photograph of him.

And uh... you can see my grandmother told me of the time when he took out his pistol, Sean: [chuckles] Dan: and shot himself with his, uh, pistol because he was having one of his spells.

He had terrific debilitating headaches.

Sean: Hm, no way... Dan: the exact same spot, Sean: Really?

Dan: that he ended up getting the tumor.

- Well I mean from the sounds of it he took a pretty serious gas and shelling, you know, and that...

I mean, if he had a head injury that could lead to a brain tumor or something like that, - Right.

- Then he could've had, uh...y'know, some type of postwar injuries that led to a tumor and led to an early death.

- Right.

And so with regard to your-- your ultimate question, I guess, you know, uh, was this process-- the going to war, answering "The Call," worth it for him?

I think he would have a checkered answer on that.

- Yeah, I mean...

He went over and made this great sacrifice, y'know came back beat up, ends up living in the woods.

- Yep.

- I kinda relate.

Both: [laugh] - Well the thing is I think that you cannot, um, react negatively to a failure.

You know if you, say if you fall flat on your face with your-- with your writing exercise, - [laughing] - or this program fails, and these guys all get fired, - [laughing] - Um, I would say that it will be a success when you have learned from that process.

Right?

And if you really have a dream, there will be nothing that'll stop you.

Take someone like Madonna.

- [laughs] - If she wanted to be a vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank, she would've.

- [laughs] - Whatever her "Call," she's just happened to say music is the thing.

But there's probably no one I know who has more drive, and arguably y'know not as great a skill as someone like Celine Dion or something.

- [laughing] Dad, we're editing out Madonna and Celine Dion.

Both: [laugh] ♪♪ Sean: To really see a purple heart or a medal that shows these are the specific battles he fought in, um, that is so real, the people are becoming alive I guess, is the way it feels.

♪♪ Now I just wanna go and spend all my time researching World War I, and the type of gas mask and all, y'know, what were the effects of the mustard gas and those types of things.

Yeah it's-- it opens up a whole curiosity even more.

Lise: Sturgis was among the first Americans to enlist in the war, before the draft was issued.

This puts Sturgis and his unit, some of the first American soldiers to arrive in Europe, at the decisive point in the front against the Germans.

♪♪ Germany considered the battle of July 18, 1918 a chance to crush the allied opposition, and generate a surrender before the Americans came full force into the war.

Unfortunately for the Germans, it was not to be.

The battle turned what to that point had been a war of German advantage into one where thereafter they remained on the defensive.

With victory, however, came the realization for many of the young, fighting soldiers that modern warfare was not the romantic adventure they had imagined it to be.

♪♪ Sean travels to Northeastern University in Boston, and meets Dr. Gerald Herman, one of the nation's leading World War I historians.

Sean: [friendly chuckle] Sean Plasse.

Gerald: Nice to meet ya.

Sean: Nice to meet ya.

So, is it alphabetical here?

Gerald: No.

This is what... historians really look like.

Sean: [laughs] Lise: They meet in the university's television studio.

Sean: Is that good for lighting?

Wow, this is a real studio.

[chuckles] Gerald: Your great-grandfather was part of the Second Battle of the Marne, uh, or the Marne Champagne.

And it's the pivotal battle from the American point of view and from the allied point of view of the First World War.

Sean: How do you feel, like what was the mentality of somebody like Sturgis, like do you feel he was called into this, like-- y'know, have you read like the soldier's, have you got a feel for what that type of soldier was like?

- The fact that he didn't wait to be drafted, Sean: Mhm.

- and the draft in fact didn't exist when he enlisted, so he wasn't even looking forward to a time when he might be coerced, Sean: Mhm.

- Uh, into the military.

And the fact that he was 19 and he was a student, so he was at a turning point in his own life.

Sean: Mhm.

Gerald: A great many felt that this would be a great adventure, unfortunately, their heads were filled with 19th-century ideas-- even in 1917, their ideas were still filled-- Sean: Mhm.

Gerald: their heads were still filled with 19th-century romantic ideas about war, and a lot of the real horrors of the First World War were censored so they didn't-- Sean: Wow.

- at the end of the First World War, there was a huge amount of idealism on the one hand and a desire for revenge on the other.

Sean: Wow.

- And the two of them... offset one another to the point where the actual settlement of the First World War is a complete muddle.

So the ideals begin to turn sour from that point of view, which is why the sense of disillusion that follows the First World War is so great, because the ideals had been so great.

Sean: Wow, some of the things that I heard from my dad and my grandfather that Sturgis came back, and he would have these severe headaches, uh, almost panic attacks, and just couldn't be around people.

And he called them "spells," that's what my great- grandmother called them, he would go through these spells.

Gerald: That's what a lot of people called 'em.

- Really?

Spells?

- Yeah, because people didn't know... - There was not the terminology, Right.

He used to sleep with uh, a pistol under his pillow and our favorite picture of Sturgis up at Maine has a bullet hole in it, - [laughs] Sean: from where he got drunk with his pistol.

[laughs] - Yeah, but-- but that may also, why would you shoot your own picture?

- I know, it's-- he's in his military uniform, and he-- Gerald: Yeah, well, for many soldiers who actually experienced combat at the front, they came home and it was a mixture, they were proud of what they had done.

They were also a little ashamed of what they had done.

Uh, you have to integrate something that is generally considered antisocial, immoral, illegal, Sean: Mm.

- killing people.

Um, but in that situation is considered heroic and moral and entirely legal.

You have to integrate those two sides of your personality and it's not easy, and sometimes the revulsion overcomes the pride.

♪♪ Lise: Sean wants to understand the science of how Sturgis's war experiences would've led to the post-traumatic stress that plagued him throughout the rest of his life.

To answer that question he's travelling to Boston University to meet with neuropharmacology expert, Dr. David Farb.

♪♪ Sean: Well one of the things Sturgis had problems with was, they called them spells where-- almost like PTSD.

David: Uh huh.

Sean: Um... - Now that has been attributed over a long time to that initial exposure.

Sean: Really?

- There are long-term, lifelong neuropsychiatric consequences to gas exposure.

Sean: Really?

Sturgis had like severe headaches for years.

David: Mhm.

- And they've attributed-- they thought that might've come from the war, but y'know nobody can really be sure, it was such a long time ago.

David: You would, uh, I would say, one would predict or expect, if you combine the wartime experience, the fear, Sean: Right.

David: the sense of impending death, Sean: Yep.

David: the constant uncertainty, Sean: Yep.

David: and then in addition to that, he's poisoned, - Yeah.

David: and he almost dies.

Sean: Yeah.

David: You can't breathe, there's respiratory depression, people have their skin peels off, Sean: Wow!

David: it's really pretty bad.

So, that would be a prime situation to get something like PTSD.

- Wow, really-- - He has multiple stressors.

- Yeah.

Is that one of the ways PTSD comes about, is multiple?

David: Multiple stressors.

Imagine yourself in a situation like that.

Sean: It's unbelievable yeah.

David: It's unbelievable.

For him it was a very horrible experience.

Sean: Yeah.

- And then there's the psychological impact Sean: Yeah... - of having to go through that in an era where the guys just didn't get treated.

War's over and go to work and y'know, call us sometime.

Sean: Exactly.

Both: [laugh] Sean: It was tough... tough breed back then.

David: Well y'know it was a different world, they didn't know.

- Yep.

- They didn't know the same kinds of things that we know now.

♪♪ Sean: What seems to be coming clear is that there's consequences to a "Call," like you know was it good to make sacrifices, and how do you-- and where do you put that in your heart?

And y'know, it seems that it's really coming down to an individual thing, there isn't one philosophy for everybody in the world.

There really-- it's what's inside you, and it's living that out with self-honesty, and, y'know, a lot of people think, oh Sean's crazy living in the woods writing a children's book, but I really struggled.

So I felt really understood by Grampy Sturgis.

I always thought he was just an adventurer, wantin' to live in the woods and be a hunter and a guide and a trapper.

But, he was trying to find peace like me.

♪♪ [music fades] ♪♪ Well I’ve talked to my father Dan Plasse, my grandfather, Paul Plasse, and I’ve learned about my great-grandfather Sturgis Durgin.

And the next person I really wanna learn about is Sturgis's great-great- great-great-great grandfather William Durgin, born in 1630 in Devon, England and died in New Hampshire in 1702.

He's the first Durgin to come over from Europe, uh, to America.

And I feel that "Call" to leave your... your motherland, and come over to a new country, I think that's the next call that I’d like to examine.

♪♪ Lise: To begin his investigation of William Durgin's life, Sean travels to the Bickford-Garrison archaeological dig in Durham, New Hampshire, where Craig and his team are uncovering the remains of a garrison and tavern that would've been a hub of the community frequented by the Durgins.

Archaeologist Craig Brown, who has researched extensively into the place and period where William lived, can help Sean understand why the Durgins and others like them first came here from Europe.

- What tended to happen back in England is that the eldest son tended to inherit everything outright.

Well if the eldest son gets everything, What about brother number two?

Uh, son number three?

What about the daughters?

Those were the people that were coming over and settling here.

Sean: Oh, no kidding.

Craig: So... Sean: So they weren't escaping religious persecution or anything-- it was, it was really opportunity.

- No, not initially.

- They wanted an opportunity to own land and to better their family's life-- - The land is the key thing because all wealth at that time was based on land.

That was your retirement plan, that was your nest egg.

To be a freeman in the church you had to own land.

- Oh wow.

- To take part in the town meetings and vote, and have your vote count, you needed to own land.

Sean: So your human rights came from owning land?

- Pretty much.

Sean: Wow.

And would they come here after working in the fields and drink a beer, and, - Sure would.

- smoke some pipes, and just relax?

[amused] That's a pipe?

Craig: Yeah.

Sean: [laughs] You're kidding me.

What is that?

Craig: This is a mouth harp.

Sean: [laughing] No way.

It's like a... [imitates sound] - Yeah, exactly.

That's exactly what it is.

Sean: So my relatives could've been playing on one of these mouth harps... - Oh I’m sure they were playing on one of those mouth harps.

- [fondly] Ah, the Durgins.

Craig: Yeah.

Sean: I bet they were entertaining.

And what is this made out of?

Craig: This is lead.

And it comes from a .62 caliber smoothbore musket.

Sean: Wow.

Craig: And you can see where-- its impact, because it's deformed.

This is spent.

Sean: That was fired?

Craig: This was fired.

- [laughs] That's amazing.

♪♪ Lise: Always looking for volunteers, Craig invites Sean to help them do some digging at the site.

[adventurous percussion music] ♪♪ Sean: Look what I found.

What is it?

Woman 1: Creamware.

Sean: Creamware?

[laughs] Tea cup and bowl.

Probably my ancestors drank from this.

Woman 1: They probably did.

♪♪ - That is the find of the day.

♪♪ [laughs triumphantly] Creamware.

That is a victory.

Oh William, how can I be a part of your life?

You know he lived on a farm.

And I saw the musket ball from the archaeological site, so I thought he must've had a musket too, I’m pretty sure anybody back in those days had to shoot game and stuff like that, so.

So I’m trying to pull from things that I saw today.

Firing a musket would be cool, we could try one of the gun stores.

I’m calling a gun store now.

Yeah, you sell firearms?

Um, do you have any old-style muskets?

♪♪ You know kinda the old, um, flintlock, black powder, something like that.

Um, as old as you've got.

Is there any way I could like fire it or test fire it or something?

♪♪ Okay, any other store that would have something like that?

He's got a really old one but that's like 4,000 bucks.

I tried to convince him to let me borrow it, fire it, and he said no way.

[crunch] No.

Okay, thanks.

Bye.

♪♪ No luck trying to buy a rifle.

Let's call Craig.

Do you know any other way to get an authentic William Durgin experience around here?

Lise: The Durgin home stood not far from the dig site, and the remains of the home are still faintly visible.

Craig invites Sean to go see it and meet Janet Mackey, a local historian who can tell Sean more about their lives.

Janet: We know from early documents, he was illiterate.

He'd signed with an X. Sean: Really?

- As did his sons.

Now that's not unusual, half the people at Oyster River were illiterate.

This was a new place with all kinds of opportunities for someone who was strong and ambitious.

[birds chirping] Sean: [chucking] Wow, so this is where it all began for the Durgin family.

Look at the size of those stones.

Now this had some historical, this became a Garrison or some-- this place right here-- Craig: It did.

Lise: In 1695, William Durgin's home was designated as a garrison, a home for quartering local militia.

In order to get a firsthand experience of what William's life would've been like in a garrison, Sean makes several phone calls to see what he can find.

- It's Sean from Generations Project.

Is there like a farm museum or anything like that?

Well it's New Hampshire farm museum in Exeter, or uh, we'll keep trying, we'll figure something out.

Yeah, how are you today?

[GPS navigation playing] Not bad, I’m on a TV show actually called The Generations Project, and we're researching my family history.

Yeah, so we're trying to find somebody who still made butter and that kind of things.

Woman 2: [through phone] We actually... - Um, all right, well we'll keep searching.

Woman 2: Okay.

- Thanks.

Woman 2 and Sean: Bye.

- Their place, they're in like 1780s.

But they-- it's not a working farm, and they kinda have one guy growing some vegetables there.

It's not really old-style techniques or anything like that.

[clicks tongue] She didn't sound like the type that would have old guns either.

You guys ever bought firearms before?

[mumbling] You guys don't seem like you did.

Hey Craig what's going on bud?

It's Craig.

Yeah?

Craig: [muffled reply] - [laughs] No way.

Would that be from the same time period, the same garrison era?

Fantastic.

So, and where-- how would I find this?

Awesome man, well uh, we'll Google that and we'll go track it down.

Craig: [muffled] All right.

- Thanks man.

Craig: Okay, take care.

- Okay bye.

Our friend Craig Brown found us a garrison-- garrison house, which is from the same time period, seven-- er, 1660s, um, that the Durgin household was built in, so we're gonna try and go experience what a day, or what a life inside the house was like.

So, this is the Woodman Institute Museum in, uh, Dover, New Hampshire.

[clanks] Hi, how are you?

Man 2: Hi there!

Sean: [laughs] I talked to you on the phone.

I’m Sean Plasse.

- What's the last name?

Sean: Plasse.

P-l-a-s-s-e. What's your name?

So you're-- Tom Hindle.

Sean: Tom Hindle, nice to meet you.

- I’m a trustee.

Sean: Amazing.

Um, well as I said before, we traced my ancestry back to the Durgins, and the garrison that they had.

- William Durgin.

Sean: Exactly.

- Yep.

Sean: You know about him?

- 1695.

Sean: [laughs] How do you know about him?

- That's the Durgin Garrison.

Sean: Yeah.

- Yeah.

It was located out on what used to be called Oyster River Point, now called Durham Point, but our garrison was built as a defensive home, do you wanna go take a look at it?

- Oh, I would love to see whatever you have, this is-- I can't believe we found you, this is a phone call, spontaneous.

Hi, how are ya?

Woman 3: Hi.

Tom: So this is what the kids call the house within a house.

Sean: [laughs] [laughing] Oh, no way.

That is awesome.

Wow.

♪♪ This is what the Durgin homestead would've been like.

Tom: Uh, if it was built as a garrison, if it was originally built as a garrison house, it would've had these cutouts.

So they would've had little loopholes or apertures that they could literally shoot through.

Sean: No kidding.

Tom: Now a house that was garrison later, would not have had these, they would've shuttered the windows, Sean: Yep.

- and reinforced the door, and probably put a palisade or a stockade around the house.

Sean: Oh, wow, [chuckling] yeah.

[laughs] Oh man, look at this, this is incredible.

Now would this be an original musket for the day?

Tom: Yup, that's a long barrel musket.

Sean: So you think William Durgin would've had one of those?

Tom: Well very possibly, it was once a single shot.

Sean: Single shot and has like a black powder.

Tom: Yup, yeah you had to load every time.

Sean: Amazing-- Tom: So you had to make every shot count-- Sean: We were trying to find a musket all day and I finally get to touch one right there.

Both: [laughing] Sean: Who would've thought?

♪♪ - So these are the early dishes that they ate out of.

These are called trenchers, that's the term "eating a square meal," originates from is those square trenches.

Sean: [laughing] - Candle molds, you had to make candles.

But beeswax was hard to get 'cause you had to find the beehive, and you'd gather as many bees.

Typically a powdery substance on the top, you then pull the upper slide and release the bee, and you visually watch the bee fly and release a second bee, and a third bee, and a fourth bee, and that's where the term beeline comes from.

Sean: [laughs] - And the bees are taking you back to the hive so now you get the wax for your candles and honey.

So here we have a hollowed-out log, Sean: Yeah.

with a wooden pestle, you would take this outdoors, attach it to a tree branch, put walnuts, put corn... and again the tree's doing most of the motion for you, Sean: [laughs] Tom: Now you've heard the expression "sleep tight."

The beds that the people used had ropes going in both directions.

Sean: [laughs] Tom: But after several weeks of tossing and turning, the ropes start to sag, and you would literally go around the bed and twist the rope tight, so tonight you're sleeping on tight ropes or a tight bed or simply, sleep tight.

Sean: [laughing] - Well thank you very much, this was uh, perfect today.

Tom: I’m glad you found us.

Sean: I appreciate this.

[laughs] Crazy.

[chuckles] This is the only place in New England where you can find an original garrison.

There was no other place we could've gone to experience what life was like for William Durgin.

So we hit the lottery, it was some kind of divine intervention today.

I couldn't be happier.

[relaxed, upbeat music] ♪♪ See-- see if I can walk like this then.

Then everybody gets on film.

This is the real Generations Project right here.

[laughs] Woman 4: [playfully] Stop!

Sean: Get the sound boom in there.

We're walking around with a sound boom.

♪♪ New Hampshire Historical Society.

Get to know some fascinating Durgins.

Lise: To help Sean evaluate William's legacy, he visits the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, where he hopes to see a 40-foot scroll of Durgin ancestry that he's heard about.

He meets with library director Peter Wallner.

Man 3: [echoing] Hi!

Sean: Hi, are you Peter?

Peter: Peter Wallner.

Sean: [laughs] I’m Sean.

Very nice to meet you-- Peter: Nice to see you.

Sean: And this is the crew.

[laughs] - Okay, let me show you where we are and... Sean: Awesome, now all I know is there's a scroll, Peter: Yeah, I'll show you... Sean: And um, it has something to do with the Durgin heritage.

Peter: That's right... Sean: [laughs] Peter: Why they did it this way I have no idea.

Certainly not a very practical way to show your family tree.

But it does roll out nice and flat.

Sean: Oh my goodness!

Peter: And it's 40-feet of the original family history.

Sean: Can we roll it all the way out?

Peter: Yup.

It's done on individual pages.

And then somebody decided to... Sean: To glue it all together... Peter: Glue them all together in a scroll form.

Sean: Is this common to glue things together-- Peter: Nope.

It's never, we have, uh over 5,000 family histories and genealogies, this is the only one in this format.

Sean: So the Durgins were a little crazy back then?

Peter: Well this... somebody was.

Sean: [laughs] So William Durgin came across from England.

Peter: Yeah in 1663... Sean: 1663... Peter: and that's the first entry on the scroll.

Sean: And this is his legacy, this is, uh, his offspring.

That's unbelievable.

My quest is to get some peace in life by figuring out, uh, "The Call."

So some people like William Durgin were called to leave everything they knew, come over to America, and start a whole new life, and I’m trying to find a way to evaluate that call, like the criteria on what makes it worth it or not.

And so seeing this scroll with like 500 names-- Peter: Right I think that's what makes it, uh, worth it is just the idea that there's a whole family here of Durgins and Durgin relatives that were here as a result of William's decision.

Lise: As time passed, the Durgin family spread throughout New England and into the frontier to such a degree that at the taking of the first census, nearly a century after his arrival, there were more than 100 families who could trace their ancestry back to that first Durgin family.

Peter: So if nothing else, the Durgins were prolific.

[laughs] But what would be interesting is if William could come back and see all that, y'know-- Sean: [laughs] Peter: See what happened to uh, to his family.

If you read the individual entries about the various Durgins, a lot of them focus on how important the wife was, who they married, and what a Christian woman she was, what a hard-working woman she was, that seems to occur in almost every generation.

Sean: I read that.

Peter: So they obviously married well which was also important when you think about it-- Sean: [laughs] - Well that's inspiration for me because I’m not married yet.

Peter: Okay.

Sean: [laughs] That feeling of peace of knowing, was it worth it was it not, I really am beginning to see the value of "The Call," and the family legacy that comes down, and uh, the love and community that was necessary to fulfill the dream and I don't know I couldn't have asked for a better experience today, we lucked out.

[ukulele music] Well... in the search for another person with "The Call," I’m gonna go through my grandfather Paul Plasse's mother, Isabella.

I’m gonna trace alllll the way back to this guy.

Born in 1687-- no died in 1687, John Alden, died in Massachusetts, and rumor has it that he was on the Mayflower.

And I don't think you can get a better call in all of America than being on the Mayflower, so that's the person I’d like to see next.

Lise: Sean travels to the Plymouth plantation in Massachusetts to learn about his 14th great grandfather John Alden.

Legend has it that he was the first to set foot on Plymouth Rock.

Also, surprisingly, John was not in fact a pilgrim, but found himself on the ship as its cooper, and choose to stay with the colony rather than return to England.

Today, thanks to the exhaustive research and community education efforts at the Plymouth Plantation, Sean is getting the chance to meet his ancestor John Alden face to face.

Guide 1: This I believe is John Alden, and I would like to introduce you to Sean Plasse.

John: Sean Plasse.

Man 4: Well I am, sir, well met indeed!

Sean: Very nice to meet you.

Guide 1: He's actually one of your descendants, but I know you're gonna find that very hard to believe.

Sean: [laughs] John: I do sense a bit of a resemblance, don't you Miss Jason?

Sean: Look at us!

[laughing] - I am the 14th generation after you.

- Well upon my word, sir, what a match, what a match.

That would seem some good fortune, was it not then-- Sean: Some good fortune indeed-- - I marvel.

I marvel.

You followed "The Call" to cross the pond over to here, and do you feel that was worth it?

- Well I think I understand you, yeah, yeah, certainly, but I had a hope of... well of... some gain out here-- Sean: [laughs] - by God's grace I have survived well enough here to see it.

- [laughs] God's been good to you.

You chose correctly 'cause 14 generations later, [laughs] - Here we are, here we are-- - You did all right.

- Very well.

- Now you worked with the Native Americans, you befriended them somewhat in the first year?

- We have enjoyed an amity, certain, yeah, at least for some of them, you know, there's nations of them here like nations in Europe, Sean: [laughs] John: I think you'll find the Wampanoag are a very tractable people, a very useful instrument sent by God to assist us here, Sean.

Lise: An important part of understanding the nature of his ancestor's legacy is understanding the impact the European immigration had on the people who already inhabited the land.

The Plymouth Plantation not only preserves the history of the colony, but of the native Wampanoag village that existed there long before the Europeans arrived.

Guide 2: When the pilgrims landed here there was no one here to um, object to them staying here, Sean: Yeah.

- 'Cause the people that were here were killed off by a plague or a sickness.

Sean: Right.

- But 1623, smallpox comes through here, and it affects the Wampanoag, it affects the pilgrims too, but it affects the uh, the Wampanoag greatly.

The Wampanoag were affected in a lot of different ways, I mean with the Europeans coming, um, and not just the pilgrims 'cause shortly after those first 50 pilgrims that survived that first winter, there was ship after ship after ship.

Um, in 1623, they started something called the land division, - Yep.

Guide 2: and they all got 50 acres or so.

You know where you used to come out in summer and grow your crops, now there's a fence and a house, Sean: Wow.

- and somebody living there and so that was... y'know as they spread from Plymouth, that's where it caused a lot of the conflicts.

Sean: Yeah.

Guide 2: You know, um... And by 1630, there's only actually one family left in the pilgrim village.

They all spread out, 180 or so in 1627 had spread out and taken up land.

Sean: Wow!

- So, y'know, pretty quickly after-- Sean: So that was pretty quick, so it wasn't all, um... my relatives came over seeking new opportunity, good things, but there were a lotta consequences to that too.

Guide 2: It's uh... For all of us who work here, it's really important for us to tell an accurate history that's out there because unfortunately our history books just don't do that.

Sean: Right exactly-- - Don't do it as well, they're getting better.

♪♪ Lise: Next, Sean has the chance to see a recreation of the Aldens' home in the colony, and meet his 14th great-grandmother Priscilla.

Sean: And what were the homes made out of?

Guide 1: Well, um, you're gonna notice that these are homes that were put together rather quickly, y'know to provide shelter upon their arrival.

Um, but... Sean: [chuckling] Oh, man... Guide 1: Sean I’d like to introduce you to Priscilla Alden.

- Good morrow, Sir.

Sean: Very nice to meet you.

- And your name is John?

Sean: Sean.

- Sean.

Sean: Sean Plasse.

- Sean Plasse, well met.

Well would you favor to come inside the house?

Sean: I would love to.

Priscilla: I’m sorry, my husband is not at home.

Sean: Oh I saw him on the ship.

Oh my goodness!

Priscilla: And would you care to sit down?

Sean: Yes.

[brazier banging] Priscilla: I’m sorry I have not much to offer you except the heat of the fire-- Sean: [in awe] Oh my goodness... Priscilla: We have not made our dinner yet.

Sean: And what part of England did you meet each other in?

Priscilla: We actually met here.

Sean: Oh, you-- - On the ship.

- On the ship?

- Mhm.

My husband, he was a part of the crew.

- No kidding.

- My husband, he was a part of the crew, and that is when we first did meet.

- Wow.

So, literally, my great-grandparents 14 generations ago, the first time they ever met was on the Mayflower.

- Mhm.

- [chuckling] Oh man... that is amazing.

- [chuckles] Sean: What called you to come over, why-- what were you looking for, why did you make this journey?

- My father was starting to think of what kind of living he could give to my brother, and he-- he started to see that there was not really any good living at all there, and also to start looking and seeing what kind of dowry he would be able to give me, and what sort of husband I would get there, Sean: [chuckles] - and, [clears throat] there was none.

He was afeared he would not be able to afford to give either Joseph or I a very good life.

Sean: So my 15th great-grandfather, he came here to give you a better life, - Mhm.

Sean: you met John Alden on the Mayflower, - Mhm.

- and married him, and started a family.

- Yep.

- Do you feel that it was worth coming here?

- There are days where I miss England.

- [laughs] - There are days where I wish I could be back home, - Yep.

- but I will not go back.

- Why?

- Because even though my son is just a babe, I already know what he shall be.

- What shall he be?

- A landowner.

- A landowner.

- Mhm.

- [laughing] Unbelievable.

[laughing] This is so crazy.

[soft, contemplative music] It's like my heart is actually beating.

There are rumors that we had our relative on the Mayflower, but today...

I found out that literally we know for certain that my great-great-14th grandfather and grandmother met on the Mayflower for the first time.

I just can't even get my mind around that, that is just... it's so beautiful.

♪♪ So pure, it's-- I mean it's a love story.

Like I can smell the fire, the dirt on the floor, you can feel the cold and the wind, and then I’m talking to somebody with a dialect literally from Surrey, England.

And she's telling me that she met my grandfather on the Mayflower, fell in love, and made a family.

It is the strangest, most spiritual thought [chuckling] I think I’ve had in my life.

♪♪ Lise: To get a full picture of John and Priscilla's life and evaluate their legacy, Sean needs to see what became of them as they moved out of Plymouth following the land division, and the perfect place to do that is on the land the family received, much of which is still in the possession of the Alden family to this day.

Jim Baker, Alden Kindred trustee and fellow Alden descendant, meets Sean.

Jim: We're in Duxbury, and we're on the original Alden farm.

This property was given to the Aldens back in 1627.

Sean: Wow.

- All the other families sold, moved, changed, you know.

But the Aldens, [chuckles] have stuck here for almost 400 years.

And this is where the original house was, and if it was still open, and not all these trees, which probably was then, because this had been Indian farmland, Sean: Uh huh.

- you'd be able to see the water.

♪♪ So there's the old house, Sean: [chuckles] Jim: as built by Johnathan Alden, Sean: Wow.

Jim: and we'll take a look inside.

Sean: Amazing.

♪♪ Jim: Come through here from the L, into what we call now the great room.

And this is the oldest part of the house.

This room, and the one above, is, if John knew it, this is all he knew.

Everything else was added in the 18th and 19th centuries.

- This is the original footprint right here.

- Yeah.

This is the original house.

The things in the case, those are all things found in that original site.

Sean: The one across the way there, wow... - Yeah that's right.

They're all the things that John and Priscilla owned because nobody else ever lived in that house.

Sean: Right, so this is guaranteed link to my relatives-- - Yeah these are all relics you might say, - That is incredible-- relics of that original Alden family.

Sean: What an outstanding family that they've preserved this for everybody.

- Oh yes, yes.

Much like the picture on the wall, everybody knows John and Priscilla.

Sean: Mhm.

Jim: Because of all the pilgrim people, most of them are just names, they have-- there's no image attached to them, but every time you open a Thanksgiving card and you see a pair of pilgrims of marriageable age, that's John and Priscilla, whatever their name may be, Sean: [laughs] Jim: or if it's a pair of chipmunks dressed up in pilgrim costume, with male, female, John and Priscilla.

So, their story almost absorbed the whole thing, you see, they became basically the symbolic pilgrims.

When you think pilgrims, you think two images, either-- well three, landing of the Mayflower, Sean: Yep.

- Plymouth Rock and all that stuff, or the first Thanksgiving, lot of people are eating outside in a dinner, or, John and Priscilla.

Sean: [laughs] The first family.

- That's right!

- The first American romance, - Yep.

- on the Mayflower.

- Yep.

- Wow.

[tender music] Jim: John back in England would've been a cooper maybe on a ship, maybe making barrels in some little shop.

Here he became a landowner, which he couldn't have done in England, he, um, became a magistrate, he became somebody who when he died, they printed up elegies-- poetical elegies of him 'cause he was known as, y'know, "Mr. John Alden."

Sean: [chuckles] Jim: In those days you didn't become "Mr." unless you were somebody important.

Sean: Wow.

Jim: Not only he is so historically remembered, he'd have been entirely forgotten if he'd lived in England, just as we have no idea who his parents were or where he came from.

But here, he is an American hero.

Sean: Well that gives me a lot of inner peace, to know that uh, that a man followed his call and lived out a dream, the first American romance, and the first American dream.

[tender music] ♪♪ A week ago we were in my tent, and now here I am finding out that I come from the first American romance, and the first American dream.

I mean this is the heart of-- of America right here, and I had no idea until today that I had any part in this.

♪♪ I can feel it in my blood, like this is my blood, this is my life right here.

♪♪ I definitely feel I come from a legacy of people who followed "The Call."

It doesn't always turn out exactly as planned, but if you keep on fighting, you stay true to yourself and true to other people, you can go from a barrel maker to Mr. John Alden.

And uh, I do feel a great peace, I think this has been um... ♪♪ I don't know.

♪♪ [choked up] You can get on a ship and fall in love.

♪♪ You can... not even know how to spell your own name, and have a legacy.

♪♪ I guess...

I always thought there was something wrong with me.

But maybe... it's a-- it's a good thing.

♪♪ Maybe something good will come out of my life.

[waves echoing] Lise: Powerful journey.

Almost mythical.

Sean: [laughs] Exactly.

- Did you find that throughout?

- Yeah it was definitely, uh, I thought it was gonna be entertaining.

But it was much deeper than that, it was a lot more spiritual for me.

I really did find the peace that I was looking for.

Lise: I was just gonna say your "Why" in the beginning was, "Can I find peace with taking on this deep mythical philosophy."

So, how has your thinking-- has your thinking changed at all about "The Call," has it defined it for you any more?

Sean: I think I always thought "The Call" was kinda radical, it was like this courage that you followed.

But these weren't crazy people.

Y'know um, my dream is actually the same, it's that I’d love to get a piece of land and build a house, and find a wife that wants to go to church on Sundays, and have a family and build a great nation, like, um...

I think I really took away that it's a lot about faith, hope, and love, that it's-- there's a family aspect to it, it's not just always taking risks.

I found that really reassuring.

- That, I can understand why that would be reassuring.

I know that you were particularly trying to find peace with some of the negative outcomes that you felt resulted from you following "The Call."

How have you found peace with the outcomes that are beyond your control, many times, I would imagine?

Sean: I think, y'know one of the pieces was uh, Grampy Sturgis.

Uh, we always thought he had died from his war injuries, and he did have a lot of PTSD and other problems.

But he fought it out, y'know the war didn't beat him.

And I guess that-- I took a lot of meaning from that.

That um, he lived a full life, as long as he could, and he did his best, and I think I’m kind of beat up from the bone marrow donation, but I’m doing the same thing, I’m just trying to-- trying to live with the consequences good or bad, and turn them into something positive.

Lise: You're a romantic I think.

Sean: [laughing] I guess so-- - Is that right?

Sean: I'm trying to be a writer... - And maybe that's what, that's good!

You're a storyteller.

Sean: Exactly.

Lise: You mentioned to me, as a sideline, "I laughed through the whole thing, I noticed that I’m laughing."

Well I noticed that too, what was that about for you, do you think?

Sean: I don't know, I mean to go on the journey, everything is so new and inspiring that I just, I don't know I was full of joy the whole time.

Really until the end, which they didn't edit the tears out, thanks a lot.

That and the Celine Dion quote.

Lise: Well, you mean you're a whole person?!

- [laughing] Exactly.

- That's what we wanna see.

Sean: The other side of my personality, that'll be good for the internet.

Lise: Has this changed your trajectory in life?

Sean: Um, it's just given me a lot of hope.

Yeah, I think, um... Lise: What's next for Sean Plasse?

- I wanna be a writer.

Uh, y'know, seeing these guys who signed their names with an X, um, who were illiterate and whatnot, who had these full lives afterwards.

It's the same thing that I’m trying to do-- I haven't read a novel in 20 years, um, but I love writing.

And uh, I figure y'know Beethoven was deaf, so I figure I’m in good company there.

Lise: Interesting, and no matter what the consequences are of you becoming a writer, you're going to stay true to the, this has given you the strength.

Sean: Absolutely.

Yeah, no-- 100%, I got a lot of peace out of this.

Lise: I can feel it in you in the studio.

Sean Plasse, thank you so much for sharing this great story, we really appreciate it.

- It's been wonderful, thanks for having me-- Lise: Good!

You're so welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

This conversation continues with Sean on our website.

Join us at byutv.org.

I’m Lise Simms, and I will see you on the next Generations Project.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [music fades]