Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) s06e04 Episode Script
Sean Hayes
1 Narrator: On this episode, Sean Hayes unravels the dark mysteries of his father's lineage.
- It says, "Assault.
" - Yes.
Narrator: He finds an ancestor estranged from his family living in squalor Wow.
He wasn't eating for four to five months? Narrator: And travels to Ireland to unearth a pattern of dysfunction that goes back generations.
This is one effed up family.
Ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah [ Pool balls clink .]
- Oh, fancy.
- Close, close.
Let me try that one.
Watch this.
[ Laughter .]
Watch this.
Clearly, the rules don't apply here.
Narrator: Emmy award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes catapulted to fame on the groundbreaking sitcom "Will & Grace.
" His scene-stealing portrayal of Jack McFarland made him one of Hollywood's favorite funnymen.
Sean continues to thrive on screen and stage, recently nabbing a Tony nomination for his role in the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises.
" Behind the scenes, he's also a prolific producer, helming such hits as "Hollywood Game Night" and "Grimm.
" Sean lives in Los Angeles with his husband, music producer Scott Icenogle.
My name is Sean Patrick Hayes.
Uh, I am named after nobody I know of.
I was born in Illinois.
Then, after one year of living in Chicago, we moved to the suburbs.
I'm the youngest of five kids.
I'm the baby.
My family life growing up was somewhat tumultuous.
Um, as wonderful and loving as my mom was, she was constantly working.
And, uh, I had a father who, uh, wasn't present all the time â Most of the time.
I think he left when I was, like, 5.
And because of that, obviously, uh, we don't have a relationship now.
I'm sure, uh, my father has good qualities.
I don't know him well enough to know them and haven't really spoken in many, many years.
I don't know anything about him.
[ Pool balls clink .]
- Nothin'.
- Oh, almost.
That's as much as I know about my dad in the past.
Nothing.
I was always, um, drawn to, uh, to comedy.
It's an escape.
It makes you enjoy life without having to deal with the real things.
As you get older, you start questioning, uh, your family's past and their history because you start asking all the whys and the, uh, circumstances that got you to this place in your life.
So I would be fascinated to know anything about my father's side of the family.
So, you â you've never spent time at all with My dad? Your dad's side of the family, at all? Just as a kid.
When I was a kid, I-I knew my grandma, but I-I didn't know anybody else.
What I learned about my father's past and when he was a kid is little details that people told me over the years.
He was an orphan at some point, and then he met my mother out of the Army.
I don't know any details about any of those things though.
- Scotty.
- Yes? A letter from my brother Dennis finally came.
Oh, good.
So I know he's been doing a lot of research.
Also, I don't know anything about my father's father.
I don't know his name or anything about him.
I do remember my sister telling me he died, literally "In the gutter" were her words.
But I don't know if I'm making that up or if I remember that correctly, so I would love to know what kind of father my father had.
He types very well.
[ Laughs .]
"Hi, Sean.
Over the past few years, "I have done research on the Hayes' family history.
"Unfortunately, I ran into lots of dead ends, "so I hope you have better luck than I did.
"Our dad was born in Chicago around 1936.
His parents, our grandparents, were named William and Barbara.
" Well, that's interesting 'cause Dennis' middle name is William.
"In 1947, the four kids were placed in an orphanage.
"Around that time, Barbara broke both of her hips.
"This made it hard for her to take care of her kids.
"I don't know if William was around or not "when their kids went to the orphanage.
"I think he was out of the picture at that point.
"As you know, the story goes that he supposedly died "in the gutter, but I don't know when.
"Our dad told me that his grandfather came from Ireland, "but I don't know his name or his wife's name "or where they came from.
"Enclosed are some photos of William and Barbara that Dad gave me.
" Well, that's cool.
Should we look at the photos? - Yeah, let's do it.
- Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
Let's look here.
Left to right.
We don't know who that is.
Okay, so that's my grandfather Right, on your dad's side.
On my dad's side.
- William.
- William.
- And that's Aunt Sally - Mm-hmm.
And that's Barbara.
So that's my grandma.
I am fascinated by That is my grandpa.
[ Chuckles .]
Yeah.
I never have seen him before.
You've never seen any pictures of him? - No, nothing.
- Ever? Wow.
- So this photo is 1941.
- 1941.
Six years after this photo, in 1947, they had four kids, including my dad.
- Went into an orphanage.
- An orphanage.
So then, my dad is 11 years old.
And then all of a sudden, you're thrown into a completely different situation.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
That's my grandma in the hospital.
My grandma broke her hips.
So my grandpa William, he must have been not capable of handling children on his own, and she was in the hospital.
Well, Dennis doesn't know for sure.
He may have been dead, but we know that he was out of the picture at that point.
- Right.
- Okay.
So let's see what we can find out about William on Ancestry.
com.
I'll let you try.
All right.
Okay.
Now, we got to type all this in.
William.
Last name we know, Hayes.
Spouse, okay.
Barbara.
Chicago, Cook County.
Search.
There it is.
William Hayes, Barbara Hayes.
Born about 1911.
Okay.
So 1940 United States Federal Census.
Oh, there's an image.
Okay.
Oh, here he is.
Oh, wow.
- So, he's 29.
- 29.
There's Barbara.
This is crazy.
Wow.
There's my dad, age 4 in 1940.
- Uh - Oh, occupation.
William had a job.
- Photo engineer.
- Photo engineer.
That's fascinating.
Wow.
'Cause your dad My dad was a photo â tographer.
Same field.
Let's see, income.
Let's see what the income is.
Income.
Oh, $3,400.
- Wow.
- Wow.
It looks like, comparatively, my grandfather William is the richest guy in the block.
He's got a nice family going here and Yeah.
Young and a job.
- What happened? - What happened? Yeah.
Seems like everything happened in Chicago so probably have to start there.
Go for it.
This is completely fascinating to me.
To see that picture of my grandfather, it was astonishing.
But at the same time, so mysterious.
It seems like the American dream was happening for him.
So where did it go bad, you know? So I'm heading to Chicago to find out more about my grandfather, William Hayes.
I'm really wondering if my grandfather was alive when the kids were in â in the orphanage or if he was dead.
I spent the night, you know, thinking about my grandpa Hayes.
What I heard was that he died on the street, but I don't know why when he had a home to go to.
I'm meeting with historian Mark Largent at the Chicago History Museum.
I've asked him to search for anything he can find out about William.
- Hello, Mark.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
Thanks for helping me out here.
So I was able to find a document that might shed some more light on your grandfather.
So this is the part that makes me nervous.
Oh, my God.
That's really, really sad.
ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is at the Chicago History Museum, searching for answers about his grandfather, William Hayes.
He's just been handed a document that may reveal clues about why William vanished from the lives of his wife and four young children, including Sean's dad.
So we're looking at the medical certificate of death for my grandfather, William.
This is where he died, in Cook County, Chicago.
He was 40 years? 40 years old.
40 years old? Wow.
So then, if I go back to my little makeshift timeline, he died in 1951.
My dad and the other siblings were put in an orphanage in 1947.
Well, one of my biggest questions was, was he alive when everybody went to the orphanage? Or was he dead? - And clearly, he was alive.
- Yes.
My dad and his dad were living in the same city at the same time, seemingly different lives.
All right, as I'm looking up here, my grandfather's residence, 66 West Van Buren.
Do you know where that is? Yes, it's an area now that has been rebuilt over the last couple of decades.
But in the 1950s, it was one of the three slums in town.
Oh, wow.
So it was an area that was populated almost entirely by single men, um, a lot of mental illness, uh, high levels of unemployment.
And this is where William ended up.
Yes.
Oh, that's so sad.
I've always had in my mind of how my grandfather died in the gutter.
But according to this, he didn't die in the gutter.
He actually died in a hospital.
And of course, my eye just jumped to this.
Pulmonary tuberculosis, does that say far advanced? Far advanced.
What exactly is pulmonary tuberculosis? He's got an infection in his lungs Okay.
Um, that had advanced to the point that his body could no longer fight it off.
It typically was something that struck the very old or people who had their immune systems compromised in some way.
Yeah, so what complicated his immune system? - 'Cause he wasn't old.
- Right.
Is Cook County Hospital still standing? The hospital was shut down several years ago, but the main building, the facade that was built in the 19-teens, is still there.
And we can go visit it, if you'd like.
- Oh, wow I would love that.
- Okay.
I think it's very powerful, the parallels between when my grandfather left his family, and my father left my family.
I was around the same age as my dad when our fathers left.
That's astonishing to me.
My grandfather went from the seemingly richest man in his neighborhood.
How did he end up on skid row? Wow.
It's massive.
And this is where they -- They took him.
This is what he would've seen as they brought him in.
I want to learn more about my grandfather's final days, so Mark is taking me to the medical library to see what else we can find.
Let's see what we got.
"Department of Police, Chicago.
History of Sick or Injured Person.
" So apparently, on November 1, 1951, a Chicago police officer went to 66 Van Buren Street - and found your grandfather.
- Okay.
So he was delivered to Cook County Hospital.
It says, "Names, residence, and phone number of relatives or friends," and it's completely blank.
And I wonder, is that because William didn't express any answers to that? Well, the police officer reported that your grandfather could answer questions intelligently.
Right.
Oh.
So he presumably was asked that question.
- Of course.
Right.
- And had nothing to say.
And had nothing to say.
Wow.
So what do we have on this page? This is your grandfather's initial admission record.
Wow, this is hard to read.
- This says William Hayes.
- Right.
- And this says Patrick, father.
- Right.
Oh, his father's name was Patrick.
His father's name was Patrick.
That's my middle name.
Okay.
[ Chuckles .]
So that's your great-grandfather.
That's my great-grand -- grandfather is Patrick Hayes.
Wild.
Are we to assume, then, Patrick was alive? I can't imagine why they would bother taking an address for Patrick if he still wasn't alive at the time that William was admitted.
Was he present at the time of William's death? Not necessarily.
William would have had his father's name and address, but his father wouldn't have needed to be there.
I see.
Let's keep looking, huh? Okay.
This says, Doctor's Synopsis of Record.
So, it's a just a more in-depth.
Oh, my God.
- That says anorexia.
- Yes.
Your grandfather reported that he wasn't consuming food, uh, - for four to five months.
- Wow.
He wasn't eating for four to five months? Not regularly or not well.
And is that liver, 3FB with an arrow? Right, so the doctor had discovered that the size of the liver was three fingers below the median.
And what comparatively, uh - This is a slightly enlarged liver.
- I see.
The first thing I think of when somebody has an enlarged liver is alcoholism or alcohol abuse.
It is one piece of evidence that would help support that - Mm-hmm.
Okay.
- that conclusion.
Okay.
What are we looking at here? This says, "an extremely emaciated white male, aged 40, skin pale, nose red.
" The red nose is also indicative of alcohol abuse.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
You know, it was very tragic.
On the police report, he doesn't list any friends or family.
Yet on this page, his father's name is listed here, but didn't seem to be at the hospital.
So I wonder if his father, my great-grandfather, Patrick, was he another absentee father? Or did he just not know about the death? So now, of course, I have a ton of questions about Patrick, who I believe immigrated from Ireland.
How would I learn more about him? If you're looking for information about someone who immigrated to this area, I would go to the Cook County Circuit Court Archives.
Great.
Mark, I appreciate it.
Thank you, Sean.
Good luck.
Thank you so much.
This is the end of William's story.
I don't know what it's like to go through what he went through, but I know what it's like to feel alone.
But to feel alone in those last moments of your life just must have been, you know, incredibly sad and frightening.
Going through this entire process is making me sympathize more with my own father in a way, uh, because of what he dealt with, with his father.
It does, you know, make me wonder about my great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes.
I want to know where he lived, what his life was like.
Um, did he have the same issues as his son William? Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes has learned that his grandfather, William, went from being a well-off family man to dying alone in the slums of Chicago.
He's headed to the Cook County clerk of the Circuit Court Archives to push back even further on his dad's family tree.
Now that I know the name of my great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, I've asked historian Margaret Garb to dig up more information.
Nice to meet you.
I'm curious to find out if being an absentee dad was a pattern in my family.
So we can find out more about Patrick, your great-grandfather, - by looking at the 1930s Census.
- Okay, great.
Let's try and search it through your grandfather.
William could still be living at home with his parents.
And then, we might be able to find out more about the whole household.
Okay, 1930.
William Hayes.
Father Patrick.
So this is the 1930 Census.
Look it, Patrick and Jennie.
Wow.
That was my great-grandma.
Then there's William, my grandfather.
That's -- that's it.
That's wild that it's available.
Patrick was 48 years old in 1930, so that means he was born in 1882.
Right.
What's this column? That says, owned or rented.
So, "O" is owned.
Hmm.
So this says, occupation, motorman.
What's a motorman? So he probably worked on the street cars.
I think Chicago had one of the largest street car systems - in the country.
- Wow.
It's a pretty good job.
It's a pretty stable job -- Set wages, set hours.
Wow, so during the depression, while everybody is clamoring to get food in their stomachs, my great-grandfather was working, seemed -- seemed to be doing okay during that horrible time.
Yeah, it looks like it.
And then, here, you can see where they were all born.
My great-grandparents were born in Ireland Right.
But all their children were born here.
So my great-grandfather was the first immigrant of my Hayes lineage to come to the United States.
Wow.
He arrived in 1900.
So under naturalization it says "N" or "No.
" - Actually, that's n/a - Oh.
Which means he was naturalized in the United States.
So he did become a citizen.
- Yes.
- Wow.
When - when was that? Do -- are there documents that show that? Those papers happen to be right here in this building, so we could possibly find them right now.
That's amazing.
[ Reel whirring .]
Garb: Keep going.
So we're looking for Patrick Hayes.
With your great-grandfather's birthday.
Which is 1882.
Oh, here's Patrick Francis Hayes, 1879.
So the date might not be quite right.
The Census is often not accurate.
Does it say what year he arrived? Date arrived in the U.
S.
, 1901.
- That's pretty close.
- Yeah.
We need to take down the certificate number.
Looks like 5-4-9-1-6.
So here we are.
Here are all of the Oh, my gosh.
Naturalization petitions.
This is like the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
" That's cool.
This is amazing.
So let's walk right down here, and you want to look on the side of the volume.
- 5-4-9-1-6, right? - That's it.
43 This Oh, here we go, 548 to 553.
[ Book thuds .]
Here we go.
5-4-9-1-2 5-4-9-1-6.
Here we are.
So, wow, Patrick Francis Hayes, streetcar employee.
- That's right.
- That's amazing.
Born in Ballylongford, Ireland.
Oh, wow.
There's his wife, Jennie.
So this has to be the guy.
This has to be my great-grandfather.
Brown hair, blue eyes.
Crazy.
[ Chuckles .]
Brown hair, blue eyes.
"I immigrated to the United States of America "on the vessel Umbria.
"I arrived at the port of New York "in the State of New York on or about April 1901.
"It is my intention and good faith "to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein, so help me God.
" Then he signs it, Patrick Francis Hayes.
- And that's his signature.
- Yeah.
Is this the actual ink? The actual - This is the actual document.
- That is amazing to me.
Wow.
So, how do we learn more about Patrick and his life and what it was like for him where he grew up? In order to find out more about his life in Ireland, I think you're going to have to go to Ireland.
That's so cool.
I'm really excited.
I'll go to Ireland.
Thanks, Maggie.
I feel like I finally met Patrick today.
I'm enamored with Patrick because of his drive and ambition, and his want for a better life for himself and his family.
Uh, that's really inspiring to me.
You know, going from William's story, which started out great and then ended up in tragedy, now here's his father who seems like he's the opposite.
Now I'm off to Ireland to learn more about Patrick.
I wonder how he grew up and what his surroundings were and why he wanted to escape them.
It's amazing, you know, when we landed, I just felt it right away, that bizarre feeling that somehow I'm connected to this country.
It's pretty thrilling.
So I'll be meeting with historian Shane Kilcommins at the National Archives of Ireland.
I've asked him to look into Patrick's life here before he left for America in 1901.
- Thanks for, uh, having me today.
- You're welcome.
We have found something that, um, will be of interest.
Census of Ireland, 1901.
County Kerry.
- Form K.
- Yes.
Prison What does that say? Prison, Tralee, County Kerry.
Okay, now I'm anticipating my great-grandfather wasn't as great as we thought.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is in Dublin, Ireland, exploring his Irish roots.
He's just been handed a document that shows his ambitious and successful great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, may have served time in prison before he immigrated to America.
So let's keep reading here.
Where are the names of the prisoners? Well, you don't have the names of the prisoners.
What you have here are initials.
Initials, okay.
- So we're looking for P.
H.
- Yes.
So that looks like a "P," but that looks like an "F.
" Yes.
- P.
C.
- Mmhmm.
Uh, P.
H.
- Yes, number 12.
- Number 12.
But we don't know that that's necessarily Patrick yet.
Not -- not yet.
- He's - Age - 21.
- 21.
This says locality County Kerry and the town Ballylongford.
Maybe that is him because it was 1901, and he was 21 when he left Ireland.
- Mm-hmm.
- And he's from Ballylongford.
And then, it goes on to describe, um, some more detail here.
- So this is crime.
- Yes.
And it says "Assault.
" Yes.
He hit somebody? It looks like it, yes.
- Is there anything beyond this that we can do? - There is.
We have another document, now, that we can look at Oh, my gosh.
Um, we're going to need gloves for this because the records are very, very old.
[ Whispers .]
Wow.
These are the Tralee Prison records of 1901 to 1905.
This is unbelievable.
[ Whispers .]
Wow.
That's amazing.
Okay, so Tralee Prison.
Now, we have names.
Names.
Thomas Malley, Cornelius - Donahue.
- Donahue.
Patrick Hayes.
Right there, on page one.
21 years old.
This is so wild.
Where born, Ballylongford.
Last residence, Ballylongford.
So that has to be the P.
H.
from before.
January 30, received a sentence.
- Mm-hmm.
- What does that say? - It's ditto.
- Ditto? It means it's the same as above.
- Oh, to the above.
- Okay.
So three counts of assault.
And this says, fine, bail or hard labor.
H.
L.
, hard labor.
Yeah.
Narrator: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, prisons in Great Britain and Ireland employed several forms of hard labor.
Inmates were forced to repeatedly transport a heavy cannonball from one end of the yard to another, or turn a crank that did nothing but push paddles through sand.
Another cruel punishment was the treadmill.
Prisoners like Patrick Hayes had to climb an endless rotation of steps, often completing thousands of revolutions in a single day.
The work was meant to be exhausting, monotonous, and deliberately unproductive.
Was that hard labor for the entire sentence? That was the entire sentence.
- Every day? - Every day.
Oh, wow.
This says, "Enters into recognizance" - Yes.
- What does that mean? Your great-grandfather agrees to keep the peace and be of good behavior.
The final month is, in effect, suspended.
And you can see what's written in over it is the 2nd of April.
April.
Wow.
That's amazing, and it completely links up with him leaving in April.
That's correct.
So after three months of hard labor Yes.
He said, "Sayonara, I'm out of here," gets in a boat and goes to New York.
That's right.
Before I knew this, I-I just painted him as this ambitious, very, um, driven man, but now, it seems as though he was just running from trouble.
Um, is there more, God forbid? It is possible to go back through previous criminal records.
Okay, let's see that.
So, again, you can see the date on the spine.
Says, General Register, Tralee Prison, 1896.
Okay, so this brings us back a little bit further.
And -- and so, again, we have the names - Right.
- All the names.
William Hayes.
- Patrick Hayes, here it is.
- Mmhmm.
- Does that say junior? - Yes.
Does that imply his father was a Senior Patrick? Mm-hmm.
[ Laughs .]
That is unbelievable.
So I never knew the name of my great-grandfather.
And now, I know the name of my two-times-great-grandfather.
So Patrick Hayes, Jr.
, 17 years old.
- Oh, gosh.
Assault again.
- Yes.
Wow.
And here's William Hayes.
That was my grandfather's name.
Would they have been related? Here it says Oh, Ballylongford.
So -- so they were both In at the same time.
In the same time.
Wow.
For the same offense and bailed the same day.
But we don't know if they were brothers or cousins or But they're the Hayeses.
And they're bad boys.
What does that say? Well, that's Tarbert petty sessions.
So Tarbert is a small town in North Kerry, and so this will be the petty sessions court.
So is that courthouse still functioning or around? This particular building is -- Is still standing.
Oh, my God.
Can we see it? - We can.
- No way.
Yes.
I would be really excited to see that.
So I'll meet you there tomorrow? Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
So my impression of Patrick keeps going back and forth.
It was really enlightening to see that, the timeline coming together, where he served his time in jail, didn't wait a second after he got out.
He hightailed it out of there.
And then went on to make this incredible life for himself.
So now, I'm off to Tarbert, which is the courthouse.
I'm gonna be standing in the exact spot that my great-grandfather stood when he got sentenced.
It's a very proud moment.
Narrator: Sean investigates his great-grandfather's crimes and makes another shocking discovery.
"Stabbed him with a knife.
" This is crazy.
What is going on? Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is in Tarbert, Ireland, 150 miles west of Dublin, researching his great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, Jr.
He's on his way to the courthouse and jail where Patrick stood trial for assault over a century ago.
So, that's the courthouse? Wow.
Well, this couldn't have been a fun feeling, getting dropped off here.
- Hey, Shane.
- Sean.
- Great to see you.
- How are you? Welcome to the north part of Kerry.
This is incredible.
Wow.
This is the courthouse.
The courthouse and house of correction.
I can't believe this is where Patrick went before the judge.
I-I mean, it's -- it's a weird thing to get excited about.
Yes.
I'm not excited about the events that he went through, but I'm excited to be here and see it and touch it and feel it and experience it.
It's incredible.
- Can we see inside? - Of course.
Let's go.
Awesome.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
So, this is the courthouse? And so Patrick would have stood right here.
Another Hayes in the dock.
[ Laughs .]
Somehow, this feels very comfortable.
No, it does not feel comfortable.
And this was -- this was supposed to be intimidating, that you are the focus of the -- of the session.
You can imagine, if it's an assault case, you're standing no more than two feet away from the individual in question.
Wow.
And you might recall, yesterday in Dublin, we traced the record back a little further.
And we saw where your great-grandfather, that he was, you know, previously in trouble as well, as a 17-year-old.
That's right.
Yeah.
17, there was one assault with his brother, William - Yes.
- Or supposed brother William.
And so what we can do now, we can now drill down farther and look at the -- The types of assault and perhaps glean some more information as to what actually happened in respect to those assaults.
Okay, don't tell me you have the records of all of that.
We do.
We have those records.
This is unbelievable.
Let's see them.
Okay.
So here are the documents.
"Petty Sessions of Tarbert.
" Yes.
"County of the Kerry.
" That's right.
Uh, let's see.
Complainant.
Well, now, the complainant is Patrick Hayes, and the defendant is William Hayes.
So Patrick has pointed the finger at William for doing something.
And then, if you keep going down, Patrick Hayes again, and the defendant this time is Patrick Hayes, Jr.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
So this is Patrick Hayes, and this is Patrick Hayes, Jr.
Is the defendant? Patrick, Jr.
, attacked Patrick, Sr.
That's the allegation.
So this is my great-grandfather, and this is my great-great-grandfather? Yes.
So this first defendant, William, is his son, probably.
- Correct.
- So, okay.
So I gotta -- I gotta -- I gotta -- I'm gonna have to absorb this.
So my great-great-grandfather is -- is -- is bringing his children to court? - Correct.
- Wow.
Before I even read, this is one effed up family.
It's nice to know that that has stood the test of time as well.
- Consistent.
- Consistent.
So the cause of complaint is there.
So the cause of complaint towards William, "it's defendant on the 11th of August, 1896, did unlawfully assault said complainant by" [ Chuckles .]
Holy Moly.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is at the Tarbert courthouse, near his great-grandfather Patrick's hometown of Ballylongford, Ireland.
He's just been given documents that show that Patrick and his brother, William, were tried for allegedly assaulting their own father, Sean's two-times great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, Sr.
"Did unlawfully assault said complainant by attempting to stab him with a knife.
" Correct.
[ Laughs .]
This is crazy.
What is going on? "Next, against Patrick Hayes, Jr.
, "defendant, on the 11th of August, 1896, "did unlawfully assault said complainant by throwing a stone at him.
" [ Laughs .]
Wow, so a knife and a stone thrown Yes.
- Against their father? - Yes.
So I just wonder what the fighting was about that would have warranted such drastic physical behavior, you know, that they couldn't work it out.
Well, we have another pathway that we can look at that might shed some light on that.
Patrick, Sr.
, I've looked into his previous criminal history, and I have something for you to look at.
- Wow, okay.
- Great.
I went through the petty court sessions and compiled this list.
So this is the "List of Criminal Infractions for Patrick Hayes, Sr.
, from 1864 to 1914.
" There is a whole array of offenses here over a 50-year period.
"Trespassing cows "Assault "Unpaid debt Cruelty and torture towards someone's donkey.
" Yeesh, God.
I'm seeing he's committing a crime almost every single year, except for this gap here in '78 to '88.
A 10-year gap of -- Of pretty good behavior.
That's correct.
And if you look then again in 1888, the picture changes dramatically again.
Yeah, "drunk and disorderly on the public street," just over and over and over again.
What made him start drinking so much? What changed? Mmhmm.
What did change? I have a record here.
Oh, my gosh.
"1888, Deaths Registered in the District of Tarbert, 22nd of May Bridget Hayes.
" So somehow related.
This says, "Patrick Hayes, husband.
" Wow.
So that's my great-great-grandmother.
That's right.
And this is her death certificate.
That's her death certificate.
Well, that just explains so much.
For 10 years, it seems like he was a good family man, and things were probably looking great.
And then, his wife died in 1888, which would explain this sudden change in behavior.
Maybe Patrick, Sr.
, starts dealing with it by drinking, and that, of course, affects everything.
That affects all his kids, including Patrick, Jr.
They were probably just as affected by their mom dying as -- as he was about losing his wife.
Of course.
Right? So of course, they're Nobody probably knew how to deal with it, so they all just drank about it.
So what time Remind me, I -- 'cause I have all these dates in my head, when Patrick, Jr.
was born? You might remember -- Recall yesterday, in the year 1896, he's 17.
So Patrick, Jr.
, was born in 1879.
So right at the beginning of the -- of the good years.
Yes.
So he probably grew up, Patrick, Jr.
, from 1 year old to 10 years old, uh, in a -- in a seemingly calm environment.
And then, it kind of got out of whack.
- When his mother died.
- When his mom died.
And to deal with that kind of pain at such a young age, you know, my dad probably felt some of that, too, when his father left.
Pretty much the same thing, I'm sure.
Is there any -- any more information I could find out about Patrick, Sr.
? This is the end of the road for what I could find.
So this is where it ends? Well, what you perhaps could do is travel to Ballylongford.
The area where they lived? Yes, and see what sort of town it is.
And it hasn't changed that much in the interim period.
Really? Well, thank you so much, Shane.
You've been an enormous help.
I'm gonna go check out Ballylongford.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
I'm really touched and really fortunate to know all this.
For me, what it does is just to prove how history repeats itself.
It just seems like an endless chain of chaos.
I'm literally walking in the footsteps of my ancestors here.
I just hope I don't walk the footsteps of them in life later.
[ Water rushing .]
Now thinking about my name, Sean Patrick Hayes, has whole new meaning.
Patrick, Jr.
, seems to be the only one who left for better reasons.
He just decided, you know, it's now or never.
I'm 21 years old.
I can't take this anymore.
What are you waiting for? And got on the boat and -- And did it, and that's exactly what I did.
I-I had those same conversations in my head at 24 years old, got in my car and drove to L.
A.
I wanted to get away from it, and, uh, and Patrick, Jr.
did, too, and I-I feel this weird sense of camaraderie with him.
To get any knowledge about your ancestry is a gift.
There seems to be a theme for people leaving in my family but for different reasons.
But there is definitely a cycle that is clear that you can see.
It doesn't excuse their behavior, but you kind of understand why.
And I, in -- in a sense now, I understand my own father's plight.
This whole process reiterated that you have to have compassion.
You just -- you can't judge a book by its cover.
Just because you don't know somebody's, um, history or the why they act that way, doesn't mean you should judge them.
You should maybe take a second and learn about, uh, why they behaved that way or the decisions they made, you know? I did that with my father.
And through this process, you know, I-I -- I can't, um, forget it, but I can maybe forgive it.
- It says, "Assault.
" - Yes.
Narrator: He finds an ancestor estranged from his family living in squalor Wow.
He wasn't eating for four to five months? Narrator: And travels to Ireland to unearth a pattern of dysfunction that goes back generations.
This is one effed up family.
Ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah [ Pool balls clink .]
- Oh, fancy.
- Close, close.
Let me try that one.
Watch this.
[ Laughter .]
Watch this.
Clearly, the rules don't apply here.
Narrator: Emmy award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes catapulted to fame on the groundbreaking sitcom "Will & Grace.
" His scene-stealing portrayal of Jack McFarland made him one of Hollywood's favorite funnymen.
Sean continues to thrive on screen and stage, recently nabbing a Tony nomination for his role in the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises.
" Behind the scenes, he's also a prolific producer, helming such hits as "Hollywood Game Night" and "Grimm.
" Sean lives in Los Angeles with his husband, music producer Scott Icenogle.
My name is Sean Patrick Hayes.
Uh, I am named after nobody I know of.
I was born in Illinois.
Then, after one year of living in Chicago, we moved to the suburbs.
I'm the youngest of five kids.
I'm the baby.
My family life growing up was somewhat tumultuous.
Um, as wonderful and loving as my mom was, she was constantly working.
And, uh, I had a father who, uh, wasn't present all the time â Most of the time.
I think he left when I was, like, 5.
And because of that, obviously, uh, we don't have a relationship now.
I'm sure, uh, my father has good qualities.
I don't know him well enough to know them and haven't really spoken in many, many years.
I don't know anything about him.
[ Pool balls clink .]
- Nothin'.
- Oh, almost.
That's as much as I know about my dad in the past.
Nothing.
I was always, um, drawn to, uh, to comedy.
It's an escape.
It makes you enjoy life without having to deal with the real things.
As you get older, you start questioning, uh, your family's past and their history because you start asking all the whys and the, uh, circumstances that got you to this place in your life.
So I would be fascinated to know anything about my father's side of the family.
So, you â you've never spent time at all with My dad? Your dad's side of the family, at all? Just as a kid.
When I was a kid, I-I knew my grandma, but I-I didn't know anybody else.
What I learned about my father's past and when he was a kid is little details that people told me over the years.
He was an orphan at some point, and then he met my mother out of the Army.
I don't know any details about any of those things though.
- Scotty.
- Yes? A letter from my brother Dennis finally came.
Oh, good.
So I know he's been doing a lot of research.
Also, I don't know anything about my father's father.
I don't know his name or anything about him.
I do remember my sister telling me he died, literally "In the gutter" were her words.
But I don't know if I'm making that up or if I remember that correctly, so I would love to know what kind of father my father had.
He types very well.
[ Laughs .]
"Hi, Sean.
Over the past few years, "I have done research on the Hayes' family history.
"Unfortunately, I ran into lots of dead ends, "so I hope you have better luck than I did.
"Our dad was born in Chicago around 1936.
His parents, our grandparents, were named William and Barbara.
" Well, that's interesting 'cause Dennis' middle name is William.
"In 1947, the four kids were placed in an orphanage.
"Around that time, Barbara broke both of her hips.
"This made it hard for her to take care of her kids.
"I don't know if William was around or not "when their kids went to the orphanage.
"I think he was out of the picture at that point.
"As you know, the story goes that he supposedly died "in the gutter, but I don't know when.
"Our dad told me that his grandfather came from Ireland, "but I don't know his name or his wife's name "or where they came from.
"Enclosed are some photos of William and Barbara that Dad gave me.
" Well, that's cool.
Should we look at the photos? - Yeah, let's do it.
- Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
Let's look here.
Left to right.
We don't know who that is.
Okay, so that's my grandfather Right, on your dad's side.
On my dad's side.
- William.
- William.
- And that's Aunt Sally - Mm-hmm.
And that's Barbara.
So that's my grandma.
I am fascinated by That is my grandpa.
[ Chuckles .]
Yeah.
I never have seen him before.
You've never seen any pictures of him? - No, nothing.
- Ever? Wow.
- So this photo is 1941.
- 1941.
Six years after this photo, in 1947, they had four kids, including my dad.
- Went into an orphanage.
- An orphanage.
So then, my dad is 11 years old.
And then all of a sudden, you're thrown into a completely different situation.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
That's my grandma in the hospital.
My grandma broke her hips.
So my grandpa William, he must have been not capable of handling children on his own, and she was in the hospital.
Well, Dennis doesn't know for sure.
He may have been dead, but we know that he was out of the picture at that point.
- Right.
- Okay.
So let's see what we can find out about William on Ancestry.
com.
I'll let you try.
All right.
Okay.
Now, we got to type all this in.
William.
Last name we know, Hayes.
Spouse, okay.
Barbara.
Chicago, Cook County.
Search.
There it is.
William Hayes, Barbara Hayes.
Born about 1911.
Okay.
So 1940 United States Federal Census.
Oh, there's an image.
Okay.
Oh, here he is.
Oh, wow.
- So, he's 29.
- 29.
There's Barbara.
This is crazy.
Wow.
There's my dad, age 4 in 1940.
- Uh - Oh, occupation.
William had a job.
- Photo engineer.
- Photo engineer.
That's fascinating.
Wow.
'Cause your dad My dad was a photo â tographer.
Same field.
Let's see, income.
Let's see what the income is.
Income.
Oh, $3,400.
- Wow.
- Wow.
It looks like, comparatively, my grandfather William is the richest guy in the block.
He's got a nice family going here and Yeah.
Young and a job.
- What happened? - What happened? Yeah.
Seems like everything happened in Chicago so probably have to start there.
Go for it.
This is completely fascinating to me.
To see that picture of my grandfather, it was astonishing.
But at the same time, so mysterious.
It seems like the American dream was happening for him.
So where did it go bad, you know? So I'm heading to Chicago to find out more about my grandfather, William Hayes.
I'm really wondering if my grandfather was alive when the kids were in â in the orphanage or if he was dead.
I spent the night, you know, thinking about my grandpa Hayes.
What I heard was that he died on the street, but I don't know why when he had a home to go to.
I'm meeting with historian Mark Largent at the Chicago History Museum.
I've asked him to search for anything he can find out about William.
- Hello, Mark.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.
Thanks for helping me out here.
So I was able to find a document that might shed some more light on your grandfather.
So this is the part that makes me nervous.
Oh, my God.
That's really, really sad.
ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is at the Chicago History Museum, searching for answers about his grandfather, William Hayes.
He's just been handed a document that may reveal clues about why William vanished from the lives of his wife and four young children, including Sean's dad.
So we're looking at the medical certificate of death for my grandfather, William.
This is where he died, in Cook County, Chicago.
He was 40 years? 40 years old.
40 years old? Wow.
So then, if I go back to my little makeshift timeline, he died in 1951.
My dad and the other siblings were put in an orphanage in 1947.
Well, one of my biggest questions was, was he alive when everybody went to the orphanage? Or was he dead? - And clearly, he was alive.
- Yes.
My dad and his dad were living in the same city at the same time, seemingly different lives.
All right, as I'm looking up here, my grandfather's residence, 66 West Van Buren.
Do you know where that is? Yes, it's an area now that has been rebuilt over the last couple of decades.
But in the 1950s, it was one of the three slums in town.
Oh, wow.
So it was an area that was populated almost entirely by single men, um, a lot of mental illness, uh, high levels of unemployment.
And this is where William ended up.
Yes.
Oh, that's so sad.
I've always had in my mind of how my grandfather died in the gutter.
But according to this, he didn't die in the gutter.
He actually died in a hospital.
And of course, my eye just jumped to this.
Pulmonary tuberculosis, does that say far advanced? Far advanced.
What exactly is pulmonary tuberculosis? He's got an infection in his lungs Okay.
Um, that had advanced to the point that his body could no longer fight it off.
It typically was something that struck the very old or people who had their immune systems compromised in some way.
Yeah, so what complicated his immune system? - 'Cause he wasn't old.
- Right.
Is Cook County Hospital still standing? The hospital was shut down several years ago, but the main building, the facade that was built in the 19-teens, is still there.
And we can go visit it, if you'd like.
- Oh, wow I would love that.
- Okay.
I think it's very powerful, the parallels between when my grandfather left his family, and my father left my family.
I was around the same age as my dad when our fathers left.
That's astonishing to me.
My grandfather went from the seemingly richest man in his neighborhood.
How did he end up on skid row? Wow.
It's massive.
And this is where they -- They took him.
This is what he would've seen as they brought him in.
I want to learn more about my grandfather's final days, so Mark is taking me to the medical library to see what else we can find.
Let's see what we got.
"Department of Police, Chicago.
History of Sick or Injured Person.
" So apparently, on November 1, 1951, a Chicago police officer went to 66 Van Buren Street - and found your grandfather.
- Okay.
So he was delivered to Cook County Hospital.
It says, "Names, residence, and phone number of relatives or friends," and it's completely blank.
And I wonder, is that because William didn't express any answers to that? Well, the police officer reported that your grandfather could answer questions intelligently.
Right.
Oh.
So he presumably was asked that question.
- Of course.
Right.
- And had nothing to say.
And had nothing to say.
Wow.
So what do we have on this page? This is your grandfather's initial admission record.
Wow, this is hard to read.
- This says William Hayes.
- Right.
- And this says Patrick, father.
- Right.
Oh, his father's name was Patrick.
His father's name was Patrick.
That's my middle name.
Okay.
[ Chuckles .]
So that's your great-grandfather.
That's my great-grand -- grandfather is Patrick Hayes.
Wild.
Are we to assume, then, Patrick was alive? I can't imagine why they would bother taking an address for Patrick if he still wasn't alive at the time that William was admitted.
Was he present at the time of William's death? Not necessarily.
William would have had his father's name and address, but his father wouldn't have needed to be there.
I see.
Let's keep looking, huh? Okay.
This says, Doctor's Synopsis of Record.
So, it's a just a more in-depth.
Oh, my God.
- That says anorexia.
- Yes.
Your grandfather reported that he wasn't consuming food, uh, - for four to five months.
- Wow.
He wasn't eating for four to five months? Not regularly or not well.
And is that liver, 3FB with an arrow? Right, so the doctor had discovered that the size of the liver was three fingers below the median.
And what comparatively, uh - This is a slightly enlarged liver.
- I see.
The first thing I think of when somebody has an enlarged liver is alcoholism or alcohol abuse.
It is one piece of evidence that would help support that - Mm-hmm.
Okay.
- that conclusion.
Okay.
What are we looking at here? This says, "an extremely emaciated white male, aged 40, skin pale, nose red.
" The red nose is also indicative of alcohol abuse.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
You know, it was very tragic.
On the police report, he doesn't list any friends or family.
Yet on this page, his father's name is listed here, but didn't seem to be at the hospital.
So I wonder if his father, my great-grandfather, Patrick, was he another absentee father? Or did he just not know about the death? So now, of course, I have a ton of questions about Patrick, who I believe immigrated from Ireland.
How would I learn more about him? If you're looking for information about someone who immigrated to this area, I would go to the Cook County Circuit Court Archives.
Great.
Mark, I appreciate it.
Thank you, Sean.
Good luck.
Thank you so much.
This is the end of William's story.
I don't know what it's like to go through what he went through, but I know what it's like to feel alone.
But to feel alone in those last moments of your life just must have been, you know, incredibly sad and frightening.
Going through this entire process is making me sympathize more with my own father in a way, uh, because of what he dealt with, with his father.
It does, you know, make me wonder about my great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes.
I want to know where he lived, what his life was like.
Um, did he have the same issues as his son William? Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes has learned that his grandfather, William, went from being a well-off family man to dying alone in the slums of Chicago.
He's headed to the Cook County clerk of the Circuit Court Archives to push back even further on his dad's family tree.
Now that I know the name of my great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, I've asked historian Margaret Garb to dig up more information.
Nice to meet you.
I'm curious to find out if being an absentee dad was a pattern in my family.
So we can find out more about Patrick, your great-grandfather, - by looking at the 1930s Census.
- Okay, great.
Let's try and search it through your grandfather.
William could still be living at home with his parents.
And then, we might be able to find out more about the whole household.
Okay, 1930.
William Hayes.
Father Patrick.
So this is the 1930 Census.
Look it, Patrick and Jennie.
Wow.
That was my great-grandma.
Then there's William, my grandfather.
That's -- that's it.
That's wild that it's available.
Patrick was 48 years old in 1930, so that means he was born in 1882.
Right.
What's this column? That says, owned or rented.
So, "O" is owned.
Hmm.
So this says, occupation, motorman.
What's a motorman? So he probably worked on the street cars.
I think Chicago had one of the largest street car systems - in the country.
- Wow.
It's a pretty good job.
It's a pretty stable job -- Set wages, set hours.
Wow, so during the depression, while everybody is clamoring to get food in their stomachs, my great-grandfather was working, seemed -- seemed to be doing okay during that horrible time.
Yeah, it looks like it.
And then, here, you can see where they were all born.
My great-grandparents were born in Ireland Right.
But all their children were born here.
So my great-grandfather was the first immigrant of my Hayes lineage to come to the United States.
Wow.
He arrived in 1900.
So under naturalization it says "N" or "No.
" - Actually, that's n/a - Oh.
Which means he was naturalized in the United States.
So he did become a citizen.
- Yes.
- Wow.
When - when was that? Do -- are there documents that show that? Those papers happen to be right here in this building, so we could possibly find them right now.
That's amazing.
[ Reel whirring .]
Garb: Keep going.
So we're looking for Patrick Hayes.
With your great-grandfather's birthday.
Which is 1882.
Oh, here's Patrick Francis Hayes, 1879.
So the date might not be quite right.
The Census is often not accurate.
Does it say what year he arrived? Date arrived in the U.
S.
, 1901.
- That's pretty close.
- Yeah.
We need to take down the certificate number.
Looks like 5-4-9-1-6.
So here we are.
Here are all of the Oh, my gosh.
Naturalization petitions.
This is like the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
" That's cool.
This is amazing.
So let's walk right down here, and you want to look on the side of the volume.
- 5-4-9-1-6, right? - That's it.
43 This Oh, here we go, 548 to 553.
[ Book thuds .]
Here we go.
5-4-9-1-2 5-4-9-1-6.
Here we are.
So, wow, Patrick Francis Hayes, streetcar employee.
- That's right.
- That's amazing.
Born in Ballylongford, Ireland.
Oh, wow.
There's his wife, Jennie.
So this has to be the guy.
This has to be my great-grandfather.
Brown hair, blue eyes.
Crazy.
[ Chuckles .]
Brown hair, blue eyes.
"I immigrated to the United States of America "on the vessel Umbria.
"I arrived at the port of New York "in the State of New York on or about April 1901.
"It is my intention and good faith "to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein, so help me God.
" Then he signs it, Patrick Francis Hayes.
- And that's his signature.
- Yeah.
Is this the actual ink? The actual - This is the actual document.
- That is amazing to me.
Wow.
So, how do we learn more about Patrick and his life and what it was like for him where he grew up? In order to find out more about his life in Ireland, I think you're going to have to go to Ireland.
That's so cool.
I'm really excited.
I'll go to Ireland.
Thanks, Maggie.
I feel like I finally met Patrick today.
I'm enamored with Patrick because of his drive and ambition, and his want for a better life for himself and his family.
Uh, that's really inspiring to me.
You know, going from William's story, which started out great and then ended up in tragedy, now here's his father who seems like he's the opposite.
Now I'm off to Ireland to learn more about Patrick.
I wonder how he grew up and what his surroundings were and why he wanted to escape them.
It's amazing, you know, when we landed, I just felt it right away, that bizarre feeling that somehow I'm connected to this country.
It's pretty thrilling.
So I'll be meeting with historian Shane Kilcommins at the National Archives of Ireland.
I've asked him to look into Patrick's life here before he left for America in 1901.
- Thanks for, uh, having me today.
- You're welcome.
We have found something that, um, will be of interest.
Census of Ireland, 1901.
County Kerry.
- Form K.
- Yes.
Prison What does that say? Prison, Tralee, County Kerry.
Okay, now I'm anticipating my great-grandfather wasn't as great as we thought.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is in Dublin, Ireland, exploring his Irish roots.
He's just been handed a document that shows his ambitious and successful great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, may have served time in prison before he immigrated to America.
So let's keep reading here.
Where are the names of the prisoners? Well, you don't have the names of the prisoners.
What you have here are initials.
Initials, okay.
- So we're looking for P.
H.
- Yes.
So that looks like a "P," but that looks like an "F.
" Yes.
- P.
C.
- Mmhmm.
Uh, P.
H.
- Yes, number 12.
- Number 12.
But we don't know that that's necessarily Patrick yet.
Not -- not yet.
- He's - Age - 21.
- 21.
This says locality County Kerry and the town Ballylongford.
Maybe that is him because it was 1901, and he was 21 when he left Ireland.
- Mm-hmm.
- And he's from Ballylongford.
And then, it goes on to describe, um, some more detail here.
- So this is crime.
- Yes.
And it says "Assault.
" Yes.
He hit somebody? It looks like it, yes.
- Is there anything beyond this that we can do? - There is.
We have another document, now, that we can look at Oh, my gosh.
Um, we're going to need gloves for this because the records are very, very old.
[ Whispers .]
Wow.
These are the Tralee Prison records of 1901 to 1905.
This is unbelievable.
[ Whispers .]
Wow.
That's amazing.
Okay, so Tralee Prison.
Now, we have names.
Names.
Thomas Malley, Cornelius - Donahue.
- Donahue.
Patrick Hayes.
Right there, on page one.
21 years old.
This is so wild.
Where born, Ballylongford.
Last residence, Ballylongford.
So that has to be the P.
H.
from before.
January 30, received a sentence.
- Mm-hmm.
- What does that say? - It's ditto.
- Ditto? It means it's the same as above.
- Oh, to the above.
- Okay.
So three counts of assault.
And this says, fine, bail or hard labor.
H.
L.
, hard labor.
Yeah.
Narrator: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, prisons in Great Britain and Ireland employed several forms of hard labor.
Inmates were forced to repeatedly transport a heavy cannonball from one end of the yard to another, or turn a crank that did nothing but push paddles through sand.
Another cruel punishment was the treadmill.
Prisoners like Patrick Hayes had to climb an endless rotation of steps, often completing thousands of revolutions in a single day.
The work was meant to be exhausting, monotonous, and deliberately unproductive.
Was that hard labor for the entire sentence? That was the entire sentence.
- Every day? - Every day.
Oh, wow.
This says, "Enters into recognizance" - Yes.
- What does that mean? Your great-grandfather agrees to keep the peace and be of good behavior.
The final month is, in effect, suspended.
And you can see what's written in over it is the 2nd of April.
April.
Wow.
That's amazing, and it completely links up with him leaving in April.
That's correct.
So after three months of hard labor Yes.
He said, "Sayonara, I'm out of here," gets in a boat and goes to New York.
That's right.
Before I knew this, I-I just painted him as this ambitious, very, um, driven man, but now, it seems as though he was just running from trouble.
Um, is there more, God forbid? It is possible to go back through previous criminal records.
Okay, let's see that.
So, again, you can see the date on the spine.
Says, General Register, Tralee Prison, 1896.
Okay, so this brings us back a little bit further.
And -- and so, again, we have the names - Right.
- All the names.
William Hayes.
- Patrick Hayes, here it is.
- Mmhmm.
- Does that say junior? - Yes.
Does that imply his father was a Senior Patrick? Mm-hmm.
[ Laughs .]
That is unbelievable.
So I never knew the name of my great-grandfather.
And now, I know the name of my two-times-great-grandfather.
So Patrick Hayes, Jr.
, 17 years old.
- Oh, gosh.
Assault again.
- Yes.
Wow.
And here's William Hayes.
That was my grandfather's name.
Would they have been related? Here it says Oh, Ballylongford.
So -- so they were both In at the same time.
In the same time.
Wow.
For the same offense and bailed the same day.
But we don't know if they were brothers or cousins or But they're the Hayeses.
And they're bad boys.
What does that say? Well, that's Tarbert petty sessions.
So Tarbert is a small town in North Kerry, and so this will be the petty sessions court.
So is that courthouse still functioning or around? This particular building is -- Is still standing.
Oh, my God.
Can we see it? - We can.
- No way.
Yes.
I would be really excited to see that.
So I'll meet you there tomorrow? Fantastic.
Thank you so much.
So my impression of Patrick keeps going back and forth.
It was really enlightening to see that, the timeline coming together, where he served his time in jail, didn't wait a second after he got out.
He hightailed it out of there.
And then went on to make this incredible life for himself.
So now, I'm off to Tarbert, which is the courthouse.
I'm gonna be standing in the exact spot that my great-grandfather stood when he got sentenced.
It's a very proud moment.
Narrator: Sean investigates his great-grandfather's crimes and makes another shocking discovery.
"Stabbed him with a knife.
" This is crazy.
What is going on? Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is in Tarbert, Ireland, 150 miles west of Dublin, researching his great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, Jr.
He's on his way to the courthouse and jail where Patrick stood trial for assault over a century ago.
So, that's the courthouse? Wow.
Well, this couldn't have been a fun feeling, getting dropped off here.
- Hey, Shane.
- Sean.
- Great to see you.
- How are you? Welcome to the north part of Kerry.
This is incredible.
Wow.
This is the courthouse.
The courthouse and house of correction.
I can't believe this is where Patrick went before the judge.
I-I mean, it's -- it's a weird thing to get excited about.
Yes.
I'm not excited about the events that he went through, but I'm excited to be here and see it and touch it and feel it and experience it.
It's incredible.
- Can we see inside? - Of course.
Let's go.
Awesome.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
So, this is the courthouse? And so Patrick would have stood right here.
Another Hayes in the dock.
[ Laughs .]
Somehow, this feels very comfortable.
No, it does not feel comfortable.
And this was -- this was supposed to be intimidating, that you are the focus of the -- of the session.
You can imagine, if it's an assault case, you're standing no more than two feet away from the individual in question.
Wow.
And you might recall, yesterday in Dublin, we traced the record back a little further.
And we saw where your great-grandfather, that he was, you know, previously in trouble as well, as a 17-year-old.
That's right.
Yeah.
17, there was one assault with his brother, William - Yes.
- Or supposed brother William.
And so what we can do now, we can now drill down farther and look at the -- The types of assault and perhaps glean some more information as to what actually happened in respect to those assaults.
Okay, don't tell me you have the records of all of that.
We do.
We have those records.
This is unbelievable.
Let's see them.
Okay.
So here are the documents.
"Petty Sessions of Tarbert.
" Yes.
"County of the Kerry.
" That's right.
Uh, let's see.
Complainant.
Well, now, the complainant is Patrick Hayes, and the defendant is William Hayes.
So Patrick has pointed the finger at William for doing something.
And then, if you keep going down, Patrick Hayes again, and the defendant this time is Patrick Hayes, Jr.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
So this is Patrick Hayes, and this is Patrick Hayes, Jr.
Is the defendant? Patrick, Jr.
, attacked Patrick, Sr.
That's the allegation.
So this is my great-grandfather, and this is my great-great-grandfather? Yes.
So this first defendant, William, is his son, probably.
- Correct.
- So, okay.
So I gotta -- I gotta -- I gotta -- I'm gonna have to absorb this.
So my great-great-grandfather is -- is -- is bringing his children to court? - Correct.
- Wow.
Before I even read, this is one effed up family.
It's nice to know that that has stood the test of time as well.
- Consistent.
- Consistent.
So the cause of complaint is there.
So the cause of complaint towards William, "it's defendant on the 11th of August, 1896, did unlawfully assault said complainant by" [ Chuckles .]
Holy Moly.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Sean Hayes is at the Tarbert courthouse, near his great-grandfather Patrick's hometown of Ballylongford, Ireland.
He's just been given documents that show that Patrick and his brother, William, were tried for allegedly assaulting their own father, Sean's two-times great-grandfather, Patrick Hayes, Sr.
"Did unlawfully assault said complainant by attempting to stab him with a knife.
" Correct.
[ Laughs .]
This is crazy.
What is going on? "Next, against Patrick Hayes, Jr.
, "defendant, on the 11th of August, 1896, "did unlawfully assault said complainant by throwing a stone at him.
" [ Laughs .]
Wow, so a knife and a stone thrown Yes.
- Against their father? - Yes.
So I just wonder what the fighting was about that would have warranted such drastic physical behavior, you know, that they couldn't work it out.
Well, we have another pathway that we can look at that might shed some light on that.
Patrick, Sr.
, I've looked into his previous criminal history, and I have something for you to look at.
- Wow, okay.
- Great.
I went through the petty court sessions and compiled this list.
So this is the "List of Criminal Infractions for Patrick Hayes, Sr.
, from 1864 to 1914.
" There is a whole array of offenses here over a 50-year period.
"Trespassing cows "Assault "Unpaid debt Cruelty and torture towards someone's donkey.
" Yeesh, God.
I'm seeing he's committing a crime almost every single year, except for this gap here in '78 to '88.
A 10-year gap of -- Of pretty good behavior.
That's correct.
And if you look then again in 1888, the picture changes dramatically again.
Yeah, "drunk and disorderly on the public street," just over and over and over again.
What made him start drinking so much? What changed? Mmhmm.
What did change? I have a record here.
Oh, my gosh.
"1888, Deaths Registered in the District of Tarbert, 22nd of May Bridget Hayes.
" So somehow related.
This says, "Patrick Hayes, husband.
" Wow.
So that's my great-great-grandmother.
That's right.
And this is her death certificate.
That's her death certificate.
Well, that just explains so much.
For 10 years, it seems like he was a good family man, and things were probably looking great.
And then, his wife died in 1888, which would explain this sudden change in behavior.
Maybe Patrick, Sr.
, starts dealing with it by drinking, and that, of course, affects everything.
That affects all his kids, including Patrick, Jr.
They were probably just as affected by their mom dying as -- as he was about losing his wife.
Of course.
Right? So of course, they're Nobody probably knew how to deal with it, so they all just drank about it.
So what time Remind me, I -- 'cause I have all these dates in my head, when Patrick, Jr.
was born? You might remember -- Recall yesterday, in the year 1896, he's 17.
So Patrick, Jr.
, was born in 1879.
So right at the beginning of the -- of the good years.
Yes.
So he probably grew up, Patrick, Jr.
, from 1 year old to 10 years old, uh, in a -- in a seemingly calm environment.
And then, it kind of got out of whack.
- When his mother died.
- When his mom died.
And to deal with that kind of pain at such a young age, you know, my dad probably felt some of that, too, when his father left.
Pretty much the same thing, I'm sure.
Is there any -- any more information I could find out about Patrick, Sr.
? This is the end of the road for what I could find.
So this is where it ends? Well, what you perhaps could do is travel to Ballylongford.
The area where they lived? Yes, and see what sort of town it is.
And it hasn't changed that much in the interim period.
Really? Well, thank you so much, Shane.
You've been an enormous help.
I'm gonna go check out Ballylongford.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
I'm really touched and really fortunate to know all this.
For me, what it does is just to prove how history repeats itself.
It just seems like an endless chain of chaos.
I'm literally walking in the footsteps of my ancestors here.
I just hope I don't walk the footsteps of them in life later.
[ Water rushing .]
Now thinking about my name, Sean Patrick Hayes, has whole new meaning.
Patrick, Jr.
, seems to be the only one who left for better reasons.
He just decided, you know, it's now or never.
I'm 21 years old.
I can't take this anymore.
What are you waiting for? And got on the boat and -- And did it, and that's exactly what I did.
I-I had those same conversations in my head at 24 years old, got in my car and drove to L.
A.
I wanted to get away from it, and, uh, and Patrick, Jr.
did, too, and I-I feel this weird sense of camaraderie with him.
To get any knowledge about your ancestry is a gift.
There seems to be a theme for people leaving in my family but for different reasons.
But there is definitely a cycle that is clear that you can see.
It doesn't excuse their behavior, but you kind of understand why.
And I, in -- in a sense now, I understand my own father's plight.
This whole process reiterated that you have to have compassion.
You just -- you can't judge a book by its cover.
Just because you don't know somebody's, um, history or the why they act that way, doesn't mean you should judge them.
You should maybe take a second and learn about, uh, why they behaved that way or the decisions they made, you know? I did that with my father.
And through this process, you know, I-I -- I can't, um, forget it, but I can maybe forgive it.