Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) s06e03 Episode Script

Angie Harmon

1 Narrator: On this episode, Angie Harmon finds a relative who was bought and sold That's terrifying.
You really are giving up your freedom and just placing your life in someone else's hands.
who risked everything at a pivotal point in America's history They're facing hanging or shooting by a firing squad for doing this.
and whose determination impacted generations.
This gives me new light into the rest of my life and how I'm gonna live it.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Ah, ah, ah, ah Angie: Isn't it exciting Mommy's gonna go learn about our ancestors? Will you tell us about it when you get back? Of course! Narrator: Acclaimed actress Angie Harmon is known and loved by audiences around the world.
From her start as a successful model, Angie soon moved into film and television, gaining international recognition for her role as Abbie Carmichael on the legal drama "Law & Order.
" She currently plays detective Jane Rizzoli on the hit TV series "Rizzoli & Isles.
" Harnessing her fame for the global good, Angie also serves as an ambassador with UNICEF, fighting against child trafficking.
She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she is raising her three daughters.
Angie: I have three little girls, and their ages are 11, 9, and 5.
I do know that, like, Papou, he used to ride a horse to school.
Can we get a horse and ride it to school? No! I mean, I love a big family.
I'm an only child, but my mother comes from four kids, my father comes from four kids.
So I grew up with, you know, all of my cousins, and my cousins were my age, so it was kind of like I had brothers and sisters.
I grew up in Dallas, Texas.
I lived with my mom till I was about 11.
And then I switched over and lived with my father from there on out.
I know that my mother's side is full-blood Greek.
On my father's side, on the Harmon side, I'm convinced there's some Irish or some Scottish in there somewhere, but there's just a lot less information.
My grandfather's name was Henry Harmon.
And my grandmother's name was Velma Daugherty.
And that's really kind of all I know about it.
I am a very strong individual, incredibly resilient.
I would absolutely love to find where that sort of inner strength, that inner resilience comes from.
And, hopefully, I'll get to see, like, pictures of them, and maybe, you know, some of them look like me or I look like them.
Yeah, I want to see if they look like you.
Wouldn't that be interesting? Because I love family so much, I really, really am interested in looking into my ancestry.
I mean, my father was a history teacher, so I think I sort of have that love of history that would just be, you know, so interesting to not only be able to see it myself but also to share that knowledge with my daughters.
Essentially, yes, it is my heritage, but it's also theirs, as well.
Hey, girls? So I've asked my father for some more information to get me started.
This is from Papou.
It's from my daddy.
You excited? I'm excited.
There's a letter.
- Want me to read it to you? - Yes.
Okay, "Dear Angie.
"Enclosed, you will find pictures "of some people you never knew.
"We are truly blessed to be descendents of such people.
"Their work ethic and dedication to family are a huge part of your genetics.
" Ooh, wow, look at this! Look at this! This is your great-grandfather Henry Jefferson Harmon.
Ooh! His wife Estella McGoldrick Harmon and their children.
So these are my great-grandparents, so that makes them your Great-great-grandparents.
Great-great-grandparents.
There's a lot of kids.
One, two, three, four, five.
"I hope your discoveries on this journey will bring you many happy moments.
" "I love you, Dad.
" Now we should take these to someone who can help us learn more about our family.
A genie! A genealogist.
- Or genie.
- No, no, no.
Angie: If I had to put a number on it, you know, from 1 to 10, I'd say I'm about an 11 or a 12 on a curiosity level.
So I'm pretty excited.
I've sent the information from my father to genealogist Joseph Shumway, and he has already turned up some leads on the Harmon line.
I'm on my way to meet him at the Charlotte Museum of History here in North Carolina to see what he's uncovered.
Very nice to meet you.
Thank you.
So I'm excited to share what I've been able to find on your family.
So I was able to take the information that your dad knew about, and I used a variety of records, like vital records, census enumerations, land records to be able to go back on your direct Harmon side.
Oh, great! So let's go ahead and open up the computer here.
Okay.
We're going to go to Ancestry.
com.
Okay.
And then this is the Harmon family tree that I put together.
Fantastic! And thank you, by the way.
- You bet.
- Thank you.
And go ahead and click on the "Harmon Family Tree.
" Okay.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, look at this! Okay, so Larry Paul Harmon — That's my father.
Henry Harmon and Velma Daugherty.
Those are my grandparents.
Henry Jefferson Harmon Sr.
And then his wife Celia Estella McGoldrick.
Oh, I just saw their photo for the first time in the package my father sent me.
And that's my great-grandmother.
Right.
Okay.
Oh, wow! It goes back a little further.
This is an amazing family tree and filled with names of ancestors I've never heard of.
It stretches across six generations, all the way back to my five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon.
It goes back to 1754?! Wow! So then Michael Harmon.
Wow! ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Angie Harmon is at the Charlotte Museum of History investigating her father's side of the family.
She has just uncovered surprising information about her five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon.
Germany? He was born in Germany? Did you know you were German? No! Really? - Yes.
- Wow! - German never occurred to me.
- Yeah.
It's just completely new information.
Do we know how old he was when he came to America? If you click here, you can kind of see some of the basic details of information about him.
Wow.
Oh! Wow, wow, wow! Look at that! Arrival — 1772.
He was 18.
So this is my grandfather five times, and he game from Germany when he was 18, and he came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Right.
And that was what sort of started it.
Do we know anything before that? If you click on this little source icon Okay.
and then click on "Passenger and Immigration Lists.
" [ Squeals .]
1500s to the 1900s.
Wow! So here, "Harmon" is spelled "m-a-n" instead of "m-o-n.
" Back then, spelling was quite fluid in the records because a lot of it was phonetic.
So the record keeper in Philadelphia probably just spelled the name however he wanted to.
This is from the Record of Servants and Apprentices Bound.
Okay, so meaning that he came over here from Germany to work for someone or as a servant or an apprentice.
That's what this suggests.
Does that mean that someone brought him from Germany or that he came from Germany on his own and It could be either-or, actually.
So the original record is going to give a lot more details.
Wow! Do we have that? Can we find that? We don't have access to it here, but the original record is housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
And where is the Historical Society? It's in Philadelphia.
- I should go to Philadelphia.
- You should.
Yay! [ Both laugh .]
That's outstanding! Thank you very, very much.
I appreciate it.
My pleasure.
Angie: I learned that my five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon is from Germany, which I'm still — I'm just like, "From where?!" How — that was never — I've never heard it.
I'm completely curious about, you know, the service or the apprentice thing.
If he's an apprentice, what was his field? It's like an adventure.
It's like putting a puzzle together.
So I'm off to Philadelphia to see what I can learn about my five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon.
I've never been to Philadelphia.
I think it's fantastic! Now I'm dying to know about my ancestors.
I love the fact that this 18-year-old German kid came to America.
That's a huge move to do at 18.
To find out more, I'll be meeting with James Horn at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
I'm excited to know what happened to Michael Harmon when he got to America.
I'm James Horn.
Hello, it's nice to meet you.
I'm Angie Harmon.
I took the liberty of bringing up this record for you to look at.
Thank you.
City of Philadelphia Record of Servants and Apprentices.
Your ancestor Michael Harmon was mentioned in this record.
Oh, wow.
Ooh, wow! Ooh! [ Gasps .]
Ah, look at that.
Here we are.
Can I touch it? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is the record that was being filled out when Michael first arrived.
So it was December 23rd? December 23rd December — [ Gasps .]
December 28th, December 24th.
December — Ooh, there he is! "Michael Harman.
" Wow, look at that handwriting.
Yeah.
Okay, so, "In consideration of £231/2"? £23 — it probably means five shillings.
Oh, five shillings.
"Paid for his passage from Rotterdam, bound a servant to William Will of Philadelphia.
" This assigns five years and seven months to be found all necessaries.
Could you translate this? Yes.
This is a formal registration of his entry.
He emigrated to America from Rotterdam.
Some people had enough money to pay their passage.
Clearly, Michael didn't have that money, and what they did instead was to contract with a merchant or a ship's captain to postpone that payment until they reached their destination — Philadelphia, in this case.
Wow.
That's trusting.
The idea was that maybe someone they knew would redeem the cost of his passage.
Okay.
So — But he didn't have anyone here that we know of, right? That's right, which means that he would have been auctioned off as an indentured servant to the highest bidder.
Oh, wow.
And that's what happens, I think, in this case.
Wow, so he's an indentured servant.
Indentured servitude was quite common.
He would have bound himself as a laborer in any kind of trade, depending on the master.
He wouldn't have had any say in who his master was, and he wouldn't receive any wages.
Did he know that coming over here? I think it's pretty likely that he knew he was going to become an indentured servant once he reached America.
Wow, that's really incredible.
We might, actually, be able to learn a little bit more about him because there are two entries here, so we've got this first entry, and then we've got this second one — "Michael Harman.
" Mm-hmm.
A servant assigned by William Will to serve John Houts - Houts, yeah.
- Tanner.
So John Houts is who he worked for? Yes, yeah.
- So he's a Tanner.
- What is that? It was literally taking the carcasses of animals, skinning them, and then processing the leather.
Oh, bless his heart.
[ Chuckles .]
Wow.
He gets here, and then he has to do that.
Yeah.
Wow.
For five years.
For five years and seven months.
- And seven months.
- Yes.
And this amount here is paid not to Michael.
This amount is being paid by John Houts to William Will.
What's going on is a trade in servants.
They're almost commodities, really.
They're being bought and sold and passed on.
- That's terrifying.
- Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you really are giving up your freedom and just placing your life in someone else's hands.
So what was happening in Germany at this time? Like, what was Germany like? The really big problem at this time for young men like Michael was there was very little land available.
And we have to remember in the 18th century that land is the ultimate test of worth and self-value.
And that's what compelled a lot of future servants to get up and move, to go elsewhere where they might be able, eventually, to set themselves up as independent people.
Mm-hmm.
He seems very brave.
Yeah.
So Michael would have been done with his service about 1777, '78? Yep.
In 1778, the colonists were in revolution against the British.
Right! So now we've got a question as to what's going on in Philadelphia in this region, and where's Michael in all of this? Because he was originally German, would he I mean, I don't know.
Did he become a part of this? Did he become a soldier? You know, or did he just sort of go and make his name for himself? - Well - Do we know? That's what we've got to find out.
ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Angie Harmon is in Philadelphia.
She's just discovered that her five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon was working as an indentured servant in Pennsylvania at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
Now she's hoping to learn whether Michael fought in the war and, if so, on what side.
Horn: We're going to search a site called Fold3.
This is the online resource for checking American military records from any period.
Okay.
We probably need to put in "Harman.
" - The a-n? - Yeah.
'Cause that's how he seems to be spelling his name.
"Revolutionary War Service Tecords.
" Okay.
Revolutionary War.
"Michael Harman"! "Appears on an account of the United States to John Lewis of the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment.
" Yeah.
So he did enlist.
He was a soldier.
He was a soldier.
And he fought on the American side.
He did.
I'm very proud of him.
Yeah, well, you should be.
He seems like a very stand-up, you know He's now fighting in the war for American independence.
Mm-hmm.
Time of enlistment — May 10, 1777.
So he would have enlisted for three years or the entire duration of the war, because that was the standard requirement.
Okay.
And he was 23.
And he was only 23.
So Michael would have been done with his service at the tannery about 1778.
But, actually, he enlists in 1777.
The army would have paid John Houts compensation for the lost time so that Michael could leave the tanyards and fight for the cause of independence.
So it wasn't like a draft.
It wasn't like a recruiting agent came to the tannery and said, "You have to come fight.
" - He volunteered.
- He did.
- I love that! [ Chuckles .]
He did.
- I love that! - He did.
And think of the risks that he was taking being a soldier.
- He was big on the risks.
- Yeah, he was.
So do we know what happened? I'm going to send these documents over to a colleague of mine — Scott Stephenson.
He's an expert on the Revolutionary War, and he might be able to tell you, if he can find some further material, what happens to Michael during the war.
Oh! That's very exciting.
- Thank you so, so very much! - Yeah.
Thank you.
It has been absolutely, absolutely amazing.
Come here! [ Laughs .]
Thank you! Angie: What I'm so impressed with about Michael Harmon was that he was a risk-taker.
You know, he was 18 when he came here.
That's a big step.
I do have a soft spot for, you know, our troops, and to know that he volunteered, that he went in wholeheartedly for a country that he wasn't born to, that just means a lot to me.
I'm really curious about what happens next.
I'm on my way to meet with Scott Stephenson at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
I'm dying to hear what he knows about what happened to my five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon, who goes from being an indentured servant to joining a revolution for a country that's not his own.
I want to know what happened to him in the war.
So we're able to reconstruct a lot about Michael Harmon's military service through regimental histories, documents that have survived.
And we found a document you might be interest in.
Really?! Sure thing.
Okay.
This is a copy of that document.
Okay, a camp near Valley Forge.
Wow.
May 7, 1778.
"Received the full contents of" Can you help me? Sure.
"The within order of six dollars.
" So this is like a pay stub.
It's like a pay stub, yeah.
Is this sort of his payment for service? That's right.
That's right.
So, of course, pay was intermittent in the Continental Army.
Right.
Even the pittance of pay they received, they didn't receive it very often.
So this is him in the spring of 1778 at the camp at Valley Forge receiving some back pay.
He would have been presented with this voucher, and this here is actually where he would acknowledge that he'd received that pay.
Yeah, 'cause there's his name right there.
That "X" is his signature.
Oh, wow! So — oh, wow! Does this mean that he didn't know how to read or write? At this point, that's - It seems that way.
- That's right.
That's amazing.
Does Valley Forge mean anything to you? I mean, you know, I remember learning about it in history, but please tell me.
In September of 1777, the British capture Philadelphia, which is the capital of the Revolutionary government here.
They're gonna try to stamp out the American Revolution just a year after the Declaration of independence.
I guess people don't really like to lose their things, do they? [ Both chuckle .]
Empires in particular.
That's right.
Congress has fled Philadelphia to try to get out of harm's way, and Michael Harmon is serving in the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment.
Winter is coming rapidly, and there's no city close by.
Where is the Continental Army going to spend the winter? And on December 19th of 1777, the Continental Army marches into Valley Forge and settles in for a winter encampment.
Michael Harmon is in that camp at Valley Forge.
Serving in the army that's under the direct command of George Washington.
[ Chuckling .]
Oh, my God! That's incredible! [ Laughs .]
That's unbelievable! George Washington?! Like, he was with him? You bet.
Oh, my gosh! Oh, my father's gonna love this.
[ Chuckles .]
Oh, my gosh! Valley Forge is only 30 miles away.
Would you like to visit? Yes! Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Angie Harmon is in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
She's just discovered that her five-times-great-grandfather Michael Harmon camped here with George Washington's army.
Welcome to Michael Harmon's neighborhood.
Wow! It's amazing.
So this is a reconstruction of a soldier's hut like the one Michael Harmon would have lived in during the Valley Forge encampment.
Would have shared this with 11 other men.
I bet they were freezing.
The problem is it's not very wind-tight.
Again, you could even feel the wind sort of hitting us as we're sitting here.
They didn't have a lot of nails, hammers, that sort of thing, so the roofs are just thin, split-out pieces of wood.
Lots of gaps in between them.
So if it's raining, they're gonna be getting wet.
This is their city for the winter.
The British are in brick buildings, they're in Independence Hall, they're in substantial houses.
And this is really the log city — 2,000 of these huts that are housing these men through the winter.
Then the cold really sets in.
During the frozen winter months of 1777 to 1778, soldiers at Valley Forge face dire shortages of food, clothing, and other basic supplies.
The Continental Congress was mired in chaos and unable to deliver crucial supplies to the army.
Plagued by cold and malnutrition, the 12,000 troops at Valley Forge suffered heavily from pneumonia, typhoid, and other illnesses.
Approximately 2,500 men died during the Valley Forge encampment, while the remaining soldiers — Michael Harmon included — Struggled to survive the bitter winter.
Wow.
It's heartbreaking.
Mm.
But we know he made it — Michael Harmon.
Yeah, you saw his signature on that pay stub.
I feel like I'm so close to him, you know? And he was here! He was on these grounds! Yeah.
I mean, I just kind of, you know, I could walk out there and possibly step in the same, you know, steps that he did.
You can.
These men were fighting to create a country.
The whole idea of a government based on power resting with the people, not with a king, was a radical idea at the time.
I wonder if he knew, you know, historically, what they were doing.
I mean, they had to have.
But, you know Washington, quite often in his orders to his men, would tell them, "The fate of millions unborn depends upon what we do here today.
" That's amazing.
This is so good! Where could I find out more about Michael after Valley Forge? Well, most of the records for the Pennsylvania regiments, including the 4th Pennsylvania, are held by the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.
There will almost certainly be more documents that will help you to follow Michael Harmon's experience past his first year during the American Revolution.
Wow.
Okay.
Angie: I really am just so impressed with Michael Harmon — The strength in his heart, how he just persevered.
You know, they always say, like, "Once you lose hope, then it's over.
" And here they are in deplorable conditions.
I think that's what makes this story and all of this so remarkable is that they kept going.
I've often wondered, where does this resiliency that I have come from? I can take a lot.
And now I think I know where that comes from.
So, today, I'm going to meet historian Major Sean Sculley at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.
- Miss Harmon? - Hi.
It's nice to meet you.
I'm Major Sean Sculley.
Very nice to meet you, too.
I've sent Sean all the information I have on Michael Harmon, hoping to discover what the rest of the war held for him and get a glimpse into his life afterward.
- Okay.
- All right, so doing some research on the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment has led me to have you take a look at that.
Okay.
[ Gasps .]
George Washington.
This is written by somebody to Washington.
Okay, so this is Mount Kemble? Mm-hmm.
On the 2nd of January, "It's with inexpressible pain I now inform your excellency of a general mutiny and defection which suddenly took place in the Pennsylvania Line.
" No! No! ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Angie Harmon is at the Pennsylvania State Archives where she has just learned that her five-times-great-grandfather's regiment carried out a mutiny.
"Every possible exertion was used by the officers "to suppress it in its rise, "but the torrent was too potent to be stemmed.
"Captain Tolbert and Lieutenant White "are reported mortally wounded.
"A very considerable number of the field and other officers "are much injured by strokes from muskets, bayonets, "and stones.
Sincerely, Anthony Wayne.
" What happened? This was a mutiny of the sergeants, the corporals, and the privates of the Pennsylvania Line against general Anthony Wayne.
And they actually rioted in their camp, and they then began marching towards Philadelphia so that they could get Congress to give them what they believed they had been owed.
And what you can see here is that, obviously, it got quite violent.
Yes.
I don't know how I feel about this.
You know, Michael Harmon served for over three years with hardly any food, not adequate clothing, and rarely getting paid.
New men who joined the regiment, they were joining sometimes for shorter enlistments, and they were joining for much more money.
All of that is continuing to be a problem.
Okay.
As far as they were concerned, this was a breach of contract on the part of Congress for not having paid them when they were supposed to pay them and, more importantly, for not allowing them to get out of the service at the end of those three years.
I guess every man has his breaking point.
- Mm.
- And that's so sad! I mean, really, they can't get their own side to feed them, you know, and they can't get clothes or food or, you know, anything.
And now you're feeling what your ancestor felt in this moment.
I get it! And they had to have known.
I mean, obviously, these are honorable men.
And so for them to know that the word "mutiny" is going to be attached to what they're doing, that had to have affected them.
In fact, what they're doing, the mutiny, was a capital offense.
So they're facing hanging or shooting by a firing squad for doing this.
Ugh! General Wayne's biggest fear is that they're not gonna march to Philadelphia but that, instead, they're gonna march to New York.
Because at this point in time, New York was the headquarters for the British army.
Now, would they go to New York to fight or to join the British army? Well, that's a good question.
I have something else for you that might actually shine a light on that.
Okay! Ooh! "It having been reported at New York "that the Pennsylvania troops and others "have been defrauded of their pay, clothing, and provisions.
They have suffered every kind of misery and oppression.
" So they succeeded.
Mm, keep reading.
Oh! Okay.
"They are now offered" — Oh — "to be taken under the protection "of the British government "to have their rights restored "and the pay due from Congress faithfully paid to them "upon their laying down their arms and returning to their allegiance.
" This is actually a letter written by the British to the soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line.
So, now, they send this as a sort of, I guess, olive branch, if you will.
"Oh, come over here, and we'll feed you and clothe you, and you'll be protected.
" And more than that, they even say here, they will pay them what Congress owes them.
Sneaky devils.
[ Both laugh .]
Oh! That had to be very hard to pass up.
I have to — did they? Did they? - They did not.
In fact — - They didn't?! They did not.
They did not because they're amazing.
Okay.
Okay! As soon as the two spies arrived in their camp with this letter, the sergeants that were in charge of the mutiny immediately arrested them Okay.
and delivered them directly to General Anthony Wayne.
I'm really happy they didn't go over there.
I'm so happy.
General Wayne is able to convince them to stop at Princeton and to begin to negotiate with him.
The final choice that the soldiers from the '76 and '77 enlistments had was they could be discharged and re-enlist for the bounty, or they could be discharged and go home.
Do we know what Michael Harmon chose? Well, we actually have a way to find out.
- We do? - We do.
We have a book here which is from the Pennsylvania Archives.
This is a list of the non-commissioned officers and privates of the 4th Pennsylvania.
"Michael Harman.
" May 5, 1777 to 1781.
He finally had enough.
That's what it looks like.
I don't blame him.
So if he left the war in 1781, he would have been about 27 years old.
Right.
Where did he go? Well, I saw in the family tree that you sent to me that Michael had a son named Peter who had lived in Mercer County, Kentucky.
And so I took the opportunity to look at some of the Mercer County records, and I found this for you, so take a look.
Okay.
Mercer County, 1795.
Yeah, absolutely.
So what you're looking at are tax records that show all of the people that owe taxes in the county.
Michael Oh, there he is.
Thank you.
Quantity of Acres.
Acres, okay.
130 acres — That's a nice amount.
[ Laughs .]
This is 1795.
He would be about Yeah, that's right.
This is not bad for 41.
- 130 acres.
- Not bad.
Achieving his goal, finally.
That's right.
Do we know anything else other than that he had land in Kentucky? Well, actually, you have taken me as far as my expertise can go in this regard.
I think you're gonna need to go to Mercer county, Kentucky, to find out.
I would love to go to Mercer County, Kentucky! Oh, wow! This is really amazing.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, thank you.
This was a pleasure.
It was such a pleasure.
The document that sticks out with me today is mutiny.
My heart just sank.
I was like, "no! Not now, after all of this!" But I can certainly understand.
I just feel like, you know, Michael was very strong-willed, of strong convictions, to go to Congress and to, you know, demand what was promised to them so many years earlier.
I can't tell you how many years I've said, "Why do I have this need for justice?!" I've always wondered, like, where that has come from.
And now I think I understand it.
I'm wondering what his life was like in Kentucky, you know, if he was married, how many kids he had, what he did for a living.
I just — I have so many questions about this man, and I'm really eager to find out more.
So I'm on my way to Kentucky to learn what happened to Michael Harmon after he left the military.
I'll be meeting with local historian Amalie Preston in Mercer County.
She's pulled some documents for me to take a look at.
Well, if you're wanting to know more about your ancestor, perhaps a good place to look would be if he left a will.
Yes! Okay, let's see.
Now, there's a Margaret Harmon.
Michael Harmon.
Book Number Three, page 279.
208, 276.
Michael Harmon! M.
Harmon — Will.
Yes! Okay! "I, Michael Harmon, do make this my last will and testament.
" "First I give to my wife, Peggy, £70 "Out of notes and bonds now in possession, "be paid to her as soon as can be collected after my decease.
"To my son Peter, it is his choice to occupy any of my plantations.
" Oh, "Plantations.
" He didn't own slaves, did he? May I share with you that "plantations" was a term used at the time loosely, perhaps not with quite the connotation we have now.
It could just mean "My nice big farm.
" I hope so.
"My plantations to be divided between my sons Peter, Michael, and Jacob.
" You're starting to get the family group.
- Oh! - Yes.
"My daughter Peggy To be supported in the same manner until she is full of age.
" Oh! "To my daughter Barbara.
" Oh, my gosh! So he has three sons, two daughters so far.
So far.
Ah, "To my daughter Kitty"! Oh! "To my daughter kitty, I give £70 as soon as it can be collected from my personal estate.
" "To my son John.
" I can't! [ Laughs .]
This is where I get my need for a huge family! Oh, my gosh! So now that's four boys, three girls.
Yes.
Seven children.
Yes, I know.
It's such a wonderful family.
Mm-hmm.
"I have hereunto set my name and affixed my seal this 21st day of July, 1807.
" His mark — Michael Harmon.
Wow.
He accomplished all of this without ever knowing how to write.
Ohh! It's so great.
Ah, ah, ah, ah Narrator: Angie Harmon is at the Harrodsburg Historical Society in Kentucky, where she has just learned from her five-times-great-grandfather's will that he had a wife and seven children.
So we have one more treat in store.
You can go to the actual site where Michael Harmon lived.
We have actually contacted the owners of the land in its present day and have asked if you could come out and visit.
They, of course, said yes.
So what do you think? Is that something you would like to do? Angie: Oh, my gosh! I would love to take my daughters.
Oh, wouldn't that be perfect? Oh, my gosh, yes! Yes.
Thank you.
You're entirely welcome.
Angie: I'm so grateful that Michael Harmon finally was able to, you know, enjoy what he came here for.
It was so wonderful to know that he had a large family.
You know, seven kids.
The bravery and the courage and all of those things I sort of live by.
When you put all of those characteristics together, they make a really, really exceptional man.
I wish I would have known him.
To go and see this land that Michael Harmon obtained, I'm excited, I'm nervous.
You know, I want to take my girls there.
So they're coming out to join me.
So what do you think? Are you excited? What do you think? Yes.
Are we there yet? Look at that big pretty house on that hill.
Oh, wow.
Okay, hi, remember your manners, please.
Okay? Hi there.
Hello, how are you? I'm good, thank you.
How are you? - I'm doing great.
- Good! These are my daughters.
This is Finley, this is Avery, and this is Emery.
- Avery.
- And I'm Angie Harmon.
I'm Michael Harmon.
- Very nice to meet you, - Michael Harmon! - Oh, my gosh! - Yes! - So we're related.
- We are.
Oh, that's So we would be, what, fifth cousins - Fifth cousins.
- once-removed.
- Yes.
- Right.
Well, hey, family! [ Laughs .]
Oh, my gosh! - Oh, my gosh! - Come here, girls! Yeah! That's so funny! - It is.
- That's amazing! It is amazing.
And to know that this is 220 years of Harmon.
And it's still in our family.
I know.
That's amazing.
Well, can we look around? Sure, sure! You can basically see the whole farm from over there.
So here we are.
Whoa! Avery: Whoa! Emery: Whoa! Jinx! Whoa, look at that! Oh, my gosh! It is so beautiful! Look at the cows! Oh, my gosh! Come on, girls, let's jump out.
You okay? Whoa! Michael: The tree line is the boundary, so basically, all — Everything you can see, you know, over that way is all Harmon.
It's just stunning.
Come on, Fin! Whoo! Let's do it! Angie: It's unbelievable! All of that fighting, all of that suffering, all of those hardships, all of that was for this.
He just put together such a beautiful life, not only for himself but for the generations after him.
You know, that commitment to family is so clear.
I mean, to bring the girls here, to have them standing here with me, it just sort of, you know, completes the whole journey.
Okay, can I get on your back? I want to get on yours, Finley.
I just feel so whole.
This sort of gives me new light into the rest of my life and how I'm gonna live it and the decisions that I make and what I'm gonna do and what I'm gonna leave here.
Just that moment of coming here and seeing him with his blue eyes and his — And he's Michael Harmon.
It just — I will never forget that moment as long as I live.
This is an incredible thing, and I'm so thankful that it came my way.
[ Laughter .]

Previous EpisodeNext Episode