Actor Chris O’Donnell sees Who Do You Think You Are? as a chance to both honor and learn about his beloved late father, William O’Donnell, “the quintessential family man,” and his side of the family. He turns to his niece Tory, an amateur genealogist, to get started.
Chris’ grandmother Sarah Regina McCabe’s baptism certificate provides them with a name they haven’t heard in family lore: Sarah’s mother, Mary McEnnis. A search on Ancestry.com gives them their next clue: Mary with her parents, Michael and Eliza of St. Louis, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. Tory also uncovers a reference on the Missouri History Museum website to a memoir Michael McEnnis wrote about a devastating cholera epidemic in St. Louis in 1849.
Chris follows this exciting lead to St. Louis, where he reads Michael’s heartbreaking account. Michael explains how he had volunteered to fight in the Mexican-American War, but his family’s own tragic circumstances during the epidemic caused him to request a discharge to go home and “take charge.” Chris is amazed to see a photograph of his great-great-grandfather included with the account.
Curious about Michael’s service in the war, Chris heads to Washington, D.C., where he finds his ancestor’s muster rolls and learns that Michael went “absent on furlough” a few months after his enrollment. Intrigued, Chris searches Fold3.com and sees Michael’s actual discharge letter.
But there’s even more incredible proof of Michael’s service: his actual army sabre, donated to the Smithsonian, and an article from 1911 describing the family’s “fighting stock,” including a man named George McNeir, Chris’ 4x great-grandfather. George is mentioned as a 9th generation American who fought in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant in the Sea Fencibles at the bombardment of Fort McHenry.
This clue takes Chris to the National Archives and then to Maryland to learn more about George McNeir. In military documents, the 1810 census on Ancestry.com, court documents and a city directory, Chris finds another ancestor striking a balance between the duty to country and family.
After seeing his tailoring business suffer after the war started, George joined the local naval militia, the Sea Fencibles. By the fall of 1814, George’s pressing family needs led to his own request for a discharge — but only after he stood by a cannon at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. There, on the morning of September 14, after enduring twenty-five hours of shelling, he would have seen the fort raise the huge flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became the “Star Spangled Banner.”
In his father’s father, Chris recognizes a trait he saw in his dad and that has guided his own life through the glitz of Hollywood and fame: family first.
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