Cirrhosis Of The Liver In Dogs

narrator: on this episode,kelsey grammer digs into the unexplained historyof his grandmother's family. kelsey: i'm confusedabout why my grandmother never talked to meabout her mom, why i never knewwhat her name was. narrator: he uncovers the storyof a woman haunted by demons... she clearly had, you know,a real serious problem. ...discovers an ancestor whose identity had long beena mystery...

"character 'bad'." ...and finds a connectionto family who risked everything in one of the greatestmigrations in american history. he had his body buriedalone on the plains. wow. [ sighs ] ♪ ah, ah, ah, ah ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com captions paid for bydiscovery communications [ chuckles ]

actor kelsey grammer, best known for his iconic roleas dr. frasier crane in the long-running televisioncomedies "frasier" and "cheers," has won multiple awards, including five emmysand three golden globes. pursuinga passion for shakespeare that developed in high school, kelsey began his careerin theater, studying at juilliard.

he would become oneof the most successful actors in the history of television. kelsey lives in los angeles with his wifeand two youngest children. my father's nameis frank allen grammer jr. my mother was sally cranmer, and they met in new yorkand married and moved to the virgin islands, where i was bornin st. thomas.

my mom and dad didn't do so wellin their marriage and sort of became disenchanted, so my mom moved backwith her parents when i was around 2, 2â½,maybe 3 years old. gordon and gam.that's what we called them. and they assumed the mantle of, you know, raising me and mysister alongside my mother. that core, grandad gordon, gam,evangeline, my mom, my sister, and me --the five of us.

it just felt ideal at the time. i was a very happy child,very happy young man, and then it just kind of hitthis maelstrom of tragedy. my sister died at 18. my dad died when he was 38. my grandad succumbed to cancerat 63, and after gordon died, my grandmother and ibecame very close. my grandmother is feistyand funny and really loving

and then really tough as nailsother times. she taught me don't quit,figure out your own way out. that really defined a lot of how i got throughmost of what i've been through, and i owe that to gam. got to find out some things about yourgreat-great-grandmother, evangeline, after whom you are named.

i'd like to fill in some ofthe blanks about my grandmother. i don't really knowmuch about her. she never spokeabout her mother. she did describe to me onceabout her dad. apparently,he left pretty early on. his name was dimmick. i don't even knowhis first name. she found him. she tried to call him and say,you know, "i'm your daughter,"

and he said,"i don't want to see you. i'm not interested." she was raised by her aunts. there were three sisters,at least, but mostly aunt lelais who she talks about, and i never knew lela. they looked after her. my grandmotherwas apparently rather difficult 'cause she ran awayall the time.

but evangelineis a proud name. oh, no! [ laughing ]you should be proud to bear it. the mystery for me is simplywhy did she live with her aunts? what happenedto this little girl, this grandmother that raised me? she was possibly the biggestinfluence in my life, and i'd like to know more, get to know hera little bit better.

i believe this is oneof the scariest things to do in your life -- allow an actorto drive you around. you never knowwhat they might do. i'd like to find out more about my grandmotherevangeline's parents, why she wasn't raised by them. i'm meeting family researcherjen utley to see what vital recordsmay reveal

about my grandmother'supbringing. i'm most interested to find outmore about my grandmother. okay. she was born evangeline dimmick,i believe, around 1905, in oakland,california. let's take a lookat ancestry.com, where we'll lookfor census records. choosecensus and voter lists. so, let's put inher first and last name.

evangeline dimmick. born in 1905. yes. and that's probablyenough to start with. here we go. here, we've gottwo pretty good hits. now, since we thinkshe was born about 1905, let's look at the censusclosest to her birth year. so let's start at 1910.

yeah, okay, great. so, this gives you a snapshotof the family and the household. right. so, where were they livingat this time? this is california. they're in alameda. that's near oakland, right? yeah. there's my grandmother.evangeline.

says granddaughter,4 years old. 4 in 1910, so she was probably bornin 1905 or 1906. this is a household that'sheaded by charles b. geddes. i knewabout the geddes name. i didn't knowabout charles. there is amelia geddes. they would be my grandmotherevangeline's grandparents. so,my times-two-grandparents?

two times. two times we call it. sounds odd to me somehow.i don't know why. it is funnythat my grandmother evangeline, being raisedby her grandparents like i was. history repeating. kind of interesting. she told me that she was raisedby her aunts. maybe she got kicked arounda little bit.

different places. and above gamis genevieve dimmick. i thinkshe's gam's mother. that's right. the names are interesting enoughand not very common, so to have a genevieveand an evangeline with dimmick as the last name... that's her mom. genevieve.

i'd never heard the namegenevieve from my grandmother. so, genevieveis my great-grandmother. great-grandmother. married, but -- she is married, yes. this is how long she's beenmarried -- five years. five years. but my grandmother evangeline'sfather is missing -- mr. dimmick,wherever he is.

so far, i've learned that my two-timesgreat-grandparents were charles and amelia geddes, and the name of mygreat-grandmother was genevieve, who my grandmothernever mentioned. but there is still a blank --gam's father. my great-grandfather. who was he,and what happened to him? well, i think we've minedeverything from this one.

we can go back to the 1920 and see if that givesany more clues. oh, okay, great. so, let's have you clickon the 1920 census. making me doall this clicking. we're in san franciscoat this point. we are in san francisco. okay, so there's evangelinethere. she's 14 at this time,and it says niece,

so this was filled outby her uncle, who waswalter f. swindell. so, she's livingwith her uncle, and -- oh, there's genevieve,my great-grandmother. up there with minerva,and there's lela. aunt lela is the onethat gam always talked about, and she's the headof this household. and if you lookat the house numbers, the house numbersare the same,

so they were probably in somesort of conjoining apartment. they're livingall together. oh, they were all livingin the same place. oh, got it.okay, cool. so, let's lookabout some details about your great-grandmother,genevieve, there. 37. so she's 37 now. what does the zero say?what does that mean? it's actually a "d."

oh, that means divorced now. genevieve is now divorced. so, they finallygot divorced. but we stilldon't even know when he was thereor when he wasn't there. don't have a clue. so, can you goto marital records? the problem is is at this point,we don't know his name. yeah. right.

but i think if we go lookat some newspaper records, newspapers throughout time have always been tryingto sell stories. so let's try -- certainly know about that. [ laughs ] so, we go here. this is a repository of digitized newspapersfrom california.

so let's put ingenevieve dimmick's name. okay, cool. search. october, 1913."charges made by wife. "neglect and desertionare the grounds for a suit for divorce filed todayin the superior court by mrs. genevieve marriottdimmick." he deserted her.yeah, that's bad.

narrator:coming up, kelsey heads north to see if he can learn whythe grandmother who raised him never spoke of her parents. seems like he leftright away. i don't thinkthey saw him again. narrator: kelsey grammeris combing through records, trying to learn the mysterioushistory of his maternal roots and his grandmother, evangeline,who raised him. he's just discovereda 1913 newspaper article

that sheds some light on his great-grandparents'troubled marriage. kelsey:"charges made by wife. by mrs. genevievemarriott dimmick againstellis l. dimmick." so, his name is ellis. utley: ellis. how about that.mr. dimmick. "the couple were marriedin oakland in april, 1905,

and mrs. dimmick saysher husband left her in novemberof the same year." wow.he deserted her. and she was probablypregnant when they got married with my grandmother,evangeline. could've been. she was certainly pregnantwhen he left. she certainly was,because gam was born in 1905. so,the "l" stands for louse.

ellis louse dimmick. maybe when she figured outshe was with child, he said, "i'm out." eight years later,she files for divorce. and so the question is is why did she wait eight yearsto file for divorce? wasn't a fun thing to do,i suppose. okay,what do we do next? so, probably the best thingto do

is to find someonein the bay area who maybe can give youmore historical context about what divorce was likeat the time. so, we're offto san francisco. that's where your journey'staking you. it was a real pleasure.thanks. kelsey: there weresome blanks filled in for me, and then there were new blankscreated. ellis is a guy that didn't evenexist really until today.

he is my great-grandfather,so why did he split? ellis. and, you know,what was genevieve's story? i'm still confused about why my grandmother nevertalked to me about her mom, so, i'm off to san francisco to find out more aboutmy great grandparents' divorce. i'm heading to the san franciscopublic library to meet with social historiandonna schuele.

i'm curious to knowwhy my great-grandmother waited eight yearsbefore divorcing her husband, who abandoned her while she waspregnant with her first child. we were actually ableto find the document that's the final decreeof divorce. wow.isn't that something? superior courtof the state of california, county of san francisco,final decree of divorce. the motionof genevieve marriott dimmick.

"the plaintiff came on this 20th day of november,1914. "ellis l. dimmick --defendant. "that defendanthas not moved to vacate "and set aside said default "that he has not madea motion for a new trial, "and he has not takenan appeal from saidinterlocutory decree." so, he did not participatein this proceeding, basically. no. no.

so, it seems like he leftright away and just -- so, she divorced himabout eight years later. why would she have consideredwaiting quite so long, except that maybe there waspressure in the household to not bea divorced woman. what was it likebeing divorced then? by the time that genevievefiles for divorce, and i had taken a look, and her parentsare no longer alive.

that might have mattered that maybe while her parentswere alive, she didn't want to file, or maybe they didn't want herto file for divorce. also, it may be that she doesn't wantthe stigma of being divorced. i think that that is a goodpossibility in this, as well. but it wasespecially not easy to be a single motherin this time period.

there was no daycare, really,the way that we have it today. well, i think that's whyshe was with her aunts. maybe they wantedto give her a more stable sense of,you know, belonging in a family while the sisterswere living next door. fascinating. yeah, so what elsecan you tell me? i mean, i'd like to know moreabout this fella ellis. i'd like to know if, i mean,if genevieve ever remarried.

well, we were able to findmore information on genevieve. wow. so, this isher death certificate. that's her death certificate. genevieve foltz. so, she did remarry. yeah, she did. how about that. she marriedwilliam s. foltz. i hope he loved her very muchand that she was happy.

that she was happy. at the age of 52 yearsand 20 days. principle cause of death. cirrhosis of the liver. so, it looks like genevievewas an alcoholic. oh, wow. narrator: kelsey grammeris in san francisco, where he's just learnedthat his great-grandmother died of cirrhosis of the liver.

well, that would bethe most common cause of cirrhosis of the liver. certainly. and it would be drinking overa fairly long period of time. a lot. yeah. to die at 52,cirrhosis of the liver, that explains a lotof why my grandmother talked about how her motherwasn't really in her life. maybe that's whyshe ran away so much.

she just wanted mom to payattention once in a while. and the timing on thisis interesting, too, because she dies in 1934, but we have just come outof prohibition. so, she was drinkingall through prohibition. san francisco,it was very easy to get alcoholduring prohibition. in some senses,genevieve is -- i don't know if you'd call ita victim of her time,

but certainlyof the circumstances, because at the pointthat she's young and probably datingand then meets her husband, this is a time period wherewomen are starting to enjoy sort of these public amusements,they would call them, right? and so women were startingto be able to go out. and so the temptationsare there, and certainlythis happens in urban areas. she was a party girl.

so, she may have been -- yes, she may have beena very early party girl here. maybe she and ellis just hooked upon a drunk one night and -- very well could be. get married. maybe he thoughtit was the right thing to do. i don't know.but then he just split. i mean, he leftbefore the baby was born. so he's the mystery in this,and i don't know who he is.

so, you sawfrom the newspaper article that they had gotten marriedin oakland. in oakland, okay. and i could put you in touchwith a historian over in oakland that can help youtrack down and see if ellishas a presence over there. i'll do it.thank you. thank you. thank you very much.

you're welcome. learning that genevievewas probably a heavy drinker gave me some insight intowhat her home must've been like for evangeline,for my grandmother. she was a little girl,and her mom was not available. it's a shame. to find outthat genevieve had died, basically, of alcoholism is a thingthat resonates with me.

i've certainly had my ownexperiences with that issue. it's a sad end. somebody a lot smarter than i amonce said that alcoholism is the resultof a broken heart and unresolved grief. and if that's the case, well,then i can certainly understand how that might have happened. so, the mission, basically,is to find out more about ellis. ellis dimmick.

i'd like to knowthe circumstances that led him to abandonhis wife and child. so i'm meetingwith historian jim baumohl at the oakland public library. baumohl:i have some things here that might sheda little light on ellis, and i'm just gonna let yousort through it here. okay, great. ellis loughborough dimmick.

he's a marine. he enlistedon the 26th day of may, 1908. so, he joins the marineswhen he's 29. is that early or latefor that? in 1908, san francisco was beingrebuilt after the fire, and if you could swing a hammer,you could get a job. you had a job, yeah. so, this smacksof desperation. this is more of the same,right?

ellis -- "authorized enlistellis l. dimmick. waiving marriage." the hell does that mean? if you had dependents,the army made sure that part of your salarywent to your dependents. oh, okay. so, he has declaredthat his spouse, genevieve, is not dependent upon himeconomically, and therefore, all of his salarywill come to him.

boy, he sounds likea real jerk. i'm trying to find some way intoellis to get him off the hook, and he just keepsputting himself -- i mean,i'm glad he joined the marines. that's -- i admire thaton some level, but holy geez. that's his service record. a.o.l.a.o.l. a.o.l. meansaway over leave.

essentially, he was latereporting for leave. right. right. [ chuckles ] here we go. a.w.o.l.he just took off. oh, i guess that pretty muchsums it up about ellis, doesn't it? "failure to return from dutyon pier number three." "oh, yeah,i just was at the pier and decidedto go get a drink."

on the back here,if you'll see, the last commentthat they make about him. good lord. [ clicks tongue ] narrator:kelsey grammer is digging into the lifeof his great-grandfather, ellis dimmick, who desertedhis wife and daughter. he's just come acrossa disturbing notation

on ellis' marine record. "discharged as undesirable,private, "because of habitual a.o.l. and excessive useof intoxicants." the marines couldn'twhip him into shape. he spent a lot of timein the brig on bread and water. wow. and gave uphuge chunks of his salary. so his paywould've been docked

every time he shirkedhis duty. so,this was a real obsessive binge-drinking pattern,i think is what it looks like. obviously. he's unfit for just aboutanything at this point. i have a sneaking suspicionyou have found evidence of his miserable existencesomewhere else. what i have here is somethingthat is quite interesting. wow. okay.so, registration card.

this is likea registering for the draft. age -- 39 years. in 1918, american men had to fill outselective service cards, and that's what this is. oh, this is for world war i. it didn't meanthat he would serve. and in fact, given his historywith the marines, it's extremely unlikelythat they wanted him back.

[ chuckling ]okay, yeah. he was alsomuch too old at this point. but some very interestingstuff here. permanent home address is the hotel shattuck,berkeley, california. at this time, it was the finesthotel in the east bay. is it really? opened in 1910. oh, he's the night porter.

so at least found himselfa steady job, at least. he can probably drink,actually. you know, that's a good jobfor a drunk. and hereunder nearest relative, he sayshe has a daughter here. evangeline lucile dimmick. address unknown. interesting.huh. she would've been,at this point --

she'd have been about 12. ah, so...maybe he thinks about her. and years after he kind ofdenied her existence, even. well, at least that's a signof something human. now what? i have a document here that willclose the book on ellis. death certificate. he was 60 years old. "arteriosclerosisand due to natural causes."

no cirrhosis of the liver. maybe he straightened outa little. who knows? there's dad --joseph dimmick, from iowa, and his mom, mary f. krichbaum,from ohio. hmm. kelsey:i'm surprised to see joseph and mary dimmickboth hailed from the midwest, since gam was bornhere in california.

now i'm curious to know why my family ended upon the west coast. let's sort outthe dimmicks. okay, cool.thanks. would you liketo do the honors? no, no, i wouldn't.no, you go ahead. [ laughs ]i'm probably not any better. so, what we're gonna do hereis look up some census records. and hit the search button.

all right, let's go backand look at the 1880 census, because that would've beenthe first one for which ellis was alive. so, here we have --here's the dimmick family. and they're livingin oakland. so, there's joseph and mary,ellis' parents. okay, so then we havethe kids. okay. victor, ernest, clarence,lillian -- they finally had a girl --edwin, virgil, ellis.

there he is. ellis is the baby. now, one of the otherinteresting things about census records is that you can see the movesthat the family makes by where the kidsare born. right, right.yeah, yeah. victor and ernestwere born in oregon. and then clarence is bornin california,

california, california. and they somehow gotfrom the midwest to oregon... during difficult timesto do that. indeed. sounds like some sortof wagon train kind of thing. that's the thing -- i've neverreally been to oregon. if you're interestedin following this back, i can introduce youto somebody who can help you trace thedimmick family back to oregon.

we'll do it.[ chuckles ] oregon it is.thank you so much, jim. i'm not sure i've ever beenas low as ellis must have been. i mean, ellis was one of those irretrievably tragic guys,i think. i don't knowif i feel sorry for him. i mean, i think there's -- you know, people have beenthrough a lot of hard stuff and they don't gothe way ellis did, you know?

he was a bit of a scoundrel,honestly. weak.weak character. my two-times great-grandparents,joseph and mary dimmick, were living in oregon when theirfirst two children were born. on jim's advice,i'm going to portland to search early oregon records for information aboutwhat they were doing there. when i heardthat i had family in oregon, of course,i thought of the oregon trail,

but it's reallyunknown to me completely. so i'm on my way to thegenealogical forum of oregon. i'm gonna meet a fellanamed david del mar, who is an oregon historian. we were in oakland,california, and things ledto joseph and mary dimmick, and we found that their first two childrenwere born in oregon. all right, great.we have a database right here.

it's really, really usefulfor searching oregon records. let's have a look. joseph dimmick. all right,and see what we get. born ohio, 1842. his motherwas comfort dean? comfort.that's a great name. well, hi there. hi there, comfort dean.

so, comfort is my three-timesgreat-grandmother. and his dadwas joseph dimmick. and he's my three-timesgreat-grandfather. born in new york,joseph dimmick, 1808. oh. oh.okay. he's a farmer. he arrived herein 1852. would you like to take a look at what they were up toin the midwest

before they left? yes, absolutely.yeah, i'd love to. let's goto ancestry.com then. so, let's seewhat we find there. joseph dimmick sr. taking a lookat the 1850 census. oh. got it.okay, cool. so, residence --rushville, illinois. we've got joseph dimmickand comfort dimmick.

they're both 43 years of ageat this time. they have had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 12 children. [ both laugh ] i'm doing what i canto catch up. [ both chuckle ] i found out that my three-timesgreat-grandparents, joseph and comfort dimmick,had 12 children, one of whom was mygreat-great-grandfather, joseph,

who was ellis' father. it seems they lived in illinois, but then traveled westto oregon, and i would loveto find out why. i'd like to share with yousomething i found that might give yousome more clues on what was drawing themwestward. this is the daily journalout of springfield, illinois. "monday evening,november 11, 1850.

oregon fever!" "i hear this expressionoften repeated in the west. "the late acts of congress "have been not only liberalto our veteran soldiers, "but in donating homesto actual settlers "on the far off shoresof the pacific. "if we but glance at thegeographical position of oregon "and then noticeits geological worth, "its delightfuland healthy climate,

"its noble rivers,its boundless forests of timber, "must admitthat there is a good cause for the attacksof oregon fever." and that would bea very tempting article. especially with thislittle thing about congress saying you're gonna getsome land for free. so, they're in a placewhere land's expensive, it's going to be difficultto get more of it. this is land made availableto anyone who can come out.

this wasto advance population. so, the oregon trail? yes, so there'sthe manifest destiny -- the idea of stretchingfrom sea to sea. but there's alsothis family desire. their hope is their childrenand their grandchildren would be ableto stay on this land, you could divide it up, almost likeyou were a land baron.

so, he says to comfort and allthe kids, he says, "let's go. "things are looking prettydismal here in illinois. "i've farmedthis land out. we got to do somethingabout all these children." but yeah, to get there,it's not for the faint of heart. would you be interestedin learning about some of the hardships about the journey itself,kelsey? absolutely.

i have a colleaguein eastern oregon who'd be delightedto help you with that. that's really exciting.[ chuckles ] i'm astonished to learnthat i have pioneer ancestors who traveled westalong the oregon trail. the pictureis just blooming in my mind just because of the sheer bulkof the family. it's a dozen kids, two adults. our next mission

is to go piece togetherlife on the trail, and i'm really excited about it. i'm headed to the fareastern part of the state to meet with historianpeter boag, an expert in american migrationand the oregon trail. today i'm gonna find outwhat it was like to risk your lifefor your future. the american dream. try to understand a bitwhat my ancestors went through.

here we are. oregon history. the lure of gold. still have that. [ car door closes ] so, you must be peter. boag:nice to meet you. nice to meet you, too.kelsey. welcome to eastern oregon.

thank you so much.and the oregon trail. so, this is it. this is where your familywould've come through long ago. it's incredible. of the roughly 2,200 milesof the original oregon trail, about 300 are still visiblein ruts such as these. narrator:beginning in 1836, americans seeking a better lifeheaded west on the oregon trail. it was a dangerous journey

that could take six monthsand over 2,000 miles through sun-baked plainsand over treacherous mountains. settlers walked most of the wayas the wagons carried supplies. families like the dimmicks started at jumping-off pointsin missouri and followed the platte rivernorthwest through the plainsand over the rocky mountains. these pioneers followedthe snake river north until it joinedthe mighty columbia.

from there, they headed westto the trail's end in the willamette valley. the oregon trail remained one of the most viable routesto the west until 1869 with the completion ofthe transcontinental railroad. by that time,over half a million people had gone west in the hope ofachieving the american dream. boy.just imagine that. yeah. walking through thisday after day.

and a number of people did keepjournals on the trip west, so i've locateda document that i think thatyou might find interesting. wow.how about that. joseph greg. started across the plainsin april, 1852. members of company -- it is a rare find to get a journalof a specific family like this.

joseph greg,who wrote this document, was the nephew of yourgreat-great-great-grandfather, and so that made himthe first cousin of your great-great-grandfather,joseph dimmick jr., who was about 10 years oldwhen they made the crossing. comfort dimmick.love that name. his wife. and their children. ann dimmick.thomas dimmick. oh, how about that.

thomas dimmick diedon the plains. narrator: coming up,kelsey dives deeper into the devastating hardshipshis ancestors faced on their brave journeyacross the nation. that must've been tough. narrator: kelsey grammerhas found an account chronicling his ancestors'1852 journey west along the oregon trail. in it,he's found mention of a tragedy.

the oldest son of histhree-times great-grandparents perished along the way. "he and two others had been outon a buffalo hunt, "and the weatherbeing so very hot, "he drank quite freelyof poor water. "in the latter partof the night, he was taken sickwith the cholera." wow."and died about 6:00 or 7:00." boy, that's quick.

i didn't realize choleracould take you down so fast. cholera was born in water. so, was the water actuallycontaminated by human -- yeah, human waste. they didn't followthe best hygiene, and so the waterwas often tainted. cholerawas the deadliest disease that the immigrants facedon the trail. wow.[ sighs ]

"hasty preparations were madewith fine bedding and clothing "and his body buried aloneon the plains. "in the afternoon,the train moved sadly on, "leaving the graveof this loved one. "the grave never againto be looked upon by anyonewho had ever seen him." this was their first son --their first-born son. you know, i know they wereall leaving for that benefit, you know, to try to givetheir kids a better life.

mm-hmm. to watch thomas gomust have been devastating. i think he was about 23at this time. "yet, sad as it was, such riteswere not uncommon that year. "new graves were passed daily "in the journeyalong the platte river, sometimes several." i don't know factuallyhow many of them made it. was it likelyto survive the journey?

the mortality ratewas about 4%. so, a lot of familiesmade it intact, but many did not. ah. i thank you so muchfor getting this stuff for me. it's really incredible. and so, their journey,of course, didn't end here. there were many more milesto travel over the blue mountainsthat you see in the distance.

so, you get over that one,you hit this valley and think, "oh,for crying out loud. how much furtherdo we have to go?" how far exactly is itfrom here to willamette valley? roughly 300 miles from hereto the willamette valley. so, the last 300.wow. that's incredible. about another monthof travel. thank you so much.

like to say a little prayerfor thomas, those who didn't make it. well,to have a firsthand account of what this journey was like provided such an insightinto their day-to-day, but also the tragedyand the sacrifice involved in getting out here. you think about comfortand losing her first-born son. it's powerful.

now i'd like to knowwhere they ended up. i'd like to see this place that they camesuch a great distance for and suffered so much for. i'm now headingto the oregon state archives in the capital, salem. peter suggested i meetwith archivist layne sawyer to find out if my ancestorsactually got their land claim. so,the donation land claims

that we have here at thearchives are all on microfilm, so we first need to findthe claim number for the family, so this index will be ableto tell you that information. great. so, i need to go look hereunder dimmick. dingman, and dimmick. there we go.their claim number is 1501. that's our numberwe're looking for -- 1501. okay.let's go find it.

1501, right? through 1555.here it is. let's go find out. [ microfilm reader whirring ] see where we are. 1490.getting there. so, here's 1500,so i'm getting close. [ chuckling ] oh. dangerously close.

there you are, joseph. pretty extraordinary. narrator:coming up, kelsey learns what became of his ancestorsonce they settled in oregon, and visits the very placethey called home. i know that they looked outon this very same spot, saw the same thingsi'm seeing today. "who do you think you are?" is brought to you in part by ancestry.com.

narrator:kelsey grammer has just founda record of the land grant that brought histhree-times great-grandparents joseph and comfort dimmick 2,000 miles weston the oregon trail. kelsey: 311 acres. the eastern half for husband,west half for wife. comfort was a land ownerherself, as well. that's pretty great. sawyer:this is the first land act

that actually specified women would havethat right to own land. yeah, that's fantastic. "such settlementwas commenced over four years priorto the day hereof." so, they worked the landfrom '54 to '58, and then that meantit became their land, right? i've actually been ableto find another record regarding josephif you'd like to see those.

oh, yes, i'd like to. so, this is the probatecase file for joseph dimmick. these are original documents,aren't they? this is really incredibleto touch this. "joseph dimmick died in the county of benton,state of oregon, on or aboutfirst day of october, 1860." so two yearsafter he got the land, he -- well,he died on the land.

so, i've found a reference,as well, that will give youa little bit better idea of his standingin the community. lovely. this is the portraitand biographical record of the willamette valley. and there is an indexin the back. okay. i'll take a look back hereand try to... joseph dimmick.1172.

ah, there we go. "as a pioneerto the western state, "joseph dimmickwas like many others. "having attaineda good age "before he ventured intoa new land and new conditions, "among which he musthew out a pathway for himself and the children for whomhe must also win a competence." so, the term "pioneer" is somethingthat most oregonians

have a great reverence for --the idea of a pioneer. somebody who arrived prior to the railroadscoming into the state. oh, got it.oh, yes, of course. that's a lovely summationof his life. and in his lifetime, he went all the wayfrom the east coast to the west. well, we can lookat a map of areas so you can get a senseof where he was.

so,this would've been one of the original mapsused by the land office. this would show you all ofthe donation land claims. how about that.my goodness. oh, there's joseph dimmickright there. well, there's wherethe old farm was. and i can go find it. it's not that farfrom salem. it's aboutan hour's drive south.

want to go stick my feetin that land. i can't thank you enough,layne. kelsey:considering the sacrificeinvolved in getting out here, i was pleased to find outhe did get his land, and for that,he's a remarkable man. i just have to see where he finally settled downand thank him. well, i have consultedan updated map to plot out this route

to the place that my three-timesgreat-grandfather settled. it's just farmland. and this must've beenwhat he came for. it's lovely. it's beautiful. it was in hopesof knowing my grandmother better that i took this trip. i wanted to complete gam's storyfor myself and for her. i always thoughti came from a small family.

gordon, gam,my sister, and my mother. but now there's all these names alive and sort of flickeringin my imagination, and now in my being. i feel like i've sort of takena journey with this family. some succeeded and some didn't. genevieve and ellis,my great-grandparents, just couldn't do it. but the others,boy, they stand tall.

joseph and comfortraised all those kids and lost their son in the name of striking outfor a better life. i stand in their footsteps here. i know that they -- they looked outon this very same spot and saw the same thingsi'm seeing today. they were tough people. my grandmother was a tough gal,

and i think she carried in hersome of this grit that they had, and had i been joseph, i would have beenreally proud of myself. if anything,he instilled in his children maybe a sense of obligationto the idea that if you can imaginesomething, you should go try to do it. and... ...maybe i got a piece of that,too.