Sheen of Ages
Actor Martin Sheen’s quest to learn about his ancestors took him to the regional archives in La Coruña, Spain, where he learned about his Spanish relatives thanks to assistance from Edward Behrend-Martinez, right, an associate professor of history at Appalachian State University.
Photo courtesy of Edward Behrend-Martinez
An actor’s quest to learn about his ancestors took him to La
Coruña, a port city in northern Spain, where Dr. Edward Behrend-Martinez’s expertise in Spanish
trials helped provide the dramatic conclusion in the television program, “Who Do You Think You Are?”
Behrend-Martinez is an associate professor and assistant chairman in Appalachian State
University’s Department of History.
The series follows celebrities – from sport figures and
actors to musicians – who visit archives, libraries and other sites as they trace their family tree
as far as records allow, all with the help of historians. The season opener, which aired Feb. 3 and
is available on the program’s website, http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are, featured actor Martin
Sheen, who learns details about his Irish-Spanish heritage.
Behrend-Martinez had never
watched the television program before being called by producers to provide historic insight
regarding a trial that Sheen’s great-great-great-great-grandfather presided over. “This is the kind
of history that I do,” Behrend-Martinez said.
His research focuses on the everyday lives of
early modern Spain, Basques and Spaniards, such as marriage trails and family trials. He also has
published the book, “Unfit for Marriage: Impotent Husbands and Wives on Trial in the Basque Region
of Spain 1650-1750.”
In addition to receiving a five-page contract, which strictly enforced
pre-show confidentiality, Behrend-Martinez received a photo copy of court documents from an
18th-century trial in which a young woman was accused of having an abortion – a secular and
ecclesiastical crime in Spain.
“The Spaniards had a long history of being detailed
court record takers. It was a culture of transcribing testimonies and keeping records,”
Behrend-Martinez said. That’s one of the great things about working in Spanish history. They were
such great record takers. They had a great culture of writing everything
down.”
Behrend-Martinez said the hardest thing about working with 17th- and 18th-century
court documents is the handwriting.
“It’s basically chicken scratch,” he said. “You have to
get really used to reading that kind of handwriting. That’s the biggest difficulty more than the
language. The language of the courts was pretty straight forward.”
Behrend-Martinez spent
about two and a half hours with Sheen, which eventually was edited to about a 12-minute segment. He
read the trial documents, which he had translated into English, and put them in historical context
for Sheen. “They really wanted to get his reaction to the information in the documents,”
Behrend-Martinez said.
While the producers were interested in a dramatic reaction,
Behrend-Martinez was a bit more sensitive.
“Up until this point, everyone I have ever
studied was dead, and I didn’t have to worry about the reactions of people I discussed,”
Behrend-Martinez said. “While I didn’t pull punches or change the story, these were Martin Sheen’s
ancestors, and I wasn’t going to say whatever I wanted about these people. I never had to worry
about that before.”
Viewers of the program learned of the surprise connection between Sheen,
his great-great-great-great-grandfather and the young woman, which won’t be revealed for those who
may choose to watch the program online.
