Christina Applegate gets emotional finding out about violent family history...

born into a show business family Emmy award-winning actress and producer Christina Applegate began her career in various commercials films and television series before landing the breakout part of ditzy bombshell Kelly Bundy in the hit comedy Married With Children the 11-year role catapulted Christina into super stardom and more recently she's found success on both big and small screens Christina and her husband Martin Lenovo are parents to two-year-old Sadie and live in Hollywood California I was born here in Los Angeles and I grew up in Laurel Canyon my mom and dad separated when I was about five months old and he moved up to Big Sur so I grew up with my mom my dad and mother split up when I was so young I didn't get to spend the kind of time with him that I think either here I would have liked to have spent but since I've had Sadie he spent a lot more time down here which has been really nice you know we're bonded because of blood but we're also bonded because I'm part of him and part of his personality I know my grandfather's first name his name is Paul Paul Applegate now my grandmother I never met we know she died young and my father never knew her I want to know why my grandmother couldn't take care of him not just because of her age there has to be another reason he's heard rumors of how she died and um it's pretty awful but I want to know if it's true a couple years ago my sister was able to locate my father's birth certificate she was able to get it through records in New Jersey and on that we learned his mother's name Lavina before that my father did not know his mother's name if you asked him I think I want to go on this journey because I've watched my father be in a lot of pain of not knowing who he is [Music] and having to make up stories in his mind in order to cope with whatever memories he's he's pushing back um I don't know if it's great to live a life that long with not knowing who you are today my father is driving down from up north in Northern California hey Dad hey pumpkin how are you good so that we can sort of discuss what he remembers so I can I can move forward and and and open up this book and close this book for him so all we have is this yeah believe it or not this is my birth certificate aha New Jersey Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics so it says here that you were born November 10th 1942. I know and that's what amazes me make you 71. yeah something like that 70 71 but here's the confusion I've I always thought I was older and let me tell you why I'll tell you a little wait no it would make you something oh my god of course because I was born I'm sorry yeah well math there's never been one of our greatest subjects okay so Lavina Shaw was your mother and Paul Applegate which we knew yeah is the mother married to the father yes okay and the address is 522 Market Street Trenton New Jersey yeah okay so birthplace hers was New Jersey and his was New Jersey so both of them were both born in New Jersey Paul Applegate we don't know where he came from your grand I mean his parents well his Gran his mother is the one that raised me I thought it was her mother is my mother's mother oh no no no it's his mother and then when my grandmother got to the point where she got a little uh senile and older that's when I finally went up to live with my dad and uh I think I was 14. you know him and I never really talked about too much you know and now what about Lavina she died young yeah that and when did you find that out because that I don't remember ever hearing yeah my grandmother at the very nonchalantly at the breakfast deal said oh by the way your mother died see you and so she would have been like what how old do you think because you would have been how old when she passed away yeah I'm gonna assume I was like seven eight years old so she had to be like 28 29 years old maybe I'm not sure I mean what this is some stuff I'm so interested in finding out what happened to her yeah why you know my grandmother told me a story that uh I don't know why he would ever tell a child something like this but she told me that uh she was found outside a bar dead beaten to death uh you know died like that let's hope that that's not true yeah [Music] yeah that's heavy oh Dad this is crazy this is gonna be crazy I know what it is yeah after all these years I know who I am and who we are now that I know that my grandmother's name was livina Shaw and that my grandparents lived in New Jersey I am headed to Trenton New Jersey [Music] I am hoping to find why my grandparents Paul and Levina made the decision to have my father live with his grandmother or did they make that decision was it a state decision why couldn't they take care of him these are questions that I think my dad is fuzzy on and I really want to know so now I'm meeting with genealogist Joseph Shumway at the Office of Vital Statistics I'm hoping he can advise me on researching Lavina and her family to get us started Joseph asked the State Registrar to search for my grandparents marriage certificate so while we wait Joseph wants to see what kind of Clues my dad's birth certificate holds here we have my father's name Robert William Applegate born into Paul Applegate and Lavina Shaw and it does say the parents are married and she was she was 20 21 at the time which I guess back then wasn't that young to be no I was not no it was it was easy typical age exactly 40. right and the marriage record should give us very helpful information clues about Levina before she married and her parents too and all of that hi hi we found something for you great and we're luck we found your grandparents oh Christina Applegate is in Trenton New Jersey researching The Mysterious past of her grandmother Lavina Shaw she just found her grandparents marriage certificate which Christina hopes contains some clues about her lineage all right the full name Paul scholar Applegate and Lavina victorine Shaw yeah isn't that an interesting I love it and Scholar or Schaller and the other thing it does give us here which is very important is her birth date yeah that's right October 9th 1921. when she was 19. and they married Trenton New Jersey in June of 41 okay my grandmother's parents name is Ovid so this is Ovid Shaw and Lavina Weaver right interesting those are names I've never heard before I love getting these little details like my great-grandfather's name Ovid Shaw and that my grandmother Lavina Shaw was named after her mother Lavina Weaver these Clues they're incredible but they leave me with bigger questions like when and how did my grandparents become estranged the residents at least of my grandfather I guess was two I can't read what this is yeah 271 East Front Street Trenton New Jersey and she was 522 Market Street um so they weren't living together when they got married but you that you wouldn't back then right right but it is interesting that she is living at 522 Market Street which is the same address where she was living when your dad was born so that is a bit of a so maybe she was living on her own because I don't think they were after my father was born and I don't think livina and Paul were together so that's where I would have to find like a divorce certificate kind of thing to find out where we go from there right what we can do is divine and Conquer where I can search to see if there was a divorce record so I will work on that to see if we can find information about Lavina after the marriage what you can do is with the new clues that we have here it would be helpful to find out more information about Levina before she married because if we learn more about a person's earlier life we can gather clues that maybe help us understand their choices better and I would suggest making the next stop the Trenton Public Library which is a great resource for local Trenton history all right so thank you so much so the marriage certificate was a great wealth of information just to know my grandmother's parents names but it doesn't explain the question which is what happened to Lavina where did she disappear to why was she not in my father's life [Music] so while Joseph is searching for court documents about my grandparents after 1941 when they married he's sending me to see Kimberly Matthews who's the director of the Trenton free public library so I can begin to investigate lavina's early life even though it's a total long shot Kimberly suggests that we try to find a mention of my grandmother in the local papers so we're starting with the Trenton evening times since we're looking for that time period you know maybe a little bit before your grandmother was born let's go ahead and put in let's say 1918 to 1941. all right there we go an engagement notice 1919 90k so there we have your great grandparents wow oh that's so beautiful to see that wow that's Ovid what a handsome guy yeah it looks like my dad looks a lot like my dad and look at you Lavina my great-grandmother all right amazing wow what's this about 1934 uh oh lamina and Delilah Shaw oh my gosh [Music] okay so my grandmother Lavina she had a sister named Delilah looks like okay that is that's my family that's my Dad's mouth so awesome just to see it all the threads incredible Society business sessions card parties and benefit Affairs all right Daughters of Mr Mrs Ovid Shaw of Ward Avenue wait so is that a pretty nice neighborhood at that time this was actually a quite lovely neighborhood a little more comfortable a little more affluent interesting whoever turned from an extended visit with relatives and friends in Elizabeth during their visit they made an automobile tour of parts of New York and Pennsylvania as the guest of Mr and Mrs Lewis Leonard so they were they were pretty well off for that time I mean well the lovely neighborhood and the trip seems to imply that what happened from this well-to-do family and to not take care of my dad so now I want to know what area Market Street was in so where do we go from here I think one of the next places we could go since this is 1934 why don't we check the 1940 census okay and see what was happening with them in 1940 okay okay why don't we take a look on ancestry.com what a trip all right Lavina Shaw birth year 1920 21. Trenton and then that's it yep okay so here we go okay so there's the shaw family this is when they lived on Market Street okay so Market Street was her parents house my grandmother was 18. also here's an interesting column which is uh weeks out of work and so she's um now if we glance up your great grandfather was out of work for 12 weeks wow so so it sounds like maybe things are becoming a little more difficult okay so let's talk about this column right here okay these are the last grades attended Okay so eighth grade for my grandmother [Music] so that's it after eighth grade she was out of school right now in an urban setting it was actually more the average that they would go to about the 11th and a half grade but by the time you've hit into the 40s now the depression has has been here everyone is struggling so right not getting past the eighth grade that was common to some degree for families that were struggling as soon as the children became able to bring in another income into the household they would have wanted them but now at this point nobody's bringing anything into the household [Music] so it wasn't what you know looking at this family thinking of living a living in this sort of well-to-do family this was not what she was a part of which explains a lot what happened to you Levina where did you go where did she drop out what I find really interesting is that Lavina remained at this address 522 Market Street she was there when she got married to my grandfather she was there when she had my father Paul and Lavina from what it seems never actually lived together so what happened there this is the big mystery why were these two people not together why did they not have their child I really hope to find that out Christina Applegate is in New Jersey investigating her grandmother lavina's unexplained past I'm very excited but I'm a little nervous because I heard from Joseph Shumway the genealogist I met earlier and he found a large number of court documents related to my grandparents marriage so now I'm heading to the New Jersey State library to meet with family law professor Meredith schalick I'm really hoping she can help me decipher the information in these court records okay so the first document we're going to start with is actually a complaint that was filed by your grandmother by my grandmother by your grandmother so she filed a complaint in 1942. okay after they had separated October of 1942. my father was born in November 1942 was so my grandparents they separated they separated before he was born so this complaint is actually her attempt to enforce the separation agreement that they created when they first separated wait a minute when did they first separate well do you want to take a look so complaint Lavina b s Applegate says that following the said marriage she and the defendant resided in the said city of Trent New Jersey until around the 10th day of August wow oh really okay so for a couple of months and then they separated so the defendant after his marriage to complainant okay wait oh began to treat her cruelly and brutally accusing her of immoral Acts charging her that she was guilty of adultery by reference calling her vile and indecent name oh God Grandpa and on various dates struck in and beat her [Music] on account of which she left him on or about the 10th day of August [Music] in October 1941 defendant left the city of Trenton and took up his residence in Wilmington Delaware yes so my grandpa left Okay so but subsequently honor about the 10th day of January 1942 Lavina returned to him in Delaware okay and I think it's important to say she went back to him upon his promise to treat her properly upon his product not notwithstanding his promise the defendant did not treat her properly but resumed and continued his cruel [Music] brutal and abusive treatment of her friend did honor about the 13th day of May pack most of complainants clothes and personal effects and tell her to get back to Trenton so he kicked her out on the following day defendant called for complainant and took her to the office of an attorney in Wilmington where an agreement was drawn and signed by both of them complainant did on the 14th day of May 1942 in consequence of the cruel and abusive treatment leave him and has ever since lived apart are the terms and Provisions thereof-defendant Covenant to pay complaint at the sum of 15 per week so he then started giving her money well he's not supposed to yes he had to okay so he was supposed to give her 15 a week defendant has not made any of the weekly payments right he didn't pay for anything at least according to what she's saying uh it's all just like it's making so much sense now like she probably had my father and she can't take care of him because she's 21 years old she can't get work of course my dad has to be raised by his grandmother all right let's see what happens here okay so what we don't have a copy of but what I know from reading these documents is back in the beginning of 1945 they divorced at that time the judge awarded custody to your grandmother and Paul filed with the court asking for custody of your father in June of 1945. so this is what we have is the most complete statement from Paul okay about what's going on and why he thinks he should have custody okay all right an answer to my former's wife petition for alimony and Council fees I say that I have read her petition and affidavit and the contents thereof are not true particularly it is not true that my former wife is without means of support except from her exertions okay so he's saying she is making money she has a job I shouldn't have to pay her I shouldn't have to pay it okay okay so next my grandfather Paul claims that even though he and my grandmother Levine is separated in May of 1942 he repeatedly asked her to reconsider but she said no on January 10 1943 I learned that my wife had moved in with Michael constant so now he's saying that she's now living with this guy and my dad yes they were arraigned on the charges of adultery his that time although adultery was against the law okay so he had them arrested yes this is not even is this like a joke this is insane Christina Applegate is examining court documents related to her grandparents intense custody battle over her father Bob she is about to find out what happened next in the case according to her grandfather's affidavit at that time made a statement that she thought she would be happier if I would Grant her a divorce so my grandfather goes on to say that although he agreed to divorce he was still very much in love with my grandmother and hoped to reconcile Paul claims that one night Lavina asked him to pick up their son and take him to her apartment While She Was Out so Paul says he waited for her there until early morning at which time Lavina allegedly came home in a drunken stupor and they ended up having sex so clearly they were still having relations according to my grandfather but it also looks like Lavina was still involved with this Michael constant God this is just nuts all this time the divorce was pending finally the hearing came on after I refused support for her she accepted the money for me support for my son so child support no alimony all right so these are the exhibits that attach to it okay to whom it may concern this is to certify that I treated Robert William Applegate for pneumonia it was also my opinion that he was suffering from malnutrition malnutrition I'm just angry at these two people I'm so angry at them okay okay all right let's see what's going on with her so this is lavina's side this is the venous side to the whole thing that's right June of 45 1945. so Lavina refutes Paul's accusations claiming that she never did live with Michael constant then she alleges that my grandfather was always drunk and threatening and that he never contributed to their baby's welfare she asserts that she was a good mother that she's never been in a drunken stupor and that in my dad's two and a half years of life the bout of pneumonia was the only time he was seriously ill okay but the doctor also said he was had malnutrition and she's saying that she always cared for my I never left the baby alone and when for any reason I was obliged to go out I placed him in the care of my mother or Mrs Ann Graham who occupies the apartment above okay included statements from Anne Graham this is her neighbor and landlord this is all right sort of background about who she is she's a good tenant she's never had any disturbances she's always paid her rent there's never been any man in her apartment that stood there we're not in fact I've never seen any other man there except for Paul Applegate I know that Mrs Applegate idolizes her baby and that she practically lives for him the baby has a Sweet Disposition and as healthy as babies come it's interesting to me though is in her rebuttal she never makes mention of the abuse anymore wouldn't you think that if you were trying to win a custody battle that you would say this guy is an abusive beat me to a pulp alcoholic that's interesting because if it was me I would you know what I mean let's skip on okay this is the last court document we were able to find okay all right so this is the final Order final order from this is June 1945. after reviewing both sides this is what now the judge has come to an agreement that's right so just what just happened to my father okay so just before we go on to sort of what the judge ordered I just a little bit of context so at this point United States when children were young the courts almost automatically always gave custody to the mother so but the only way that Paul could get custody was be to prove Levina unfit interesting okay after duly considering the petitions it appears that the defendant has failed to show by a preponderance of evidence that the petitioner is unfit and unqualified to retain custody of the infant child and that his welfare is best served by remaining in the custody of the mother [Music] he's going to continue to live with his mother he said he never knew his mother and yet he lived with her for all of these years okay well at least at least until this was signed this is about he's about two weeks maybe she is completely unfit and she's they have to take him away from her unfortunately this is the last court order that we were able to find but I want to know how he ends up at his grandmother's I would love to be able to tell you right now here's a court order for 1947 and this is what happened but unfortunately we don't have that and there could be lots of reasons why there aren't any other court orders you know they could be lost it could have been a private Arrangement the other thing is that Lavina may have passed away and that could be why custody was changing at that point that's what happened so do you know when your grandmother passed away okay my dad said he was probably around eight so I think that we can go next door to the state archives I think we might be able to find out when your grandmother passed away if there's a death certificate okay okay all right so all right let's start I think I knew coming in that there was something that was going to be relatively undesirable but I don't think that that prepared me at all for what I found out it's hard to really be attached to one side of the story or the other side of the story and I don't want to think ill thoughts about either of these people but you know I do and it's sad because those are my grandparents Christina Applegate just learned that her grandmother retained custody of Christina's father after a contentious battle eager to provide closure for her dad Christina now hopes to finally find the truth behind her grandmother lavina's uncertain death [Music] to give us a jump start Meredith called ahead to Joe klett who's an archivist at the New Jersey state archives I asked him to see if he can find a death certificate for my grandmother but since she may have remarried we asked Joe to look for a Levina Applegate Shaw or constant my dad says he was about eight when he was told Levina died so Joe's looking for death certificates from around 1950. okay we were able to find Olivia Shaw I don't know if that's the right certificate it's we didn't find anything under the other names is it this is her because this is 522 Market Street Market Streets are date of death February 18th 1946. okay but wait a minute what so oh this is her mother yeah because there's Jacob Weaver oh she's a weaver Okay so this is all we got well it did say that she died in 1946 so that was soon after the custody battle right and I'm remembering Lavina said that her mother used to watch Bob for her a lot while she was working so maybe now her mother has passed away in addition to one of the child care providers for her son okay and that could be when my dad went to live with his paternal grandmother Maybe all right what does this mean for me here maybe we should look online to see if we can find maybe any newspaper articles or something you know involving her name and see you know maybe we can hit something there okay let's try that okay why don't we do newspaper archives for New Jersey I think maybe we should search by just her first name because her first name is so unusual yeah okay and then let's see let's do um died 1955. so let's click on that and see if that first one gives us anything no Walton Lavina oh my God Mrs Lavina V Walton age 33 died at her home yesterday after a brief illness she was the wife of Charles Walton in addition to her husband she survived by son Robert Applegate there's no I can't find a death oh Lavina Walton okay now we have a different last name to search okay let's do it let's see if we can find Joe aged 33. new information yes we did we want to look under a Lavina Walton Walton and what's the date of death 1955 April 1st okay well we'll see what we can find okay thank you great thanks Joe so does 55 match up with about when your dad has a memory of no my dad would have been 15 13 but he says he lived with his grandmother the whole time before that so his mother dies when he's around 13. and I know he went to go live with his father when he was 14 was he like still living with her or no he's he swears up and down it was this is grounded yeah yeah I don't know maybe this will open something up for him Maybe I think we found your certificate oh my goodness okay lamina Walton died March 30th I guess 1955. okay she died of pulmonary tuberculosis with a fusion and cirrhosis of the liver due to Chronic alcoholism possible everything that my grandfather was saying was true foreign okay and it says Riverview Riverview Cemetery in Trenton New Jersey so she's here yeah less than a mile away from here all right let's go check her out huh yeah well I know it wasn't all the answers that you wanted but I think it gave you I know I know that we can't can't find the Y's unfortunately but at least you know my father can know that her death wasn't something brutal and that she just died of a disease I have a really bad disease all right thank you so much it was really great to meet you it's a sad story of a woman who had to be sacrificed because of this disease it can destroy many families and consequently lines of people after that and you know my father has lived his life thinking that it was something really horrible that happened to Lavina so it's really unfortunate it's very possible that when my great-grandmother passed away my grandmother had to give him up he couldn't take care of him I mean that's what I feel like happened but we'll never know but it's been worth it for me to see The Who these people are and really at the end of the day for me the lesson of who my father is you know and to have a deeper understanding and a deeper love for my dad that's why I'm here [Music] Christina Applegate has finally uncovered the mystery surrounding her grandmother's disappearance and is hoping to finally give her father Bob some peace I have asked my father to come here to Trenton so I can sit down with him and share with him the information I know some of the story is going to be really difficult for him here we go huh yep [Music] um all right let me preface this by saying that I have received a lot of information but I think that everything that I've Abridged it down to here is gonna kind of help you understand I think who who your mother was okay the first stuff that I that I found is um they put a picture in the paper so this would have made your mother about 14. there's your mom [Music] I know [Music] you know we're not unique this Applegate family or just one of the darker ones you know but we all want to do is move forward you know keep growing and changing and becoming better June 7th of 1941 [Music] your parents were married I mean I hope that over time that he can heal from this and we right the wrongs and the good in this scenario is the word forgiveness I hope that he's found some forgiveness to his mother your mother passed away in 1955. she was 33 years old trial you know if you were you were 13 years old [Music] 13 you were 13. I thought I was younger pulmonary tuberculosis cirrhosis of the liver from chronic alcoholism oh God my mother was an alcoholic yeah it's not what I expected obviously is there any good in here anywhere yeah you want me to tell you what the good is I like to have a moment of Happiness yeah Dad the beauty of this is that you can be incredibly proud that you broke the pattern and that you raised all of us with giving us strength and intelligence and talent and fight in US and you did that with no help from anyone dad [Music] yeah and that's pretty amazing that's how I feel at the end of this whole thing this is the goods part of the story well that's a good that's good enough for me yeah thank you you're welcome Daddy well I hope that he has Pride because he was given nothing to work with but there's so much light that's happening now there's so much goodness and I hope he can take that with him [Music] so my dad and I are heading out to Riverview cemetery and just hoping we can have some closure from my father that he's been looking for for his whole life all right um here's Lavina Shaw Walton right these are our burial cards so we have those on each of the individuals and then based on this we can go to the lock card this is the the lot number is 171. which is here now um there's no Monument there it would be shown on this so you're going to have to kind of look around on the ground right okay and on this card you can find out who's been buried here oh my God okay what's that they bought a plot for you my mother brought a plot for me she wanted you to be buried with her I kind of wish I would have known her not even ever knowing her [Music] she cared for me she loved me Daddy yeah [Music] mom [Music] what can I say no thank you [Music] [Applause] okay let's go find this [Music] way down here yeah 171 171. see right here oh God huh I'm gonna get you my name mom [Music] I promise you it's dark as it is there will be on the other side of this a man who's 70 years old who knows who he is and he knows where he came from and I hope I really really hope with all my heart that at the end of the process he really sees what a miracle he is I'm gonna take these out yeah [Applause]

Channel: Who Do You Think You Are?

Views: 3,127,961

Keywords: who do you think you are, wdytya, who do you think you are uk, who do you think you are BBC

Id: gG5OtTLJ5g0

Length: 39min 57sec (2397 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2023