Most families have secrets they'd prefer to keep hidden, but in Julie Bowen's case, her family had a secret past she was proud to discover.
On an upcoming episode of the TLC show Who Do You Think You Are?, the Modern Family star learns that, in the 1800s, her paternal great-grandfather fought to end slavery.
In a clip from Entertainment Tonight, Bowen is seen receiving the news that while living in Washington, Pennsylvania, her great-grandfather Francis LeMoyne was a radical abolitionist.
LeMoyne, who was also a respected speaker, even took on angry mobs who didn't want to accept the fact that slavery was over in the North. According to records, he once did this by throwing beehives at them.
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Hearing that her ancestor had taken the side of freed slaves, who many in the North saw as fugitives out to take their jobs, Bowen couldn't help but find a correlation between then and now.
"It's just, we're in a moment where people feel very threatened by people that they consider 'other,' whatever 'other' is represented by religion or skin color, taking their jobs, and it just sounds so current at the same time," Bowen said. "It sounds so old and so new all at once."
Turns out, though, Bowen isn't the only star who's found that her family tree is filled with interesting people. In another episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, Courteney Cox discovered that her family was a bunch of murderers.
As her Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow, who is also a producer on the show, recently revealed, Cox's great-great-great-etc ancestors murdered the King of England. "She was hoping that her family were good people, and no one murdered anyone,” Kudrow said. "And it turns out her ancestors murdered the King of England."