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| Dick Van Dyke 1964 |
We recently watched the PBS production of American Masters “Starring Dick Van Dyke” which aired on 12 December 2025 to honor his 100th birthday. You can catch this show airing many times this month on PBS stations and streaming online. Watching this documentary made me nostalgic for the old TV shows and movies like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but it also made me curious about his family tree. Of course, since he is so famous, it was easy to find a lot of information on his ancestry online.
This is what
I learned about his family tree:
Dick Van Dyke
was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke 13 December 1925 in West Plains, Missouri and
raised in Danville, Illinois. His father,
Loren Wayne Van Dyke, is of Dutch origins, and his mother, Hazel Victoria
McCord, has English and Scots ancestry. Dick
is a veteran of World War II, where he served as a radio announcer and entertained
the troops. He married Margerie Willet
in 1948 on the air for the radio show “Bride and Groom”. He has four children and seven grandchildren.
In 2012 he married Arlene Silver.
As an actor
and entertainer Dick Van Dyke’s career spans over 80 years and he has won six
Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award.
He is known as a slapstick comedian, singer and dancer, but he is less
well known for his many dramatic roles. He
is also related to many other entertainers, including Walt Disney!
I was
surprised to find that Dick Van Dyke has at least eight Mayflower passenger
ancestors. Here is a list from https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=6554+dick+van+dyke
Francis Eaton
Peter Brown
John Alden
Francis Cooke
Myles
Standish
Edward Doty
George Soule
Degory Priest
I won’t give
all the details (you can check out the websites listed below), but since I
share a few Mayflower ancestors with Dick Van Dyke, here are our shared
ancestors, and Dick’s lineage from these few:
Myles Standish
Alexander
Standish and Sarah Alden
Sarah
Standish and Benjamin Soule
Sarah Soule
and Nathan Tinkham
Isaiah
Tinkham and Susannah Ellis
Susanna Tinkham
and David Child
David Lorenzo
Child and Margaret Longwell Dysart
Susan
Elizabeth Child and Ninian Alphonse McCord
Charles
Cornelius McCord and Adeline Verinda Neal
Hazel
Victoria McCord and Loren Wayne Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke
-----------------
Edward Doty
Mary Doty and
Samuel Hatch
Hannah Hatch
and Japhet Turner
Hannah Turner
and William Thomas
Ruth Thomas
and Thomas Churchill Ellis
Susannah
Ellis and Isaiah Tinkham
(see above)
-------------------
George Soule
John Soule
and Rebecca Simmons
Benjamin Soule
and Sarah Standish
Zachariah
Soule and Mary Eaton
Sarah Soule
and Nathan Tinkham
Isaiah
Tinkham and Susannah Ellis
(see above)
Dick Van Dyke
descends from the following Great Migration immigrants, and probably many more. You can have fun finding a cousin connection
with some of these colonial settlers.
Benjamin Nye
John Jenny
Griffith
Bowen
Nathaniel
Child
Edmund
Freeman
William
Hoskins
Phineas Pratt
John Johnson
(c. 1588 -1659)
Thomas
Holbrook
William Hatch
William Heath
Moses Simmons
For the truly curious:
For specific
details on Dick Van Dyke’s Mayflower ancestors and his other colonial ancestry,
see this link at the website Famous Kin: https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=6554+dick+van+dyke
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Van_Dyke
The webpage
for PBS American Masters “Starring Dick Van Dyke” https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dick-van-dyke-documentary/37036/
All Family Tree results for Dick Van Dyke at Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/42/?name=Dick_Van+Dyke&searchMode=advanced
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