In Search Of Marilyn’s Monroe Ancestry by Mark Monroe

This article by Mark Monroe from the Eagle Flyer Spring 2016 edition could be a bit controversial as I have seen people on Facebook who not only do not like Marilyn, they will not accept that she is actually a Monroe!! But we deal in facts and Mark’s article brings the proof that Marilyn is one of us

As many of you know, the actress and sex goddess of the 1950’s, Marilyn Monroe, was named Norma Jeane Mortenson on her birth certificate and went by Norma Jeane Baker before using Marilyn Monroe as her stage name. However, some of you may not know that she does descend from a line of Monroes starting with her mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, then her grandfather, Otis Elmer Monroe, and her great grandfather, Jacob Monroe, born about 1831 in Indiana.

One of the Clan Munro Y-DNA projects undertaken this last year was to determine the Monroe ancestry of Norman Jeane. We could only trace her Monroe ancestry back using paper records to a William Monroe born in the late 1700’s in New York. So, to go further, we needed Y-DNA from a male relative.

Using census and other genealogical records, we found a great- great grandson of Jacob Monroe who agreed to participate in the Munro Y- DNA Project at Family Tree DNA. He is Marilyn’s second cousin once removed and his Y-DNA markers fit within a group of 14 Y-DNA participants with similar Y-DNA markers identified as group 6 in the Munro Y-DNA project at familytreedna.com. The next step was to determine the immigrant Munro associated with this group 6. The likely candidates were two Munros, with numerous descendants in the United States, said to have been banished to America after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, William of Lexington, Massachusetts and John of Bristol, Rhode Island.

BANISHED MUNROS

Alexander Mackenzie’s The History of the Munros of Fowlis includes a section on the Lexington Munros wherein William is reported to have descended from the line of George Munro, tenth Baron of Foulis. Mr. Mackenzie refers to John Goodwin Locke’s Book of Lockes, published in 1853, for the details of William’s banishment. In that book, Mr. Locke writes that the list of prisoners on board the ship John and Sara, which landed in Boston in 1652, “contains four of the name of Monrow, viz. Rob’t, John, Hugh and one other whose first name was obliterated by time. This I suppose to have been William. What became of the others is not known; tradition says that one of them (prob. John) settled at or near Bristol”: Mackenzie wrote that John, his brother Hugh and his uncle Robert who were sent to America descend from the line of Robert, the fourteenth Baron of Foulis.

Last year, we tested the Y-DNA markers for a living male descendant of the immigrant William. The descendant was
identified using Mackenzie’s book supplemented with census and other genealogical sources. Additionally, R. S. Munroes History and Genealogy of the Lexington, Mass Munroes, published in 1966, listed the participant as a descendent of the banished William. The results of the Y- DNA test placed him in group 8 of the Munro Y- DNA project at Family Tree DNA, a somewhat surprising result, as there were only three other individuals in that group. The descendants of William of Lexington should be numerous. None of the other individuals in this group 8 could trace their ancestry back far enough to determine if they descend from William. As the YDNA markers in this group 8 are different from group 6, Marilyn does not appear to descend from William of Lexington, Massachusetts.

JOHN MONROE

One of the individuals in group 6 traced his ancestry back to John of Bristol. Using loan Guilford’s The Monroe Book, which includes a section on the descendants of John, and more recent genealogical records, we were also able to trace his ancestry to John of Bristol. Of the thirteen other individuals in group 6, we were able to make a “more likely than not” connection to the immigrant John for one other participant using genealogical sources. With regard
to the remaining individuals, some have not provided ancestral information and the others have hit “brick walls” in their research and are not able to determine their immigrant Monroe ancestor. Based on the data we have at this time, Marilyn Monroe appears to descend from John of Bristol, Rhode Island.

NO CONNECTION TO THE CLAN CHIEF’S LINE

Group 11 of the Munro YDNA project contains individuals whose Y- DNA markers match descendants of the Foulis Clan Chief line. As the Y-DNA markers in groups 6 and 8 are significantly different from the YDNA markers in group 11, the ancestry of the immigrants John and William reported by Mr. Mackenzie is inaccurate. Neither man is a descendant of the Foulis Clan Chief line.

RW Munro, in his Munro Tree, a Genealogy and Chronology of the Munros of Foulis, wrote that “definite proof is so far lacking” with respect to Mackenzie’s claim for the ancestry of William of Lexington. At some point in the future, with more Y-DNA data, we may be able to develop some theories on the ancestral lines for both men.

MORE Y-DNA TESTING NEEDED

The connection of group 6 to John of Bristol and of group 8 to William of Lexington has to be considered just a tentative conclusion at this time because of the limited number of documented genealogies in those groups. Most individuals who take Y-DNA tests do so because they don’t know their early ancestry. To gain further confidence in our hypothesis, we need more Y- DNA test results from individuals who have well-documented connections to either John or William. If you want to perhaps prove your connection to the famous actress, or to the immigrant William of Lexington whose descendants fought against England in the American Revolution, or to President James Monroe (the subject of a Y-DNA research project published in the spring 2015 Eagle – Flyer), test kits can be ordered at familytreedna.com. Please contact me at markmonroe@austin.rr.com to provide any genealogical information. The co-administrators of the Munro Y-DNA project are Margaret Bardin at mbardin731@comcast.net and DeAnn Monroe Steeley at dsteeley@yahoo.com.

Image: Non copyright photo of Marilyn Monroe