Chad Michael Murray
Murray in 2006, Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com
Place of Birth: Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: August 24, 1981
Ethnicity:
*father – English, German, Swiss-German, distant Scottish
*mother – Polish
Chad Michael Murray is an American actor, spokesperson, writer, and model. He is known for his roles on the shows One Tree Hill and Riverdale, and in the films Freaky Friday (2003), A Cinderella Story, House of Wax (2005), and Survive the Night, among other works. He has also been billed as Chad Murray.
Chad is the son of Sheila and Rex Murray, an air traffic controller. He is married to actress and model Sarah Roemer, with whom he has three children.
There is an internet rumor that one of Chad’s grandmothers was Japanese. This is not accurate.
Chad’s paternal grandfather was Albert Luther Murray (the son of William Henry Murray and Rosa Belle Lock). Albert was born in Ohio. William was the son of Isaac Newton Murray and Sarah Lavina Mikesell. Rosa was the daughter of John Henry Lock and Emma A. Smith.
Chad’s paternal grandmother was Leora L. Halter (the daughter of George Edward Halter and Mary Ada Long). Leora was born in New York. George was the son of Edward Halter and Mary Ann Miller. Chad’s great-grandmother Mary Long was the daughter of Daniel G. Long and Catherine Fogelsonger.
Chad’s maternal grandfather was named Raymond Oldenski (the son of Stanley Oldenski).
Chad’s maternal grandmother was Pearl Belsky (the daughter of Anthony Belsky and Anna/Ann Scrules). Pearl was born in Pennsylvania. Anthony was born in Marijampole, Lithuania, the son of Polish parents, Anthony Belsky and Anna/Ann Tomashesfsky. Chad’s great-grandmother Anna was born in Jenny Lind, Arkansas, the daughter of Polish parents, Anthony Scrules and Anna Zevetski.
Sources: http://i.imgur.com
Chad’s paternal grandfather, Albert Luther Murray, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Chad’s paternal grandmother, Leora L. Halter, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Obituaries of Chad’s paternal grandmother, Leora L. (Halter) Murray – http://www.legacy.com
http://www.clarencebee.com
Genealogies of Chad’s maternal grandparents, Raymond Oldenski and Pearl Belsky – https://www.familysearch.org
Genealogy and obituary of Chad’s maternal grandmother, Pearl (Belsky) Oldenski – https://www.findagrave.com
I believe her mother is Sheila Ann Oldenski, daughter of Ramond Oldenski and Pearl Belsky. She appears to be entirely of Polish ancestry.
Here is the birth document of Chad’s brother, Rex Laurence Murray.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V822-FN6?count=20&q.givenName=sheila&q.surname=Oldenski
Here is a census of Sheila, with her birth name and married names.
And here is a record of Chad’s grandmother, and his great-grandparents.
https://es.findagrave.com/memorial/110110723/pearl-oldenski
Regarding his Irish ancestry, I believe he said that because of the Murray surname, which originated in Ireland and Scotland.
https://www.familysearch.org/service/tree/tree-data/pdf/portrait-pedigree/LJ1S-DF7/spouse/DEFAULT?locale=es
He has a Semitic/Mediterranean shape to his face, but with an overall Nordic/Celtic tone.
LOL!
The British and German is totally visible he looks like both. Can’t say I see much Pole. He doesn’t look very slavic at all but then again there are many Poles who look more like Germans/Western Europeans.
He could pass as both Polish or Russian as well. Certain expressions he makes I can totally see it. One mistake that a lot of people make here on this site is stereotyping different ethnic groups based on how they view them in their heads but Slavics just like other Europeans have a variety of looks.
In fact there still are “typical” regional looks, but because Europe is a melting pot with some migration periods, many people have looks that are not too typical for the region they were born.
For example in today’s Poland there lived Germanic tribes 2000 years ago (Goths, Vandals, Burgundians …); they haven’t completely disappeared but went into the Polish genetic mix. So you have blond Polish with faces that could be Scandinavian or German, and you have Polish with dark hair and those typical Slavic cheekbones, and many in between. Often it depends on the photo – light, perspective, facial expression – what part of the heritage dominates visually.
To me, Murray looks mostly Scandinavian (perhaps Danish ancestors from the Danelag), and a good portion of English and (more) Northern German. (Don’t forget that about 30 % of the English are of Northern German/Danish ancestry, so German and Danish faces are quite common.)
To be fair, you just did the very thing the other person was talking about. This assumption that light features and light eyes automatically mean Germanic. Poland is one of the most Slavic descended countries in Europe and are very fair. I don’t know where you get this notion that Slavics are “dark”. The only ones that are, are those in the South who mixed with Mediterraneans. All ancient populations described Slavics as fair and ruddy. They have never been described as dark. And Slavics have some of the highest Yamnaya and Hunter Gatherer DNA in Europe next to Scandinavians, Balts, and Finns. Even moreso than EITHER the British or Germans. The very people who carried the blue eyed genes. Slavs also have some of the lowest Neolithic ancestry in Europe. While most Western Europeans even the Germanic ones, have more than Slavic nations. Neolithics came from the Middle East and they are the majority of Southern Euro ancestors. Slavs go all the way back to the very indo-europeans. Northeast Slavics are fairier than both Germans or Brits on average. They aren’t fair because they’re “germanic”, they always were fair. Finns aren’t even a Germanic people and they are more fair than all of the Germanic countries. This idea that light features are exclusively Germanic needs to go. It only harkens back to Nazi-centric ideologies “our features are the superior features and groups only look good mixed with us” when it was never exclusively there’s to begin with.
Confirmed, Chad’s Irish and Polish, this is from his verified Twitter account.
http://i.imgur.com/qnDLzX6.png
Thank you, Tyler. Chad should look into his father’s genealogy. He would discover that his father is of English and German descent, and that he has roots in the U.S. going back to the 1600s.
Welcome! haha this whole debacle just shows how retarded the internet can be. Here you have all these article post touting him as some half asian celebrity and none of them actually cared to find out the truth.
Did some digging….apparently user “ohhhophelia” of Ohnotheydidn’t not only debunked the Japanese rumor but also got a direct confirmation of Chad’s ancestry (Irish/Polish) through a Twitter DM. Unfortunately the image he posted is now broken, but judging by the comments the picture seems authentic. I’m currently sending him a message on Twitter to see if he still has the image. If not i’ll try getting in touch with Chad himself.
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/59751166.html