Gwyneth Paltrow

Birth Name: Gwyneth Kate Paltrow

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: September 27, 1972

Ethnicity:
*Ashkenazi Jewish (father)
*German, with a smaller amount of Swiss-German, English, Irish (mother)

Gwyneth Paltrow is an American actress, singer, and food writer. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love (1998).

She is the daughter of director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. Her father was from a Jewish family (they immigrated from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Belarus). Her mother, who attended a Quaker school, is of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch (German), with some Swiss-German, English, and Irish, descent, including some ancestors who lived in Barbados.

Gwyneth’s brother is writer and director Jake Paltrow. Gwyneth was previously married to musician Chris Martin, with whom she has two children. Gwyneth is a cousin of actress Katherine Moening. Katherine’s father was a half-brother of Gwyneth’s mother.

Gwyneth was raised around both Judaism and Christianity (her brother had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony). In recent years, she appears to have embraced the Jewish faith.

Gwyneth’s father’s family goes back to 17th century Russia, and includes many rabbis. She has stated, “I am the result of generations and generations of rabbis back in Minsk”. Gwyneth is a second cousin of U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, of Arizona. Gwyneth’s paternal great-grandparents Meyir Paltrowitz and Ida W. Hyman were also Gabrielle’s paternal great-grandparents.

Gwyneth’s paternal grandfather was Arnold P. Paltrow (the son of Myer/Meyir/Mike Paltrowitz and Ida W. Hyman). Myer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Simcha “Simon” Paltrowicz/Paltrovitch, a Polish Jew, and Tsipora/Zipporah “Sophia” Levitansky, a Lithuanian Jew; Myer’s ancestry can be traced back to Paltieyl Pelterowicz, who was born c. 1775, in Poland. Ida was born in Gmina Suwałki, Poland, the daughter of Jewish parents, Yoseyf/Joseph Heyman/Hyman and Rivka/Rebecca Epshtein/Epstein.

Gwyneth’s paternal grandmother was Dorothy S. Weigert (the daughter of Irving Mortimer Weigert and Fruma “Frances” Plat). Irving was born in New York, to Polish Jewish parents, Isidor Weigert and Emma Sharman. Fruma was a Polish Jewish immigrant, the daughter of Mordechai/Morris Plat/Plott and Reyza/Rose Silver.

Gwyneth’s maternal grandfather was Harry Earl Danner (the son of Harry/Henry Bollinger Danner and Ida May Yetter). Gwyneth’s great-grandfather Harry was the son of John Solomon/Shaffer Danner and Arabella Bollinger. Most of Gwyneth’s great-grandfather’s ancestry was Pennsylvania Dutch (German); also, one of his own great-great-grandmothers, Sarah Daugherty, was Irish. Gwyneth’s great-grandmother Ida was the daughter of David T. Yetter, who had German ancestry, and of Rosamund Isabel Stoute/Stout, who had English ancestry (some of Rosamund’s family had lived in Barbados).

Gwyneth’s maternal grandmother was Katherine M. Kile (the daughter of Harry Frederick Kile and Pauline Friedericke Holzwarth/Holzworth). Harry was the son of William Harry Kile, who was of German descent, and of Rosa Schlump, who was born in Pennsylvania, to German parents. Pauline was an immigrant from Oberweißbach, Germany, who came to the U.S., at the age of fourteen, as an indentured servant (in 1903).

Sources: Genealogies of Gwyneth Paltrow – http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com
https://www.geni.com

Genealogy of Gwyneth Paltrow (focusing on her father’s side) – http://www.wikitree.com

Information about Gwyneth’s appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? (2011) – http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.ca

Gwyneth’s maternal great-grandfather, Harry Frederick Kile, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Entertainment Press / Shutterstock.com

Tagged as: Academy Award for Best Actress, Ashkenazi Jewish, Barbadian, Belarusian Jewish, English, German, Irish, Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish, Polish Jewish, Russian Jewish, Swiss, Swiss-German