Sky Ferreira
Ferreira in 2013, photo by PrPhotos
Birth Name: Sky Tonia Ferreira
Place of Birth: Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: July 8, 1992
Ethnicity:
*father – Brazilian [Portuguese, possibly other]
*mother – one quarter Ashkenazi Jewish [matrilineal], Native American [Chippewa (Ojibwe), Cree, Chippewa-Cree, Cheyenne], Scottish, English, Irish, French
Sky Ferreira is an American singer, songwriter, model, and actress. She is the daughter of Tonia and Victor Ferreira. Sky was raised by her maternal grandmother, and grew up around family friend Michael Jackson.
Sky has said:
My dad is Brazilian and Portuguese and my mom is Native American. It’s funny because I came out looking like, pretty white… I’m Caucasian-looking and none of my family is; everyone in my family is at least two shades darker than me.
Sky’s mother is of documented Native American ancestry, including Chippewa (Ojibwe), Cree, Chippewa-Cree, and Cheyenne. Her own maternal grandmother, Sky’s matrilineal great-grandmother, was Ashkenazi Jewish. Sky’s mother also has Scottish, English, Irish, and French ancestry.
A picture of Sky’s parents can be seen here.
Sky’s maternal grandfather is Gary LaMere, Sr. (the son of David “Dave” LaMere, Jr. and Eunice Mitchell). David was the son of David “Dave” LaMere, Sr., who had Chippewa [Ojibwe] ancestry, and of Rose Caplette, whose parents were Cree. Her mother was born in Canada. Sky’s great-grandmother Eunice was the daughter of Malcolm Gilbert Mitchell and Caroline Whitford, and had Chippewa and Chippewa-Cree ancestry.
Sky’s maternal grandmother is Carol May Gillespie (the daughter of Thomas J. Gillespie and Lillian Schaeffer). Sky’s great-grandfather Thomas was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, the son of George Calvin Gillespie and May Leora Parker. Thomas and both of his parents are listed as Native American on U.S. Censuses. Thomas’s father George was born in South Dakota, the son of David T. Gillespie, who was white, and of Sarah Long Chain, a.k.a. Long Chin, who was of Cheyenne Native American ancestry. Thomas’s mother May Parker was born in Montana, and was also of part Cheyenne Native American ancestry.
Sky’s matrilineal great-grandmother Lillian Schaeffer was the daughter of Morris Schaeffer and Anna/Annie Paltier/Patter, who were Jewish emigrants, from Bukowina and Galicia.
Sources: Sky’s maternal great-grandfather, Thomas J. Gillespie, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Thomas J. Gillespie on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogies of Sky’s maternal great-great-great-grandfather, David T. Gillespie (through David’s sister) – https://findagrave.com
http://www.genealogy.com
Genealogy of Sky’s maternal great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Gillespie (through George’s sister) – https://www.wikitree.com
Obituary of Sky’s maternal great-grandmother, Lillian (Schaeffer) Gillespie Hansen – https://familysearch.org
Sky’s maternal great-great-grandparents, Morris Schaeffer and Anna/Annie Paltier/Patter, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
CORRECTION:
And FURTHER, you’ve got this whole other branch of the family miscategorized as Polish Jews. Where do you dig this garbage up? These Jewish immigrants were born in and came here from Chernovits/Bukovina, for more than 100 years part of the Austro-Hungarian empire before they left it and geographically in Austria in the years they lived there and arrived in 1906. In case you didn’t notice, the name Schaeffer is distinctly Germanic in origin, no matter how the spelling may vary in any of these documents. Doesn’t matter this area was historically a melting pot — these folks are not of Polish extraction. Since you’re so enslaved to the genealogical record, why don’t you look them up in Ellis Island’s records where they are all listed as “Austrian”? I think a lot of people are tired of the reckless obsession with celebrity that leads to this kind of malpractice. You’re really batting 1,000 here — you’ve got Poles, incest, AND you did have this insinuation that Sky was wrong about her mother being Native American which has thankfully been corrected, when her mother has a lot of Cheyenne coming from literally two different directions. Only you, personally, don’t think it’s enough blood to qualify, putting you and your notion of what being Native American is at odds with the United States Federal government. It’s really quite astonishing.
I said it wasn’t clear to me whether it was documented or not. That doesn’t mean it has or hasn’t been documented, since I don’t know everything and I don’t have access to every record.
I listed May Leora Parker as the daughter of Charles Arthur Parker and Alice Jane Rowland not as a guess, but because she’s so listed on three family trees on ancestry.com (“William Rowland Sr.”, “PARKER/HATLEY Family Tree”, and “Boyle Family Tree”). If those trees are wrong, then they’re wrong, and I apologize.
I made no mention of any cousins marrying.
The exact geographical locations where many Ashkenazi Jews came to the United States from changed often. Jews from Bukowina and Galicia are sometimes called “Polish Jews”, sometimes “Ukrainian Jews”, sometimes “Austrian Jews”. It’s basically a territorial technicality. They all spoke Yiddish, anyway.
CORRECTION:
And further, what you’re insinuating here is first cousins marrying — and that is a very delicate subject, obviously. This marriage you lifted information viz “May Leora Gillespie” has her son John marrying Alvin Parker’s daughter, and Alvin IS the child of Charles. Charles’s nine children are well documented and none was a May (the 9th is a Kermit with another wife). And there are a lot of Native American Parkers. Please fix this as it’s offensive. See, this is what happens when a little information gets out there in the public record on the web, and people are careless with it.
CORRECTION: You said it wasn’t documented that she was Native American. You were incorrect as it’s all over the place. It begs the question of just how do YOU define Native American which is at odds from how the US government defines it in a census. The US government categorizes people with just a splash of Native American blood as Native American in any give census.
Also, there’s no proof of the following, which here now, you present as fact: “Thomas’s mother May Parker was born in Montana, to Charles Arthur Parker and Alice Jane Rowland, and was also of part Cheyenne Native American ancestry.” This is just a guess on your part, right? I’m guessing because you saw there was a May and a Rhoda and an Ethel Parker at the Fort Shaw Indian boarding school in Cascade Montana, and these two people had a Rhoda and an Ethel as children. But there’s no record these two ever had a child named May. In fact all of May’s census material reads that she is “Cheyenne.” You have no way of knowing to what degree, part or full. May also told one census-taker that one of her parents was from New York, another from Wyoming. This Charles Parker was from California. Again, your guesses have no place in the public record, and again you need to correct this.
CORRECTION:
Sky actually has a lot of documented Cheyenne blood. How do I know this? She is my COUSIN. Thomas J. Gillespie, the father of Carol May Gillespie, was viewed by the US government as American Indian and this is clearly stated on Indian and US Census rolls. Thomas grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He is the son of George Gillespie and May Parker Gillespie who were also both viewed as American Indian by the US government, if you look at census records. May Parker Gillespie grew up in Montana. George Gillespie is the son of the white David T. Gillespie and the Native American Cheyenne Sarah Long Chain a.k.a. Long Chin. She was CHEYENNE, descended from Long Chin and Cut Nose. Her Cheyenne mother-in-law Long Chin lived with the family. Her ex-model mother Tonia Lamere looks VERY Native American as do all the Gillespies, which is plainly obvious to anyone looking at any family pictures on Facebook. You should know that with a full-blooded Cheyenne great-grandmother and Indian blood from the Parker side, she is entirely entitled to call herself Native American as is her mother. Honestly, get your facts straight.
Thank you for the information.
I didn’t say that Sky doesn’t have Native American ancestry, I said I didn’t know for sure if she did, and that her mother isn’t entirely of Native American descent, as someone could assume from her comment (“My dad is Brazilian and Portuguese and my mom is Native American. It’s funny because I came out looking like, pretty white”).
so how much Cheyenne blood does she have?
I think her maternal grandmother is of about 1/4 Cheyenne ancestry.
BTW, Sky’s great-grandfather’s census record definitely describes him and his parents as Native American, unlike say Depp’s, Costner’s, etc.
good work follers