Oakes Fegley
Oakes Fegley – “Pete’s Dragon” World Premiere – Arrivals – El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood – Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2016 -Photo Credit: Guillermo Proano / PR Photos
Birth Name: Oakes Tonne Fegley
Place of Birth: Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Date of Birth: November 11, 2004
Ethnicity: Irish, as well as German, 3/16ths Italian, one eighth Slovak, some Dutch and Swiss-German
Oakes Fegley is an American actor. His roles include the films This Is Where I Leave You, Pete’s Dragon, Wonderstruck, The Goldfinch, The War with Grandpa, and The Fabelmans, and the shows Boardwalk Empire, Person of Interest, and Accused.
Oakes is the son of actors Merce Fegley and Michael Fegley. He is the brother of actors Winslow Fegley and August Fegley.
His father is of one quarter Slovak, as well as German, Irish, Swiss-German, and one eighth Italian, ancestry. Oakes’ mother is of one half Irish, one quarter Italian, one eighth German, and one eighth Dutch, descent.
Oakes’ paternal grandfather is Richard Franklin “Dick” Fegley (the son of Charles Ellsworth Fegley, Jr. and Esther Celeste Lacovara). Charles was the son of Charles Ellsworth Fegley, Sr. and Mabel Viola Smith. Esther was the daughter of Peter Lacovara, who was born in Pennsylvania, to Italian parents, and of Esther D. Miller.
Oakes’ paternal grandmother is Marguerite “Peg” Kiss (the daughter of Ferdinand Walter Kiss/Kish and Mary Rose Flynn). Ferdinand was born in Pennsylvania, the son of Slovak parents, Eduardus/Edward Kiss/Kish and Pauline Bajsovicz/Vocieotiz/Voysivick. Mary Rose was the daughter of Joseph Flynn and Anna.
Oakes’ maternal grandfather is Jay Tonne (the son of Christopher Fredrick Tonne and Catherine Marie Larocca). Christopher was the son of Wilhelm Heinrich Tonne, who was born in Wisconsin, to German parents, and of Louise Pauline Fredricks, who was born in Wisconsin, to Dutch parents. Catherine was born in Illinois, the daughter of Italian parents, Michael Larocca and Angeline/Angela Maria Postilion, from Potenza.
Oakes’ maternal grandmother is Mary Burke (the daughter of John J. Burke and Cecelia/Cecilia Marie/Mary Hoban). John had Irish ancestry, and was the son of John Joseph Burke and Florence Catherine Brady. Cecelia was born in Illinois, the daughter of William Joseph Hoban, who was born in Illinois, to Irish parents, and of Margaret Rourke, who was born in Kerry, Ireland.
Sources: Obituary of Oakes’ paternal uncle – http://www.legacy.com
Marriage record of Oakes’ paternal great-great-grandparents, Peter Lacovara and Esther D. Miller – https://www.familysearch.org
Oakes’ paternal great-grandfather, Ferdinand Walter Kiss/Kish, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Obituary of Oakes’ paternal great-grandfather, Ferdinand Walter Kiss/Kish – http://articles.mcall.com
Likely baptismal record of Oakes’ paternal great-great-grandfather, Eduardus/Edward Kiss/Kish – https://familysearch.org
Obituaries of Oakes’ maternal great-grandparents, Christopher Fredrick Tonne and Catherine Marie Larocca – http://www.kmitch.com
Oakes’ maternal great-great-grandmother, Louise Pauline Fredricks, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Oakes’ maternal great-grandmother, Catherine Marie Larocca, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy of Oakes’ mother (focusing on her mother’s side) – http://www.bajda.net
Birth record of Oakes’ maternal great-grandmother, Cecelia/Cecilia Marie/Mary Hoban – https://familysearch.org
Oakes’ maternal great-grandmother, Cecelia/Cecilia Marie/Mary Hoban, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
If you can find anything more about his paternal grandfather, that would be interesting. I think Fegley is an anglicized German surname. Also, according to the rootsweb-genealogy, his great-great-grandmother Louise was one quarter Spanish. Should this be included?
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=:2710901&id=I1570&style=TABLE
You mean like Foegle?
Why do you think so?
Yes. These websites claim so:
https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=fegley
https://www.houseofnames.com/fegley-family-crest
And it seems like most Americans with this surname are of German descent:
https://familysearch.org/tree/find/name?search=1&self=|Fegley|0|0&_=1500502943968
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=Search&includedb=&lang=en&ti=&surname=Fegley&stype=Exact&given=&bplace=&byear=&brange=0&dplace=&dyear=&drange=0&mplace=&myear=&mrange=0&father=&mother=&spouse=&skipdb=&period=All&submit.x=Search
According to at least one census record, Theodore Heinrich Fredricks’ mother was born in the Netherlands, not in Spain.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MM2F-DFN
According to his death record, Fredricks’ parents were Christian Fredricks and Johanna Welling.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQRL-7RQ
Kiss is a super common Hungarian last name. It means “little”. There are a lot of Jews with that name, maybe madman googled it and came upon a lot of Jews.
So what’s the ethnicity there, Slovak or Hungarian, or both?
It’s Slovak.
I think I found Edward’s baptism.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZR3-QCZ
His marriage record for the first wife says he’s from Tóthfalu, Zips county. Slovenská Ves and Tóthfalu both mean Slovak village, and Slovenská Ves is in Spiš (Zips in German). I’m not 100% sure because I don’t know his exact birth date, but the year is right.
Just curious, why did you think that Ferdinand W. Kiss was Jewish?
I’ll go through everything I knew about Ferdinand:
The 1930 census says that both his parents were born in “Hungary” and spoke “Slovak”. All his grandparents were born in “Austria” and spoke “German”. I didn’t (and still don’t) see why they would list a different mother tongue for their parents than for themselves if they were ethnic Slovaks. And (correct me if I’m wrong) a lot of Jews were bilingual in the local language and German and/or Yiddish, no?
His brother was born in Egypt (?), weird for an ethnic Slovak. I’m not sure, but I think they lived among some other Jews (at least the family above them on the census were Jewish). Plus “ovicz” as a surname suffix.
They are all buried as Christian. I think the half-brother’s birth place was a mistake and that he was born in Egypt, Pennsylvania. His parents were deffinitely married in PA.
A lot of Jews were bi- and multi-lingual, yes.
Ferdinand W. Kiss was a practicing Catholic, according to his obituary, although that wouldn’t have ruled out conversion to Catholicism.
Kiss’ older brother was named after their father, which was fairly unusual for Central European Jews, outside of the “WASPy” German-American Jews of a certain social standing (perhaps like Topher Grace’s grandmother’s family).
I wouldn’t necessarily rule out the Egypt birthplace, but that wouldn’t make it more Jewish-sounding for me.
BTW, not to harp on too much (well), but you had the wrong parentage for Cecelia/Cecilia Marie/Mary Hoban. Luckily, she turned out to still be Irish.
His brother was born in Egypt, PA. His mother Mary (not the same woman as Ferdinand’s mother) had Egypt, Pennsylvania as her place of residence on her marriage record. The whole family seems to be hovering around Lehigh County.