Casper Van Dien
Van Dien in 2011, Barbara J. Petrick / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Casper Robert Van Dien
Place of Birth: Milton, Florida, U.S.
Date of Birth: December 18, 1968
Ethnicity: Dutch, English, Swiss-French, Swiss-German, Irish, Scottish, Swedish/Finland-Swedish/Finnish, remote French, Polish, and Danish
Casper Van Dien is an American actor and producer. Among his roles are Starship Troopers, Tarzan and the Lost City, and Sleepy Hollow.
Various web sites state that Casper also has Native American ancestry. It is not clear if this ancestry has been documented. No Native American ancestors are listed on publicly available family trees of Casper Van Dien.
He has four children: two, including actress Grace Van Dien, with his former wife, Carrie Mitchum (whose grandfather was actor Robert Mitchum); and two with his former wife, actress Catherine Oxenberg.
Casper’s paternal grandfather was Casper Anson Van Dien (the son of Casper Force Van Dien and Alice Wilsie Peterson). Casper’s grandfather Casper was born in New York, and was from a family that had lived in the United States since the 1600s. He was of mainly Dutch descent, with some English, and remote French, Polish, and Danish, roots. Some of Casper’s distant ancestors had been born in Germany, but were possibly or likely of ethnic Dutch descent. Casper’s great-grandfather Casper was the son of John William Van Dien and Jane E. Vreeland. Casper’s great-grandmother Alice was the daughter of Anson Rice Peterson and Rachel Auryansen.
Casper’s paternal grandmother was Elizabeth Maria/Mary Bornand (the daughter of William Henri Bornand and Emma Augusta Villard). Elizabeth was born in New Jersey, to Swiss parents, of Swiss-French and Swiss-German descent. William was the son of Louis Bornand and Elisabeth Schneider. Emma was the daughter of Auguste Villard and Rose Anne Marie Gauthier.
Casper’s maternal grandfather was William Burnell Morrow (the son of James William Morrow and Beatrice Flagg). William was born in California, and had English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. He was from a family with deep roots in the U.S. James was the son of Rufus Marion Morrow and Harriet Esther Tanner. Beatrice was the daughter of Byron Stephen/Salls Flagg and Winnifred/Winifred L. Joyce.
Casper’s maternal grandmother was Edith Wilhelmina Johnson (the daughter of Carl Emil Johnson and Hannah Omen/Oman). Edith was born in Rhode Island. Carl was born in Sweden. Hannah was born in Finland, and was likely of Swedish descent.
Sources: Genealogies of Casper Van Dien – http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com
https://www.geni.com
Marriage record of Casper’s paternal grandparents, Casper Anson Van Dien and Elizabeth Maria/Mary Bornand – https://www.familysearch.org
Casper’s paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Maria/Mary Bornand, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marriage record of Casper’s paternal great-grandparents, William Henri Bornard and Emma Augusta Villard – https://familysearch.org
Casper’s maternal grandmother, Edith Wilhelmina Johnson, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Edith Wilhelmina Johnson on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Edith Wilhelmina Johnson on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
To fatmonkey – I see Efje Demarest’s children with Jan Auryansen listed as Cornelia and Jannetje, who were both female. Did they have any other children?
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2673141&id=I549460890
Casper’s ancestor, Rachel Auryansen, was the daughter of James Demarest Auryansen and Sarah Chandler.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VNVF-ZTJ
More to fatmonkey – Rachel’s father, James Damarest Auryansen,’s parents were Abraham Auryansen and Sarah Demarest – https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MC1D-JLH
From that point on, I imagine you can link Sarah (Demarest) Auryansen to the family you are looking for.
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=czmrfm&id=I03178
I was right, then. Rachel Auryansen actually does descend from the Des Marets of Cambray, France. Thanks, and again, I like how quickly you make these trees.
to fatmonkey – to be honest, every single person of English descent is descended from English kings. They have millions of descendants now. This is why I often stop following genealogy after a couple of generations (sometimes).
See for example http://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/07/05/genealogist-almost-everyone-on-earth-descended-from-royalty/
I just wanted to ask you for one more favor. I’m acquainted with you being able to assemble and draw long genealogy trees with ease. I was wondering if you could find any reliable sources which could confirm my belief that Casper is a descendant of the House of Des Marets, a medieval noble family originating in Cambray, France. I started having this suspicion since I examined his paternal ancestry, i.e. the side of his paternal ancestress, Rachel Auryansen. On the genealogy site ‘familytreemaker.com’, there once was an article featuring almost full genealogy of Rachel Auryansen showing that her paternal grandmother was Efje Demarest (her surname being a variant of the original ‘Des Marets’ form), as well as that Efje’s descent is connected to the noble Des Marets of medieval France. Recently, I tried to find that article once again – but apparently it has been deleted! On the other side, the number of genealogy sites presenting the Auryansen & Demarest (Des Marets) family trees and connections is scarce to nonexistent.
So, in short, try to locate Casper’s descent from the Des Marets family, with Rachel Auryansen’s immediate ancestors as the guideline (at least to my memory it should be the guideline).
I examined Casper’s genealogy a lot, especially on his mother’s side, and, while there is a possibility I’m mistaken, I discovered a side-genealogy which makes Casper a descendant of Henry II of England. This is how I believe it should go (again: I don’t (!) know how accurate this is, but it may be, none the less):
William Burnell Morrow (Casper’s maternal grandfather) was the son of Byron Salls Flagg, who was the son of Stephen Salls Flagg, who was the son of Ira Flagg, who was the son of Isaac Flagg, who was the son of Abigail Chadwick, who was the daughter of John Chadwick, who was the son of Sarah Wolcott, who was the daughter of John Wolcott, who was the son of William Wolcott, who was the son of Humphrey Wolcott, who was the son of Humphrey Wolcott, who was the son of John Wolcott, who was the son of John Wolcott, who was the son of Edward Wolcott, who was the son of Roger Wolcott, who was the son of Matilda Cornwall, who was the daughter of Richard de Cornwall, who was the son of Geoffrey de Cornwall, who was the son of Richard de Cornwall, who was the son of Geoffrey de Cornwall, who was the son of Richard de Cornwall, who was the son of Richard Plantagenet, who was the son of John “Lackland” Plantagenet, who was the son of Henry II Plantagenet, King of England.
Yeh cool nickname.
I never found a genealogy tree of Casper’s with a German ancestor on it, and I looked through practically all of his parents’ family trees available on net. Could you point a link where you discovered this? His father’s genealogy tree mentions no German ancestry either.
This is a family tree of Casper’s paternal great-great-great-grandpa, Elias Adrian Vreeland. Elias’s great-great-great-great-grandpa, Elias Michielsen Vreeland, was born in New York, to a Dutch fa ther, Michael Jansen Vreeland, and a German-born mother, Fitje Hartmans Wessels, from Cologne, Rhineland, Germany.
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=vreelandproject&id=I7187
Another ancestor is on the tree of Casper’s great-great-grandpa, Anson Rice Peterson. Anson’s great-great-great-grandpa, Johannes Barentsze Waldron, was the grandson of Jan Meynderts, who is listed as born in Jever, Friesland, Niedersachsen, Germany.
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=heim-family&id=P145
Another possible ancestor is the originator of Anson Rice Peterson’s line, Claes Pieterszen, who is described in family trees as “a young man from Hamburg”. This one is less clear, though.
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=:2835182&id=I2744
I’ll “re-research” all of the genealogies you gave me again, but for the time being, none of the three ancestors I examined had German ethnicity, but rather Dutch (even though they were indeed born in Germany). I’m guessing those were Dutch families living as an ethnic minority in Germany.
I remember that, on one ancestry board, I saw the names of the parents of William H. Bornand (Casper’s paternal great-grandfather): Louis Bornand and Elisabeth SCHNEIDER.
http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.weurope.switzerland.cantons.vaud/275/mb.ashx
The record’s veracity is kinda disputable, though, and I haven’t managed to locate William H. Bornand’s ancestry anywhere else either.
I love your nickname lol
Replying to fatmonkey’s still-invisible comment – are you sure that his German-born ancestors were all of Dutch descent? Fitje Hartmans Wessels’s mother, Preyntje Hartman, is listed as born in Germany.
The “Schneider” thing is indeed correct. This is the marriage record of William Henri Bornard and Emma Augusta Villard, which lists William’s mother’s maiden name as “Schneider”. They were probably German-Swiss, as you say.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F67F-MN5
This is them on the census.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M5WT-QT2
I saw both documents – yeah, guess it seems true enough. Thanks.
I keep being perplexed at how many celebrities, when speaking of their heritage, omit to mention at least half of their ancestors’ ethnicities, if not more. Casper is but one of the examples (he mentioned, as you said, a non-traceable Native American ancestry, yet never spoke of German, Scottish, Irish, or Finnish, which are all documented).
Just one more thing: one of his ancestresses on his mother’s side, I think her name is ‘Joanna Maddocks’: her surname is Welsh, right? Would it be fair to say Casper is part Welsh, too?
I don’t know, there are a lot of people named Maddocks from England. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=Search&includedb=&lang=en&ti=&surname=Maddocks&stype=Exact&given=&bplace=England
Joanna was the daughter of John Maddocks, who was the son of Henry Maddocks. I think Henry is the last traceable ancestor on that line? He is listed as being born c. 1640, in Saco, Maine. Some other trees on Rootsweb have him born in England, one says “perhaps England”, another says “WALES england” but gives a 1627 birth year. Who knows?
“I keep being perplexed at how many celebrities, when speaking of their heritage, omit to mention at least half of their ancestors’ ethnicities, if not more”
I see this very often. For example, I recently looked at the family tree of Fergie, and it is another such case.
http://ethnicelebs.com/fergie
Oh, and Matthew McConaughey, who is quite multi-ethnic!
http://ethnicelebs.com/matthew-mcconaughey