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
he looks german or Norwegian to me
Im so sick of reading this nonsense when I try to find out someones ethnicity. Every extremely white american like brad pitt is supposed to have 0.0001 % native at least. People on here are so desperate to find any remote non-eurpoean admixture its an agenda dont be so desperate. He’s another very germanic looking guy so put that native this and that up your ass
I’d say he was at least ‘potentially’ part-Native American, since I remember I read an old interview he gave, where he said he was of distant Native American heritage on his mother’s part. The absence of the evidence on the internet doesn’t mean his statement is false, and I don’t see why he’d publicly state something he himself isn’t sure of. I used to examine his maternal ancestry alot, and I found the tree to be much less defined than that of his father’s. Perhaps some of his uncharted maternal ancestors could be Native American.
A lot of people say they have Native American ancestry. It should be verified.
Casper van Dien’s line of descent showing his part-Italian ancestry (through one of his paternal’s ancestors, David Sohier):
David Sohier was the son of Antoinette Malapert, who was the daughter of Michel Malapert, who was the son of Michel Malapert, who was the son of Jean de Malapert, who was the son of Jean de Malapert d’Hervilly, who was the son of Jean d’Hervilly, who was the son of Jeanne d’Arcy, who was the daughter of Helvide de Bazoches, who was the daughter of Nicholas III de Bazoches, who was the son of Nicholas II de Bazoches, who was the son of Nicholas I de Bazoches, who was Nicholas de Bazoches, who was the son of Gervais de Bazoches, who was the son of Ermengarde de Roucy, who was the daughter of Sybille de Pouille, who was the daughter of Sichelgaita of Salerno, who was the daughter of Guaimar IV of Salerno.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaimar_IV_of_Salerno
to fatmonkey – Casper is also part Polish, as you can see, from his Zabriskie lines.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is descended from the same ancestors.
Do check his father’s distant (maybe back to mid-17th century) family tree – I remember having noticed an ancestor named ‘Jurriaen Thommassen’. Thommassen was a Danish immigrant who came to Netherlands from Jutland (the specific sub-region was named ‘Ruppe’: hence the ‘Van Ripen’ addition to his descendants’ surname), married a Dutch woman and begot a line of descendants which would, later on, adopt surnames such as ‘Auryansen’, ‘Ariance’, ‘Jurrianse’, etc. as a homage to their forefather’s name, Jurriaen. It is of him that the Auryanses of U.S. descended, at least according to a site maintained by a member of the family. As with the ‘Des Marets’ thing, though, I can’t seem to be able to retrieve the link containing the story of the Auryanse family, either, even though I do remember I’ve read the entire text on the site.
Anyway, that said, Casper’s distant ancestry is also Danish. And yeah, I planned to point his Polish descent as well, but you were quicker than me.