Ronda Rousey
Rousey in 2011, photo by PrPhotos
Birth Name: Ronda Jean Rousey
Place of Birth: Riverside, California, United States
Date of Birth: February 1, 1987
Ethnicity: English, one quarter Trinidadian and Grenadian [including African, Spanish, and English], one sixteenth Polish, as well as German, Scottish, distant Dutch
Ronda Rousey is an American professional wrestler, actress, author, mixed martial artist, and judoka. She is signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand. She was Strikeforce’s last Women’s Bantamweight Champion, and then fought with UFC. She has appeared in the films The Expendables 3, Furious 7, and Mile 22. She uses the “Rowdy” nickname from Roddy Piper. She is also known as “The Baddest Woman On The Planet.”
Ronda is the daughter of AnnMaria De Mars (born Waddell), a technology executive, author, and judoka, and Ronald John Rousey. Her mother, nicknamed “The Animal,” was the first American to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, competing in the -56 kg weight class, in the 1984 World Judo Tournament. She is also an activist for Native Americans. When she was three, Ronda’s family moved to Jamestown, North Dakota, though she was also partly raised back in California.
Ronda is married to UFC fighter Travis Browne, with whom she has a daughter.
Ronda’s maternal grandfather was of Trinidadian and Grenadian descent, including African, Spanish, and English ancestry. Ronda’s other ancestry is English, 1/16th Polish, German, Scottish, and distant Dutch. A picture of Ronda with her mother can be seen here.
Ronda has said that her ancestry is “half venezuelan, a quarter English, a quarter polish, 100% American.” Her reference to “Venezuelan” ancestry likely refers to the fact that the island of Trinidad, where her grandfather’s family was from, is just 11km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Ronda’s first three fractions are not quite correct: she is of one quarter Caribbean ancestry, not half, she has English ancestry, to one degree or the other, from all four of her grandparents, and her Polish ancestry is one sixteenth, not one quarter.
Ronda’s paternal grandfather was John Edward Rousey (the son of Clarence James Rousey and Theresa Ellen De Moss). John was born in Illinois. Clarence was the son of Lee or John Henry Rousey and Brunetta Lee Westerfield. Theresa was the daughter of Edward De Moss and Jane Shepard.
Ronda’s paternal grandmother was Jean Orvetta Zifka (the daughter of Charles O. Zifka and Lenice O. Dilley). Jean was born in Wisconsin. Charles was born in Wisconsin, to a Polish father, Lawrence Zifka, and an American mother, Elzina/Elsina Smith. Lenice was the daughter of Logan Dilley and Alta Celia Fry.
Ronda’s maternal grandfather was Joseph Arthur Waddell (the son of Alfred Ernest Waddell and Emelia/Amelia Maria/Mona Castillo). Joseph was born in New York. Alfred was born on Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago, and was a prominent physician. He was the son of Joseph Thomas Waddell, who was born in Hackney, London, England; and of Claudine Angus Abbott, who was from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Ronda’s great-grandmother Emelia was born on Trinidad, the daughter of Pedro Castillo and Maria Hernandez.
Ronda’s maternal grandmother is Marcella Ann Austin (the daughter of Anthony Bernard Austin and Reva/Rena F. Landon). Marcella was born in Illinois. Anthony was born in Indiana, the son of Richard A. Austin and Sarah E. Leonard. Reva was born in Illinois, the daughter of Laurence/Lawrence Landon and Mayme E. Price.
Sources: Genealogies of Ronda Rousey – http://www.geni.com
http://gw.geneanet.org
Obituary, and partial genealogy, of Ronda’s father – http://www.findagrave.com
Ronda’s paternal great-grandfather, Charles O. Zifka, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Charles O. Zifka on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy of Ronda’s maternal grandfather, Joseph Arthur Waddell – https://www.wikitree.com
Ronda’s maternal grandfather, Joseph Arthur Waddell, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marriage record of Ronda’s maternal great-grandparents, Alfred Ernest Waddell and Emelia/Amelia Maria/Mona Castillo – https://familysearch.org
Ronda’s maternal grandmother, Marcella Ann Austin, on the 1940 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
What’s the other part of her Venezuelan heritage? Mestizo? Spanish?
Ms. Octoroon?
According to herself she is 1/4 polish
Thank you.
“Half” Venezuelan? She’s rounding up.
Yes but she doesnt mention anything about german oddly enough
It happens. Perhaps because it is (relatively) distant.
Her polish roots must be strong though, she is an exact copy of polish nobel prize winner Marie Curie http://www.inventionware.com/images/young-marie-curie.jpg
She didn’t get a single one of those fractions right (except for the fourth).
She also looks 100% white to me. I never would’ve guessed that she had any degree of non-white heritage. BTW is she a natural blond?
@Aaron Mcdonnell Zellenburg
Well that just means,you learned something new.Also looking for certain stereotypical traits,don’t always work.
Probably she has a very little amount of african dna(less than 10%). If you look at her mother you can see some african influence in her but in Ronda is imperceptible.
is she in the 1/8-1/16 range?
@andrew
I agree.Also this is what I meant by the 2-20%,you would never know
Yes, she is probably in the 1/8th to 1/16th range. And we could at least suspect her African ancestry because her grandfather was Venezuelan. Presumably the 2% to 20% people you talk about don’t have recent South American immigrant ancestors.
I presume she may have Spanish and Amerindian heritage from the Venezuelan side. Last Census of Venezuela says
49.9% Mestizo/Multiracial [c]
42.2% European
3.5% Black/Afrodescendant
2.7% Amerindian
1.1% others
0.6% unknown
@andrew
(Last Census of Venezuela says
49.9% Mestizo/Multiracial [c]
42.2% European
3.5% Black/Afrodescendant
2.7% Amerindian
1.1% others
0.6% unknown
I wouldn’t put to much stock in those census down there.Also The amounts today,wouldn’t reflect her granddads day.There have been a number of articles on that subject.Stating how people may see themselves.How mulattoes will say they’re white,or how others may say they are Mestizo.I’m surprised,there actually some that said they’re black
It really doesn’t make much sense to post the demographics of Venezuela. Just because the majority of the country identifies one way doesn’t mean that her family was of the same ancestry. And like someone else mentioned the demographics of Latin America are very skewed. People will identify with whichever group they believe gives them higher status and that they can “pass for”. Some people are completely delusional though, i.e. Sammy Sosa. Entire groups of people haved dropped off from one census to the next without question. Almost always blacks and natives. It has recently been reported from the Spanish speaking Caribbean to South America that census takers “didn’t make it” to those areas. It would be very interesting to actually see people’s physical appearance versus what they identify as. In some countries in South America the worst thing to be is Indio, in most of Latin America it is black. This strongly influences how people identify and how they are counted by the majority. Mestizo is widely assumed to mean a Native American and European mix. But it actually just means mixed. Many of these people are also of African descent, even in the most European and Native countries. I have rarely, if ever, come accross a white Latino that identified as anything but white. But I have met blacks calling themselves mulato, mestizo, blanco (it happens), indio, or marron (brown). And Indios who call themselves mestizo or blanco. And mulatos and mestizos who identify as white are quite common.
Physical features are based on probability but are also random. I come from a very mixed family, the more siblings the more genetic variation that is seen. I’m having trouble with my family tree because many people are marked as a different race from one census to the next. People assume that a black and white mix may have a distinct look. From being African American and Afro-Latina I can tell you that they can look like any race on the planet. Mainly because physical features are not as exclusive as many think they are. Mulatos with light skin and straight hair may be mistaken for white. Dark to medium skin and straight hair= black and indian or indian (facial features are also taken into account). I get black and native, black and asian, dark skinned asian, pacific islander, mulato, black and mexican, just mexican, or other Latina. And once Arab. (Another issue with demographics is that census takers were given instructions on how to categorize people instead of the person identifying themselves).
@ Mariposita – What you wrote was really informative. Interesting stuff.
Those census numbers are not accurate. I went down to venezuela and every other person on the street acted like they were happy to see me, like I was their long lost relative. Numerous people told me about their black grandfather or black grandmother. I spoke to the REAL people and they were like MOST of Venezuelans have African ancestry and its very recent. The census in most of the Latin Spanish and Portuguese areas lie so much because its NOT an advantage to be Indian or African, so most MIXED people claim white or close to it. Plus their is an overall ideology to erase blackness, black African is considered ugly and people are not so proud to admitt blackness down there. But they are ALL black mixed. Its racism started by the European colonizers against the Indian indigenous and Africans.
@follers
(Presumably the 2% to 20% people you talk about don’t have recent South American immigrant ancestors.)
Well that’s just one example.However you have to remember, this is a country of immigrants.There’s nothing that says,all the black blood came via homegrown stock.White and black have been messing around everywhere,and a good part of their descendants immigrated here.The very laws that you said restricted relations here,didn’t in other places.When those people got here,if they didn’t marry each other,then they had a tendency to marry white.Look at Ronda granddad,he married a white woman the second he got here.Now If Ronda here wasn’t famous,no one would be digging around in her life or family,she would just be another white person walking around.I was just looking at marisa tomei,going by her family their full Italian.However here’s marisa mother with 13% black blood,which means someone in the family was lying.Anyhow,There’s lots of possibilities of how that bloodline got into the white population(of course they all revolve around sex)
“Now If Ronda here wasn’t famous,no one would be digging around in her life or family”
-But I’m using famous people as examples. That’s the point.
As for Marisa Tomei, I am sure she did not have a full black African (which is what it would take, not a more mixed African-American) great-grandparent. That percentage probably refers to that “ancient” mixing or whatever it is.
I mean, you said all white Southern people tested had black ancestry? What about Bill Clinton and Al Gore? They are both Southerners and their ancestry has been documented and studied in detail. Shouldn’t they by definition have some kind of black ancestry that somebody would have found? What about Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and other Southern presidents?
This is like that 37.5% Native American thing for Larry David.
@follers
As for Marisa Tomei, I am sure she did not have a full black African (which is what it would take, not a more mixed African-American) great-grandparent. That percentage probably refers to that “ancient” mixing or whatever it is.
Why would it be ancient,13% would put it in the great granddad range.Also AA’s come in different rangesfrom 3-50% euro.However full black Africans have always been going to Europe,so it’s very easy for it to have happen.
(I mean, you said all white Southern people tested had black ancestry? What about Bill Clinton and Al Gore? They are both Southerners and their ancestry has been documented and studied in detail. Shouldn’t they by definition have some kind of black ancestry that somebody would have found? What about Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and other Southern presidents?)
Wait I said? No that was Bryan Sykes who say it,he’s the Geneticist who did the testing not me
@Andrew
Those census numbers are not accurate. I went down to venezuela and every other person on the street acted like they were happy to see me, like I was their long lost relative. Numerous people told me about their black grandfather or black grandmother. I spoke to the REAL people and they were like MOST of Venezuelans have African ancestry and its very recent. The census in most of the Latin Spanish and Portuguese areas lie so much because its NOT an advantage to be Indian or African, so most MIXED people claim white or close to it. Plus their is an overall ideology to erase blackness, black African is considered ugly and people are not so proud to admitt blackness down there. But they are ALL black mixed. Its racism started by the European colonizers against the Indian indigenous and Africans.
According to an autosomal DNA genetic study conducted in 2008 by the University of Brasilia (UNB) the composition of Venezuela’s population is:
63 % European contribution
21 % Amerindian
15 % African
http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/5542
a few sites say shes 1/8th
http://www.lipstickalley.com/showthread.php?t=460839
http://m.si.com/318939/melissa-segura-catching-up-with-ronda-rousey/