Ryan Gosling
Gosling in 2011, s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Ryan Thomas Gosling
Place of Birth: London, Ontario, Canada
Date of Birth: November 12, 1980
Ethnicity: French-Canadian (half), English, Scottish, Irish, as well as more distant German, likely 1/128th African-American
Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor, writer, director, musician, and producer. His roles include the films Remember the Titans, The Believer, Murder by Numbers, The Slaughter Rule, The United States of Leland, The Notebook, Stay (2005), Half Nelson, Fracture, Lars and the Real Girl, Blue Valentine, All Good Things, Crazy, Stupid, Love; Drive, The Ides of March, Gangster Squad, The Place Beyond the Pines, Only God Forgives, The Big Short, The Nice Guys, La La Land, Song to Song, Blade Runner 2049, First Man, The Gray Man, Barbie, and, as the narrator, ReGeneration; and the shows The Mickey Mouse Club, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, Breaker High, and Young Hercules. He directed and wrote the film Lost River. He is also a member of rock duo Dead Man’s Bones. Ryan is a co-owner of Moroccan restaurant Tagine. He is an endorser of PETA, humanitarian organization Enough Project, and peace promotion efforts in Africa; including supporting the group Invisible Children and traveling to conflict-torn areas in Chad, Uganda, and eastern Congo.
He is the son of Donna, a secretary, and Thomas Gosling, a traveling salesman for a paper mill. Ryan was raised in a Mormon (LDS) family. He grew up in Cornwall and Burlington in Ontario. Ryan has two children with his partner, American actress Eva Mendes.
Ryan is the first person born in the 1980s to have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Half Nelson, 2006), and thus could be considered the first millennial to have done so.
Ryan is of approximately half French-Canadian ancestry; his father is of roughly three eighths French-Canadian descent, and his mother is of roughly five eighths French-Canadian ancestry. Ryan’s other roots include English, Scottish, Irish, and more distant German. Ryan and singers Justin Bieber and Avril Lavigne are distant cousins, connected through Québec’s earliest French settlers.
Ryan’s five times paternal great-grandfather, James-Jacques Robinson/Robertson, was described as “Negro” (black) in contemporaneous records, and may have been from the United States. He married Ryan’s five times great-grandmother, Marie Trottier, who was French-Canadian. This likely makes Ryan of approximately 1/128th African-American ancestry.
Ryan’s paternal grandfather was George Bigelow Gosling (the son of George Percy Gosling and Bessie Rae/Ray Bigelow). Ryan’s grandfather George was born in Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario. Ryan’s great-grandfather George was the son of George Edward Gosling, who was born in Kensington, London, England, and of Caroline Minerva Snetsinger, who was of mostly German and Scottish descent. Bessie was the daughter of William Stone/Stern Bigelow, whose mother was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and of Mary Miller, who was Scottish, from Perthshire.
Ryan’s paternal grandmother was Mary Yvette Brown (the daughter of Joseph Brown and Mary Ann/Marie-Anne Bélaire). Ryan’s grandmother Mary was born in North Glengarry, Stormont, Ontario. Joseph was the son of Frederick/Frederic/Fred Brown, an English immigrant, and of Rosanna/Rosie/Rose Anna Proulx, who was born in St. Eugene, Prescott and Russell, Ontario, of mostly French-Canadian ancestry. Ryan’s great-grandmother Mary Ann was the daughter of Julien/Julian/Jules Olivier Bélaire/Belair and Matilda/Mathilda/Mathilde/Exelda Séguin, and also had French-Canadian ancestry.
Ryan’s maternal grandfather was Robert Thomas “Bob” Wilson (the son of Henry/Harry Thomas Wilson and Marie Georgina Victoria Dextras/Dextraze). Henry was the son of James Thomas Wilson, who was English, and of Bertha Louisa Hacker/Hackett, whose parents were from Wiltshire, England. Marie Georgina was of French-Canadian descent, the daughter of Joseph Dextras/Dextraze and Marie Célina Elizabeth Quenneville.
Ryan’s maternal grandmother is Ruby Kitts (the daughter of Gérald/Gerrold Kitts and Rose Emma Lalonde). Ruby is of mostly French-Canadian, and some Irish, descent. Gérald was the son of Henry John Kitts and Helen/Hélène Françoise “Ellen” Massia. Rose was the daughter of Alexandre/Alexander Lalonde and Catherine Harriet Piché/Picher.
Ryan’s matrilineal line can be traced to Catherine Guyard, who was born, c. 1639, in Paris, France, and to Catherine’s mother, Madeleine Venne.
Sources: Genealogies of Ryan Gosling – http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca
https://www.geni.com
http://laurenandtristan.net
http://www.perche-quebec.com
Genealogy of Ryan Gosling (focusing on his father’s side) – http://famouskin.com
Marriage record of Ryan’s paternal great-great-grandparents, George Edward Gosling and Caroline Minerva Snetsinger – https://www.familysearch.org
Genealogy of Ryan’s paternal great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Marie Trottier – https://www.geni.com
Genealogy of Ryan’s maternal great-grandfather, Gérald/Gerrold Kitts – https://www.findagrave.com
Report on Ryan’s distant relatives – http://www.torontosun.com
Family tree showing the relation between Ryan Gosling, Avril Lavigne, and Justin Bieber – http://www.aceshowbiz.com
Well now recent research done into his family tree now indicated his father’s side of the family has a huge French-Canadian background.
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/justin-bieber-is-cousin-of-avril-lavigne-ryan-gosling-and-celine-dion01.jpg Bad quality, but this family tree is so neat!
I believe there was a video where Ryan Gosling said he was Scottish. Many Scots ofcourse have English surnames so it wouldn’t be surprising.
Secondly they don’t look that much different from the English. What is Anglo-American/Australian/Canadian supposed to mean anyway? Is it supposed to mean people in these countries of largely British isles origins or just English?
Because i hate to break it to you. There is no such thing as an ethnicaly Anglo or Celtic nation.
The Anglo Saxons along with other Germanic groups had as much genetic input in Scotland has the Celtics had heavy input in England. There are thousands upon thousands of Scottish with Anglo blood & thousands upon thousands of English with celtic blood. Neither of these two countries are ethnicaly homogeneous.
Culturaly yes they differe. Scotland is largely celtic culturaly, while England is germanic. However ethnicaly, they aren’t that distinct and terms like “Anglo” or “Celtic” shouldn’t apply to just one nation when speaking about race since both of these countries were constantly invaded by the same groups of people. Both the Scottish & English have even had Norse input. So they can’t possibly be “Celtic” or “Anglo” unless you’re speaking on a pure culture basis.
What you are saying about Scotland and England is preposterous. Britannia (the main island) has been invaded so many times and had foreign conquerors and migrant populations intermarry so often that this idea of British unity is only someone who was a nationalist, xenophobe, or extremely ignorant would espouse.
Scotland is not Celtic it is Pictish. As in inhabited by the Picts. The Welsh were the original population. But still they were distinct from the Celts who were migrants from Gaul.
The Scots were invaded by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norwegians, several other Nordic islands, several smaller British islands, the Franks, and many many others. So, please forgive me if I do not think that they are all just the same. The do not all look the same and no one who goes there could say that they do.
I am Danish from a Swedish mother and a Danish father and to those who have not a clue about European civilization would look like some random Scandinavian. Yet Danish people can tell I look a bit Swedish. And Swedes can tell I look a bit Danish. My lord what a feat.
You have to know something about ethnography and European history before you propound on the indistinguishably of one Brit over another.
It looks insensitive and imperialistic in your attitude about people who are different than you to just blur peoples of Europe as being more or less the same. I am not Norwegian or Icelandic or Finnish in spite of having blonde hair, blue eyes, high and sharp facial features, etc.
And Gosling looks to a certain degree Germanic of Bavarian descent. He does not look fully Scottish and is incredibly unlikely to be anything other than a mix of a few or several European ethnicities from disparate and disconnected nations.
Now that is Dane. Not Viking.
Excatly, and you can imply to this Natives Asians, Hispanics, Polynesians, etc. You cannot lump everyone into one category/ race. Despite what people think, Europeans CAN LOOK VERY DIFFERENT EVEN IF THEY ARE ON THE SAME BORDER. Same with Native american tribes. Why say all Europeans look the same? or all Natives look alike? sheesh people. Educate yourselves
apply this to*
he looks english
He does to me as well.
I don’t think Ryan has ever mentioned his ancestry.
According to Wikipedia the 2001 ethnic orgin of his birthplace was
English 31.9%, Canadian 31.8%, Scottish 21.6%, Irish 19.1%, German 10.6%, French 9.2%, Dutch 5.8%, Italian 4.6%, Polish 4.4%, Portuguese 2.5%, Ukrainian 2.4%
Wikipedia states his parents are called Thomas and Donna. His parents were Mormons. Wikipedia also seems to indicate the surname Gosling is English/British.
Canadian is an ethnic origin?
Do they mean First Nations or something?
Maybe Jewish?
Interesting idea. But, not possible. He was born into a Mormon church called the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. It originated in the United States and has its foundation in Utah. And while it is a church that is free to all. Jews would not be one of the groups who would go for it. It is well known, but often not talked about, that Jews are very resistant to convert to any new religion. So, going to a religion like Christian Mormonism would be a very unlikely choice as it is a bit adrift from the traditional cornucopia of Christian Protestantism.