Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee

Lee in 2006, photo by s_bukley/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Thomas Lee Bass

Place of Birth: Athens, Greece

Date of Birth: October 3, 1962

Ethnicity:
*father – English, some Irish and French
*mother – Greek

Tommy Lee is an American musician. He is a founding member of, and drummer for, heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Other members of the band are Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, and, previously, Mick Mars.

Tommy was born in Athens, Greece, and was raised in California, U.S. His mother, Vassiliki “Voula” (Papadimitriou), was Greek, from Athens. His father, David Oliver Bass, was an American, who was born in Taconite, Itasca, Minnesota, and had English, and some Irish and French, ancestry.

Tommy is married to actress and internet personality Brittany Furlan. He has two children, models Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Lee, with his former wife, Canadian-born actress and model Pamela Anderson.

Tommy’s paternal grandfather was John S. Bass (the son of Joseph Josiah Bass and Alice Eva Oliver). John was born in Florence, Florence Co., South Carolina. Joseph was the son of John Calvin Bass and Nancy/Nannie S. McLeandon/McLeanon. Alice was the daughter of Samuel Preston Oliver and Harriett Rebecca Bates.

Tommy’s paternal grandmother was Julia/Juliet Esther Sanders (the daughter of Henry Sanders and May Esther Patrick). Julia was born in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin. Henry was born in New York, the son of James F. Sanders, who was born in France, and of Julia Sullivan, who was Irish. May was the daughter of Harvey S. Patrick and Esther Elizabeth Edwards.

Tommy’s father is descended from John Bass, who was born in Suffolk, Virginia. John was the son of William Basse and Catherine/Katherine Lanier/Lanyere. William was the son of John Basse, an English immigrant, and of Elizabeth Nansemond, who was Native American, and a princess of the Nansemond tribe. Catherine’s ancestry is disputed. Some sources state that she too was a Nansemond Native American, while others say that she was born to English immigrants. While some genealogies list her as the daughter of John Lanier and Lucreece Bassano, this is not the case, as their only daughter, Katherine, died as an infant.

Sources: Genealogy of Tommy Lee (focusing on his father’s side) – https://famouskin.com

Genealogy of Tommy’s paternal great-great-great-grandfather, Josiah Bass – http://www.wikitree.com

Genealogy of Tommy’s paternal great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Arthur Bass – https://www.geni.com

ethnic

Curious about ethnicity

14 Responses

  1. madman says:

    English, some Irish —> English, some Irish and French, at least 1/1024 Powhatan Native American

    Henry Sanders was born in New York to James Frederick Sanders, who was French, and Julia O’Connoll, who was Irish.

    Tommy’s father is descended from John Bass, who was born in Suffolk, Virginia. He was the son of William Basse and Catherine/Katherine Lanier/Lanyere. William was the son of John Basse, an English immigrants, and Elizabeth Nansemond, who was Native American, and a princess of the Nansemond tribe. Catherine’s ancestry is disputed. Some sources states that she too was a Nansemond Native American, while others say that she was born to English immigrants. While some genealogies lists her as the daughter of John Lanier and Lucreece Bassano (who were both English), this is not the case, as their only daughter named Katherine died as an infant.

    This makes Tommy of at least 1/2048 Native American descent.

    Genealogy of Tommy’s great-great-great-grandfather, Josiah Bass – http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Bass-Family-Tree-2631
    Genealogy of Tommy’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Arthur Bass – https://www.geni.com/people/Arthur-Bass/6000000004089212855

    • Fatmonkey says:

      He is also related – although very loosely – with the Jordan family of Jamestowne. His ancestress, Mary Jordan, wife of Nathaniel Bass, was a daughter of Samuel Jordan, the famous colonist, legislator and planter, who owned the “Jordan’s Journey”.

      A tradition has it the Basses themselves were originally French Huguenots, who went to England and then to the U.S. Maybe that, too, could be added, though I don’t know how sustained it is.

      http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Basse_Nathaniel_bap_1589-1654

    • andrew says:

      @madman

      are you sure that John Lanier and Lucreece Bassano were “both English”? rather of French and Italian descent.

      • andrew says:

        still a valid question

        • madman says:

          Why can’t you just look them up yourself? That’s what I would’ve done. But to answer your question, no, I’m not sure. In fact, while they were both English-born, they probably had other ancestry too. However…

          1. They are way to remote to care about.
          2. I explicitly wrote that they weren’t Tommy’s ancestors in the first place.

          So I have no idea why you even bring this up.

          • andrew says:

            _ But to answer your question, no, I’m not sure. In fact, while they were both English-born, they probably had other ancestry too.

            That’s what I wanted to know.

            However until some years ago they weren’t considered “too remote” by the policy of the site

          • madman says:

            There’s no policy. People can submit comments or profiles with whatever they want in it. It’s not like Follers or Ethnic checks every profile submittet so that it only includes 1/1024 of the ancestry. I know there’s people here listed as things as far back as 1/16384.

            That said, I think it’s good that the site has a general limit.

  2. andrew says:

    Tommy’s mother was Vassiliki “Voula” Papadimitriou

  3. Fatmonkey says:

    … And French, as well. This is Nicholas Lanier (1544-1610), the paternal grandfather of John Lanier, Lucreece Bassano’s husband, whose heritage I mistakenly thought of as English.

  4. Fatmonkey says:

    A family tree of Tommy Lee’s I stumbled upon:

    http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=dowfam3&id=I115436

    If that one’s correct, he’s also English, Irish, and Italian (through his ancestress, Lucreece Bassano). I’ll add up some more if I happen to discover anything.

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