OT: Ancestry of actress Allison Janney

[JBrand]

I was just idly checking on Allison Janney's ancestry, after noting her mother had the Christian name of Macy, but I see she is not on Famouskin.com, where I felt sure I'd find her.

In addition to being quite a humorous person, she won the Oscar in 2018 for her portrayal of skater Tonya Harding's mother.

There is info on her paternal lines (Janney, etc.) in a chart on wikitree:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Janney-406

Note that one of her paternal great-great grandmothers, Clarissa Montfort (Fay) Smith, was a daughter of Samuel H. Fay and Susan Shellman, fairly recent ancestors of George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Texas Ranger Bush.

[Will Johnson]

The most likely royal route for Allison Janney is to follow her Janney line back until we see that John Hopkins Janney married to Caroline Symington sometime around 1870ish

And then back on the Symington line to the Leiths and then back where we find Forbes and Olipants and Leslies and Steurts who at least one has a very good chance of being a royal descendant

[JBrand]

She has some known RDs through the shared ancestry with the Bushes (via married couple Sam Fay + Sue Shellman);

--Mrs. Catherine (Marbury) Hutchinson
--Mrs. Catherine (Hamby) Hutchinson
--Dr. Richard Palgrave
--Rev. Peter Bulkeley
--Mrs. Jane (Bulkeley) Allen

Her mother, Macy Brooks Putnam (d. 2020), seems to be descended from George Palmer Putnam of the publishing house. Some of those lines are found on Geni, and one I traced back went to the Coytmore-Tyngs of Mass (assuming it is correct).

So she seems certain to have a number of royal lines ...

[JBrand]

Oh, Susan Shellman Fay also had lines from Aston and Broadnax of Virginia.

[Elizabeth A]

On Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 6:01:48 PM UTC-4, JBrand wrote:

There may well be a Welsh royal gateway as well, in the Richard Owings/Owens found in that WikiTree pedigree. According to "Maryland Genealogies, A Consolidation of Articles from the Maryland Historical Magazine", page 133, "Richard Owings, born c 1662 in Wales, died intestate 1716 in Baltimore County., is placed as the 4th son of Owen ap Humphrey of Llwyn-du Co., Merionethshire, Wales." This is certainly a logical or at least tempting placement, as this Owen ap Humphrey is apparently the father of several other emigrants to Pennsylvania. According to "Reifsnyder-Gillam Ancestry," p. 48, "Owen Humphrey, second son and heir of Humphrey ap Hugh, inherited Llwyn du. He married Margaret, daughter of ______________, and had, among other issue, some of whom removed to Pennsylvania, a daughter, Rebecca, who married, 1678, Robert Owen, of Fron Gôch, near Bala, in the Comôt of Pennlyn, Merionethshire." This work on p. 47 traces this Owen Humphrey's ancestry: "Humphrey ap Hugh married, circa 1624-1625, Elizabeth, daughter of John Powell (otherwise called John ap Howell Gôch), of Gadfa, a large farm (then considered quite a good estate), in the township of Rhiwargor, in the parish of Llanwddyn, Montgomeryshire. John ap Howell was taxed as a land owner in Llanwddyn, in a Lay Subsidy of 39 Elizabeth, 1596-7 [according to the Subsidy Rolls for Montgomeryshire], and was buried at Llanwddyn Parish Church, 24 July, 1636. He was the son of Howell Gôch, of Gadfa, ap Meredith ap Bedo ap Jenkin, of Caer Einion [see footnote 3, p. 47], and he married Sibill, daughter (seventh child) of Hugh Gwyn, Esquire, of Peniarth, Caernarvonshire, by Jane, daughter of Owen ap Hugh, of Bodeon, Anglesey [see footnote 5, p. 47], and sister unto Sir Hugh Owen, Barrister-at-Law and Recorder of Caermarthen, ancestor to the Owens, Baronets, of Orielton, Pembrokeshire. Hugh Gwyn [see footnote 6, p. 47] was High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire from 2 December 1599-1600, and was commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace for that county, 11 May, 1611." Of this "Owen Ap Hugh Owen of Bodeon," this work says (p.47), "Owen ap Hugh, of Bodeon, Anglesey, was High Sheriff of Anglesey, 30 November, 1562-63, 1579-80 (30 November), and died 1613. His second wife, mother of Jane, who married Hugh Gwyn, was Sibill, youngest daughter of Sir William Griffith, Knt., of Penrhyn, Caernarvonshire, Chamberlain of North Wales, by his second wife, Jane, daughter of John Puleston, of Bers and Havod y Wern." This Sybil Griffith, wife of Owen ap Hugh Owen of Bodeon can be found in Genealogics at https://genealogics.org/pedigree.php?personID=I00346259, where it appears that she was a descendant of Edward I.

Putting it all together, it would look like this:

Edward I = Eleanor of Castile
Elizabeth of England = Humphrey de Bohun
William de Bohun = Elizabeth Badlesmere
Elizabeth de Bohun = Richard FitzAlan
Elizabeth FitzAlan = Sir Robert Goushill
Joan Goushill = Thomas Stanley
Margaret Stanley = Sir William Troutbeck
Jane/Joan Troutbeck = Sir William Griffith
Sir William Griffith = Jane/Joan Puleston
Sybil Griffith = Owen ap Hugh Owen
Jane Owen = Hugh Gwyn
Sybil Gwyn = John Powell/John ap Howell Gôch
Elizabeth Powell = Humphrey ap Hugh
Owen Humphrey = Margaret _________
Richard Owen/Owings[?] = Rachel ferch Robert
Samuel Owings I = Urath Randall
Samuel Owings II = Deborah Lynch
Frances Owings = Robert North Moale
Ellin North Moale = George Howard Elder
Sarah Elizabeth Elder = Jervis Spencer
Frances Moale Spencer = Stuart Symington Janney
Jervis Spencer Janney I = Elizabeth Lowe Hill Smith
Jervis Spencer Janney II = Macy Brooks Putnam
Allison Brooks Janney

Perhaps Stewart Baldwin, who has commented on the problematic nature of some of the other "traditional" Welsh gateway ancestors to Pennsylvania, can help shed some light on this Richard Owen/Owings.

-Elizabeth A

[Elizabeth A]

The WikiTree pedigree doesn't mention the mother of Stuart Symington Janney. She appears to have been Caroline Symington, daughter of Thomas Symington and Angelique Stuart, a daughter of Baltimore Mayor William Stuart, per "An Architectural History of Harford County, Maryland" (https://books.google.com/books?id=V9NPAAAAMAAJ&q=Caroline+Symington+Janney&dq=Caroline+Symington+Janney&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-sILyoPz3AhU5jokEHet5D-g4ChDoAXoECAcQAg) and "Stuart Symington: A Life" (https://books.google.com/books?id=zJavIyHYVwwC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=thomas+symington+indian+springs&source=bl&ots=cgBtx-Ys7-&sig=ACfU3U1bq5N8Z9Kcrw66gtDzHbLBLvxowA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipn-maofz3AhX-kokEHcURDvcQ6AF6BAgWEAM#v=onepage&q=thomas%20symington%20indian%20springs&f=false). According to WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Steuart-97), this William Stuart was a descendant of gateway ancestors Edward Digges, Henry Lowe, Jane (Lowe) (Sewell) Calvert, James Neale and Mary (Mainwaring) Gill.

-Elizabeth A

[JBrand]

George Palmer Putnam had a descent from the Hawkes family of Lynnfield (of personal interest to me). They were ancestral to the late Princess of Wales, also.

G. P. Putnam seems to lack the descent from Mr. John Gifford of the New Ironworks at Lynn. But there is a line from Sarah (Cushman) Hawkes, a granddaughter of Isaac Allerton, passenger on the Mayflower.

[Johnny Brananas]

"Allison’s patrilineal line can be traced back to Thomas Worthington Janney [sic], who was born, c. 1633, in Wilmslow, Cheshire, England."

http://ethnicelebs.com/allison-janney

If memory serves, there are Janney and Worthington lines down to my Quaker Pearson ancestors behind Mary Ann Pearson, wife of John G. Macy of Ohio and Iowa.

[Will Johnson]

I wish whoever runs ethnicelebs would just hang it up.
Their work is so worthless
Their sources are things like Geni, worthless, familytree, worthless

In addition to which they never even identify the actual *author*, using "web site credibility" in place of actual scholarship