Mary Tyler Moore

Moore in 2008, photo by s_bukley/Bigstock.com

Date of Birth: December 29, 1936

Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.

Date of Death: January 25, 2017

Place of Death: Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.

Ethnicity: English, smaller amounts of Irish and German

Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress.

She was the daughter of Marjorie (Hackett) and George Tyler Moore. Her father was of English, Irish, and German ancestry. Her maternal grandparents were English.

Mary was married to Robert Levine, until her death. She had a son with her former husband Richard Carleton Meeker.

Mary’s patrilineal line can be traced to her great-great-great-grandfather, John Moor, who was born, c. 1755, in Treswell, Nottinghamshire, England.

Mary’s paternal grandfather was George Melville Moore (the son of Lewis Tilghman Moore and Mary E./Fanny/Frances Bragonnier/Bragonier). George was born Virginia, and was of English and German descent. Lewis was the son of John Moore and Mary Catherine Mann or Edith Warren; Lewis owned the house that is now Stonewall Jackson’s Headquarters Museum in Winchester, Virginia. Mary’s great-grandmother Mary was the daughter of The Rev. Daniel George Bragonnier/Bragonier and Mary Elizabeth Shindler.

Mary’s paternal grandmother was Anna Veronica Tyler (the daughter of Joseph Henry Tyler and Mary Tressa Cordell). Anna was born in New York. Joseph was the son of Charles Henry Tyler, who was born in Somerset, England, and of Catherine Reilly, who was born in Ireland. Mary’s great-grandmother Mary Tressa was the daughter of Irish parents, John Cordell and Margaret Cline Cooney, who was from Westmeath.

Mary’s maternal grandfather was Horace Mansell/Mancell Jones/Hackett (the son of Henry Jones/Hackett and Eliza/Elizabeth Charlotte Jane Gutteridge). Horace was born in Islington, London, England. Henry was the son of John Hackett and Sophia Evans. Eliza was the daughter of Mancell Powell Bagshaw Gutteridge and Eliza Levy.

Mary’s maternal grandmother was Mabel Burgess (the daughter of William Daniel Burgess and Sarah Winslow). Mabel was born in Shoreditch, London, England. William was the son of Daniel Matthew Burgess and Mary Ann/Anne Lloyd Aneboney. Sarah was the daughter of Henry John Winslow and Elizabeth Hamilton Gee.

Mary evidently believed that one of her grandfathers was Jewish. No Jewish ancestry appears on family trees of Mary Tyler Moore. Mary’s maternal grandfather, Horace Mansell Hackett, was the grandson of Mancell Powell Bagshaw Gutteridge and Eliza Levy. While the surname Levy is often (but not always) Jewish, Eliza was the daughter of John Levy and Sarah White, who were not of Jewish origin. The family surname had been changed from Lever to Levy, and John Levy was the son of William Lever and Mary Waters.

Sources: Genealogies of Mary Tyler Moore –

Mary’s paternal grandmother, Anna Veronica Tyler, on the 1900 U.S. Census –