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Clan Munro to Celebrate Marilyn’s Scots Heritage

Marilyn makes the front page of today’s Inverness Press & Journal, with news of her ancestral links to the Munro clan of Moray. This story is also reported in today’s Scotsman.

“New DNA evidence proves beyond doubt that Marilyn Monroe had Scottish roots. She was descended from the famous Munro clan, from Moray, despite the alternative spelling of her surname. The blonde bombshell was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in 1926, but took her screen name from her mother, Gladys Monroe.

Hundreds of members of Clan Munro will hear details of her Scottish kin during a clan gathering in the Highlands next weekend. They will meet at Foulis Castle, near Dingwall, for an update on the latest discoveries in the clan’s DNA project.

Monroe’s mother Gladys could trace her father’s line back to John Munro, a prisoner of war exiled to America after the Battle of Worcester during the English Civil War in 1651. No Munro men who shared the same signature pattern of the male Y chromosome had been found in Scotland, so the link to the Highland clan was uncertain.

Now, the Clan Munro DNA project has finally proved that Marilyn’s forefathers were related to a Munro family from the Moray village of Edinkillie, near Forres. Descendants of this Munro family, some of whom emigrated to the Bahamas in the 18th Century, carry the unique Y chromosome marker previously found only in descendants of exiled John Munro.

Another member of the Moray family, William Munro, emigrated from Scotland to Batavia, now Jakarta in Indonesia, in the early 19th Century. He married into a Dutch family, and William’s descendant Roelof Zeijdel said: ‘I was most proud to discover my clan Munro heritage, but very amazed that DNA could show also I was related to this big star that everybody knows.’

Clan chief Hector Munro said: ‘At Foulis Castle, Munros whose ancestors travelled throughout the world, as well as those who stayed in Scotland, will be coming together to celebrate our shared history, heritage and traditions, whatever their genes may tell us.’

Previously the Munro DNA project found that US President James Monroe was of a different male line, most closely related to the Munros of Teaninich Castle in Alness.”

Thanks to Fraser Penney

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Searching for Marilyn’s Scottish Roots

Marilyn by Sam Shaw, 1957

The search for Marilyn’s Scottish ancestors, first reported here, is still in progress, as Steven McKenzie writes for BBC News.

“The actress’s mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, had ancestral links to Scotland, according to Clan Munro USA. It believes that an ancestor of Monroe, an alternative spelling of the Scottish surname Munro, was a Highlander banished to America in the 1650s.

Free DNA tests are available, but there has been a lower uptake than expected. The association’s genealogy committee said it was ‘surprised’ more Scots had not taken up the offer of the free test kits, but remains hopeful they will be forthcoming.

The society has already successfully tracked down and tested a living descendant of Monroe’s great grandfather. The results were compared to the others in its Munro DNA Project, a database of hundreds of samples provided by Munros living all over the world whose family trees have been studied.

The project includes the descendants of Munros from Easter Ross in the Highlands, also the fifth US president James Monroe and Scots soldiers who were imprisoned and then banished to the American colonies after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Worcester was the last battle of the English Civil Wars and involved thousands of Scots combatants.

The association said the YDNA test already done had shown that the Hollywood actress was a descendant of one of those soldiers, said to be a Highlander whose family came from Aldie, near Tain, in the Munro clan’s Easter Ross stronghold.”

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Marilyn’s Scottish Roots

Marilyn by John Vachon, 1953

Marilyn never visited Scotland, but it’s thought that her ancestors may have travelled to America from the Highland village of Tain, the Scottish Herald reports. (This follows another story about her family links to Indiana and Mexico.)

“The search is now on for distant relatives of the star in the Highlands after it was found her ancestors may have come from the small town of Tain.

Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortensen, was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the home of the movie business – a far cry from the remote town on the coast of the Dornoch Firth.

Tain is perhaps best known for being the oldest Royal Burgh in Scotland but connections to one of Hollywood’s biggest stars could be a big draw for the town.

DNA research by the Clan Munro USA has found that Monroe was descended from a soldier from the area who was exiled to America after the English Civil War.

The research made use of a sample provided by a male relative of Monroe’s grandfather Otis Elmer Monroe.

It found a link to John Munro, a soldier from the area around Tain, who travelled to America in the mid-17th century.

He was one of many Scotsmen who fought for the Royalist cause during the English Civil War to be exiled after its defeat by Oliver Cromwell.

He is thought to have settled in what is now the US state of Rhode Island.”

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Marilyn’s Family Tree

Graphic by Sergio Serrano for Marilyn Mexico (click on photo to view at full size)

Juliana Szucs has written a fascinating article about Marilyn’s ancestry – from Mexico to the American Civil War, and early Indiana pioneers – for Biography.com.