Ancestry of
Walt Disney
Co-Founder of The Walt Disney Company
Who was Walt Disney?
Walt Disney was born December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, to Elias and Flora (Call) Disney. Less than a decade earlier Walt's father Elias Disney had come to Chicago and found work on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. It has been suggested that the exposition was a source of inspiration for Walt Disney's amusement park that would become Disneyland.
Walt, along with his brother Roy Disney, founded on Octover 16, 1923, the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio which would eventually become The Walt Disney Company. It was from these studios that the immortal characters of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and countless others originated.
It is through his mother Flora (Call) Disney that Walt Disney is related to so many famous kin. One of the closest relationships is to Samuel Morse, the co-inventor of Morse Code, who is a 3rd cousin 3 times removed.
In addition he is related to a number of Presidents, the closest of which are Franklin Pierce, James Garfield and Calvin Coolidge, not to mention former Vice-President Dick Cheney.
More distantly, Presidents George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, both George Bushs and Barack Obama are all cousins.
As a decendant of Charlemagne and Alfred the Great, Walt Disney also boasts a Royal kinship to both Prince William and his wife Catherine Middleton.
There are many more family relationships for Walt Disney that are too numerous to mention here. A small sampling includes Robert E. Lee, Helen Keller, Meriwether Lewis, and the Roosevelts (Eleanor, Franklin, and Theodore).
Some of the most recently added connections of famous kin for Walt Disney
Lucretia (Rudolph) Garfield
First Lady of President James Garfield
21st cousin
via John, King of England
Thomas Bradbury
(c1610/11 - 1694/5)
Great Migration Immigrant 1635
14th cousin 7 times removed
via John, King of England
Abigail (Smith) Adams
First Lady of President John Adams
18th cousin 3 times removed
via John, King of England
Alexander Spotswood
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
14th cousin 7 times removed
via John, King of England
Benjamin Harrison V
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
16th cousin 5 times removed
via John, King of England
View entire list of famous kin for Walt Disney
Please note: The ancestor reports on this website have been compiled from thousands of different sources, many over 100 years old. These sources are attached to each ancestor so that you can personally judge their reliability. As with any good genealogical research, if you discover a link to your own family tree, consider it a starting point for further research. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. FamousKin.com cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy and reliability of these sources.