Master Surname Index



Harry Chapin

Ancestry of
Harry Chapin

Singer and Songwriter


Who was Harry Chapin?

Harry Chapin was a singer and songwriter who is probably best remembered for his hit song Cat’s in the Cradle which hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1975, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Harry Chapin died tragically in 1981 when he had a heart attack while driving on the Long Island Expressway. Harry Chapin was very dedicated to fighting world hunger and helped in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger for which he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Famous Kin

Harry Chapin is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and John Tilley. He also has kinship to a number of signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. These include, but are not limited to, Robert Treat Paine, Nathaniel Gorham and Josiah Bartlett. Other historical figures in Harry Chapin’s family tree include Boston Tea Party participant Edmund Sears, cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney, stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, cowboy hat inventor John Batterson Stetson, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, abolitionist John Brown, and Revolutionary War heroes Ethan Allen and Nathan Hale.

Harry Chapin has a number of Presidential kin including Grover Cleveland, Franklin Pierce, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Richard Nixon, and both Presidents Bush. Royal kin include King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth II, and Princess Diana. Fellow celebrities in Harry Chapin’s family tree include Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” actor John Lithgow, actor Humphrey Bogart, actor Christopher Lloyd, TV personality Kim Kardashian, actress Lucille Ball, actor Kevin Bacon and many others.


Some of the most recently added connections of famous kin for Harry Chapin

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Matthew Modine

TV and Movie Actor

10th cousin 2 times removed
via John Warner

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Matthew Modine

TV and Movie Actor

8th cousin 1 time removed
via Thomas Rice

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Matthew Modine

TV and Movie Actor

15th cousin 2 times removed
via Robert White

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Hoyt Vandenberg

2nd Director Central Intelligence

6th cousin 1 time removed
via Ebenezer Tyler

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Jim Douglas

80th Governor of Vermont

10th cousin 1 time removed
via John Howland

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William H. Avery

37th Governor of Kansas

18th cousin 1 time removed
via Alice Plumpton

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William H. Avery

37th Governor of Kansas

8th cousin 1 time removed
via Samuel Chapin

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Frank W. Woolworth

Founder of F.W. Woolworth Company

8th cousin 3 times removed
via Ezekiel Sanford

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Barbara Hutton

Socialite (aka “Poor Little Rich Girl”)

10th cousin 1 time removed
via Ezekiel Sanford

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Chester B. Jordan

48th Governor of New Hampshire

7th cousin 4 times removed
via Ezekiel Sanford

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Wallace Rider Farrington

6th Terr. Governor of Hawaii

8th cousin 2 times removed
via George Jones of Dinder, Somerset

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Dallas West

Hall of Fame Pool Player

11th cousin 1 time removed
via William Heath

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Dallas West

Hall of Fame Pool Player

10th cousin 1 time removed
via William Hatch

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Porter Goss

1st Director of the C.I.A.
19th and last Dir. of Central Intelligence

21st cousin
via Eleanor Plantagenet

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Porter Goss

1st Director of the C.I.A.
19th and last Dir. of Central Intelligence

10th cousin
via John Howland

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Alec Baldwin

Television and Movie Actor

20th cousin 1 time removed
via Eleanor Plantagenet

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

7th cousin 3 times removed
via Peter Noyes

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

7th cousin 4 times removed
via Tristam Coffin

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

6th cousin 3 times removed
via John Leonard

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

6th cousin 4 times removed
via Thomas Bliss

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

5th cousin 4 times removed
via Samuel Ely

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Alfred Ely Beach

Co-founder & Editor, Scientific American

6th cousin 4 times removed
via William Wilcockson

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Charles Dudley Warner

Author

6th cousin 3 times removed
via Samuel Chapin

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Charles Dudley Warner

Author

5th cousin 3 times removed
via Joseph Ely

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Charles Dudley Warner

Author

6th cousin 3 times removed
via John Leonard

View entire list of famous kin for Harry Chapin

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.


Harry Chapin photo by Larry D. Moore (CC BY-SA 3.0)