Garland’s family tree can be traced back to the early
colonization of the United States (on both her paternal and maternal family lines).
Her earliest paternal ancestor was George Marable (1631–1683), who traveled to
Virginia from
Kent, England, circa 1652 and was one of the first colonists settling in what is now
Jamestown,
Virginia. The Marable families of the southern United States all derived from the aforementioned George Marable.
The Marable family were wealthy southern aristocracy and as such were slave owners. By the time of the Civil War, the Marable family of Jamestown, Virginia, had spread across the South. Marables are named in the rosters of units from at least nine of the Confederate States including units from Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and were among the dead at Gettysburg. In Virginia, Edward W. Marable of the Charles City Southern Guard served aboard the Confederate ship
Patrick Henry during the engagement of the
Merrimack (C.S.S. Virginia) with the Federal fleet at Hampton Roads. John H. Marable of the 13th Virginia Cavalry served as a courier for Gen.
J. E. B. Stuart.
It is from Benjamin Marable (1710–1773), who traveled to Tennessee, that the Gumm family is descended. The Gumm name can also be found in the registers of soldiers who fought for the
Confederacy throughout Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Garland's father was Francis Avent Gumm, the fourth of six children born in
Murfreesboro,
Tennessee on
March 20 1886. He died on
November 17 1935, in
Los Angeles,
California. His parents were William Tecumseh Gumm (1854–1906) and Elizabeth Clemmie Baugh (1857–1895). The Gumm family was a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, French
Huguenot and German.
Frank Gumm married Ethel Marian
Milne, who was born on
November 17 1893 in
Michigamme,
Michigan. She died
January 5 1953 in
Los Angeles,
California. Ethel was the eldest of eight children born to Eva
Fitzpatrick (born on
January 4 1865 in Messina, New York) and John Milne (born
October 15 1865 in Ontario
Canada). His parents were Charles
Milne (born in 1829 in
Arbroath Scotland) and Mary Kelso (born 1837 in
Kilmarnock Scotland)
Eva Fitzpatrick-Milne was the daughter of Hugh Fitzpatrick (1838–1908), whose family arrived in the United States from Smithtown,
County Meath,
Ireland in the 1770s and Mary-Elizabeth Harriot (born
December 23 1841 in
Dublin, Ireland). Mary, one of thousands of orphans as a result of the
Irish Famine, was raised in a
Dublin convent. In 1858, at the age of 17, she married Hugh Fitzpatrick (an
Irish-American) who was visiting Dublin. That same year, the newlyweds sailed to
America. They had ten children. Mary died on
January 24 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. The Fitzpatrick family fought on the side of the British during the
Revolutionary War and as a result, Peter Fitzpatrick (1752–1812) son of Patrick Fitzpatrick (1727) was sentenced to be hanged as a spy, but this was not carried out and the family moved across the border into Canada;
Eva Fitzpatrick-Milne lived with Judy Garland until her death on
October 17 1949 at the age of 84. She is buried with Garland's father in
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale CA. Garland's mother is also buried nearby, in a separate grave under the name Ethel Gilmore
A family link between Garland and the 18th United States president
Ulysses S Grant has often been incorrectly stated. Garland's great great grandfather Hugh Fitzpatrick (1809–1878) was married twice; his second wife was Catherine Grant, a first cousin of Grant. However, Garland is descended from a son, also named Hugh (born 1838), from his first wife (Margaret Ross, 1807–1845), therefore there is no blood link.
When commenting on her ancestry, Garland described herself as Irish and Scottish and referred to herself during a 1963 press conference as "just an Irish biddy". In her autobiography, daughter Lorna states that her family had an
"Irish charm" and that "often the family survived on charm alone."
