Dick Van Dyke Can Trace His Family Back To This Historic Voyage

Publish date: 2024-03-18

Van Dyke may have connections to other early American adventurers. He says that looking at a family tree once, he saw that his mother's family, the McCords, were also related to Captain John Smith (above) of the Jamestown, Virginia, colony, but he hasn't confirmed this himself. The same family tree said his great-great-grandfather had gone west to find gold but was unsuccessful and moved back east (via "The Today Show").

When Van Dyke was 18, he found out something much more scandalous. During a conversation with his mother about enlisting during World War II, she told him that he had already turned 18, even though he thought his birthday was still a month away. She said he had been born prematurely, and there were complications with his birth, so they changed his birthday to suggest he had been full term. When he asked his grandmother about it, she revealed the actual truth: He was conceived out of wedlock, a scandalous circumstance at the time. His parents left their hometown and moved to Missouri briefly to hide the secret. They came back married with a baby whose birth date they fudged a little. Van Dyke says that even by 1943, this was a bit shocking (via "The Today Show").

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCEj3Fsbm9fmbakt4yvmKdllK64pnnCmqVmrKKWsKZ5x6KqZp6RoratxYybmJyjXam8bsDHoqpmoJmowbC%2ByJxkr6eplrSmew%3D%3D