Birth Name: Eugene Louis Vidal
Date of Birth: October 3, 1925
Place of Birth: West Point, New York
Date of Death: July 31, 2012
Place of Death: Hollywood Hills, California
Ethnicity: Austrian, Swiss-German, German, Scottish, English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish)
Gore Vidal was an American writer, public intellectual, and politician. He was the son of Nina (Gore) and Eugene Luther Vidal, an athlete and aviation pioneer. Gore was a Democratic Party nominee for Congress in New York in 1960.
The origins of Gore’s patrilineal “Vidal” line are not completely clear. His great-grandfather Eugene Fidel Vidal was born in Bavaria, Austria, to Felix Vidal and Elizabeth. It has been speculated that the family line had originally come from Spain to Austria, but it is not clear if this has been verified. Gore’s traceable ancestry included Austrian, Swiss (of Swiss-German origin), German, Scottish, English, and Scots-Irish (Northern Irish).
While Gore had sometimes been described as a relative of politician Al Gore (through his “Gore” lineage), such a genealogical connection has not been established, going back to at least the late 1600s. Gore Vidal and Al Gore were/are descended from two different immigrant ancestors.
Gore’s paternal grandparents were Felix Luther Vidal (the son of Eugene Fidel Vidal and Emma Hartmann) and Margaret Ann/Annie Rewalt (the daughter of Luther Lazarus Rewalt and Mary Jane Magee). Gore’s great-grandfather Eugene was Austrian. Gore’s great-grandmother Emma was Swiss, of Swiss-German descent. Gore’s grandmother Margaret had German and Scottish ancestry.
Gore’s maternal grandparents were Thomas Gore (Thomas Pryor Gore, the son of Thomas Madison Gore and Caroline Elizabeth Wingo) and Nina Belle Kay (the daughter of John Thomas Kay and Rachel Catherine Bolt). Gore’s grandfather Thomas, a Democrat, was a United States Senator from Oklahoma, having served from December 11, 1907 to March 4, 1921, and again from March 4, 1931 to January 3, 1937.
Sources: Genealogies of Gore Vidal – http://www.geni.com
http://www.findagrave.com
Gore’s paternal grandfather, Felix Luther Vidal, on the 1870 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
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