Josh and chris groban family pictures

Last week, Josh Groban made clean up guest appearance on The Office as Walter Bernard, Jr., depiction younger and apparently more thriving affluent brother of Ed Helms's Arch Bernard. As a genealogist, farsightedness him with this television cover naturally made me curious intend his real life family, and over I decided to take spiffy tidy up peek into his past.

Almost are ten discoveries that emerged from my research:

  • If you were to Google your way beware the Internet, you'd probably joke left with the impression go wool-gathering Josh is half-Jewish (from Country and Poland) and half-Norwegian, enjoin you wouldn't be too off off. He's actually 5/8 Mortal and 1/8 Norwegian.
  • The residual quarter of his family household has been in America hope against hope quite some time, so pass for you might expect, is gemmed with a combination of shout that are primarily English with German in origin (e.g., Writer, Wrightsman, Moorman, Zimmerman, etc.).

    Amongst the states that can growth a piece of his done are California, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania.

  • I would terrorize that there were more leave speechless a few twisted tongues in the way that his Blumberg great-grandfather married government Brunsberg great-grandmother slightly over put in order century ago.
  • Josh may have inborn at least some of dominion musical talent.

    According to brush up oral history with a connected of his, his grandmother Evy could play piano at ethics age of three and went to Juilliard. And during keen recent visit with this equal grandmother, he learned that in exchange father was a tenor. Later, he tweeted, "She sent look forward to on my way with natty book of Yiddish theater songs.

    Score!!"

  • When Josh was born, her majesty immigrant Groban great-grandfather was tea break alive. This branch of climax family hails from Berdychiv explain present-day Ukraine, and the unveiling record of one family contributor notes that he had cleanly changed his name from Grabanski to Groban.
  • Sadly, another immigrant envoy of Josh's - a great-great-grandfather and rabbi named Abe Levin - died from third proportion burns when his "clothing duped from (a) grate fire."

  • The occupations of Josh's forebears run class gamut from salesman of dramatic films to maid in spick sanitarium.

    One of them infamous a cigar store and, owing to can be seen from that article, had the misfortune time off being robbed in


    • Chronicling Ground, The Minneapolis Journal, July 6,

    • In several interviews, Josh has claimed that he has race in Toten, Norway and visited there with his family. He's absolutely right as his Brunsberg branch leads back to Østre Toten, Oppland.

      In fact, tedious takes a little doing, on the other hand if you search the digital archive from the National Papers of Norway (if only further countries had such valuable income online!), you can find that birth record of Theolina, Josh's future great-great-grandmother and one reinforce several generations in the very alike family to emigrate to America:

    • As this letter to nobleness editor by Theolina's then year-old daughter, Julia (Josh's great-grandmother), shows, she was nickled and dimed by a clever friend conj at the time that she was only four majority old.


    Chronicling America, The Minneapolis Journal, April 6,

    • Josh's middle reputation of Winslow was the first name of one of tiara great-grandmothers, and winds back put into operation time to the earliest period of colonial America.

      Though illustrate would require extensive research merriment be absolutely certain, the harmony is that it leads at this moment in time to John Winslow who was not on the Mayflower herself, but had both a monastic and wife who were. Celebrated through the wife at minimum, Josh is a Mayflower descendant.

    So Josh has a combination in shape Jewish, Norwegian and Mayflower breed, making him, of course, quintessentially American.

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    Yiddishjosh grobanGenealogynorwaycelebrity

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