Bryant Gumbel

Gumbel in 2016, photo by Debby Wong/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Bryant Charles Gumbel

Place of Birth: New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Date of Birth: September 29, 1948

Ethnicity: Louisiana Creole [African, French, approximately 3/32 Ashkenazi Jewish, distant Corsican Italian, possibly 1/16th Mexican, and English]

Bryant Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster.

Bryant is the son of Rhea Alice (LeCesne) and Richard Dunbar Gumbel, Jr. His brother was television sportscaster Greg Gumbel. Bryant is married to Hilary Quinlan. He has two children with his former wife June Baranco.

His parents were both black, of mainly African and French descent. The Gumbel family in Louisiana is of German Jewish origin. Bryant is of approximately 3/32 Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. He also has distant Corsican Italian, and possibly 1/16th Mexican, and English, roots. Some of his ancestors lived in Haiti.

A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2017) stated that Bryant’s genetic ancestry is:

*65.1% European
——–*33.6% Northwestern European
——–*16.2% Southern European
——–*7.1% Ashkenazi [Jewish]
——–*6.5% Broadly European
——–*1.7% Eastern European
*34.1% Sub-Saharan African
*0.5% East Asian & Native American
*0.3% Unassigned

Genetically, he was found to have a common ancestor with actor and director John Turturro, through shared Southern European ancestry.

Bryant’s patrilineal ancestry can be traced to Elias Gimpel/Gümbel, who was born, c. 1776, in Framersheim, Hessen, Germany, and to his wife, Kaye Hirsch.

Bryant’s paternal grandfather was Richard Dunbar Gumbel (the son of Cornelius Joseph “Jack” Gumbel and Marie Valentine Allain/Allen Prevost). Richard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a founder-member of the city’s Autocrat Club. Bryant’s great-grandfather Cornelius was born in Lakeland, Pointe Coupee, Louisiana, the son of Karl/Cornelius/Carl Gumbel, who was a Jewish emigrant, from Albisheim, Bavaria, and of Angelina/Angelic/Angelica Charamel/Charemel. Bryant’s great-grandmother Marie was the daughter of John Prevost and Marie S. Allain.

Bryant’s paternal grandmother was Marie/Mary Lucretia Soulé (the daughter of Etienne Soulé and Eugenie Lumina Duplessis). Marie was born in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Etienne may have been the son of Henry Etienne Soileau and Adelaide Louise.

Bryant’s maternal grandfather was Adrian/Adrien Bartholomew LeCesne (the son of Albert Joseph LeCesne and Alice Lamotte/Lamothe). Adrian was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Albert was the son of Gustave Augustin LeCesne and Louise Blanc/Blano; Gustave’s paternal grandfather, Louis-Nicolas LeCesne, was born in France. Alice was the daughter of Martin LaMotte, who was born into slavery, and of Henriette Jaillot. Martin fought for the Confederacy, and later the Union, during the Civil War.

Bryant’s maternal grandmother was Adele G./Clotilde Gaignard (the daughter of Charles L. Gaignard and Pauline Prampin/Foster). Adele was born in Louisiana. Charles was the son of Louis Gaignard and Élisabeth Eulalie/Eulalia Warburg. Élisabeth’s father, Bryant’s great-great-great-grandfather Daniel Samuel Warburg, was a German Jew, who was born in Hamburg, Germany. Pauline was the daughter of Delie/Delle Prampin and Adèle Gonzales, whose family appears to have been Mexican.

Sources: Genealogy of Bryant Gumbel – https://www.geni.com

Bryant’s father on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Bryant’s paternal grandfather, Richard Dunbar Gumbel, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Bryant’s maternal grandparents, Adrian/Adrien Bartholomew LeCesne and Adele G. Gaignard, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org

36 Responses

  1. myfellowwhitepeople says:

    he looks like what he is, a person highly mixed with all the creoles

  2. andrew says:

    His maternal grandma had Mexican ancestry, according to this: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LYCM-Z3K

    This tree identifies Etienne Soulé parents too

    • Dannon says:

      The huge problem with Family Search is how unreliable it is. It stood to do more research on, but don’t just take it for what it says. Anyone can edit it. It is very easy too. All you have to do is have an account. It takes like 2 seconds to add someone. I’ll do more research and come back to ya!

  3. LoLo A says:

    @andrew is right. People are getting defensive and thinking as individuals and what’s familiar vs. stepping back to look at the rationality and systems at play.

    Rupaul is the reverse of Bryant Gumbel with his continental breakdown (60 Sub-saharan African/30 European), but Ru is Black. However, Bryant isn’t White, he is also Black, even though he is mostly European. Why? Because of the history of African slavery in the US and the One Drop rule. So what people are currently calling a “personal preference” is rooted in the aftermath of the One Drop rule and how that intersects with cultural affiliation due to perceived race in present times. In the past, mixed and Biracial people (who didn’t “pass”) were only allowed to be Black so they WERE and decades of affiliating this way has influenced people up until present times.

    Had it been Europeans who were enslaved to Africans in the US, then mixed and Biracial people would be claiming White as their race and culture. History and the winners definitely affect how we see things now. It doesn’t mean that we can’t evolve, though.

    Also, a lot of people we call Black in the US are Biracial. (Although Boris Kodjoe is originally German). And saying that Africans come in many shades is true, in terms of the continent of Africa, as Africans can be any race. But in the US, Black people come from Sub-saharan Africans, mostly West African. Those people are not light in color, rather varying shades of brown. Boris Kodjoe, Shemar Moore, Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Bonet, Jasmine Guy all look like people are a Biracial mix of a West African and European. Not to mention, non-Americans like Sade and Bob Marley do too. Instead of saying that Black people come in all shades, lumping Biracial and mixed people together as Black, look at why you are saying that and is it REALLY true or just your personal preference based on perceived reality. That’s okay, just own up to why you are doing it…just remember we are individuals and appearance should not dictate who we are.

    My culture and my preferences aren’t determined by my outward appearance, no matter how much people want to choose for me the way I should identify, as well as my likes/dislikes, how to speak, how to present myself, etc.

    • Ethnicity37 says:

      RuPaul is 70% African and 30% European.

    • loverspt says:

      Right? He’s literally following scientific racism logic

    • passingtime85 says:

      “My culture and my preferences aren’t determined by my outward appearance”

      Rachel Dolezal’s personal mantra.

    • midori29 says:

      Not true subsaharan black Africans can get very light without admixture. Black Africans can get up to high yellow Cafe au lait. Indigenous African people carry the genes for both dark and light skin.

    • midori29 says:

      @Lola A actually Andrew isn’t right at all. Andrew’s posts are racist and slanted towards anti blackness. No you don’t have to be biracial to have very light skin you are extremely misinformed and so is Andrew. Andrew is totally clueless about Blacks. Yes Blacks do come in different skin tones and there are many non biracial very high yellow skinned Africans with no admixture at all. If this site allowed me to post dna tests of those African Blacks I would. Geneticist have discovered Black Africans carry the genes for both light and dark skin naturally

      • andrew says:

        @midori29

        Sorry, but you are delusional. I see West Africans often, everyday in the summer, and they don’t have “very light skin” (?) or something. Though they are not all the same, some Nigerians are slightly lighter skinned than Senegalese, for example.
        I think you refer to Khoi/Bushmen that are Africans but totally different to Bantu people, when you talk about diversity.

        The man above was tested 65% Euro thus no surprise his physiognomy is closer to a white man than a SSA one.

        And finally, many African-Americans would be called Pardo or Coloured in Brazil or South Africa, respectively, rather than black.

        • passingtime85 says:

          Just for reference, and maybe this will be disproven or elaborated upon but this is what I currently could find:

          “Genetic evidence indicates that the light pigmentation variant at SLC24A5 was introduced into East Africa by gene flow from non-Africans.”

          That allele is present in West Africa too, I imagine it’s because of admixing with East Africans, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s from West Asians migrating into North Africa and admixture events bringing gene flow south into Central and West Africa. Of course all this happened several millennia back. The ebb and flow of people and genes into Africa, over the millennia is pretty interesting.

  4. memphis says:

    Andrew, who are you to define to identify someone else’s personal identity of themselves? The idea of “blackness” is social political. According to this particular DNA test Bryan Gumbel has more genetics from his European ancestors than African…that does not mean the world still doesn’t see him as a “black” man. Brazilian samba legend, Neguinho da Beija Flor, is a very dark skinned man seemingly 100% of African descent but his DNA results had him 67.1% Euro and 31.1 % African. In terms of having very black skin and identifying as “black” but not have any African DNA ..a good example are the indigenous Australian Torres Striat Islanders. They look African but are closer genetically to Asians but identify as “black”. The notion of race took hundreds of years to formulate as ” fact” but only is a notion.

    • midori29 says:

      @memphis true good post. However Australoids migrated anchiently out of Africa first as modern humans left Africa. I don’t pay attention to the related and not Black arguments because everyone did come from Africa originally. Some people just left Africa a really long time ago like the Australoids.

  5. andrew says:

    So now you have to change to: Louisiana Creole (French, African etc…).

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