Place of Birth: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Date of Birth: February 28, 1961
Ethnicity:
*Chinese, Scots-Irish (father)
*African-American (mother)
Rae Dawn Chong is a Canadian actress. She is the daughter of Maxine Sneed and comedian and actor Tommy Chong.
Her father is of half Chinese and half Scots-Irish descent. Has mother is from an African-American family that moved to Canada.
Rae is often stated to have Cherokee, or another type of Native American, ancestry on her mother’s side. It is not clear if this ancestry has been documented/verified. All four of Rae’s maternal great-grandparents were African-American.
Rae’s paternal grandparents were Stanley Chong and Lorna Jean Gilchrist (the daughter of Samuel Duncan Gilchrist and Emma Woodcock or Jemima Dillon). Stanley was Chinese. Samuel was born in Ireland, to William Gilchrist and Mary Graham. Jemima was the daughter of Joseph Dillon and Rence Armstrong.
Rae’s maternal grandparents were Napoleon Sneed (the son of George Washington Sneed and Pearl Anna Risby) and Willa Carothers (the daughter of Samuel Arthur Carothers/Carrothers and Beulah Heslep). George was born in Louisiana. Pearl was born in Kansas. Samuel and Beulah were born in Texas.
Sources: Rae’s maternal great-grandparents, Samuel Arthur Carothers/Carrothers and Beulah Heslep, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Samuel Arthur Carothers/Carrothers and Beulah Heslep, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
photo by Prphotos