Kim Kardashian's Full Family Tree: What Documents Reveal About Her Roots
By Maya Lin-Takahashi
Kim’s maternal lineage runs through her mother, Kristen Mary Houghton (better known as Kris Jenner), whose family records represent centuries of Western European migration to North America. Unlike the tightly documented, singular Armenian migration path of her father's family, her mother's tree fans out across several British and Continental European lines.
Her maternal grandfather, Robert True Houghton, carried deep English and Scottish heritage traceable to seventeenth-century English immigrants who settled in Massachusetts and Virginia. Records preserved across public genealogy databases identify historical ties back to rural East Anglia and the Scottish lowlands.
Her maternal grandmother, Mary Jo Shannon (frequently featured on the family’s reality shows as "MJ"), brings substantial Dutch, Irish, and German ancestry to the family tree. The Dutch line, tracing through family names such as Van Zandt, established roots in New York and the Mid-Atlantic colonies long before the American Revolutionary War. Combining both parents leaves Kim Kardashian’s documented ancestral background split precisely down the middle: 50% Armenian from Robert Sr., and 50% Western European (English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, and German) from Kris.
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
