Back to Blair Family Page
HOME
BACK TO GENEALOGY MAIN PAGE
This is one of the most interesting connections in my family tree. I have always admired Montgomery Clift as an actor and you can imagine my surprise at finding out he was related to this branch of famous and powerful relatives. No one in my family has ever told me this it just popped up one day while I was searching. After searching more I found this to be fact.
Monty, Edward Montgomery Clift, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 17, 1920, after his twin sister Roberta who the family called Ethel. There was an older brother Brooks Clift as well. Their mother, Ethel Fogg, called by everyone by the nickname of Sunny, married William Brooks Clift. She was the illegitimate child of Woodbury Blair and Maria Anderson. You can find Woodbury's family line on the Blair Page of this web site. Maria Anderson's father Robert Anderson,was a Union Colonel in the Civil War. A family friend named Dr. Edward Montgomery arranged for her to be adopted by the Fogg family. I am sure it was a bit of a scandal in it's day. Not easily hidden by two such prominant families. Did Sunny name her son Montgomery after Woodbury's father Montgomery Blair or after Dr. Montgomery the family friend? One can only imagine. Reading Montgomery Clifts life story I can only speculate, of course, about why he was so troubled but I could understand it all in the light of this story of his mother's birth. She must have been trying to insert herself and her children into the social strata to which she felt they were entitled. After all Woodbury's father Montgomery Blair was Postmaster General for President Abraham Lincoln's administration. In her day illegitamatimacy was not easily overcome. It just was not accepted in the so called upper class, and she would have failed at every attempt.