Claim to Fame: People
Who Belongs on Claim to Fame: People?
The main biographical collection focuses on notable people who actually bore the Guthrie surname. Inclusion here is not evidence that two notable Guthries belonged to the same family. Where documentary research or Y-DNA identifies a Guthrie Family Group or branch, that connection will be noted.
Where ancestry remains uncertain, the uncertainty will remain visible rather than being filled with an unsupported pedigree.
Famous & Infamous Cousins are handled differently. These people did not necessarily bear the Guthrie surname, but their documented ancestry leads back to a Guthrie forebear represented in the Guthrie Research Tree. They receive a brief connection card rather than a full Guthrie profile, with an invitation to follow the family line in the research tree.
Fame Is Only Half the Story
A quick explanation of why this person became historically or culturally notable.
The documented or Y-DNA-supported Guthrie lineage is shown when one has been established.
Traditional, uncertain or disputed genealogical claims are identified rather than presented as established fact.
Famous descendants receive a short ancestral connection and a route into the Guthrie Research Tree rather than a full profile.
Early Scotland & the Church
Guthries in the Making of Scottish History
From fifteenth-century royal government to the religious struggles of the seventeenth century and the social reforms of Victorian Scotland, several Guthries became prominent far beyond their own families.
Sir David Guthrie
David was a son of Master Alexander Guthrie of Kincaldrum and rose from the world of educated Angus landholders into royal finance, administration, justice and diplomacy. His offices included Sheriff of Forfar, Treasurer of Scotland, Comptroller, Clerk of Register, Master of the Rolls and Justiciar.
The older family story said that David “recovered” Guthrie lands previously granted to his ancestors. The surviving charter evidence tells a more careful story: David was still styled of Kincaldrum when the Crown granted him the lands of Guthrie in 1465/66. His acquisition helped create the later principal line associated with Guthrie Castle.
He also obtained royal authority to build at Guthrie and began the collegiate-church foundation that his family completed after his death.
Guthrie Line: Kincaldrum → Guthrie.
DNA Status: The historical line is documented, but its assignment to a modern Guthrie Y-DNA family group remains unproven.
Rt. Rev. John Guthrie
John Guthrie was a son of Patrick Guthrie of St Andrews, goldsmith, and Margaret Rait. He entered the ministry and served at Kinnell and Arbirlot before rising within the Scottish Episcopal Church.
He was consecrated Bishop of Moray in 1623. A royalist and defender of episcopal church government, he participated in the Scottish coronation of Charles I and supported the king’s religious policies.
The Glasgow Assembly deposed him from the bishopric on 11 December 1638. Guthrie refused to accept the authority of the Covenanting settlement and was subsequently excommunicated. After imprisonment and the loss of his episcopal position, he ultimately retired to his private estate of Guthrie.
Parents: Patrick Guthrie of St Andrews, goldsmith, and Margaret Rait.
Important Distinction: Patrick Guthrie the St Andrews goldsmith is a separate man from Patrick Guthrie of Colliston, with whom he has frequently been conflated in later genealogical accounts.
Family Context: John belonged to the Craigie-associated Guthrie family and later acquired the estate of Guthrie.
Rev. James Guthrie
James studied at St Andrews and became a minister first at Lauder and later at Stirling. He emerged as one of the leading Protesters within the Covenanter movement and became famous for refusing to compromise his religious convictions with either royal or Cromwellian authority.
After the Restoration he was arrested, tried for treason and executed at the Cross of Edinburgh on 1 June 1661. His head was displayed on the Netherbow Port for many years afterward, making him one of the most enduring figures in Scottish Covenanter memory.
His ancestry is now more interesting than the old statement that he was merely “a son of the Laird of Guthrie.” Fasti identifies James specifically as a son of William Guthrie of Memes and brother of Alexander Guthrie of Memes, citing a General Register of Sasines entry dated 30 April 1659.
Current Research Status: The Memus identification is substantial and fits our independently documented William–Alexander household, but the underlying 1659 sasine has not yet been recovered and read for this project.
Family Placement: Possible Memus branch — not yet treated as proved.
Rev. William Guthrie of Fenwick
William was the eldest son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon of Easter Ogil. He earned his M.A. at St Andrews and was ordained as the first minister of the parish of Fenwick on 7 November 1644.
Known for an unusually direct and engaging preaching style, Guthrie attracted hearers well beyond his own parish. His adherence to the Covenanter cause eventually cost him his ministry. He died at Brechin in October 1665.
Early biographical sources also describe William and Rev. James Guthrie of Stirling as relatives—sometimes more specifically as cousins. That relationship is important, but its exact genealogical route has not yet been proved.
Guthrie Line: Kingennie / Pitforthie.
Open Question: How the documented or reported kinship with Rev. James Guthrie of Stirling was created remains unresolved.
Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D.D.
Thomas Guthrie was born at Brechin to David Guthrie and Clementina Cay. After university study and ordination, his ministry eventually took him to Edinburgh, where his preaching made him one of Scotland’s best-known churchmen.
He became deeply involved in social reform, particularly education for impoverished children, temperance and urban poverty. Following the Disruption of 1843 he became a prominent minister of the Free Church of Scotland and served as Moderator of its General Assembly in 1862.
The former version of this page called him an “Episcopal Minister.” That was incorrect. Thomas Guthrie’s ministry belonged to the Scottish Presbyterian tradition and, after 1843, to the Free Church.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG17.
DNA Status: Direct paternal-line Y-DNA confirms that Thomas Guthrie’s family forms GFG17 and does not match the genetic profile traditionally associated with the principal Guthries of Guthrie.
These Five Guthries Do Not Form One Proven Pedigree
Their lives overlap geographically and historically, and some genuine kinships may ultimately connect them. But the surviving documentary and Y-DNA evidence does not justify folding every prominent Scottish Guthrie into a single “ancient family.” Each lineage is therefore shown according to the evidence currently available.
Public Service & Leadership
Guthries in Public Life
From nineteenth-century city halls and national cabinets to diplomacy, international humanitarian leadership, military command and modern legislatures, members and descendants of Guthrie paternal lines have served in public life across several countries.
James Guthrie
Born near Bardstown, Kentucky, James Guthrie studied law and built a career that combined politics, finance, education and transportation. He served in both houses of the Kentucky legislature and presided over the state’s constitutional convention of 1849.
President Franklin Pierce appointed Guthrie Secretary of the Treasury in 1853. He reorganized Treasury procedures and emphasized tighter financial administration. Later, as president of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, he became a major force in the development of transportation through Kentucky.
Guthrie opposed Kentucky’s secession from the Union and participated in the unsuccessful Peace Conference of 1861. After the Civil War he represented Kentucky in the United States Senate from 1865 until failing health forced his resignation in 1868.
Parents: General Adam Guthrie and Hannah Polk.
Guthrie Family Group: Currently ungrouped — a suitable direct paternal Guthrie Y-DNA representative is still needed.
John Brandon Guthrie
John Brandon Guthrie was born at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, the son of shipbuilder James V. Guthrie and Martha Brandon. His family later moved to Pittsburgh, where John became active in civic life.
He served with the Duquesne Grays during the Mexican-American War and later became Collector of Customs for the port of Pittsburgh. Elected mayor for the 1851–1853 period, he reorganized the city’s police force during a period of serious public disorder.
His son George Wilkins Guthrie continued the family’s unusually strong tradition of Pittsburgh public service.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch E.
Family Connection: Father of George Wilkins Guthrie.
Abelard Guthrie
Abelard Guthrie worked for the federal Indian agency in Ohio and became closely associated with the Wyandot people. He married Quindaro Nancy Brown, daughter of Adam Brown Jr., and followed the Wyandots west after their removal from Ohio.
As the struggle over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state intensified, Guthrie became a Free-State advocate. With Charles Robinson and others he helped establish a settlement on the Missouri River that was named Quindaro for his wife.
The town briefly became a significant commercial port and a safer entry point for antislavery settlers. Financial collapse following the Panic of 1857 eventually devastated both the town and Guthrie’s personal finances.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch F.
Spouse: Quindaro Nancy Brown Guthrie, whose name is preserved in the historic Kansas community.
Donald Guthrie, Q.C.
Donald Guthrie was born in Edinburgh on 8 May 1840, a son of Hugh Guthrie and Catherine Macgregor. His family emigrated from Scotland during his youth, although both parents died during the transatlantic voyage aboard the Emma Fields.
Donald survived, eventually settled in Ontario and built a distinguished legal career. He became Queen’s Counsel and entered politics as a Liberal, representing Wellington South in the Canadian House of Commons from 1876 to 1882 and later in Ontario’s provincial legislature from 1886 to 1894.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG19 · Branch B — Inverness-shire.
Direct Paternal Line: Donald Guthrie & Grace Clark → Hugh Guthrie & Catherine Macgregor → Donald Guthrie, Q.C.
George Wilkins Guthrie
George Wilkins Guthrie was the son of former Pittsburgh mayor John Brandon Guthrie and Catherine Murray. An attorney and civic reformer, he became active in efforts to challenge corruption in Pittsburgh government.
Elected mayor in 1906, Guthrie’s administration became associated with municipal reform and improvements in public health, including the city’s water-filtration system. President Woodrow Wilson later appointed him United States Ambassador to Japan.
Guthrie died in Tokyo while still serving as ambassador in 1917. As a mark of respect, the Japanese government assisted in the return of his body to the United States.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch E.
Parents: John Brandon Guthrie and Catherine Murray.
Hon. Hugh Guthrie
Born at Guelph, Ontario, Hugh Guthrie was a son of Donald Guthrie and Eliza Margaret McVicar. He trained as a lawyer and entered federal politics in 1900, representing Wellington South continuously for thirty-five years.
Guthrie began his parliamentary career as a Liberal but broke with the party over conscription during the First World War and joined the Union government. He later became a Conservative and served in several senior offices, including Solicitor General and Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
In 1926 he briefly became Leader of the Opposition, and in 1927 he finished second to R. B. Bennett in the Conservative leadership contest.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG19 · Branch B.
Parents: Donald Guthrie, Q.C., and Eliza Margaret McVicar.
The Guthrie Tradition Continued from Father to Son
John Brandon Guthrie and George Wilkins Guthrie both served as mayor of Pittsburgh. In Canada, Donald Guthrie entered both federal and provincial politics, while his son Hugh went on to spend thirty-five years in the Canadian House of Commons. In both families, public service became a two-generation Guthrie story.
General Eva Burrows, AC, OF
Eva Evelyn Burrows was born at Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, on 15 September 1929, one of nine children of Salvation Army officers Robert and Ella Burrows.
After university study she trained as a Salvation Army officer in London and was commissioned in 1951. Much of her early career was spent in education in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she became a teacher, administrator and eventually principal of the Usher Institute.
Her later appointments included leadership of Women’s Social Services in Great Britain and Ireland and service as Territorial Commander in Sri Lanka, Scotland and Australia Southern. On 2 May 1986 she was elected the 13th General of The Salvation Army, taking office that July as the organization’s international leader.
During her generalship Burrows oversaw major administrative restructuring and helped lead The Salvation Army’s return to parts of Eastern Europe where its work had previously been prohibited. She became widely known within the organization as “the people’s General.”
Australia appointed her an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986 and elevated the honor to Companion of the Order of Australia in 1994. She died in Melbourne on 20 March 2015.
Guthrie Connection: Eva’s direct paternal ancestry belongs to a Guthrie line in which the family surname later appeared as Guthrie-Burrows / Burrows.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG7 · Branch E.
Why She Is Included Here: Although Eva herself was publicly known as Eva Burrows, her paternal surname lineage is the Guthrie-derived line represented by GFG7. This differs from the Famous & Infamous Cousins category, where the Guthrie connection passes through a more distant descendant line.
Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank
Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie joined the Welsh Guards in 1959 and also served with the Special Air Service. His long Army career included operational and command appointments in several parts of the world before he became Chief of the General Staff in 1994.
From 1997 to 2001 he served as Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of the British Armed Forces, advising the governments of both John Major and Tony Blair.
He was created a life peer as Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank in 2001 and later held the honorary rank of Field Marshal. Lord Guthrie died on 18 September 2025 at the age of 86.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG1A.
Title Note: His barony was a life peerage created in 2001 and was therefore not hereditary.
Steven “Brett” Guthrie
Brett Guthrie graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987 and served as a field artillery officer with the 101st Airborne Division. He later earned a graduate degree from Yale and worked in his family’s manufacturing business.
Guthrie served in the Kentucky Senate before being elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2008. His congressional work has included health care, energy, telecommunications, manufacturing and consumer policy.
For the 119th Congress he was selected to chair the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch A.
Science, Medicine & Innovation
Guthries Who Asked, “What If?”
Their work ranged from battlefield surgery and early chemistry to a mathematical puzzle that took more than a century to solve, a post-surgical prosthetic device, and the newborn blood test that transformed preventive medicine.
Dr. Samuel Guthrie
Samuel Guthrie was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, and later established himself near Sackets Harbor, New York. Physician, chemist, manufacturer and inveterate experimenter, Guthrie’s interests ranged from medicines and industrial chemistry to explosives.
In 1831 he produced a sweet-smelling substance while experimenting with chlorinated lime and alcohol. The material was chloroform. Guthrie’s work was carried out independently at roughly the same time as experiments by Eugène Soubeiran in France and Justus von Liebig in Germany.
The later use of chloroform as a surgical anesthetic belongs to a different chapter in medical history: its anesthetic properties were famously demonstrated by James Young Simpson in Edinburgh in 1847. Guthrie’s contribution was the much earlier preparation and publication of the compound.
He also developed improved percussion-priming compounds and pursued numerous other practical chemical experiments.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch F.
Family Line: Descendant of John Guthrie and Abigail Coe through their son James Guthrie and Abigail Betts.
George James Guthrie
Born in London to a family with Scottish connections, George James Guthrie entered medicine extraordinarily young. He qualified for membership in the Royal College of Surgeons before his sixteenth birthday and entered Army medical service.
During the Peninsular War he treated wounded soldiers under some of the harshest conditions of the Napoleonic campaigns. Rather than simply accepting established surgical doctrine, Guthrie used his battlefield observations to challenge existing approaches to gunshot wounds and amputation.
His writings on military surgery became highly influential, and he later served three times as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Guthrie Family Group: Unknown — further genealogical reconstruction is needed.
Research Clue: Older biographical accounts describe his family as descending from a Forfarshire Guthrie line, part of which later settled in Wexford. That statement still needs to be tested against genealogical records before assigning him to a documented branch.
Image Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Francis Guthrie
Francis Guthrie studied mathematics at University College London under Augustus De Morgan. In 1852, while attempting to color a map of the counties of England, he noticed that four colors appeared to be sufficient to ensure that no two adjoining regions shared the same color.
Unable to prove the idea, Francis passed the question through his brother Frederick to De Morgan. The deceptively simple problem fascinated generations of mathematicians and became known as the Four Colour Conjecture.
More than a century passed before Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken produced a computer-assisted proof in 1976, transforming Guthrie’s observation into the Four Colour Theorem.
Francis later emigrated to South Africa, taught mathematics and also pursued botany. His interests were broad enough that his name appears in botanical history as well as mathematics.
Guthrie Family Group: Unknown — paternal ancestry requires further research.
Research Opportunity: Francis and his brother Frederick were both notable scientists, making this family particularly interesting for future Guthrie lineage reconstruction.
Arie Artince Guthrie Cooper
Born in Decatur County, Iowa, Artince Guthrie later settled in Indiana and trained in the fitting of women’s foundation garments. Her work brought her into contact with women trying to adapt clothing after breast surgery.
She developed a lightweight prosthetic contour pad intended not only to replace the removed breast form but also to restore symmetry in the surrounding area. Her patent application was filed on 8 October 1945.
United States Patent No. 2,429,308 for her Bust-Contour Pad was issued on 21 October 1947. It represents an early practical attempt to address both comfort and appearance for women living with the effects of breast surgery.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG7.
Dr. Robert Guthrie
Robert Guthrie was born in Marionville, Missouri, on 28 June 1916. Trained as both a physician and microbiologist, he became deeply interested in preventing intellectual disability and other irreversible consequences of treatable metabolic disorders.
In the early 1960s Guthrie developed an inexpensive bacterial inhibition assay capable of detecting elevated phenylalanine in a tiny sample of an infant’s blood. The blood could be collected from a heel prick, dried on filter paper and transported easily for testing.
This combination of the Guthrie test and dried blood-spot collection made population-wide newborn screening practical. Infants with phenylketonuria could be identified early enough for dietary treatment to begin before preventable neurological injury occurred.
The approach became the foundation for newborn screening programs that later expanded far beyond PKU. Robert Guthrie died in Seattle on 24 June 1995.
Guthrie Family Group: Ungrouped — a direct paternal Guthrie Y-DNA representative is still needed.
Credit the Contribution Precisely
Scientific discoveries often develop through several independent investigators or through later applications of an earlier discovery. Samuel Guthrie’s preparation of chloroform, Simpson’s later use of chloroform anesthesia, and Robert Guthrie’s transformation of an existing understanding of PKU into practical mass newborn screening are good reminders to describe exactly what each person contributed.
Arts, Literature & Scholarship
Guthries Who Put Ideas Into the World
Some taught readers how to calculate or understand the globe. Others changed Scottish painting, reimagined the theatrical stage, wrote prize-winning fiction or devoted a lifetime to understanding the intellectual world of ancient Greece.
William Guthrie
Born at Brechin in 1708, William Guthrie studied at Aberdeen before moving to London in 1730 and entering the literary world. He wrote history, political commentary and reports of parliamentary debates, some of which were associated with the circle of The Gentleman’s Magazine.
His most enduring popular work was A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar, first published in 1770 and repeatedly revised and reissued after his death. It combined physical geography with information about governments, peoples, trade, cities, natural resources and history.
Maps associated with later editions circulated widely in Britain and North America, where editions of “Guthrie’s Geography” became familiar reference works.
Genealogical Placement: A connection with the Halkerton-associated Scottish Guthries has been proposed, but the paternal-line placement should remain provisional until the descent is fully documented.
DNA Status: No direct Y-DNA evidence presently establishes his Guthrie Family Group.
Jesse Guthrie
Jesse Guthrie was a son of William Guthrie and Eleanor Harris and moved west with his family from Virginia into Kentucky. At Lexington he worked as a merchant as well as a teacher and became active in the developing educational life of the young state.
His American Schoolmaster’s Assistant, also known as Guthrie’s Arithmetic, presented practical instruction in vulgar and decimal arithmetic, federal money and calculations useful in schools, trade and everyday life.
The work continued to circulate in later editions. Its survival is a reminder that early western education depended not only on schoolhouses and teachers, but also on locally produced books suited to the practical needs of expanding communities.
Parents: William Guthrie and Eleanor Harris.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG5 · Branch A.
Sir James Guthrie
James Guthrie was born at Greenock, the son of Rev. John Guthrie and Anne Orr. He initially studied law at Glasgow University but abandoned the legal profession for painting.
Guthrie became a central figure among the artists later known as the Glasgow Boys, whose work challenged conventional academic painting in Scotland. His early rural scenes, including A Hind’s Daughter and In the Orchard, reflected the influence of French realist and naturalist painting.
He later became highly successful as a portrait painter. In 1902 he became President of the Royal Scottish Academy and was knighted in 1903—an interesting journey for an artist associated with a movement that had once challenged the Academy’s artistic establishment.
Parents: Rev. John Guthrie and Anne Orr.
Guthrie Family Group: Ungrouped — direct paternal Y-DNA evidence is still needed.
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie
Tyrone Guthrie was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the son of Dr. Thomas Clement Guthrie and Norah Power. Through his father he was a grandson of a son of the celebrated Scottish preacher Rev. Thomas Guthrie.
In Canada, Guthrie became the first Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival. Working with designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch, he helped establish the thrust-stage approach that became central to Stratford’s identity. The first season opened in 1953 with Richard III, starring Alec Guinness.
A decade later, the Guthrie Theater opened in Minneapolis with Hamlet, directed by Guthrie. Its resident-company model was conceived as an alternative to the commercial pressures of Broadway and became influential in the development of American regional theatre.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG17.
Family Connection: Descendant of the same Brechin Guthrie family as Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D.D.
Alfred Bertram “A. B.” Guthrie Jr.
A. B. Guthrie Jr. was born in Indiana but grew up in Montana, the landscape that would become central to much of his writing. He studied journalism at the University of Montana and spent years in newspaper work before turning increasingly toward fiction.
A Nieman Fellowship at Harvard gave Guthrie an opportunity to concentrate on writing. His western novel The Big Sky appeared in 1947, followed by The Way West, which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Guthrie also wrote screenplays, including work associated with Hollywood adaptations of western stories, while continuing to write novels and nonfiction from Montana.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG7.
W. K. C. Guthrie
William Keith Chambers Guthrie studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and spent most of his academic career at the University of Cambridge. His research centered on Greek religion, Plato, Aristotle and the development of ancient philosophical thought.
He became Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1952 and also served as Master of Downing College. Beginning in 1962, Cambridge University Press published the volumes of his History of Greek Philosophy, a project that occupied much of the remainder of his scholarly career.
Unlike the brief fame of a single discovery, Guthrie’s achievement was cumulative: decades spent assembling, interpreting and explaining the surviving evidence for the intellectual traditions of ancient Greece.
Guthrie Family Group: Unknown — paternal-line genealogy has not yet been reconstructed for the Guthrie DNA Project.
Research Opportunity: His inclusion here creates another worthwhile British Guthrie line to trace backward and test against the established family groups.
Books, Paintings and Stages Can Outlive the People Who Made Them
William Guthrie’s geography continued through later editions, Jesse Guthrie’s arithmetic survived in nineteenth-century printings, Sir James Guthrie’s paintings remain in national collections, Tyrone Guthrie’s name survives on a major American theatre, and A. B. Guthrie’s Pulitzer-winning fiction remains part of the canon of western literature. Their genealogies may lead in different directions, but each left something that continued well beyond a single lifetime.
Music, Media & Sport
Guthries in the Public Eye
Some made headlines. Others wrote them. From a reporter watching atomic-bomb tests in the Pacific to folk musicians whose songs became part of American culture, a barrier-breaking race driver and one of modern television’s best-known news anchors, these Guthries found very different routes into public life.
Robert Wayne Guthrie
Wayne Guthrie intended to become a lawyer. He studied law at Indiana University and the University of Chicago, but a supposedly temporary job at the Indianapolis News on 1 January 1921 changed the course of his life.
During the next half-century he worked as reporter, assistant city editor, city editor, legislative correspondent and columnist. Beginning in 1947 he became particularly well known for Ringside in Hoosierland.
One of his most unusual assignments came in 1946, when the newspaper sent him to the Pacific to witness the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Guthrie later delivered hundreds of public lectures describing what he had witnessed and warning audiences about the destructive power of atomic warfare.
The Indianapolis Press Club named him Indiana Newsman of the Year in 1970, and he entered the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1973.
Parents: William Irwin Guthrie and his wife.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch C.
Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie
Woody Guthrie was born at Okemah, Oklahoma, on 14 July 1912, the son of Charles and Nora Belle Guthrie. His youth coincided with the upheavals of oil-boom Oklahoma and, later, the economic and environmental disasters of the Great Depression.
Guthrie’s songs drew heavily on the experiences of working people, migrants and communities affected by poverty and displacement. His recordings and writings became closely associated with the Dust Bowl era, labor culture and American protest music.
His enormous body of work included nearly 3,000 song lyrics as well as prose, poetry, artwork and correspondence. Among them, This Land Is Your Land became one of the best-known songs in the American folk tradition.
Woody’s influence extended far beyond his own recordings, shaping later musicians including Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and, within his own family, his son Arlo.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG5.
Family Connection: Father of folk musician Arlo Guthrie.
Arlo Davy Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie was born in Brooklyn on 10 July 1947, the eldest son of Woody Guthrie and dancer Marjorie Mazia Guthrie. He grew up among some of the leading figures of the American folk movement and developed his own distinctive combination of song, political commentary and long-form storytelling.
His 1967 recording Alice’s Restaurant Massacree became a counterculture classic and an enduring Thanksgiving tradition. Guthrie later recorded numerous albums and maintained a decades-long musical collaboration with Pete Seeger.
In 1981 Massachusetts formally designated Guthrie’s song Massachusetts as the official folk song of the Commonwealth. He later established Rising Son Records and the Guthrie Center at the former church made famous by the events behind Alice’s Restaurant.
Parents: Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG5.
Woody’s Legacy Continued Through the Next Generation
Woody Guthrie’s musical legacy continued directly through his son Arlo Guthrie, and later generations of the family have also pursued careers in music. Their documented paternal ancestry places this musical family within Guthrie Family Group 5 (GFG5), making it one of the most publicly recognizable modern Guthrie lineages.
Janet Guthrie
Janet Guthrie was born in Iowa City and grew up in Florida in a family of aviators. She earned a pilot’s license as a teenager and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in physics before working as an aerospace research and development engineer.
Racing began as another technical challenge. After years in sports cars, Guthrie entered NASCAR’s premier series and in February 1977 became the first woman to compete in the Daytona 500. Three months later she became the first woman to start the Indianapolis 500.
Guthrie returned to Indianapolis in 1978 and finished ninth despite racing with an injured wrist. She ultimately made three Indianapolis 500 starts and 33 starts in NASCAR’s premier series, including five top-ten finishes.
Her achievements have since been recognized by several halls of fame, including the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2019, and she received NASCAR’s Landmark Award in 2024.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch E.
Savannah Clark Guthrie
Savannah Guthrie was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 27 December 1971 while her father’s work temporarily took the family overseas. She grew up primarily in Tucson, Arizona.
After beginning her career in local television news, Guthrie earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and worked as a legal correspondent before returning full-time to broadcast journalism.
She joined NBC News in 2007 and became part of the Today team in 2011. In 2012 she was named co-anchor of the program, a role she continues to hold. She also serves as NBC News’ chief legal correspondent and as a principal anchor for major election coverage.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch K.
Famous & Infamous Cousins
Sometimes the Guthrie Name Disappears—but the Family Line Continues
These people are not included among the main profiles because they did not themselves bear the Guthrie surname. Instead, their documented ancestry leads back through a daughter or later descendant to a Guthrie family already represented in the Guthrie Research Tree.
Think of them as some of the more unexpected cousins found hanging from distant branches of the family tree.
The standard is still evidence. A celebrity genealogy, surname coincidence or online family tree is not enough. People are added here only when the Guthrie descent can be followed through a documented family line represented in the Guthrie Research Tree.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Churchill’s famous surname gives no hint of the Guthrie line in his American maternal ancestry. His mother, Jennie Jerome, descended from a Connecticut Guthrie family through her paternal grandmother’s line.
Sarah Guthrie (1744–1792), daughter of John Guthrie and Abigail Coe, married Reuben Murray.
Sarah Guthrie → Aurora Murray → Leonard Walter Jerome → Jennie Jerome Churchill → Winston Churchill.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch F.
Eliza Daniel “Mother” Stewart
Eliza Daniel Stewart became widely known as “Mother Stewart.” During the Civil War she worked with soldiers’ aid efforts, and afterward became one of the most visible women in the American temperance movement.
She participated prominently in the Woman’s Crusade of 1873–74 and later carried the movement abroad. Her speaking work in Britain helped encourage the development of organized women’s temperance activity there.
Mother Stewart’s mother was Rebecca Guthery (1786–1819), daughter of Revolutionary War veteran John Guthery and Lydia Baldwin.
John Guthery & Lydia Baldwin → Rebecca Guthery → Eliza Daniel Stewart.
Guthrie Family Group: GFG2A · Branch D.
Explore the Guthrie Research Tree
The Research Tree contains the larger pedigrees behind these cousin connections. Start with the named Guthrie ancestor above and follow the descendants forward—or begin with the famous cousin and work backward until the Guthrie surname appears.
Open the Guthrie Research Tree →Traditions Under Review
A Good Story Is Not Quite the Same Thing as a Proven One
Old family histories preserve stories that may contain echoes of real people and events—but the farther back we travel, the more important it becomes to separate later tradition from contemporary evidence. Rather than discard these stories, we keep them here while asking what the surviving records can actually support.
“Squire Guthrie” and William Wallace
One of the oldest stories repeated in later accounts of the Guthrie family places an otherwise unidentified “Squire Guthrie” alongside the supporters of William Wallace during Scotland’s struggle against Edward I of England.
According to the later account, “Squire Guthrie” played a prominent part in Scotland’s resistance to Edward I. After the Scottish defeat at Falkirk in 1298, the patriots supposedly sent Guthrie to France to persuade William Wallace to return to Scotland and resume command. Guthrie is then said to have returned with Wallace.
It is a wonderfully specific story—which is precisely why it is so tempting to place it directly into a Guthrie pedigree. The difficulty is that the later account does not identify a contemporary record proving the existence, parentage or landholding of this particular “Squire Guthrie.”
What the Tradition Says
A Guthrie participated in the patriotic cause during the age of William Wallace.
He was sent to France after Falkirk to encourage Wallace to return to Scotland.
Later writers suggested that this man may have been lord of the barony of Guthrie and that the family surname was associated with those lands.
What the Records Currently Establish
We have not yet found contemporary evidence identifying the “Squire Guthrie” described in the tradition.
A man named Adam of Guthrie appears in a documentary record in 1348, about half a century after Falkirk.
Alexander of Guthrie appears later in civic records as a bailie of Forfar during the period 1395–1434.
An Interesting Tradition—not a Proven Medieval Pedigree
The Wallace story should remain part of Guthrie family tradition, but we cannot presently identify “Squire Guthrie,” prove that he travelled to France on Wallace’s behalf, connect him to Adam of Guthrie in 1348, or place him securely in the ancestry of the later Guthries of Kincaldrum and Guthrie. Until contemporary evidence emerges, those connections remain possibilities rather than genealogical conclusions.
Why Keep the Story?
Family traditions are themselves part of genealogical history. They show how earlier generations understood—or wanted to understand—their origins. Preserving this one with its evidence status clearly marked lets us enjoy the story without asking it to prove more than the records allow.
Help Us Find the Next Story
Know Another Notable Guthrie?
This collection will continue to grow as new people, family connections and records come to light. A person does not need to have changed the world to belong here—but there should be something genuinely notable about the life, achievement or historical story, and the genealogy should be supported as carefully as the biography.
Suggest Another Notable Guthrie
Know a Guthrie who made an unusual contribution to science, government, the arts, military service, sport, education, religion, community life or another field? Send the name and tell us why that person deserves a closer look.
Found a Famous—or Infamous—Descendant?
The Guthrie surname may disappear while the family line continues. If a documented descendant of one of our Guthrie forebears turns up somewhere unexpected in history, share the pedigree and we’ll test the connection.
Have a Better Portrait?
Some of these people survive in excellent photographs or paintings; others are represented only by old scans, newspaper images or no portrait at all. A clearly identified historical image with source information can greatly improve the collection.
Help Identify an Unknown Guthrie Line
Several notable Guthries still have no confirmed Guthrie Family Group. Documentary research—and, where appropriate, direct paternal Y-DNA testing—may eventually connect those lines to one of the established Guthrie groups.
Send the Evidence Along With the Story
Dates, places, parents, spouses, original records, reliable biographies, cemetery records, archival references, family Bibles, photographs with provenance, and links to established Guthrie pedigrees are especially useful. If a family-group assignment is suggested, tell us what documentary or Y-DNA evidence supports it. Uncertainty is welcome too—an unresolved question is far more useful than a confident guess.
Follow the People Back Into the Genealogy
Claim to Fame is only one doorway into the project. Explore the research trees, compare Guthrie Family Groups, visit the Guthrie DNA Project, or return to Tidbits for more short-form genealogy features.
Abelard Guthrie founded the Free-State town of Quindaro, Kansas Territory when settlement in Kansas was risky for Abolitionists passing through Jackson County, Missouri. Anyone docking at Kansas City or Independence might get murdered if they spoke w/a NE accent. Up-river a few miles from KC the river’s edge was still a natural docking ledge of Bethany Limestone. For several years it served as a safe river-port for Free Staters & Abolitionists as well as a center for Underground Railroad activities & administration. His parents were from Penna. so perhaps he was GFG2A?
https://www.kckpl.org/wyandot-daguerreotype/index.html
https://www.kckpl.org/wyandot-daguerreotype/documents/AbelardGuthrie.pdf
https://www.kshs.org/index.php?url=archives/40367
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1956/56_4_farley.htm
https://www.kshs.org/km/items/view/3900
Abelard Guthrie 1814-1873 (m. Quindaro Brown) was a descendant of GFG2A – Branch F.
Thanks, Ann.
For Reverend Thomas Guthrie and Tyrone Guthrie, would you only need the DNA of one male descendant? I’m asking because Thomas Guthrie is my great great great grandfather and Tyrone Guthrie would be a distant cousin.
Yes. If Thomas and Tyrone share a documented direct common paternal ancestor, then we can infer results from a male Guthrie who descends directly from Tyrone to be the same as that of Thomas’ line until such a time comes along that we find a direct descendant of Thomas to participate. The person tested must be a male Guthrie.
My Great Great Grandfather, Donald Guthrie, who was born in Scotland in 1840, became a parliamentarian in the early government of Canada. Bio notes are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Guthrie_(politician)
His son, my Great Great Uncle, Hugh Guthrie, was also a Member of Parliament in the Government of Canada.
Unfortunately, my mother’s DNA (Julia Guthrie) proved to be a dead end for our branch of Guthrie origins. I hope to have an Uncle do a Y DNA test. Thank you!
At some point we would lov.e to have descendants of Quindaro Nancy Brown Guthrie and her husband Abelard Guthrie come visit and speak, when we get a big SPECIAL Occasion lined up.
That would be phenomenal and make it even more Spectacular. Many years trying to get this site preserved as a NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK-
Marvin S. Robinson II
QUINDARO RUINS/ Underground Railroad- Exercise 2023
I am a descendent of Abelard and Quindaro. second or third great granddaughter. I would love to know more history
Check these pages, Cousin Carla.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/453385524785474
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070159007011
Calvert Guthrie
robinsoniimarvins@yahoo.com is my email contact, would love to send some of the material information about THE QUINDARO NANCY BROWN GUTHRIE to you, especially so that when oNe of the more major EVENTS occurs, we can have already had ample time to get DECENDATS of hers and her husband Abelard GUTHRIE to attend and hopefully have a few words. eternal Gratitude and APPRECIATION to you and yaLL’S ANCESTOR—-
Marvin S. Robinson II
QUINDARO RUINS / Underground Railroad- Exercise 2023
Marvin, this website is only DNA and genealogy. There are no live or zoom events here. You may be thinking about ClanGuthrieUSA.
Good see this, Marvin.
I’m down river from Quindaro
in the West Bottoms.
Feel free to contact me.
I’m not descended from Abelard
& Nancy but we are GFG2A cousins.
I found several of the Guthries listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies beginning with Sir David, lord treasurer of Scotland in the 1400’s. Few family details are mentioned. They did for the most part live in Forfarshire. Interesting tidbits, many already noted on this page.
Here is a link to the articles. Advance using the arrows at the bottom of the article, left & right hand sides.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Guthrie,_David
Thanks for the link. The Guthrie’s of Guthrie and their close kin were indeed from Forfarshire (Angus), but the surname and its people are also found in many counties and districts across Scotland.