Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, as Norma Jeane Mortenson (also known as Norma Jeane Baker). At age 20, with a blossoming career in modeling beginning to take off, she adopted her mother’s maiden name and assumed her stage name of Marilyn Monroe. Overcoming a tragic childhood and an early marriage at age 16, she went on to become one of the most well-known and in-demand actresses of the 1950s. 

Growing up largely in foster homes as her mother battled mental illness, Marilyn probably didn’t know much about the Monroes. Her maternal grandfather had died when her mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, was just 7 and her grandmother died when Marilyn was just 1 year old. Who were the Monroes? What was their family story? The trail of records we found on Ancestry and on other websites take us back to Mexico, to the Civil War, and early Indiana pioneers.