The Vanderbilt Family Tree, Explained

Emily BurackWed, April 1, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

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The Vanderbilt Family Tree, ExplainedGetty Images

The Vanderbilts, Remy Renzullo writes in Town & Country’s April 2026 cover story, are America’s most famous family. “Their name forever synonymous with the explosion of wealth, industry, and social mobility that epitomize the Gilded Age and arguably came to define the world’s perception of the country.”

But who are the Vanderbilts? You may know Cornelius, the patriarch; Counselo, who married (and divorced) the Duke of Marlborough; and Anderson Cooper, the television host, but what about everyone else? As Town & Country celebrates its April 2026 issue today featuring the Breakers, here is a comprehensive breakdown of the Vanderbilt family tree:

Cornelius VanderbiltFirst Generation

A portrait of Cornelius.Bettmann - Getty Images

The patriarch of the Vanderbilt family, Cornelius Vanderbilt (b. 1794, d. 1877) was born in Staten Island, the son of Cornelius van Derbilt and Phebe Hand. Nicknamed the “Commodore,” he built his wealth in railroads and shipping. In 1813, he married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson.

Design by Michael Stillwell

They had 13 children, listed here in order (as a note, they had two sons named “George,” the first died young and then they used the name again):

Phebe Jane Vanderbilt (b. 1814, d. 1878)

Ethelinda Vanderbilt (b. 1817, d. 1889)

Eliza Vanderbilt (b. 1819, d. 1890)

William Henry Vanderbilt (b. 1821, d. 1885): See below

Emily Almira Vanderbilt (b. 1823, d. 1896)

Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt (b. 1825, d. 1912)

Maria Louisa Vanderbilt (b. 1827, d. 1896)

Frances Lavinia Vanderbilt (b. 1828, d. 1868)

Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt (b. 1830, d. 1882)

George Washington Vanderbilt (b. 1832, d. 1836)

Mary Alicia Vanderbilt (b. 1834, d. 1902)

Catherine Juliette Vanderbilt (b. 1836, d. 1881)

George Washington Vanderbilt (b. 1839, d. 1864)

Cornelius died in 1877, and at the time of his death, was one of the richest men in America.

William Henry “Billy” VanderbiltSecond Generation

William Henry Vanderbilt circa 1865.Kean Collection - Getty Images

The eldest son and heir to Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, William Henry “Billy” Vanderbilt was born in New Jersey in 1821. He joined his father’s business when he was 19, and eventually took over for his father in the railway business. In 1841, he married Maria Louisa Kissam (b. 1821, d. 1896), and they had nine children. He died in 1885, with the majority of his estate and his businesses going to his eldest sons, Cornelius and William.

Design by Michael Stillwell

Here, get to know his children:

Cornelius Vanderbilt II (b. 1843, d. 1899): See below.

Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt (b. 1845, d. 1924): She married banker and newspaper editor Elliot Fitch Shepard (b. 1833, d. 1893), and was a prominent supporter of the YMCA. They had five daughters and one son.

Allen William Vanderbilt (b. 1846, d. 1847): Died at age 11 months.

William Kissam Vanderbilt (b. 1849, d. 1920): See below.

Emily Thorn Vanderbilt (b. 1852, d. 1946): She married William Douglas Sloane (b. 1844, d. 1915), and endowed the creation of New York’s Sloane Hospital for women. William and Emily had five children. Upon his death, she remarried to Henry White (b. 1850, d. 1927), an American diplomat and one of the singers of the Treaty of Versailles. One of Emily’s descendants is actor Timothy Olyphant (b. 1968), her great-great-great-grandson.

Florence Adele Vanderbilt (b. 1854, d. 1952): Florence married Hamilton McKown Twombly (b. 1849, d. 1910), and they had four children.

Frederick William Vanderbilt (b. 1856, d. 1938): He married Louise Holmes Torrance (née Anthony) (b. 1854, d. 1926). They had no children.

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt (b. 1860, d. 1936): She married Dr. William Seward Webb (b. 1851, d. 1926), and they had four children.

George Washington Vanderbilt II (b. 1862, d. 1914): See below.

Cornelius Vanderbilt IIThird Generation

Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the son of William Henry Vanderbilt and the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.Bettmann - Getty Images

The eldest son of Billy Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt II was reportedly the favorite grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. He succeeded his grandfather and father as the chairman and the president of the New York Central and related railroad lines. He married Alice Claypoole Gwynne (b. 1845, d. 1934), and they built The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. They had seven children.

Design by Michael Stillwell

The Breakers in T&C in 1916.Town & Country August 1916

Cornelius died in 1899 at his home of a cerebral hemorrhage. After he died, the family business passed to his brother, William Kissam Vanderbilt (see more on him below). Here, Cornelius and Alice’s children:

Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt (b. 1869, d. 1874): She died of a childhood illness at age five.

William Henry Vanderbilt II (b. 1870, d. 1892): He died of typhoid fever while attending Yale.

Cornelius “Neily” Vanderbilt III (b. 1873, d. 1942): Neily was disinherited for eloping with Grace Graham Wilson (b. 1870, d. 1953) without his father’s approval. They had two children, including Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (b. 1898, d. 1974), who married seven times but had no children.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (b. 1875, d. 1942): Married Harry Payne Whitney (b. 1872, d. 1930); a sculptor, she founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1931. While she had no children, she became a guardian to her niece, Glora Vanderbilt. (More below.)

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (b. 1877, d. 1915): He died in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. At the time of his death, he was married to Ellen French, and they had one child, William Henry Vanderbilt III (b. 1901, d. 1981).

Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (b. 1880, d. 1925): See below.

Countess Széchenyi photographed in Town & Country February 1908. Copyright, 1908, by A.F. Bradley, New YorkTown & Country February 1908

7. Gladys Moore Vanderbilt, Countess Széchenyi (b. 1886, d. 1965): Upon her mother’s death, Gladys inherited the Breakers in Rhode Island. She married Hungarian Count László Széchenyi (b. 1879, d. 1938), and they had five daughters: Cornelia “Gilia” Széchényi (b. 1908, d. 1958), Alice “Ai” Széchenyi (b. 1911, d. 1974), Gladys Széchenyi (b. 1913, d. 1978), Sylvia Széchenyi (b. 1918, d. 1998), and Ferdinandine “Bubby” Széchényi (b. 1923, d. 2016). When Gladys died, she bequeathed The Breakers to her four surviving daughters, as well as Cornelia’s three children.

Reginald Claypoole VanderbiltFourth Generation

Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and Reginald C. Vanderbilt with their baby daughter, Gloria Vanderbilt in 1925.Hulton Archive - Getty Images

The youngest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt was an avid equestrian.

Design by Michael Stillwell

He married Cathleen Neilson (b. 1885, d. 1927) and they had one daughter, Cathleen Vanderbilt (b. 1904, d. 1944) before they divorced in 1920. Reginald remarried to Gloria Mercedes Morgan (b. 1904, d. 1965) in 1923, and they, too, had one daughter: Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (b. 1924, d. 2019). Her father died when she was just 18 months old, and soon, her mother and aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney were embroiled in a custody battle over her (and her trust fund). Gertrude won.

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American heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, on a Louis Vuitton trunk.Hulton Archive - Getty Images

Gloria began a career as a model when she was a teenager, and became a fashion designer, creating an eponymous brand known for its designer jeans. When she was 17, she married Pat DiCicco (b. 1909, d. 1978); they divorced four years later, and she quickly remarried to conductor Leopold Stokowski (b. 1882, d. 1977). They had two sons, Leopold Stanislaus “Stan” Stokowski (b. 1950), and Christopher Stokowski (b. 1952). After Gloria and Leopold divorced in 1955, she married Sidney Lumet (b. 1924, d. 2011), the Hollywood director. They, too, divorced, after seven years of marriage, and Gloria’s final marriage was to author Wyatt Emory Cooper (b. 1927, d. 1978), which lasted for fifteen years until his death.

Gloria and Wyatt had two sons, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (b. 1965, d. 1988), who died by suicide, and Anderson Hays Cooper (b. 1967), the news anchor. Anderson has two sons, Wyatt Morgan Maisani-Cooper (b. 2020) and Sebastian Luke Maisani-Cooper(b. 2022), both born via surrogate, with his ex-partner, Benjamin Maisani (b. 1973).

William Kissam VanderbiltThird Generation

W.K. Vanderbilt and his daughter, Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough.Bettmann - Getty Images

Maria Louisa Kissam and William Henry Vanderbilt’s third child, William Kissam Vanderbilt (b. 1849, d. 1920), managed the Vanderbilt railroad investments and was a keen horse breeder. He married Alva Erskine Belmot (b. 1853, d. 1933), a socialite and women’s suffrage activist.

Design by Michael Stillwell

They had three children:

Consuelo Vanderbilt (b. 1877, d. 1964): See below

William Kissam Vanderbilt II (b. 1878, d. 1944): A motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, he married Virginia Graham Fair (b. 1875, d. 1935), and they had three children. They separated after ten years of marriage, and divorced in 1927. William then remarried to Rosamund Lancaster Warburton (b. 1897, d. 1947).

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (b. 1884, d. 1970): He worked for New York Central Railroad with his family. After his brother’s death, he was the last member of the Vanderbilt family involved in the company, until a hostile takeover by 1954. He married Gertrude Lewis Conaway (b. 1901, d. 1978), and they had no children.

Alva and William divorced in 1895, a major Gilded Age scandal. William remarried to Anne Harriman (b. 1861, d. 1940); they had no children, and he died in Paris in 1920.

Consuelo VanderbiltFourth Generation

The Duchess and her son, the Marquis of Blandford, on the cover of Town & Country in April, 1902.Town & Country Archive, 1902

The only daughter of William Kissam and Alva Vanderbilt, she was married off to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough (b. 1871, d. 1892). Charles was a first cousin of Winston Churchill, a member of the Order of the Garter, and a Conservative politician. He married Consuelo to save his near-bankrupt dukedom, and they restored Blenheim Palace. Conseulo and Charles had two children:

John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford (eventually the 10th Duke of Marlborough) (b. 1897, d. 1972), who married Hon. Alexandra Mary Cadogan (b. 1900, d. 1961) in a wedding that King George V and Queen Mary attended. They had five children, including John George Vanderbilt Henry Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough (b. 1926, d. 2014), and Lady Rosemary Mildred Spencer-Churchill (b. 1929), a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II.

Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (b. 1898, d. 1956), who married Elizabeth “Betty” Cunningham (b. 1914, d. 2010), and they had one son.

“I wish I’d known her,” her great-granddaughter Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill told T&C of Consuelo. “I did meet her, but I have very little recollection. I was around six when she died, and she was mainly living in the States and in France. I do remember her coming to the house. We used to live in Lee Place, which was the Georgian house, while my grandfather was still alive. I always say it it is thanks to Consuelo that [Blenheim] is probably still very much a family home, which is true.”

Counselo and Charles divorced in 1921 and their marriage was subsequently annulled in 1926. She remarried, to aviator Jacques Balsan (b. 1868, d. 1956). Charles also remarried, to Gladys Marie Deacon (b. 1881, d. 1977). Counselo died in 1964.

George Washington Vanderbilt IIThird Generation

George Washington Vanderbilt, oil on canvas portrait by John Singer Sargent, The Biltmore House.John Singer Sargent

The youngest child of Billy and Alice Vanderbilt, George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser (b. 1873, d. 1958) and they had one daughter, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (b. 1900, d. 1976). Notably, George constructed the Biltmore Estate, which Town & Country covered in our January 1902 issue as “the First Great American Estate”:

After George’s death in 1914, Cornelia inherited the Biltmore and Edith remarried to Peter Goelet Gerry (b. 1879, d. 1957), a United States senator from Rhode Island.

Design by Michael Stillwell

Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil, daughter of George Washington Vanderbilt, and her first husband John Amherst Cecil.Bettmann - Getty Images

Cornelia married John Francis Amherst Cecil (b. 1890, d. 1954), a British aristocrat, and they had two sons, George Henry Vanderbilt Cecil (b. 1925, d. 2020) and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil (b. 1928, d. 2017). Cornelia and John opened the Biltmore to the public. In 1934, Cornelia and John divorced, and she moved to Paris, and remarried twice: In 1949, she married Captain Vivian Francis Bulkeley-Johnson (b. 1891, d. 1968), and they were married until his death. She then married a third time, to a waiter named William “Bill” Goodsir (b. 1926, d. 1984), until her death in 1976.

Of Cornelia’s sons: George married Nancy Owen Cecil, and they had six children. George and Nancy’s eldest son, John “Jack” F.A.V. Cecil, is currently the president and CEO of Biltmore Farms.

And, not only is this branch of the Vanderbilt tree responsible for the Biltmore, but Cornelia’s second son is where the Vanderbilts interact with the Kennedy family: William married Mary Lee “Mimi” Ryan (b. 1931, d. 2017), Jackie Kennedy’s first cousin. (Mary’s mom Marion Merritt Lee and Jackie’s mom Janet Lee Bouvier were sisters.) They had two children, including William “Bill” Cecil Jr., who is the current president of Biltmore Company.

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