‘Steven Tyler’s ancestor was a Freemason’

    

BBC1

A seven-year-old episode of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? uploaded to YouTube yesterday explains how rock star Steven Tyler has a New York Freemason in his ancestry.

With Tyler for a name, maybe that shouldn’t surprise, but as daughter Liv, the actress, undertook the genealogy research, she discovered how Steven’s mother’s side of the family included George Washington Elliott.

BBC1

Elliott (1838-1918) was at labor in Schuyler Lodge 676 in Schuylerville. He also was a York Rite Mason in Home Chapter and Washington Commandery, as well as an Eastern Star, according to a 1912 locally published book furnished to Tyler by Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts. He also was a Civil War veteran of both Gettysburg and Antietam.

“It may have even elevated his status in society that he was a member of the Masons,” Roberts explained.

It also was determined that Elliott had African-American roots, which confirmed an intuition the rock star descendant said he felt about himself.

BBC1

The relevant segment of the episode runs less than nine minutes.