Meet Whittaker's family - America’s Most Inbred Family. Living remotely in a small West Virginia village, Mark Laita, a photographer and filmmaker, put them on the news in 2020. In his documentary on this family, Mark unveiled how the decision of the Whittaker ancestors shapes the lives of family members to this day.
Here is your America’s most inbred family tree guide, telling you all about the complex relationships, physical disabilities, and mental abnormalities. So, let’s get in.
In this article
America’s Most Inbred Family Tree: Whittaker’s Family
America’s most inbred family leads an unusual and quiet lifestyle. They made the rounds on the internet when filmmaker-YouTuber Mark Laita provided glimpses of their family.
After spending a decade building trust, he eventually released his documentary on the Whittaker s of West Virginia. Let’s learn more about this family.
The Whittaker family’s inbred path began with two identical brothers, Henry and John Whittaker. Both these brothers resided in a small village in West Virginia. The children of these two brothers, Harry and Sally, married each other and had around seven children.
Among these children was John Isom Whittaker, born in 1882. He married his first cousin, Ada Rigg, and together, the couple had nine children. One of these nine children was Gracie Irene Whittaker, who was born in 1920. Gracie would later marry John Emory Whittaker in 1935.
John was Gracie’s double cousin, meaning they both shared the same set of grandparents. John and Gracie had 15 children, some of whom suffered severe mental and physical defects, which they later found out were caused by inbreeding.
This extraordinary history of America's most inbred family, Whittaker family, came with a price, and in 1997, their daughter Aileen lost her life due to a heart attack. Before her, the couple’s son, Emery, died of pneumonia just thirty days after his birth in 1938.
Today’s Whittaker Descendants
Among these 15 children was also Betty, now 71, the matriarch of the family. Reportedly, she promised her mother that she would not marry and remain single to care for her other siblings. Apart from Betty, the surviving Whittakers today are Lorraine, Ray, and their cousins
Ray Whittaker is the most widely recognized of the Whittaker siblings, owing to Mark Laita’s documentary. Both Loraine and Ray suffer from non-verbal level-three autism. In the documentary, Mark said that they mostly communicate with unusual gestures and sounds and often flee when someone tries to approach them.
Lorraine’s son, Timmy Whittaker, was also introduced in the documentary. He is the only member of the family to have completed high school. Moreover, the three siblings also share a good relationship with their extended family, Larry and Keneth Whittakers, who also appeared in the documentary.
How to Make a Similar Family Tree Using EdrawMax?
Family trees depict complex relations within a family using easily interpretable visuals. However, making one requires skills and resources. If you do not know where to start? Try EdrawMax. It is an advanced diagramming tool with editable symbols, existing images, and ready-made templates.
Let’s begin and see how we can make a similar America’s most inbred family tree.
Before you begin, install the EdrawMax desktop version and log in to your Wondershare account. Alternatively, you can use social media accounts to access the software.
Get 500 free AI tokens
Step 01: Open the Family Tree Canvas
Explore the dashboard and navigate to the Home button.
Click Organizational Chart > Family Tree from the on-screen menu.
From the Local Templates section, choose your desired family tree format. I am using the blank canvas for this guide to start from scratch.
Step 02: Add Profiles
Once on the editing panel, begin by adding profiles to the canvas. You can do this with the symbol library.
The symbol library is located on the left side of the canvas.
From here, choose your desired profile shape and drop it onto the canvas.
You can move these shapes on the canvas by selecting the shape and dragging your cursor in any direction.
Step 03: Build Connections between Members
The next step is building a relationship between the members of your family tree. It's easy on EdrawMax.
Select any shape and locate four connection points on its side.
Drag these points and link them to another shape.
Repeat this step for all relationships.
You can change the color, thickness, and style of the connector from the on-screen prompt.
Step 04: Add Members Descriptions
Proceed to add a description for each member of your family tree. To do this,
Double-click on the canvas and start writing.
Limit the members' description to name, date, or relationship. There is no need to describe their personalities.
Change the font details (size, color, shape, etc) from the on-screen menu.
Step 05: Insert Pictures for the Members
Satisfied with the structure? Let’s proceed and add images of the members to your diagram.
Go to the Insert tab at the top and click Picture.
Browse your downloaded images from the device.
You can modify the picture further from the on-screen prompt.
- Crop to shape: Choose to change the shape of your frame (square, circle, oval, etc).
- Frame details: Decide whether you want a thick or thin frame in what color and size.
- Adjustments: Modify the picture’s transparency, contrast, and brightness.
Step 06: Modify the Design
Want to go a step further and make your family tree stand out? For this, you can do multiple things like changing colors, applying a background image, and more. So, visit the Design tab at the top.
Change color schemes, experiment with the themes, or visualize your diagram in a different orientation.
Alternatively, a better way to pop your diagram is to apply a background image. Import a picture from the Insert tab, extend its corners to fit the diagram borders, and reduce transparency.
Pro Tip: Go to the Image libraries from the left side to find a suitable image relevant to your theme.
Step 07: Download and Share!
Finally, your American most inbred family tree is ready to be downloaded or shared. Here is how it goes.
Visit the File menu from the top-right corner and click Export. You can download your diagram in over ten formats, including
- Graphics (PNG, JPG, JPEG, etc)
- MS Office (Word, PPT, Visio, Excel).
- PDF for documentation.
EdrawMax also allows you to invite others, so they can view, edit, and give feedback in comments. Click Share from the quick-access toolbar, edit permission access, and distribute the system-generated link with whoever you like.
Final Thoughts
There you have it - all about America’s most inbred family tree. The family had always been private and protective of each other and had mixed feelings about Mark’s documentary. While it benefited them in telling their story, the unnecessary glances and attention haven’t settled well.
Intrigued about other similar cases? Start your journey of plotting family trees with EdrawMax. Head over to its template community, find your desired sample, and start editing.
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