By James PylantDO NOT POST OR PUBLISH WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION In 1964, John Astin was cast as "Gomez Adams" in the classic, offbeat television series, The Addams Family  , starring opposite Carolyn Jones. The actor, who also has credits as a writer and a director,1 is predominantly of English and Scottish descent, with many of his ancestors immigrating to the US in the 19th century.John Allen Astin was born 30 March 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Dr. Allen Varley Astin and Margaret Linnie (Mackenzie) Astin.2 Just days later, he was enumerated on the rolls of the federal census for that year, with his parents, Allen and Margaret Astin, both twenty-five years-old and Utah natives, who were renting an apartment on St. Paul Street. Allen Astin, the census notes, was a doctor of philosophy.3 Dr. Allen Varley Astin was born 12 June 1904 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to John Andrew Astin and Catherine Varley. A physicist, Dr. Astin was director of the National Bureau of Standards from 1952 to 1969. He and Margaret Mackenzie were wed on 31 August 1927.4 Margaret Mackenzie Astin was born 21 June 1904 and died 3 January 1991 in Los Angeles.5 The Astins had another son, Dr. Alexander William Astin, born 30 May 1932 in Washington, D.C.6 At age fifteen, Allen Astin is found on the 1920 census in the Salt Lake City household of his mother, the widowed Catherine Astin, age thirty-eight. Born in Utah to English parents, Mrs. Astin’s occupation is noted as copyist and county treasurer. Three others were in the Catherine Astin’s household: her two daughters, Marie, age thirteen, and Helen, age twelve; and a sister, Marie Varley, age forty-two, a sales lady at a dry goods tore. The birthplace of Allen, Marie, and Helen’s father is given as Pennsylvania.7 A decade earlier, Catherine W. Astin, age twenty-eight, a widow, is shown living in Salt Lake City with her three children, Allen, age five; Marie, age three; and Helen, age two. The 1910 census indicates that she was the mother of six children, three of whom had died. Her sister, Marie Varley, age thirty-three, lived with the family and held the same job shown in 1920.8 John Andrew Astin never appears with his wife and children in federal census schedules, as his marriage and death occurred between enumerations. He died at age twenty-six of cerebral meningitis on 16 August 1908 in Salt Lake City. He was born on 12 July 1882 in Monongahela County, Pennsylvania, to Joseph Astin and Martha Glackin.9 The 1900 census shows John Astin, a seventeen-year-old servant, born in July of 1882 in Pennsylvania, "at school," is shown in the household of Maggie Dick, a thirty-year-old Scottish housekeeper. However, both were probably living in the household of a sixty-two-year-old Englishwoman named Priscilla Jennings.10 Meanwhile, John’s mother, Martha Astin, is enumerated in East Mill Creek, Salt Lake County. At age fifty-one and widowed, her occupation is given as "home duties." She was born in October of 1848 in Scotland to Irish-born parents. She came to America in 1870, and she was the mother of nine children, six of whom were living in 1900. A son, David Astin, age fifteen (born March, 1885 in Kansas) lived with her.11 In 1880, farmer Joseph Astin (age fifty-four, born in England) and wife Martha (age thirty, born in Scotland) appear in Saint John, Stafford County, Kansas, with their three Pennsylvania-born children: Joseph, age six, Mary, age five, and William, age three.12 Martha Glackin Astin—John Andrew Astin’s mother—was born on 14 October 1849 in Coathbridge, Lankarkshire, Scotland, to Irish-born parents Hugh Glackin and Jane Scott. She died of tuberculosis on 20 July 1926 in Salt Lake City.13 Catherine Varley, actor John Astin’s paternal grandmother, was born 16 August 1881 in Utah and died in Salt Lake City at age seventy-four on 20 February 1956 of coronary occlusion. Her parents were William Varley and Mary Ellen McDuff.14 In 1900, William Varley supported his family as a laborer, according to the federal census of that year. He was sixty-two-years-old, having been born in June of 1837 in England. He and wife, Mary, age sixty (born in April, 1840) arrived in the US in 1860. Their children, all Utah-born, were: Marie, age twenty-seven (born in May, 1873), a saleswoman; Thomas, age twenty-seven (born in November, 1877), an engineer; Franklin, age twenty-two (born in September, 1879), a laborer; and Catherine, age eighteen (born in August, 1881).15 William Varley, born 11 June 1837, died at age seventy-one in Salt Lake City on 23 November 1908. According to John Varley, William was the son of Abraham Varley and Maria Baker.16 Actor John Astin and his first wife, Suzanne Hahn, had sons David, Allen, and Tom Astin. John Astin’s second marriage was to actress Patty Duke (born Anna Maria Duke), and they had two sons—both noted actors—Sean Patrick Astin and Mackenzie Astin. John Astin is now married to Valerie Ann Sandobal.17
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