• On the 12th of March 1947, Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan to George W.
Romney and Lenore Romney. 

• He was named after his father's best friend and hotel magnate, J Willard Marriott and he
owes his middle name to his father'?s cousin Milton 'Mitt' Romney, a former Chicago Bears
quarterback.

• Romney's illustrious father is a former three-term Governor of Michigan, Chairman of
American Motors and a 1968 presidential candidate while his mother is a 1970 Michigan U.S Senatorial
candidate.

• Though he was born into a humble background, Romney's father became a wealthy national
figure by successfully hauling American Motors from the depths of bankruptcy.

• The Romneys were one of the few leading families of the Mormon faith in middle-class
America and for nearly a century, adherents to the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints
were regarded as polygamous outlaws.

• Romney's great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, was an architect in England who sacrificed
his career to follow the steps of the Mormons, trek the Midwest and settle with his family in Utah.


• His great-grandfather was among those Mormons who fled to Mexico to start their own
community where plural marriage continued to be practiced.

• Romney's family tree is rife with polygamists on the paternal side though there is no
indication of polygamy on the maternal side of his family. According to a research by The Salt Lake
Tribune, Romney's ancestry harbors six polygamous men with forty-one wives.

• Romney, however, is a confirmed monogamist and polygamy has been absent in his family
background up to two generations.

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