John Jacob Astor IV IV was born on July 13, 1864 at his parents' country estate Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York. He was the youngest of five children and only son of businessman, collector, and race horse breeder/owner William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn. His four elder sisters were Emily, Helen, Charlotte, and Caroline ("Carrie"). He was a great-grandson of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Cox Todd, whose fortune made the Astor family one of the wealthiest in the United States. Astor's paternal grandfather William Backhouse Astor, Sr. was a prominent real estate businessman. Through his paternal grandmother, Margaret
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, DL (19 May 1879 – 30 September 1952) was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor. He was also a member of the Astor family. Waldorf Astor was born in New York City. He was the eldest son of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor and Mary Dahlgren Paul (1858–1894); his younger brothers were John Rudolph Astor (who died young) and Baron John Jacob Astor V. He spent much of his life traveling and living in Europe before his family settled in Great Britain in 1889. There Waldorf attended Eton