The Tener Family Tree

Seven generations of the documented line — Castlecaulfield & Moree, County Tyrone, to America

About this tree. This chart follows the family's principal documented descent, beginning with Thomas Tener I — the earliest ancestor supported by the primary record. (The 1949 family history traced the line further back to mediaeval France; that earlier pedigree rests on documents now regarded as doubtful, so it is omitted here.) Dates are drawn from church registers, census returns, valuation records, and civil registration on both sides of the Atlantic. Living family members are shown by name only, without dates, to protect their privacy.

First Generation · Ireland

Thomas Tener I

1739 – 1836 · Castlecaulfield, Co. Tyrone

m. (1) Ann Galway (d. 1764)  ·  m. (2) Matilda Jebb

Patriarch of the documented family, settled in the linen country of mid-Tyrone. He lived to ninety-seven, long enough to see grandchildren establish the houses at Moree and beyond.

Other children
  • John and Thomas (by Ann Galway)
  • William, Richard, and Isaac (by Matilda Jebb)

Second Generation

Robert Tener

1770 – 1857

m. Sarah Kinley (1772 – 1855)

Son of Thomas by his second marriage. The Kinley name he took from his wife would be carried by Tener sons for a century and a half.

Third Generation · Moree

John Kinley Tener I

1802 – 1879 · Moree, Co. Tyrone

m. Mary Frances Evans (1799 – 1864), of the Evans of Farm Hill

Master of Moree House, linen merchant and improver, from whom most of the Teners of America descend. A tall, stern, generous man by every account — his estate was built by his own industry, not inherited.

Siblings (partial)
  • Richard Tener (1806 – 1880)
  • Isaac William Tener (1808 – 1898), m. Frances M. Evans — head of the California line

Fourth Generation · Tyrone → Pittsburgh

Hampden Evans Tener I

1836 – 1910 · Moree; Stoke Dry, England (1882–84); Pittsburgh from 1884

m. Eliza Frost (1844 – 1916)

Land agent and Justice of the Peace for Tyrone (appointed 1877). His sudden departure from Ireland in 1882, and the two quiet years in Rutland before the family sailed for Pittsburgh, are the subject of the 2026 companion volume. He and Eliza had twelve children, ten of whom survived infancy — all ten appear together in the family portrait of c. 1888.

Brothers
  • George Evans Tener (1824 – 1873), m. Susan Wallis — father of Governor John K. Tener
  • John Kinley Tener II (1828 – 1917), m. Sarah Dunn — of Tully House

Fifth Generation · Pittsburgh

Robert William Tener

19 March 1876, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone – 1955, Lee County, Florida

m. Gertrude Lillian Bailey (1880 – 1941)

Born in Tyrone on the eve of the family's troubles; came to Pittsburgh as a boy of eight and made his life in America.

Siblings — the twelve children of Hampden I & Eliza
  • Hampden Evans Tener Jr. (1865 – 1948) — president of the Irving National Bank, New York, and compiler of the 1949 family history
  • Mary Elizabeth Tener (1867 – 1958), m. Hubert C. Tener (1869 – 1937), her cousin of Tully House
  • John Frost Tener (1868 – 1948), m. (1) Virginia Simpson, (2) Kathleen Joy — mining man of Nogales, Arizona and British Columbia
  • Norman Leslie Tener (1870 – 1914), m. Josephine DuPuy
  • Winifred Berta Tener (1871 – 1932), m. Frederick A. Campbell
  • Alice M. Tener (1873 – 1909), of Los Angeles
  • James W. Tener (1874 – 1894), died at twenty in Pittsburgh
  • Arthur K. Tener (1877 – 1877), died in infancy in Ireland
  • Ethel Decima Tener (1879 – 1953) — the tenth child, named for it — m. Dana C. Hyde, of Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Wilfrid Allen Tener (1881 – 1954) — YMCA pioneer in Manila, later of New York
  • Philip S. Tener (1886 – 1886), died in infancy in Pittsburgh
First cousin, once removed — the famous Tener
  • Governor John Kinley Tener (25 July 1863, Co. Tyrone – 19 May 1946), m. Harriet Day (d. 1935). Major-league pitcher, Congressman, Governor of Pennsylvania 1911–15, President of baseball's National League. His photographs are in the gallery.

Sixth Generation

Frederick Stanley Tener

18 December 1911, Moon Township, Pennsylvania – 25 October 1997, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

m. Mary Harriet Mackrell (1914 – 1998)

Sibling
  • Hampden Frost Tener (1907 – 1985), of Amherst College, Class of 1931

Seventh Generation

The Present Generation

Living — details withheld for privacy

Children of Frederick Stanley and Mary Harriet (Mackrell) Tener: Mary Kathleen Tener and Frederick S. Tener Jr. The line continues today in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and beyond.

Descended from a branch shown here — or one that isn't? The tree above is only the principal line; the full research tree holds over a hundred Teners across Ireland, America, Canada, and Australia. Write to us and we'll gladly compare notes.