With the advent of the new Kardashians show on Hulu appropriately just named The Kardashians, I've found myself broadening my genealogical research into the reality and celebrity realm. Every Thursday, I've been posting something on Instagram about the Kardashians' family history, such as Khloe's daughter, True Thompson, having a family name or that the Kardashians could have easily been the Kardaschoffs. Because I (and others) are also interested in others on the show and Kardashian-adjacent, I've also posted about Travis Barker's maternal grandfather and ancestors along that line being found on the so-called Indian Census rolls and other similar records with connections to the Osage tribe.
Although I had certainly started his tree before, I recently returned my attention to the tree of the lord himself, Scott Disick. Unlike the Kardashians, not much is really known about Scott's family besides his parents' names and their untimely deaths in recent years. Even worse, so much of what is out there is just shockingly wrong, and an important reminder to not trust what you find on the internet! Let's dig in.
Who Is Scott Disick?
Scott Michael Disick was born in Long Island on 26 May 1983 to Jeffrey Disick (1950-2014) and Bonnie (Fluellen) Disick (1950-2013). An only child, he has Ashkenazi Jewish heritage through his father and English and Irish heritage through his mother, with all his ancestors apparently immigrating in the late 19th and early 20th century. Of course, we all know him as the father of Mason, Penelope, and Reign with his ex-girlfriend, Kourtney Kardashian.
His Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors immigrated to the United States from Ukraine.
Both sets of Scott's great-grandparents on his father's side immigrated to the United States from today's Ukraine. His great-grandfather, Elias Disick, arrived as Elia Dizick aboard the SS Pennsylvania at Ellis Island on 25 November 1911. Elia's wife, oldest son, parents, and six siblings all appear to have immigrated within a year or two of Elias's arrival as well.
In all the records, the Disicks consistently wrote that they were from Odessa, today the third most populous city in Ukraine. Although it isn't uncommon for immigrants to list the district or closest big city they are from, in this case, I was able to locate Elias Disick's birth record in Odessa. Thanks to a man named Alex Krakovsky, we have the benefit of thousands of digitized records from Ukrainian archives available for free. The Disicks (and us!) are very fortunate that although many records are still only available at the archives, birth records for Odessa from 1886 are online. Using the Odessa Birth Index available through JewishGen.org, I quickly located Elias's birth record (see the second row in the image below).
Elias was born on 24 October 1886 in the Julian calendar (written here as Christian), 7 Cheshvan [the Hebrew year 5647 isn't written]. This seems to correspond with 5 November for the Gregorian calendar we use today. He is the son of David Disick and what appears to be Shifra Rochel (no surname included), but very likely Grubin based on his death record and other records in his family. Although they lived in Odessa and Elias's parents who also immigrated to the U.S. claimed their birthplace as Odessa, the Dizicks were at some point in what is today the town of Buky, also in Ukraine; other records connected to Dizicks in Buky also seem to corroborate this.
Scott's paternal grandmother, Shirley (Krasnoff) Disick (1922-1977) was also born of parents who immigrated from Ukraine. Isadore Krasnoff (c. 1894-1975) and Minnie (Odsess) Krasnoff (c. 1898-1982) were both from today's Talne, Ukraine.
They arrived together on 3 October 1921 through Buffalo, NY. Reading about the history of Talne from History of Jewish Communities in Ukraine, "The local Jewish population suffered heavily in the years 1919-20 from pogroms by many peasant gangs, as well as the White Army soldiers, who pillaged and burned most of the town in the summer of 1919." Particularly within this context, it certainly makes sense why Scott's great-grandparents left when they did. His grandmother was born shortly after.
His paternal grandmother died in a tragic plane crash that his grandfather survived.
When I began researching the Disick family tree, one of the first things I found was tragedy. On 19 November 1977, TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 crashed on its descent into Madeira International Airport. 131 of 164 people on the flight perished, including Scott's grandmother Shirley (Krasnoff) Disick. His grandfather miraculously survived. The story made national news at the time.
His recent ancestors weren't lords. They were servants.
Digging into Scott's maternal side, I spent some time learning about his great-grandfather Frederick Arthur Fluellen (1893-1973), an English immigrant. Of course, when I think about England and the Kardashians, I think about the episode where Scott went to London and became Lord Scott Disick. How far he's come since his ancestors! According to this 1911 English Census, check out the occupation for Frederick Arthur Fluellen on the last line. A servant! More specifically, a domestic "House Boy."
Sometimes occupations and hobbies seem to be inherited.
I love when the people I research appear to inherit their ancestors' interests. We all know about Scott's love of cars, so I found it fitting when Scott's great-grandfather, Frederick Fluellen, seemed to quickly ditch being a house boy and moved on to "chauffeur" on his Declaration of Intent for naturalization and "motor driver" according to a 1920 ship manifest for his profession (he later became an insurance agent).
On Scott's maternal grandmother's side, his 2nd great-grandfather, John Joseph Tracey (1876-1949), was a veteran taxi driver in the Babylon, New York area, and on paternal side, his 2nd great-grandfather, David Disick (c. 1862-1919), was recorded as a driver for a bakery according to the respective death record index.
And not just vehicles on land, but also on sea. Both his grandfathers were into yachting. According to his obituary, his maternal grandfather, Fred Fluellen Jr. (1926-2005) was a Yacht Captain for most of his life. His paternal grandfather, Dr. David Disick (1919-2017), was also part of the Neptune Flamingo Yacht Club. In a 2 April 1995 article from The Miami Herald, Scott's grandfather was photographed with his friends and talked about the "big function" called Blessing of the Fleet on Williams Island.
And your reminder to not always trust everything you see on the internet.
If you were to trust a Google search for Scott Disick, you would be sadly misinformed. For example, if you were to believe this Heavy dot com article I found about Scott's net worth and family (and I'm not trying to pick on Heavy because several sites shared the same thing), you would see this quote, "His grandfather, David Disick, developed luxury properties and wrote Fractional Vacation Homes: Marketing and Sales in Challenging Times. David Disick attended Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School."
If you go back to what I've written about Scott's grandfather, David Disick, you'll see he was a dentist.
He didn't go to law school, he went to dental school at Tufts. The David M. Disick (1940-2020) that the internet thinks is Scott's grandfather is actually his first cousin twice removed (1c2r). As is Ashkenazi Jewish custom, both Scott's grandfather and David M. Disick were presumably named after Scott's 2nd great-grandfather, David Disick (c.1862-1919).
Hopefully, when people now search for Scott Disick and his family history online, they can learn more about his rich genealogy. I hope you found this interesting and informative because in the words of the lord himself, "For me personally, it was a great time. I just wish I had popcorn."
Contact me at adina@myfamilygenie.com if you're interesting in exploring your family history.
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