"Talking to the writer, Clint [Eastwood] stressed the lack of grandeur in his background. "My dad was Scots-English; my mother's Dutch-Irish. Strange combination. All the pirates and people who were kicked out of every place else." In other words, there are no Eastwoods in the Society of Mayflower Descendants. It is sometimes Clint's pleasure to slightly overemphasize his lack of early promise..." Schickel, page 19

*Update from author, Steve Eastwood

As stated above by Eastwood friend and biographer, Richard Schickel, Clint takes pleasure in emphasizing the lack of grandeur in his heritage. True, Clint was raised, as was I, by hard working, middle class parents who provided all the essentials necessary to raise an educated, healthy, motivated family with a sound ethical background. Granted, neither Clint nor myself were meeting young society ladies at Debutante Balls, much less driving a Mercedes Benz to high school. However, we both were fortunate enough to have loving parents who provided all the essentials required to raise children equipped to face the future with a sound, spiritual, outlook. I'm sure Clint would whole-heartedly agree with this assessment. But, let's return to our Eastwood ancestors.

                "All the pirates and people who were kicked out of every place else." 
I laughed at the irony of this statement. Our last common ancestor, Asa Eastwood (1781-1870), together with his older brother, John, served on the United States' very first warship, the famed frigate USS CONSTELLATION which aggressively defended America's right of safe passage on the seas for US merchant ships. Their participation in the US's naval victories in the Barbary Wars with Tripoli (1801), and many battles against piracy in the Caribbean Sea, served notice to the world that the United States would defend her honor and freedom at all costs. - So much for Clint's claim to pirate ancestors.

"...people who were kicked out of every place else." Once again, I have to take issue with cousin Clint's claim. My DNA test results, proved conclusively what Asa Eastwood had claimed in his diary in the 1800's, we are direct descendants of Richard Eastwood, the first known Eastwood in America. In 1642, Richard, together with his wife Elizabeth (both barely 20 years old), braved over four and a half months on the open seas to immigrate from England to the first English colony in America, Jamestown. Upon arrival to the "New World" (May 22, 1642), they acquired 400 acres of choice farmland on Indian Creek a western branch of the Nansamund River, in what would soon become Norfolk County, in the State of Virginia. The grants had been issued by the colony's new Government. If that isn't enough to debunk Clint's claim to ancestral riff-raff, I might go further back in our ancestry to Eastwoods before the colonization of America. Clint stated that his Eastwood ancestors were Scots-English, which is what my father, Robert B. Eastwood, great grandson of Asa, had told me, as well. My dad also included Irish when discussing our heritage. At this point in time, I have yet to locate any Scottish ancestors, but I have uncovered a line of English which migrated to Ireland in the mid 1600's. John Eastwood, originally from Nottinghamshire, England, settled with his family in Louth County, Ireland. He established his residence at Castletown Castle, and eventually became the Mayor of Dublin, Ireland in 1658. OH NO, SORRY CLINT!

 "It isn't quite true, as Richard Schickel wrote, that 'there are no Eastwoods in the Society of Mayflower Descendants', although that nicely burnishes the aura of an underdog. The first paternal forebear arrived in America early in the seventeenth century, and Eastwoods were among the early pioneers heading West. Originally, Yankees, Puritans and Easterners, family relations spread out and pushed into New York, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Illinois, Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada, California and Alaska... They chartered new towns, erected prairie churches, held local office, wore peacekeeping badges..."
from: McGilligan, pages 2-3: