Page "Mae West" Paragraph 2

West was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, delivered at home by an aunt who was a midwife.

She was the eldest surviving child of John Patrick West and Matilda " Tillie " Doelger ( also known as Matilda Delker Doelger ), who had emigrated with her family from Bavaria to the United States in 1886.

West's parents married on January 18, 1889, in Brooklyn and reared their children as Protestant.

By some accounts West's mother was of partial Jewish descent.