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Dutton Family Tree: Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone saga follows one Montana ranching family across 140 years. The 1883 pioneers James and Margaret Dutton found the ranch, their sons and James’s brother Jacob hold it through the hard years of 1923, and their descendant John Dutton fights to keep it in Yellowstone. This Dutton family tree joins all three series, so you can see exactly how Beth, Kayce and Jamie descend from the first Duttons.

By the Family Tree Studio team · Published · Checked against the editor it describes

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The Yellowstone family tree chart

The chart reads from the pioneers at the top to Yellowstone’s grandchildren at the bottom. Each card names the actor who plays the character. Jamie is drawn with a dashed adoptive line from John and Evelyn and a solid birth line from Garrett Randall, and Carter is shown as Beth and Rip’s ward.

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Dutton family tree from Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923: James and Margaret Dutton, Jacob and Cara Dutton, Spencer and Alexandra, John Dutton III and Evelyn, and their children Lee, Beth, Jamie and Kayce, with Rip Wheeler, Monica and Tate
How to use: Drag to move · pinch, Ctrl + scroll or + / − to zoom Click anyone to highlight their parents, partners, children and siblings
How to read the lines
  • A short line between two people joins a couple; a dashed couple line means the marriage or relationship ended.
  • A line going down from a couple (or one parent) to a horizontal bar leads to their children, who sit side by side on the row below.
  • A dashed parent line with a small label marks an adoptive, step or guardian parent rather than a birth parent.
  • Long lines across the chart join people who married into another branch. Click either person to see the connection highlighted.

Four generations of Duttons across 1883, 1923 and Yellowstone, with the actor for each character. Open the full-size image or open it in the editor to rearrange it.

Branch-by-branch family trees

The whole Dutton family tree is wide because every generation sits on one row. These smaller charts follow one branch at a time: a person, their partners and all of their descendants. Click a chart to explore it above, or open it full size.

John Dutton’s family tree

In Yellowstone, John Dutton III (Kevin Costner) is the fourth generation of Duttons to own the ranch. He and his late wife Evelyn had four children, and the series is largely about what each of them wants from the land and from their father.

Jamie is the only Dutton child who is not John’s by birth: he was adopted as a baby, and the revelation that his biological father is Garrett Randall drives much of season three and four. Rip Wheeler is not a Dutton by blood either, but John raised him from his teens, and his marriage to Beth makes him John’s son-in-law.

  • Lee Dutton, the eldest son, killed in the first episode during a fight with men from the reservation.
  • Jamie Dutton, adopted, the lawyer and politician whose loyalty finally breaks.
  • Beth Dutton, who would do anything for her father and despises Jamie.
  • Kayce Dutton, the youngest, married to Monica Long, with a son, Tate.

1883: the Duttons who founded the ranch

1883 follows James and Margaret Dutton as they leave Texas with their children, Elsa and young John, on a wagon trail to Oregon. They never get there. After Elsa is wounded by an arrow, James promises to bury her where she dies, and that place, in the Paradise Valley of Montana, becomes the Yellowstone ranch. Elsa’s narration and her grave come back again and again in the later series. James and Margaret’s youngest son, Spencer, is born in Montana after the journey.

1923: Jacob and Cara hold the land

1923 jumps forty years ahead. James has died, and his older brother Jacob (Harrison Ford) runs the ranch with his wife Cara (Helen Mirren). They have no children of their own on screen; instead they raise James’s sons and their families: John Sr., his wife Emma and their son Jack, who marries Elizabeth Strafford, and Spencer, who is away hunting in Africa when the series begins.

Drought, the Great Depression and a land war with the sheep rancher Banner Creighton and the mining baron Donald Whitfield threaten everything. Spencer’s journey home with Alexandra, the Englishwoman he meets in Africa, is the series’ love story.

How 1883 and 1923 connect to Yellowstone

The three series are one family across four generations. James and Margaret Dutton (1883) are John Dutton III’s great-grandparents. Their son Spencer (1923) is his grandfather, and Spencer’s son, John Dutton II, is his father. Jacob and Cara are John’s great-great-uncle and aunt by marriage. Beth, Jamie, Kayce and Lee are therefore the great-great-grandchildren of the pioneers, and Tate is the sixth generation of Duttons on the land. If the “great-great” terms are confusing, the family relationship calculator works them out for any two people.

Why the family tree matters to the story

Inheritance is the engine of the Yellowstone saga. The ranch can only stay in one piece if it passes intact from generation to generation, and every series asks the same question: who will carry it on? John favours Kayce, Beth guards it for him, and Jamie, the adopted son, is the one who threatens to break it up. At the end of Yellowstone the land itself goes back to the Broken Rock tribe, honouring a prophecy from 1883. Seen on a family tree, that ending closes a circle that began with Elsa’s grave.

Who’s who in the Dutton family tree, generation by generation

Everyone in the chart above, oldest generation first. People who married into the family are listed with their partner’s generation. Photos show the actors who play the characters. Photos are freely licensed and credited below; children are shown without photos.

Generation 1

  • Tim McGraw, who plays James Dutton

    James Dutton

    1883 · Tim McGraw

    A Civil War veteran who leads his family west from Texas and claims the land that becomes the ranch.

  • Faith Hill, who plays Margaret Dutton

    Margaret Dutton

    1883 · Faith Hill

    James’s wife, who keeps the family going after his death.

  • Harrison Ford, who plays Jacob Dutton

    Jacob Dutton

    1923 · Harrison Ford

    James’s older brother; runs the ranch in 1923 and raises his brother’s sons.

  • Helen Mirren, who plays Cara Dutton

    Cara Dutton

    1923 · Helen Mirren

    Jacob’s Irish-born wife and the steel behind the family in 1923.

Generation 2

  • Isabel May, who plays Elsa Dutton

    Elsa Dutton

    1883 · Isabel May

    James and Margaret’s daughter, the narrator of 1883; dies on the journey and is buried where the ranch now stands.

  • James Badge Dale, who plays John Dutton

    John Dutton

    Played by James Badge Dale

    1883 & 1923

    James and Margaret’s son, a boy in 1883 and Jacob’s foreman in 1923.

  • Marley Shelton, who plays Emma Dutton

    Emma Dutton

    1923 · Marley Shelton

    John Sr.’s wife.

  • Brandon Sklenar, who plays Spencer Dutton

    Spencer Dutton

    1923 · Brandon Sklenar

    James and Margaret’s youngest son, a big-game hunter in Africa who returns to defend the ranch.

  • Alexandra Dutton

    1923 · Julia Schlaepfer

    An English aristocrat who leaves her fiancé for Spencer and follows him to Montana.

Generation 3

  • Darren Mann, who plays Jack Dutton

    Jack Dutton

    1923 · Darren Mann

    John Sr. and Emma’s son, heir to the ranch in 1923.

  • Elizabeth Dutton (née Strafford)

    1923 · Michelle Randolph

    Jack’s wife.

  • Dabney Coleman, who plays John Dutton II

    John Dutton II

    Yellowstone · Dabney Coleman

    John Dutton III’s father, seen as an old man in Yellowstone and as Spencer and Alexandra’s newborn son at the end of 1923.

Generation 4

  • Kevin Costner, who plays John Dutton III

    John Dutton III

    Yellowstone · Kevin Costner

    Owner of the largest contiguous ranch in the United States and later Governor of Montana; dies in season five.

  • Gretchen Mol, who plays Evelyn Dutton

    Evelyn Dutton

    Yellowstone · Gretchen Mol

    John’s wife, killed in a riding accident when Beth was a girl.

  • Will Patton, who plays Garrett Randall

    Garrett Randall

    Yellowstone · Will Patton

    Jamie’s biological father, an ex-convict.

Generation 5

  • Dave Annable, who plays Lee Dutton

    Lee Dutton

    Yellowstone · Dave Annable

    The eldest son, killed in the first episode.

  • Wes Bentley, who plays Jamie Dutton

    Jamie Dutton

    Yellowstone · Wes Bentley

    Adopted as a baby; a Harvard-trained lawyer who becomes Attorney General, then the family’s enemy.

  • Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton

    Beth Dutton

    Yellowstone · Kelly Reilly

    John’s only daughter, a ruthless financier and his fiercest defender.

  • Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler

    Rip Wheeler

    Yellowstone · Cole Hauser

    Taken in by John as a teenager, ranch foreman, and Beth’s husband.

  • Luke Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton

    Kayce Dutton

    Yellowstone · Luke Grimes

    The youngest son, a former Navy SEAL who lives on the Broken Rock reservation.

  • Kelsey Asbille, who plays Monica Dutton

    Monica Dutton (née Long)

    Yellowstone · Kelsey Asbille

    Kayce’s wife, a teacher from the Broken Rock reservation.

Generation 6

  • Tate Dutton

    Yellowstone · Brecken Merrill

    John’s grandson.

  • Carter

    Yellowstone · Finn Little

    A boy Beth and Rip take in and raise.

Make a family tree like this one

This chart was drawn by the same free family tree maker you can use for your own family. Start with one person, add parents, partners and children, and the layout, lines and generations are drawn for you.

Questions about the Dutton family tree

How is John Dutton related to James Dutton?

James Dutton, played by Tim McGraw in 1883, is John Dutton III’s great-grandfather. The line runs from James to his son Spencer, to Spencer’s son John Dutton II, and then to Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III.

Is Jamie Dutton adopted?

Yes. Jamie was adopted by John and Evelyn Dutton as a baby. His biological father is Garrett Randall, who killed Jamie’s birth mother; Jamie learns this in season three.

Who are John Dutton’s children?

John Dutton III has four children: Lee, Jamie (adopted), Beth and Kayce. Lee is killed in the first episode of Yellowstone.

How are Jacob and James Dutton related?

They are brothers. Jacob, played by Harrison Ford in 1923, is James’s older brother. He took over the ranch after James died and raised James’s sons.

Do Beth and Rip have children?

Beth cannot have children after a forced sterilisation in her youth. She and Rip take in Carter, a boy whose father has died, and raise him on the ranch.

Who is Elsa Dutton?

Elsa is James and Margaret’s daughter and the narrator of 1883. She dies at the end of the journey, and the family settles where she is buried, which becomes the Yellowstone ranch. She is John Dutton III’s great-aunt.

Can I print the Yellowstone family tree?

Yes. Open it in the editor, choose Tools → Export and print, and download it as a PDF or image. You can also add characters such as the ranch hands or the Broken Rock family yourself.

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Sources and notes

The Dutton family is fictional, created by Taylor Sheridan. This family tree is an independent fan reference and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Paramount, 101 Studios or the series’ creators. It covers the three main series; spin-offs are not included.

Photo credits (19)
  • Paramount Network, Yellowstone (2018–2024)
  • Paramount+, 1883 (2021–2022) and 1923 (2022–2025)

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