Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi to Vernon Elvis Presley, and Gladys Love Presley (Smith was her maiden name), in the two-room shotgun h Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo Mississippi, on January 8, 1935 having been delivered by the local doctor via a “house call” (i.e. the physician came to the home as opposed to a hospital) . This home was built by Vernon Presley, Elvis father, in the type of home known, in the south, as a “shotgun house” which meant that if you were to shoot a shotgun standing in the front door it would go all the way through the house without hitting anything else while passing through the back door (I.e. there were no walls other than the 4 exterior walls). Jesse Garon Presley, who was Elvis identical twin brother, was delivered (approximately) 35 minutes before him, (sadly) stillborn.

As an only child, Elvis became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found an outlet for his  musical inclinations.

Johannes Valentin Bressler,   the founder of the Presley family in America, was born in the   Palatinate, Germany, 1669 in the village of Hochstadt (where the Preslar family   was first mentioned in 1494); Valentine was employed there as a vine dresser; he   married Anna Christiana Franse (Born Germany 1674) and immigrated to New York in 1710; with some French Norman; one of Gladys’ great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee Indian and, according to family accounts, one of her great-grandmothers was Jewish. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family.

Elvis Presley descended from the Bressler (Presley) line, the name being Americanized down the line, first into Preslar, then Pressley and finally Presley but only because  his Great Grand Mother, Rosella Pressley adopted her maiden name for her children. She never did tell any of her children who their father was.

Rosella bore nine ‘illegitimate’ children, never once identifying to her   children who their fathers were. Rosella stubbornly, and resourcefully,   supported them through sharecropping. Mrs. Doshia Steele, one of Rosella’s   daughters, said this of her plight. ‘I can’t remember anyone ever talking about   who our father was, It was a big mystery when we were children. My mother   just didn’t talk about it’. Rosella, internalized the abandonment and re-enacted   it throughout her life. Beginning at age nineteen and continuing over 28   years.

Rosella’s son, Jessie D. McDowell   (J.D.) Pressley (1896-1973) was Elvis’   Grand Father. He was born on April 9, 1896 in Itawamba County,   Mississippi, to Rosella Presley, unmarried, and John Wallace (Elvis’ great-grandfather). So though the rightful   (traditional) surname would have been Wallace, Rosella gave her children her   own name, her maiden name of Presley.

Elvis Grandfather, Jessie, J.D. Presley used the double ‘s’ before changing to the single ‘s’ after his great grandson attained international fame.