Born Gretchen Ten Eyck, she was born to a father that was relatively famous in the local community of the area that was soon to be known as Harlem, New York.

Records have it her father died when she was very young.

Her father, Mr Ten Eyck, evidently saw very little of his father starting from about the first year or two of life. It is indicative from records that, that was the rationale for admission into the Orphanage.  Mr. Ten Eyck was born right around 1870 plus or minus a few years. Although death certificate and internment records might show one date, his entrance papers in the orphanage show he was born before 1870.

Know also that both abovementioned individuals had a sibling. Gretchen had a sister, and their father had a brother. 

Furthermore, the name of the father on orphanage paperwork does not match exactly with what is on the death certificate, but (name of parents) are exactly the same for both brothers.

He stayed with his mother before being admitted to what was then known as the Colored Orphan Asylum.

-Why the 'Colored Orphan Asylum', given the possibilities of his ethnicity? This has been a question that has haunted family researchers for over a century.

Notes:

Historically, what constituted 'colored', 'white', 'non-white', and so forth, had certain rules. These may have included to entail when European stock ethnicity women married non-white, and were therefore considered from that point onward, maybe for a time, as non-white.

There may have been ethnicities which were not and plausibly still as of today, not addressed or given a specific category, in the racial divide systems that came into existence the last 150 years or so in the U.S.

After Mr. Ten Eyck died, and daughter Gretchen grew up, she married LTC Thornton. The children which were born to LTC Thornton and Mrs Gretchen Thornton have passed since year 2000 to today.