He came from a well-known family

First of all, one of the most interesting facts about Richard E. Byrd is he was a member of a famous family. A well-known American family with English ancestry was the Byrds of Virginia. They were residents of Winchester, a little community close to the Appalachian Mountains. He was a member of one of Virginia's First Families. Planter John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas, William Byrd II of Westover Plantation, who founded Richmond, and colonial ruler Robert "King" Carter are among his forebears. He was the brother of Harry F. Byrd, a prominent member of the Virginia Democratic Party during the 1920s and 1960s who served as governor of Virginia and senator from the United States; their father once held the office of speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

Richard Byrd Sr. was a politician and a rural lawyer who was the father of Richard E. Eleanor Bolling Flood, his mother, also hailed from a well-known and affluent political family.

When Richard was 14 years old, he received an invitation to travel to the Pacific island nation of the Philippines. The North Americans had taken possession of these islands from Spain. Byrd is supposed to have found his sense of adventure and fallen in love with the sea around this time. He desired to explore far-off places and get as much knowledge as he could.