Armenak Saroyan - father
Armenak Saroyan journeyed from the old Armenian city of Bitlis to American ahead of his family in 1905, establishing himself in New York. A gentle, handsome man who wrote poetry, Armenak was an ordained minister in the Armenian Church. Soon after the family's arrival, he found himself obliged to abandon the beginnings of a career as a preacher and travel to California; a land said to resemble Armenia itself. Armenak died from peritonitis at San Jose only three years later after William's birth, at the early age of thirty-six, a failing fruit farmer, far from home in body and spirit.

Takouhi Saroyan - mother
Armenak's young widow Takouhi took up menial work in nearby San Francisco following her husband's death, while William, his brother Henry and his sisters Zabel and Cozette spent several years at the Fred Finch Orphanage in Oakland. 

Lucy Garoghlanyan - grandmother
William Saroyan's formidable maternal grandmother Lucy (also widowed), also was a strong influence on him. She joined the household when the family was eventually reunited back in Fresno, in the San Joaquin Valley. 

Henry Saroyan -Brother, 1905-1987. He was the inspiration for many characters in William Saroyan's short stories. 

Zabel Saroyan - Sister, 1902 - 1979. Zabel was married to Walter Papazian and had five children. 

Cozette Saroyan - Sister

Aram Garoghlanian - Uncle 
Aram was Takoohi's younger brother. With his help, Takoohi was able to take her children back from the orphanage. Uncle Aram as he was widely known, was a source of endless delight and inspiration for William, and, equally, exasperation. Uncle Aram became a lawyer, famous in Fresno for emotional courtroom summaries that sometimes won cases for the guilty.

Carol Grace - Wife
Carol (September 11, 1924 – July 21, 2003) was an American actress and author. Grace was born in New York City's Lower East Side; her mother, who was sixteen when she gave birth, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. Grace never knew her biological father. She was placed in foster care until the age of eight when her mother married Charles Marcus. Carol was also Truman Capote's lifelong friend, and he used her and her white-blond hair as a basis for Holly Golightly in his book "Breakfast at Tiffany's." She had a wide social circle and was known for her wit and good company. Carol and William were married twice over an eight-year period (1943-1949 and 1951-1952). The couple had two children: Aram Saroyan and Lucy Saroyan. She subsequently married actor Walter Matthau. Carol authored two memoirs: The Secret in the Daisy and Among the Porcupines.

Aram Saroyan - Son
Aram (born September 25, 1943) is an Armenian-American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist, and playwright. He is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem comprising a four-legged version of the letter "m". Saroyan's poetry has been widely anthologized and appears in many textbooks. Among his poetry collections are Aram Saroyan, Pages, and Day & Night: Bolinas Poems, the latter published by Black Sparrow Press in 1998. Saroyan's prose books include Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation; Last Rites, a book about the death of his father, William Saroyan. Aram Saroyan has also worked extensively in the visual arts, authoring many works for the stage, screen, and theater. He is the father of Strawberry, Cream, and Armenak Saroyan. 

Lucy Saroyan - Daughter
Lucy (January 17, 1946 – April 11, 2003) was an American actress and photographer. Following her parents' second divorce, her mother married the actor Walter Matthau, and Lucy started to worke alongside her stepfather in a number of his films. She also played small parts on Broadway, off-Broadway, and on TV, in addition to working as a film library archivist. Her most notable film role was in Paul Schrader's 1978 film Blue Collar. She dated comic legend and Blue Collar co-star Richard Pryor during this time. The first exhibit of Lucy Saroyan's posthumously discovered portraits of A-List Hollywood and New York entertainment figures of the 1970s and 1980s opened at the Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica on January 16, 2010.