In the 20th century, they were heavily involved in the petroleum industry and in mass media.

The Getty family is of Scots-Irish ancestry from their patrilineal lineage, their ancestors having immigrated to North America from Cullavmor, County Londonderry, Ireland (today in Northern Ireland).

George Getty (1855–1930) was a lawyer who became an independent oilman in 1904.

He was married with one son, a daughter having died in infancy in a typhoid epidemic in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He lent his son Jean Paul money to invest in oil wells and in 1916, George and Jean Paul incorporated the Getty Oil Company.