His advancement from common origin to the probably most important civil servant under Hatshepsut and his disappearing in the last years of her reign resulted in numerous speculations, including speculations about his character and a possible affair with Hatshepsut.

The title of his father Ramose, "Honorable" (zAb), which was found only in first tomb of Senenmut, TT71, has no special meaning and was probably used to honor all deceased (who had no other title; after Tyldesley, 1996). Therefore, Ramose could have been just a farmer, because otherwise he would surely have decorated himself with a title.

Also the title of his mother Hatnefret - "Lady of the House (nbt pr)" - is probably rather the usual title for a wife, which most likely does not tell more than that first of all, she has managed her own household, and secondly, the family was at least "wealthy" enough, to live in their own house and not a house together with parents or parents-in-law.

Apart from the absence of special titles it was noticeable that coffin and mummy equipment of his mother had been much more precious, as those of his father. This suggests that his father died - at an age of approximately 60 years - several years before his mother, at a time Senenmut was still at the beginning of his career and not able to finance a more precious funeral equipment and an appropriate tomb for his father.

The fact that the mummy of his mother carried a gold decoration labeled  with the inscription "Great Royal Wife" Ah-mose (the mother of Hatshepsut), led also to the assumption that Hatnefret  (also known as Hatnofret) had served queen Ah-mose. However, in that case Hatnefret would have carried an appropriate title, which surely would have been mentioned in the tomb.

As his mother died he had already selected a suitable place for his own tomb. Thus, he decided to dig a new tomb for his parents (just below his own one) and, after the expensive funeral of his mother, he took his father out of his original tomb and buried him together with his mother, whereby the mummy of his father was probably re-wrapped in new bandages bearing the cartouche of Neferu-Ra and put into a painted anthropoid wooden coffin.
Most likely, on this occasion also the two coffins of three women and their children were buried in the tomb, since the tomb does not show signs of having been opened again. Since no inscriptions were found on these coffins, the relationship of these persons with the family of the Senenmut is not known.

The social classification of the family has also been a central point of the discussion. Probably at that time about 5% of the population was able of reading and writing. Therefore, Tyldesley (1996) placed the family in the "upper" social class - which mastered these stages of civilization -, because in her opinion Senenmut would not have been able to start successfully into his career without these abilities. 

There is however no sufficient information that would clarify where he had started his career. Helck has pointed out that one must differentiate among persons carrying the titles "Steward, Chief Steward, or Chief Overseer of the Estate" from those who additionally carried the title "sesch nisut" (sS nswt = Royal Scribe) and from those without this title. Those who carried the title "sesch nisut" had passed an education as a scribe,  the others had held military ranks before they changed to an administrative position (which however did not mean that they could not write). Among his numerous titles Senenmut does not mention that he has been a "sesch nisut".

That let different Egyptologists (among others Meyer, Helck) to assume that he started with a military career, possibly his ancestors had also served as soldiers. Furthermore, promising children from common families were educated together with children of the king in the Corps of Pages, the so-called "kap". Later, they served the king as soldiers. It was assumed that Senenmut also joined the "kap", since this would explain his good education and his participation in military campaigns. Again, the inscriptions in his monuments do not tell anything about such an education (in contrast to others who proudly mentioned their education in the "kap" ).