.... my 12 year old daughter is doing a research paper on Prince !


I have a question for the everyone ... John L Nelson was from what part of Louisiana ( what city ) and what city was he born in ??


Thanks !!
[Edited 11/30/09 8:27am]

madison said:

Have you searched for an obituary for him?

Not sure, but Mattie was from Baton Rouge. My guess is that John came from some rural part of the state, there was a bit in the Possessed book about Black Churches not keeping full records, especially back in 1916 when John L Nelson was born.

I have no info on John L Nelson but I do wish your daughter luck with her paper!!

Well according to my copy of Possessed, John L Nelson was the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves. He moved to Minneapolis in 1956 from Louisiana after divorcing his first wife, Vivienne. He landed a job as a plastic molder at Honeywell Electronics, where he worked until retiring 30 years later (model, disciplined, employee and a skilled pianist).

That's all I got for the main idea
[Edited 11/30/09 15:06pm]

Madison,
I don't know - but John Nelson's birth certificate is reproduced in Jon Bream's "Prince: Inside the Purple Reign". I haven't seen the book though.

BTW - is your daughter's project mostly a bio of Prince, or is there something particular she's researching or saying? Just curious.

do the paper on mattie, women need all the credit they can get!!!

myfavorite said:

And perhaps if she wanted some real fame TYKA should write a book about this family, as these family tree books really sell now. I just finished a really good one by an author called Edward (I think thats his first name, I loant it to someone else, and returned the Harleston book to the library.) Ball called Slaves in the family, which is actually about a white descendant of a slave owning family writing about what became of the families of all his former slaves. He wrote a second volume about another related family called the Harlestons, who were higher class African Americans in 19th and early 20th century Charleston. It was amazing.
If Tyka could write that about the Nelson and Shaw families that would be amazing.

well just about anyone in the family could write, doesn't prince have 2 or three brothers? i'm sure he has cousins, nephews, aunts, uncles....dag!?

myfavorite said:

Yeah, he has a brother Omar, half brother, does anyone know if he has any kids? I know Tyka has 2 sons, not sure about any other siblings other than Sharon and Lorna, oh and Duane - are they from the same parents? I wonder if they have any children? Sorry it's not a case of being nosy, it's just this family tree stuff really fascinates me!!

myfavorite said:

agreed

thanks !!

she turned the paper in today ....!!


we live in Louisiana thats kinda why we wanted to know ?!?!